Return from trip/thanks Tracker

[Mike Watson]

Well boys and girls, we're back. Had a good trip and boy was it hot. Unfortunately the Walleyes didn't cooperate at all. Only a couple were caught and we tried everything except night fishing. That may have been the ticket considering the heat. However the Northern Pike cooperated with a vengence. We happen to like those toothy critters and also like eating them.



We trolled for the pike. My son decides he is going to troll with a spinner bait. We all looked at him like he was crazy. Wouldn't you know he caught the biggest one, 29" and 5.33lbs. Then of course we all had to try it. Did it work for us, nooooooooo. So we had to come up with our own magic lures which we did. It was great fun!



Now for the thanks to Tracker. As you know I took the Pro-16 up. It performed perfectly in every respect. It sat in the water for 4 days without any leaks. It ran great both in choppy water and calm. The live well is plenty big enough to hold a few toothy critters. I did learn that you had to trim out the 60hp a little to get it to troll without fouling. After a few hours of trolling you just drive it around the lake wot to clean the plugs and she was ready to go again. The boat was comfortable to fish three people out of. Thanks Tracker for a great boat! Even got some compliments on it at the launch.



Have good one!



Mike

 

[TrepMan]

Mike - You mentioned eating Pike, we've tried over the years (understand this is 1 week every 2 years, so this is a total of maybe 70 days over 10 years) and can't figure out how to get the line of bones that run inbetween the backbone and skin. Any advice before I fly up again in September would be appreciated.



I've not tried spinner baits but have tried buzz baits over the weedbeds. Have had lots of blowups but no hookus, seems they try to put the whole buzzbait in their mouth and then spit out before they hook up.



TrepMan

 

[Mike L.]

Trep....Use that spinnerbait in the weed for sure...slooow retrieve just where the weeds meet the deeper water...no treble hooks mean easy lure removal compared to crankbaits. Mike

 

[Mike Watson]

TrepMan, We don't get all of the bones out but a fair amount. When I grew up, nobody would fillet a fish so we got used to eating around bones. What we do is take a fillet knife and run it down each side of the back bone.Go deep enough until you hit the rib bones. We slice behind each gill so that the bone is the only thing holding the head on. Then we run our knife horizontally down the length of the fish from head to tail, riding the side of the blade on the main bone. If you were looking at the fish, the blade of your knife would be going in through the back and out the stomach.You end up cutting through the rib bones and leaving the bigger why bones in the fish. They are easier to pick out when eating.If you want a total boneless fillet, I'm not the one to ask. lol



As far as the spinner bait goes, the thing that he was doing different was trolling with it not casting it. It worked for him! Good luck and have fun!



Mike

 

[John Kinslow]

Mike,



Glad to hear you all had a nice and safe trip. I'm also glad to hear the boat performed well for you as well.



Welcome back!



John K.

 

[Rich D]

Trepman,



When filleting a pike there are two ways to remove the y bones. Fillet as you normally would, cutting through these bones, then either make a V cut on either side of the bones left in the fillet or cut the fillet in half above and below the bones. You lose some meat, but if you take your time, it is well worth the effort!



Rich D

 

[Staci Matheis]

Hey, Guys -



I've had the same lousy luck with bones on pike.......



But about a year ago, I was at a "sucker fry" down in Southern Missouri. Suckers, it seems, are also very boney fish. What they do to cook them is to leave the skin on and score the flesh every 1/4 inch then deep fry it.



Bones are just disolved by the heat and grease and the eatin' is fabulous!



I intend to try it on pike next time I'm up North!



me!