Spoonbill

[Ffer]

Had the good fortune of catching a 55lb spoonbill at LOZ on 4/24. There was probably 7-9lbs of roe in that fish. I don't have any idea how to make it work, but it seems such a major waste of a resource to throw those eggs into the water. You can't just cut offf a deer head and throw the rest away. Just didn't seem like a cool thing to do.

[Seth]

Nice fish! There was a pretty good thread about this type of thing in the Tablerock section I believe. Most everybody feels the same way that you do. Oklahoma has paddlefish cleaning stations setup where people bring in fish and they clean them and then process the eggs and make money which goes back in to the paddlefish program. I don't see why MDC couldn't do something that here in Missouri near Warsaw. LoZ is by far the most pressured snagging fishery in this state.

[mic]

I believe mostly, don't knock it until you try it... But I don't understand the lure of snagging a fish. I assume it is the thrill of fighting that beast. Then again, I'm the type that loves a lasy day on a small stream. Se la vi though.

[DaddyO]

@mic - I didn't understand it either until I did it. Nothing prepares you for the feel of a big fish on the end of the line. I've seen smaller guys, actually, jerked into the water because they weren't prepared. You should try it, at least once.

@Ffer - In Oklahoma, you are allowed to keep the eggs for personal consumption. You cannot sell them. You can find a few videos on youtube that show you how to process the eggs into caviar.

I've had quite a few paddlefish dinners in the last few weeks. Very mild tasting. Meat constancy is somewhere between fish and chicken, leaning more towards chicken. I slice it up into fish stick size, dredge it in cornbread mix and drop it in the fryer for a few minutes. mmmmmmmmm

[Nick Williams]

DaddyO - do you go??? Or did you just happen to go with someone??

[Wayne SW/MO]

Mic It's about the only way to target the resource, and without value there probably wouldn't be the attention given to keep the population healthy. They are a respectable fighter, including going airborne sometimes.

We always cut off the head, gutted them and cut the tail enough to pull the spinal cord out. We cut them into steaks, breaded and fried them. I always thought they had the consistency of chicken breast with a mild fish flavor, good eating for sure.

The strangest thing in my experience was when snagging in the Osage above the LOZ we would never hook anything less then 25#, with the exception of an occasional 12-15" fish. I could never understand the lack of fish between those sizes?

[DaddyO]

DaddyO - do you go??? Or did you just happen to go with someone??

I went for the first time a couple of weeks ago with my brother. He goes all the time and has the rigs to do it. He was a great guide. Caught my fish on the second cast. He caught his on the first cast, first pull. My Dad hooked into 5 of them before he finally landed one. Nephew caught his on 2nd cast. They were all between 35 and 60 lbs.

[Nick Williams]

That's great. I've been trying to convince some of my fishing buddies that we need to go give it a try, at least once anyways.

[Seth]

I believe mostly, don't knock it until you try it... But I don't understand the lure of snagging a fish. I assume it is the thrill of fighting that beast. Then again, I'm the type that loves a lasy day on a small stream. Se la vi though.

I love snagging paddlefish and asian but can't stand to see people purposely snag game fish like what goes on at the outlets on Taneycomo. Since paddlefish and asian carp feed on plankton, it's the only feasible way to catch to catch them. It is a lot of work and definitely not for everybody but it is all worth it when you tie into the biggest fish of your life and it nearly yanks you out of the freakin boat!

I enjoy those lazy and relaxing days of fishing as well.