Sandypond

[H.T.]

totally different body of water up here. the 9"-11" are excellent eating. i fish for food and would take this size any day.

[wiredstone]

I know , just busting your balls , buddy. Most places down here 9" is a real keeper

[Vfrancis]

Hello. I....am an ice fisherman. I am dedicated and willing to help those who would ask, be it directions or fishing advice. We are a breed that sticks together . I would like to share a lesson with you my friends. NEVER go out of your homebase without a compass. Oh I know your new fangled phone has a gps system and all but what if it fails you? I'll tell you what! It is downright scary in a blinding windstorm. I speak from experience obtained not 5 hours ago. I went out of the wigwam at about 2pm to the rockpile. Several people were coming off and said don't bother. I knew better. Or did I ?  We set up on our spot and immediately started catching fish. After about ten minutes and 10 fish I got a nice pig. Just as the wind was cranking up the fishing appeared to be doing the same. Well, then the wind really cranked up and blew over my shanty with me in it. Everything went everywhere. I picked myself up and told my son" fun's over". Oh no it twer'nt. We loaded up and proceeded back towards our parking spot at the wigwam by way of the elms. It is not intended to be a shortcut express or implied. I knew I had my trusty gps in case I was in trouble. I was wrong. No reception was available due to the weather. We spent about a half hour calmly assessing the situation. The only problem is that we were stranded for about an hour and a half. The wind never let up nor did the whiteout. The only landmark we had was boggie's permanent shanty. We called 911 and were fortunate enough to get one of our men in green to locate us and basically rescue us. Thank you to Boggie and his shanty, thank you to the kind lady on shore who gave us our physical location, And especially thank you to  911 rescue  and the kind E.C.O. who picked me and my son up and went out of his way to bring us back to our car safely and with minimal ass chewing for me  being a mindless idiot (my words). I will never again venture out of the parking lot open water or ice again without a good quality compass. That was the E.C.O.'s only advice and my advice to anybody who does not already have a compass. You might not be as fortunate as I was. I nearly was not.

nice meeting you at gander the other night thanks for the info on perch fishing sandy pond next outing me and my son are going to give it a try good luck with the knee my wife is a physical therapist if you have any questions would be happy to help.

[H.T.]

Why do i still fish the pond for perch and weed thru all those dinks to get one good  one out of 10 fish?


this was breakfast not lunch or dinner

[mdm25549]

Hey guys I'm thinking about heading to the pond tomorrow for the first time since I was a kid. I know parking is at the steakhouse or the elms. Not looking for anyone's spot but a general direction of where to head once I'm on the ice from either spot would be extremely helpful. Or a depth of water I should look for. Any help I would really appreciate. Thanks fellas

[wiredstone]

Why do i still fish the pond for perch and weed thru all those dinks to get one good  one out of 10 fish?
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this was breakfast not lunch or dinner

[wiredstone]

HT it would be worth my $10 just to have breakfast with you That does look good

[trapper2000]

boog  or  any  other  member  i  will  be  glad  to   show  anyone  a  easy  and  fast  method  ...basicly  the  same  as  whats  on  u  tube  but  sometimes  it's  easier  to learn  watching  first  hand ...boog  i  told  you  they  were  great  eatting  now  lwsson  2  take  the  y  pones   toss  em  in   grinder  with  egg  and  bread  crumb  ....fish  paddys 

i  love  pike   and  so  will  you  if  you  take  a  minute  to  learn  how  to  fillet  them!

[Vfrancis]

Great post and picts HT. I have not done a bacon wrap yet. You gave me a great new way to serve my favorite fish. During the mean time , I managed to fillet my first slime log as you call it. I reviewed about 5 different methods on Utube and settled on what I felt was the simplest which basically fillets the 2 halves as you would a perch or walleye and then cutting both sides of the "Y" bone and ripping it out away from the fillet and then separating the remaining fillet from it's skin. It was not necessarily successful. I still had belly bones to remove. It was a little bit tattered and torn but in the end I managed 4 separate fillets. They were then soaked in water for an hour and then cut in 2" long pieces, breaded and fried . As everyone has told me, it is a very good fish to eat. A little firmer or flaky, but still delicious. I am sorry I have been treating this as a garbage fish, giving it away or returning it to the water. With some refinement , I may become faster at filleting these denizens of the deep . Truly an excellent meat.  Thanks to my bud Trap for turning me on to this excellent food source.

