1/25-27 Report

[craddockcreek]

Fished a couple of hours a day earlier in the week.  Bait was tougher than normal at my dock, I guess because of the heat.  No luck on live bait we did catch, but my 16 year old son caught a 27 inch fish throwing a bucktail towards a rock face near the dam.  Probably 40 fow.  He was as happy as could be.  Grilled it whole and served him proudly to his cousins who were visiting for the week. 

[drag4striper]

Nice report. I've never grilled a striper whole. I always like to cut out the blood line (red meat) then grill or blacken.

[craddockcreek]

Trying to learn how to post picks.  Hope it works as I haven't had much luck in the past.

 Here's the catch. Fish was on the internet within minutes for all his friends to see. 

Back at the house. 

Gutted and descaled right after the catch and put on ice.

Some butter, herbs, salt and pepper.

And some wine (for the fish and cooks).

Not much left but bones. 

[mwardncsu]

You fished January 25-27

[craddockcreek]

I guess I was just wishing it was January. Hottest I can remember at the lake.

[mwardncsu]

I'm with you - not fished in a while but we rode around some last Saturday and when I saw that water temp I didn't even want to go swimming - been several years since I remember surface temps flirting with 90.... Gonna have to ride down to the mountain to swim I guess - that and get the kids doing cannonballs off the boat to stir up some cooler deeper water

[mwardncsu]

By the way - how was the fish? Wondered what it's like prepared that way without taking out the red....

[slammer]

I grilled a whole striper similar to that last year. It was awesome !

I didnt use foil though. I like to put it right on the grill to get the full grill affect.

I scaled it, gutted it and cleaned it good. I basted the outside with butter after scoring the sides of the fish about 5 times on each side. I put butter, REAL BUTTER, and some spices on the outside and inside of the fish.

It was one of the best I have ever had and I have eaten striper every way you can think of.

I would do it a lot more it just sucks scaling them.

I highly reccomend you try it.

[craddockcreek]

Mward, I think its a great way to cook a striper. The meat falls away from the bones, and you can separate the blood line/red meat easily.   Good to eat family style. 

As far as scaling, I've found it much easier to do it on the boat with the fish at the waterline/submerged. Tie a rope through the mouth and gills to make sure it doesn't slip away. No scales on the dock or in the boat.    Gut it at the same time. 

[Gator]

Aug 3, 2016 20:25:58 GMT -5 mwardncsu said:

By the way - how was the fish? Wondered what it's like prepared that way without taking out the red....

Hammer and I cooked one on the grill, filleted, with the skin on. It was pretty darn good. 

[ghostcomanche©®]

CraddockCreek, you may not know this, but if you clean your fish from the boat, keeps this regulation in mind:


"It shall be unlawful for any person, while fishing, to remove the head or tail or otherwise change the appearance of any game fish (except bluegill sunfish and bream of the sunfish family) having a daily creel or size limit so as to obscure its species or render it impracticable to measure its total original length or count the number of such fish in possession. In addition, it shall be unlawful for any person to possess or transport such altered game fish while on the water. However, the prohibition against possession and transportation in the previous sentence shall not apply to the preparation of lawfully obtained fish for immediate use as food or any lawful commercial use of such fish."

www.dgif.virginia.gov/fishing/regulations/general/

[striperjohn]

Yeah we got stopped a couple years ago filleting fish on the boat and the Game Warden said if we had tossed the heads over the side he would have fined us. We were 50 feet off the dock of a rental house.

[craddockcreek]

Thanks Ghost. I had read the rule sometime back when I thought about gutting and scaling on the water after trying to clean scales of the dock for several days, and I think what I do complies as it doesn't change the length or appearance. 

Funny thing is that if you clean the fish on the dock and then drive out to open water to dump the carcass in open water, you'd be in violation.  Suppose you could take your rods off the boat--don't know if that would make a difference technically under the regs but should make clear that you're not trying to catch more than your limit and cover it up.