Posted on 07/06/2026 7:34:06 PM PDT by Red Badger
I’m seeing this just days before my vacation … I hope this is a sign.
A Georgia angler took a trip to Idaho for some fishing at the iconic South Fork Snake River, putting a target on trout that ultimately led her to a new state record. The angler, Caroline Langdale, had a bit of a battle with the record-breaking brown trout May 30 prior to measuring it and giving it the good ol’ fashioned “catch and release” treatment.
Catch and release and certified weight are the two state fishing records maintained by Idaho. This particular landing is in the catch and release category as the fish was put back into the river after being measured. (RELATED: Florida: 1 Woman Dead After 3 Alligator Interactions Get Violent In Span Of Week)
“I never dreamed when I started my day of fishing with Ed Emory of South Fork Lodge that God was going to bless me with a fish of a lifetime,” Langdale told Idaho Fish and Game.
Check out this bad boy:
As I’ve already mentioned, I’m just days away from a two-week vacation in South Florida, and most of my fishing will be done in the canals. With this being the case, here is my target list going into things:
Common Snook
Mangrove Snapper
Sheepshead
Largemouth Bass
Butterfly Peacock Bass
Peacock Cichlid
Tarpon
Redfish
Spotted Seatrout
Bluegill
Tilapia
With how much preparation I’ve put into this trip, quite frankly, I better catch all of them … and I’ve got a lot of confidence that I can do it.
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Mud? That seems really odd. I’ve eaten a lotta trout and never had one taste of mud.
It’s gotta be due to their living environment. All the ones I had were taken out of snow melt lakes and streams on the East flank of the Sierra Nevada, so sub-40F waters above 7,000ft elevation, and they were ALL excellent eating; not the vaguest hint of anything bitter or foul.
A light coat of corn meal inside and out with a hint of salt and then into the frying pan... I’m makin myself hungry, here... LOL!
Trouts not my favorite but clean them , scale them with a copper pad, wash them, place lemon pepper and butter in the body cavity, wrap in tin foil and cook over a charcoal grill on medium heat. That’s pretty good. Your way is good to. High mountain stream brookies that way with eggs, biscuits and hash browns in elk camp is not bad either. Elk loin butterfly cuts for breakfast the second day fried is not bad either. We head to camp already at near 5000 feet above sea level in the Rockies. Cold clear water is the key. We cuss snow sometimes but depend on it every year. Regards
I love me some fresh-caught trout, fried with bacon grease.
My father was fishing the Oregon Cascade lakes since the late 1930’s. Knew where all of the best fishing holes were.
His best friend owned a float plane, and had a contract with the U.S. Forest Service in the late 1950’s - early 1960’s to stock the high mountain lakes with trout.
Did you ever notice men, real men talk about the guys that did things, taught them things, elk or fishing camps where they’ve been. How the food tasted the cold felt, the ocean or river sounded. Poker games at night, stirring the morning fire, saddling up or launching the boat, the simple things. No mention of women most times, just man crap. The break from work, the wife and kids, family. Just a chance to relax, recharge your battery to hit the part that pays the bills. It was fun.
“Catch and release is woke”
I don’t eat big old fish... they’re usually riddled with worms, other parasites and histamines.
I don’t know, eat small fish either. I let them go to let them grow.
Come to Michigan and try some fresh caught perch and walleye, you might change your mind.
Fish is in the eye of the beholder/diner. We all have a favorite car, lady, politician, friend, and way to cook. The one thing that seems to seal the deal? We all fish and think we know how. That’s a blessing. Learn it, love it, and live it. Godspeed.
“There is nothing better tasting fish anywhere in the world than a good-size freshwater walleye pike skinned filet, caught an hour or two ago and broiled. With butter.”
Good ‘ol Uncle Harry, a very active fisherman his entire life loved Walleyes. Absolutely his favorite.
Holy shxt!!! That’s quite the trout.
That's just ignorant.
Depending on the circumstance.
Mind you, I primarily fish for table fare, and sometimes for bait for larger fish. (Small bluegill make good catfish bait, saugeye bait, etc., esp. in waters with bluegill but not containing more oily fish such as shad, in which case the oily fish make better bait.)
But, while fishing for a meal, it is very common to catch either fish too small to be worth cleaning for table fare (unless one is desperate or from a culture that eats small fish?), OR, that are needed in the waterbody to balance / improve the fishery, gobble up junk or invasive fish, etc., OR that have accumulated too many toxins. Then catch and release of fish in particular size ranges makes great sense.