try looking up the five cut method on you tube I have no bones very easy very clean basically you take a top cut to tail cuts them fillet down the side you end up with five fillets and no bones I cut mine inside a garbage bag no mess and if you leave them in the snow for a bit no slim either

[coachwarner]

Great post and picts HT. I have not done a bacon wrap yet. You gave me a great new way to serve my favorite fish. During the mean time , I managed to fillet my first slime log as you call it. I reviewed about 5 different methods on Utube and settled on what I felt was the simplest which basically fillets the 2 halves as you would a perch or walleye and then cutting both sides of the "Y" bone and ripping it out away from the fillet and then separating the remaining fillet from it's skin. It was not necessarily successful. I still had belly bones to remove. It was a little bit tattered and torn but in the end I managed 4 separate fillets. They were then soaked in water for an hour and then cut in 2" long pieces, breaded and fried . As everyone has told me, it is a very good fish to eat. A little firmer or flaky, but still delicious. I am sorry I have been treating this as a garbage fish, giving it away or returning it to the water. With some refinement , I may become faster at filleting these denizens of the deep . Truly an excellent meat.  Thanks to my bud Trap for turning me on to this excellent food source.

They are good in fish chowder too and or hanging from a basketball hoop! FM and i had a good day yesterday also, even though we had to fish next to that foul mouthed Bcons!  Took the fish camera with us today, just to see what those dink perch look like in action. Once again the perch love the Hormel pepperoni almost as much as FM!
 The Northern's prefer the Ball Park franks.

Here is a northern doing a drive by FM's Chili dog on a PK lure. 

We will fatten those perch up one way or another Boggey.

[trapper2000]

try looking up the five cut method on you tube I have no bones very easy very clean basically you take a top cut to tail cuts them fillet down the side you end up with five fillets and no bones I cut mine inside a garbage bag no mess and if you leave them in the snow for a bit no slim either

i  don't  like  the  5  fillet  methood  to  easy  to  end  up  with  bones   i  end  up  with  two  full  size   fillets  and  the  least  amount  of  waste  ......

[bcons]

They are good in fish chowder too and or hanging from a basketball hoop! FM and i had a good day yesterday also, even though we had to fish next to that foul mouthed Bcons!  Took the fish camera with us today, just to see what those dink perch look like in action. Once again the perch love the Hormel pepperoni almost as much as FM!
 The Northern's prefer the Ball Park franks.
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Here is a northern doing a drive by FM's Chili dog on a PK lure. 
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We will fatten those perch up one way or another Boggey.

Hey now there were only a few expletives.  Not as many as fish I dumped I do occasionally talk to fish and it isnt pleasant, not to mention that sled.
I knew no women or children around only you, fm, & ht.  Other than that I'm normally quiet.
That was prob the worst I've been in a while.  Dumped more fish yest. Then the last 4 weeks.
 

[bcons]

Pike are good eating fish!  Brought 2 home from yest. Have to clean them tonight.
I filet like normal then drop filets in food processor to grind them up and make patties.
Fry and serve sandwiches.  Used to tell the kids (when they were younger) they're crabby patties (from sponge Bob). Everyone loves em!

[coachwarner]

Hey now there were only a few expletives.  Not as many as fish I dumped I do occasionally talk to fish and it isnt pleasant, not to mention that sled.
I knew no women or children around only you, fm, & ht.  Other than that I'm normally quiet.
That was prob the worst I've been in a while.  Dumped more fish yest. Then the last 4 weeks.
 

I dont think the guy on the sled that did the drive by heard ya either. He was a real Richard Cranium!

[Vfrancis]

i  don't  like  the  5  fillet  methood  to  easy  to  end  up  with  bones   i  end  up  with  two  full  size   fillets  and  the  least  amount  of  waste  ......

I use to be able to fillet like you are saying but being out of practice I was getting to many bone the five cut seams to work for me but I think I am wasting a little more than I would like. We need to get everyone to donate all those nasty slim logs as they are called so I can practice how to fillet them. I love northern and everyone that eats them un knowingly fall in love with them also.

