Small mouth

[ryanh]

I took one home last week from a lake and fried it up. It was excellent, wonder why you don't hear more about how good they are to eat?

 

[tomgamber]

I ate them as a kid. I ate everything I caught before age 16. But yeah, I remember it being quite good.

To answer your question, maybe because they don't dump a few million catchable sized fish in nearly every waterway right before the season starts.

 

[tomgamber]

Internet

 

[tomgamber]

Being weird tonight

 

[RLeep2]

Sure, they're good eating. That only makes sense. They're a sunfish. Once they get up much over 13-14", I think they get a little fishy/strong tasting and aren't as good though. My experience has been that flowing water smallmouth often have those little light tan grubs, so I always held the filet up to the light to see them and then picked them out. They're harmless though.

I probably ate a pickup truck load of largemouth in the 9-13" class (back when the min size was 9") when I was a kid and they were excellent.

 

[ryanh]

Tom, long time no talk. It was loyalhanna lake. I refurbed our old flat back canoe and put a trolling motor on it. Fun for me and the kid. That's a beautiful lake (at least when I was there). I been fishing that tail race. You can catch anything there. Also hit conemaugh outflow. Not as good but I hear they got toothy fish.

 

[jifigz]

Smallmouth are fantastic tablefare. The reason that you don't hear more about them being eaten is because of the huge C&R movement that began many years ago in the bass fishing world. The same thing exists regarding wild trout and fly fishers. Most would think it is a sin to kill a wild trout. I say harvest either as long as done ethically, responsibly, and the systems aren't being over harvested.

 

[tomgamber]

ryanh wrote:
Tom, long time no talk. It was loyalhanna lake. I refurbed our old flat back canoe and put a trolling motor on it. Fun for me and the kid. That's a beautiful lake (at least when I was there). I been fishing that tail race. You can catch anything there. Also hit conemaugh outflow. Not as good but I hear they got toothy fish.

I HAVE FISHED BOTH OUTFLOWS. YOUR ASSESSMENTS ARE CORRECT. I HAD A FRIEND IN BOISE WHO'S DAD USED TO TROLL WET FLIES ON SINKING LINE FROM A CANOE LIKE THAT WITH A TROLLING MOTOR. WAS DEADLY FOR KOKANEE.