A prime example is that smaller waterbodies in particular can easily get overpopulated with small, stunted bluegill and / or green sunfish, if too many of the larger piscivores (largemouth bass, catfish over a few pounds, etc.) have been harvested. If gizzard shad get loose in a lake or pond, then you can end up with virtually no bluegill over 6" long, but sometimes many of them.
As a general rule, water quality also plays a role: The lower it is, the more older, larger fish are likely to not taste good. Piscivores are almost certain to pick up mercury, and in most US water bodies we have a sort of background "haze" of mercury that floats here from Chinese coal burning power plants. (This is not a slam against coal powered plants, just ones lacking proper scrubbers, etc. One of the lowest mercury lakes I know of in the US is a 2000 acre cooling pond for a large coal burning power plant!)
There are natural sources of mercury in many lakes too. Agricultural runoff is a problem in many freshwater bodies, as well.
A common situation is that channel catfish in a pond may make good table fare up to 4-5 lbs., but larger fish should be released back to the pond. The larger catfish don't taste as good as smaller catfish, they will have accumulated more toxins, and, the pond needs them as predators. However, tho' I usually target those 3 pounders, larger channel cats will sometimes take a small bait. That can even happen with much larger catfish of most any species: It may not actively hunt a minnow / small piece of bluegill, worm, etc., but if it runs into one, it may decide to inhale it. The biggest fish by far, that I ever hooked, was just such a case. I lost the fish because I was fishing a pool in a stream, but couldn't keep the fish from running to current, where I knew "I didn't have a prayer" -- I was using only 20 lb. line. I don't know exactly how big that fish was, but it was far more powerful than the biggest fish I've ever landed: A 36" flathead catfish. Which latter, BTW, was hooked on a small piece of bluegill any 2-3 lb. channel cat could have ingested.
(Obviously, the fish didn't understand, but when I released that 36" flattie I said "Go eat some (jumping) carp, dude!")
Also of note, while channel catfish of all sizes are "opportunistic" feeders, as they get larger, they turn more to being piscivores. I am sometimes surprised that fisheries biologists do not modify the regs for them, to take advantage of that.
In the case of largemouth bass, very often "slot limits" are established to try to better control panfish and / or "junk" fish populations, as well as establish a better bass fishery. For example, at one of my favorite lakes / camping spots, harvest of largemouth bass is as follows:
Large or Smallmouth Bass: Protected Slot Length Limit with no possession of fish greater than or equal to 14 inches and less than 18 inches; 6 Fish Daily Harvest Limit with no more than 1 fish greater than or equal to 18 inches and 5 fish less than 14 inches
This is not "woke", it results in a better fishery.
As Kosh told Sheridan in Babylon 5: "LEARN."
You might want to look into Jaguar Cichlids, too. I don’t know how big they can get in South FL, but in their native waters they can be as much as 2 ft. long. Shape is somewhat akin to a green sunfish, but greenies rarely get over 7” long - at least in my area. Jaguar Cichlids are primarily piscivores, and aggressive feeders at that. They are said to be good table fare, tho’ I know that’s not your “thing”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parachromis_managuensis
Nice fish!
The taste of many freshwater fish can be improved markedly by marinating them “cold” 12 hours or more. I prefer club soda, but 7-Up works too, with a “sweet” taste that may work particularly well with (to taste) modestly “hot” spices.
Keeping fish near freezing temperature and cleaning them quickly always helps.
Obviously, water quality is a big factor too. (If good enough, the marination likely is not needed, but that will vary with personal preference and species.) I dunno about water quality in those FL canals...
Often the belly flesh of freshwater fish, esp. near the pelvic fins, tastes the most fishy or muddy.
It’s all those Idaho potatoes those fish eat.
Saugeye out of good water are said to be good tasting too, but I’ve not yet managed to catch one.
I’ve been eating and catching fish for over 70 years in the U.S. and have yet to see one of them infested with worms or parasites. Sounds like an urban legend. What country do you come from?
On Vancouver Island I caught a bunch of trout that were wormy. The 7 acre pond they were in was pretty warm, so I think that had a LOT to do with the problem.
The fish were also very logy, you could actually bounce a lure off their head and they would ignore it for a time.
That reminds me of a Leave It to Beaver episode that I saw the other day. Ward and this boys went on a fishing trip and they rented a boat and caught lots of trout. When they got back to the dock, the man there charged them a dollar per fish cuz he said they put a net across part of the lake so “city folks” could come out and catch some fish.
Don’t forget walleye. A great freshwater eating fish. I always throw back bass. Not a good eating fish and so I let them live to get bigger. But I love catching them.
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