[Jigger]

I caught 3 northerns on Saturday and got them and the perch all filleted up today ended up with 3 bags all vacuumed packed and in the freezer.I fillet the pike like I do the perch and then feel for the y bones on the dorsal and angle the fillet knife to get the meat off.When you take the rib cage off there will be a line up near the top angle your knife towards the dorsal and work it towards the tail.About 2-3 inches of the tail contains no bones,it helps just watching someone do it or just google it .

[trapper2000]

all  in  the  angle  of  the  knife  and  the  feel  once  you  done  a  few  you'll  be  surprized  how   little  meat  you  loss  taking  the  y  bones  out  and  i  toss  that in  the  grinder  with  the  cheeks....  pike  are  really a  tasty  fish i  never  understood  why  people  didn't  like  them ....

jigger  tht  sounds  pretty  close  to  what  i  do

[Jigger]

Yea I tried the other way of putting the northern belly down and cutting off the dorsal meat but never got the hang of it so I stuck with my method.

[hardwater Rick]

Trapper I agree, Pike are very sweet and tasty.. I like them better than perch, out of the cold water.. and Bcon  so you grind up the bones and all to make the patties?  when you say fillet like normal.. do you mean no bones? getting the Y bone out first?

 

[trapper2000]

My confidence is up. I will keep at it till I get faster at it. I spent almost half an hour. I will get more help from Trap next time we go out. We will target the northern next time. Montario Point eh Trap?

no problem  my  friend  and  it works  just as  good on pickerel  musky and  tiger musky  ..... the olny  fish  patties  I make  are  the  y bones !!!!!  the  fillets are  either deep  fried ,grilled  or  broiled  and  not  one  bone ......

[Gill Ripper I]

Great day on Saturday. Nice job by Tom Hains. I actually had a fish on the board for awhile, Great to fish with my friend jigger.

[Jigger]

Thanks buddy it sure was a great day,would of been better if the wind would of died down.

[Bambino0657]

I didn't eat pike for years. Smelly, slimy boney. But I've been doing the 5 filet method I saw on YouTube. Smaller pieces but very tasty. The bigger the fish the better.

[perchtrapper]

We caught a few pike up here a couple weeks ago I fillet removing the Y,s for a whole filet. They are a very good eating fish no matter how they are cooked, but got this recipe for them off youtube simple and great They call it poormans lobster
Boil 2 Qts water with 1cup of sugar
put in 1" cubes of pike and return to boil til fish is cooked
melt butter and mix in garlic & pepper to taste
either dip the fish in butter or pour it over
Enjoy if you try it.

[NYSporty]

We caught a few pike up here a couple weeks ago I fillet removing the Y,s for a whole filet. They are a very good eating fish no matter how they are cooked, but got this recipe for them off youtube simple and great They call it poormans lobster
Boil 2 Qts water with 1cup of sugar
put in 1" cubes of pike and return to boil til fish is cooked
melt butter and mix in garlic & pepper to taste
either dip the fish in butter or pour it over
Enjoy if you try it.

Try boiling it in sprite its awsome.

[coachwarner]

Kudo's to SPSA and Tom. You guys do agreat job on the tournament. Sorry I did not come to awards. The kids still had a great time and I got to spend most valuable time with my grand kids. I know from past experience, to enjoy the moment. Eventually, they get "Too Cool" to spend time with grand pa, but keep hope as when they get out of college and are tired of being "cool" they do come back to grand pa. Perhaps it is the snacks, maybe the fun of fishing and maybe, just maybe, they still love being on the ice or in the boat with grand pa. Either way, win-win for grand pa.. 

Sounds like you had a great day with the kids.  I want to fish with you. I love snacks!! 

[Jigger]

[Longlegg]

i agree, pike ae great eating once you learn to remove the Y bones. Not real hard to learn but it does take some practice to get the knife angle right and feel the bones. Mild like walleye but tighter grained and not as big flakes. Good fried, broiled, or boiled and great for chowder. No need to grind the boneless fillets.

[bcons]

This entire year I've seen VERY few reports, pics, or info on the flat fish from Greene Point   
Did they all vanish?

[trapper2000]

i  sold em