Fish myths

[erikwells]

Here are the myths that I have found to be incorrect from my chilhood: (Feel free to add your own)

1. Rock bass are trash fish. I found this to be incorrect during a fishing trip up north. The resort owner convinced me to clean one and eat it with my crappies and bluegills. Tasted great. I used to kill these fish and now feel like a moron for doing so.

2. Dogfish or bowfin are bottom feeders. While they may not be gourmet (I have never tried one) they are not bottom feeders. As a matter of fact they only eat other fish. I again used to thing these fish were worthless. They are great to have in most lakes. They are especially great to have in the lake where you have tons of small panfish. They eat eat eat. I have been wading shallows in the spring and had them pull fish off of my stringer.

3. Fur bearing trout. This was an invention for tourists. Just kidding I could only think of two being someone had mentioned catfish and bullhead barbels do not sting. Please add your own.

[Guest]

How about the old one about northerns losing their teeth in the summer....or
Wind from the west , fish bite the best. Wind from the east , fish bite the least. I am sure we have all proven that one wrong.
Dino

[Guest]

Catfish sting with their wiskers.

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Backwater Eddy..><sUMo>

Backwater Guiding
"Ed on the RED"
(701)-281-2300
[email protected]

[Crawlerman]

Rock Bass being considered "trash fish" hmm.. thats odd... it's only a bluegill in disquise after all.

Of course the more often thought of "trash fish" Are: catfish, Bullheads, and of course carp. A "myth law" of course I hear ALL the time is: You got to kill them bullhead and them carp, its the law! Far from it.. Bullheads actually have a daily limit of 100 and it's actually a fish the DNR stocks into certain "childrens fishing ponds" that may be too shallow to support many other fish.

As for carp.. you think twice about it being a "trash fish" after you hook your first 10+ lber and recieve the fight of your life! I've never caught one over 14; but I'm imagining a bigger one would be fun to catch. In my book; carp are about one of the funnest fish to fight and catch.. up there with Northern Pike.

Sheephead may be the only thing in my book considered an "un-wanted fish" Just due to the fact I've lost dozens of hooks to the lil buggers. No matter how big the hook is; a half a pound sheephead can and WILL swallow it. I've lost 2/0's to sheephead before.

Never caught a dogfish; though they look fun to fight; Much like a bass from what I have heard from other people.

[Guest]

You guys hit the nail on the head.
Rock bass are definaltly not trash fish. They actaully require good water quality to spawn. Yes there are in some crummy waters but they have to spawn somwhere. Biologists actually use the rock bass as a indicater species. (indicator of good water quality).

Carp are not necessarily bad in oligotrophic lakes. They can sometimes be good for an ecosytem stirring up nutrients. On the other hand they do strive in eutrophic lakes and can be very harmful. The thing that crosses my mind when i see people throwing carp on the banks is that it is better to have a few big carp than it is to have a bunch of little ones. One little one does more damage than 1 big one.
Just some biological reinforcement to the points above.

[Steve Foss]

We mix in rock bass fillets with crappie and sunnie for people who don't have any familiarity with fish, and they can't tell the difference. I can tell just a bit of difference (rockies don't have the faint sweet taste sunnies do), but we get rockies up to 2 pounds on our lake in the same places we get sunnies, and we always throw them in the basket. Their big rib cage makes cleaning a tiny bit more of a challenge, but if you know it's coming, it's no big deal.

I hear all the time that channel cats, or any cats, are bottom feeding mud dwellers. People on this post, for the most part, know better (Eddy, you know WAY better). I've whiled away thousands of hours and hundreds of nights fishing for channels on the Red River. They're great predators, strong fighters, and wonderful on the table (I should give you my wife's blackened Cajun catfish recipe. Makes me keep wanting to get fatter).

And Eddy, no doubt you hear the fiction around Devils Lake, N.D., that white bass taste like dump. Nothing could be further from the truth. We love them, and the way we fix them you don't even have to take out the darker meat.

Bowfin are voracious predators. I've caught several on calm summer evenings while spinnerbaiting the cabbage beds for bass. Talk about a fight!

Carp, which have long been maligned in the states, but are making up ground in some circles, have been pursued like crazy in England and Europe. I had one really good day a couple years back catching carp at Lockport, Man., with some guys who chum sweetened corn. A 20 lb carp on 10 pound line and spinning equipment is an adventure.

So many fish. So little time. Makes a fellow want to quit work and spend the rest of his life doing the really important things.

[Jimmy]

How about this one: The fishing will be slow if the cows are laying down.

Jimmy

[curt quesnell]

Jimmy,

The cow deal might be more true than not.
My version is if you see lots of deer on
the way to the lake fishing will be good.
If the deer are moving so are all the other
critters, fish included. Moving fish, feeding fish.

Curt Quesnell

[Guest]

I have heard plenty from the southern folks that Rockbass are thee best eatin....Whoooo wee!

Farm Island lake near Aitkin would be one of my top recommended lakes for Rockbass fishing. While pre-fishing a tourney this last spring we caught over 150 Rockbass, many of which went in the 2 lb range.

PCG

[Crawlerman]

2lb rockbass? That's unheard of! Almost like catching 150 3lb crappies! Wow... and I thought the time I caught 50 ranging from 1/2 to 1 lb in WI was good!

[Jim W]

"Fishing Myth"

Winds from the East, fishing is least?????????????????????

[This message has been edited by Jim W (edited 10-15-2002).]

