Cow Creek- topwater action

[Quillback]

Once this weather moderates, I want to get some gills.  Gills are a bit of a pain to clean, but IMO, they are the best eating fish that swims in TR.  

[Johnsfolly]

4 hours ago, Quillback said:

Once this weather moderates, I want to get some gills.  Gills are a bit of a pain to clean, but IMO, they are the best eating fish that swims in TR.  

Agree to gills for dinner😁

[rps]

45 minutes ago, Johnsfolly said:

Agree to gills for dinner😁

The large, inside bend flat at Stubblefield Branch is loaded with them. Slowly drag a drop shot rig with a half crawler near the channel drop off and you will load the boat.

[waterpossum]

11 hours ago, Bill Babler said:

Yep, let’s just use up everything we can. We bought a fishing licenses so let’s kill all that we are allowed by law. 

Don’t understand it now and never will. 

One of my best friend just thinks it’s God Given  right. Every time he goes to Canada or Alaska, especially Alaska he wants to bring a 100 pound of fish home. 

His freezer blew chunks this Summer and he said he threw away Halibut fillets from 15 years ago. It was his right however. 

His daughter in laws dad fishes Stockton and has a party every Fall. Said he will fry at least 75 to 80 pounds of walleye and crappie fillets for his guests. 

As far as I’m concerned the guy needs jail time.  Thought of it sickens me that he would kill that many fish over his position limit. 




 

Bill I totally agree. I live on Stockton. There are some people that never are satisfied with just catching enough for a meal. The crappie are fairly easy to catch, yet some think it's some kind of great accomplishment and post their three man limit of 45 two maybe three times a month. One or two bad spawns and the same guys will be criticizing the Conservation dept for the handling of the lake.

[Steve McBasser]

5 hours ago, Quillback said:

Once this weather moderates, I want to get some gills.  Gills are a bit of a pain to clean, but IMO, they are the best eating fish that swims in TR.  

Quill.... I have to agree on the gills for the tastiest fish in Table Rock.... We use to catch a mess of them and just scale 'em, then gut'em and gill'em and pan fry the whole thing. NO filleting.... we would pick every ounce of meat off of them because we didn't want to waste an ounce of meat. Only bones left in a perfect skeleton.... They are absolutely delicious...

[waterpossum]

9 hours ago, Steve McBasser said:

Quill.... I have to agree on the gills for the tastiest fish in Table Rock.... We use to catch a mess of them and just scale 'em, then gut'em and gill'em and pan fry the whole thing. NO filleting.... we would pick every ounce of meat off of them because we didn't want to waste an ounce of meat. Only bones left in a perfect skeleton.... They are absolutely delicious...

That's the way we did it when I was a kid growing up in Harrison. We would go down to Crooked creek and catch them. We would also leave the tails on. They were real crunchy. 

[Quillback]

11 hours ago, Steve McBasser said:

Quill.... I have to agree on the gills for the tastiest fish in Table Rock.... We use to catch a mess of them and just scale 'em, then gut'em and gill'em and pan fry the whole thing. NO filleting.... we would pick every ounce of meat off of them because we didn't want to waste an ounce of meat. Only bones left in a perfect skeleton.... They are absolutely delicious...

When I was a kid, my grandpa and dad would go over to Reelfoot.  They'd come back with a big cooler full of gills, my grandpa never filleted anything, so they'd scale them, cut off the heads and pull out the guts.  Then we'd have a fish fry.  As a kid I hated picking around the bones.

Nowadays I fillet them, gotta be big enough to fillet of course.

[Johnsfolly]

12 hours ago, Steve McBasser said:

Quill.... I have to agree on the gills for the tastiest fish in Table Rock.... We use to catch a mess of them and just scale 'em, then gut'em and gill'em and pan fry the whole thing. NO filleting.... we would pick every ounce of meat off of them because we didn't want to waste an ounce of meat. Only bones left in a perfect skeleton.... They are absolutely delicious...

3 hours ago, waterpossum said:

That's the way we did it when I was a kid growing up in Harrison. We would go down to Crooked creek and catch them. We would also leave the tails on. They were real crunchy. 

Shouldn't be reading this thread right before lunch🙄 You guys have my mouth drooling😉

[Bassin4fun]

On 7/26/2022 at 10:13 PM, Steve McBasser said:

Quill.... I have to agree on the gills for the tastiest fish in Table Rock.... We use to catch a mess of them and just scale 'em, then gut'em and gill'em and pan fry the whole thing. NO filleting.... we would pick every ounce of meat off of them because we didn't want to waste an ounce of meat. Only bones left in a perfect skeleton.... They are absolutely delicious...

That is how I have always cleaned and cooked gills and crappie.