[Cyberfish]

Wind from the east, on fish you will feast!

wind from the south, fish get your hook in their mouth.

wind from the north, the lunkers come forth.

Cyb

[Cyberfish]

This one always makes my eyes roll when i hear it.

Bass bite good on plastic lizards because in the spring lizards invade a bass' nest and eat their eggs, so the bass is compelled to crush lizards to protect its offspring, and that inclination staye with it throughout the year.

problems with this theory are

1) lizards don't go in water to eat bass eggs. Salamanders do live in water for part of their lives but are not known to be fond of bass eggs.

2) Bluegills are the worst enemy of bass eggs, and bass don't spend the rest of the year trying to kill bluegills because it lost some, or all of its eggs to them during the spring.

3) After the bass leaves the nest, if it comes upon one of its offspring, and it is hungry, it will gobble them up!
So much for post spawn parental instincts!

Cyb

[Steve Foss]

cyb:

Good one. I've had lots of luck with bigmouths on the green/brown Berkley Power Lizards. I even read the egg/grudge myth in a recent In-Fisherman, where it recommends you set the hook immediately after the fish picks up a lizard, because they shake the lizard, crunch it and drop it dead. I've had bass hold on to Power Lizards a long time. I do notice the fish run bigger than with plastic worms, but that may be because the lizard's a bigger bait.

So here's the real question: Do bass eat lizards because they're less filling, or because they taste great?

Otherwise known as: Lite Lizard from Berkley.

[juggs]

Not so much a myth--more of an exxageration. Panfish weights. Two pound crappies and one pound bluegills are not nearly as common as the talk about them are. I have the one and only two pound crappie I've ever caught hanging on my wall and I fish them a lot. The state record rock bass IS an even two pounds. Don't mean to be disrespectful but I doubt the earlier posts about rockies that size are accurate as far as the weight goes. I always take reports on pannies with a grain of salt when anglers start throwing out weights and lengths. I have an accurate digital scale in my boat and almost always weigh the bigger ones. Most people will tell you what they THINK their fish weighs, not what it actually does weigh. Oh well, who wouldn't want to bump up the numbers a little??

[Guest]

Rock Bass, well...rock! I like catching 'em, I like eating 'em, and someone once said to me "You eat that bottomfeeder?" To which I replied - "Walleye? They feed....where?"
Bowfin fight like MAD DOGS !!!! I've caught two of these guys, and they felt like 3 lb. Largemouth. My boy calls 'em "dinosaur fish" 'cause of the Celycanth - looking heads. They don't hit timid, either.

Myth....just about anything the folks at the bait shop tell you (just kidding)...
Myth....largemouth bass are exclusively a solitary and ambushing species - FALSE...
I've witnessed on three seperate occasions in 3 seperate bodies of water that a school of up to a 1/2 dozen 1 1/2 to 3 lb. largemouth will follow a pair or 3 carp while they forage and stir the bottom. I've picked up these 'tag-a-long' bucket mouths with a crawler on the bottom. My theory? The buckets are picking up the stuff the carp stir, grabbing easy pickins. If I see a carp in a lake or pond or slow inlet - I cast for bass.

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RobertC

[Guest]

If you honk your horn and get the cows up on their feet, will the bite pick up?

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Backwater Eddy..><sUMo>

Backwater Guiding
"Ed on the RED"
(701)-281-2300
[email protected]

[mr marbles]

I remember when we threw back the eelpout on millelacs ice fishin, now we keep them and boil in salt water and dip in butter, goe's good with a beer!

[Cyberfish]

Yes, that truly is a bad myth, that Burbot are trash fish.

Tehy are excellent eating, and are good for the lake too, they eat lots of those baby perch.

throw em back, or take em home, don't throw em on the ice and leave em there, its also unlawful!

[Cyberfish]

Yes, that truly is a bad myth, that Burbot are trash fish.

Tehy are excellent eating, and are good for the lake too, they eat lots of those baby perch.

throw em back, or take em home, don't throw em on the ice and leave em there, its also unlawful!

[Crawlerman]

Yeah.. I allways wondered about that one... after all; Burbot is a Freshwater Cod-- which there saltwater cousins are the staple commercial fish for all your fast food fish sandwiches, fish sticks, and restraunt/fish frys. I would assume they would taste a lot alike. I've never caught one myself...

[Jim W]

How abut not returning smaller fish down your ice hole, because they will send out a distress signal to others in the area!!!!!HAHAHA

Jim W

[Guest]

One of the most persistent is the notion that fish "bulk up" in the fall to get thru the cold winter.

[Crawlerman]

Actually.. there might be some truth to that... a few years ago on Christmas day; I caught a 5lber through the ice... When I filleted it; I found two interesting things: First it had a whole 5" perch in it's belly; not that unusual for a Northern but it obviously was hungry... secondly it WAS full off eggs. However; one thing I think may have accounted for this is it was unseasonably warm at the time (in the mid to upper 30's) There was a good 8" of ice on the lake due to a sudden 2 week cold snap; but it warmed up again. That and there was no snow on the ice either. That sudden change of tempature might explain the eggs; as the Northern possibly thought that Winter was allready over...

[Cyberfish]

Fish that spawn in early spring get full of eggs in the fall, because in that cold water it takes a while til the eggs are grown enough to be layed
Some of the walleye I caught three weeks ago at leech lake were full of eggs already too.

Cyb.