Wannabe fisherman

[mnemonic76]

Hi, I haven't fished for many years, but would like to go catch some for eating. I want to learn to gut, scale and fillet fish that I catch (or buddies) from local Indiana waters. I have learned a lot about the safety of various fishes in different waters from the IDNR website...

I have several buddies who fish only for sport (catch and release) and only in spring/summer months, so they are unable to help me.

What I want to know is WHERE is a good place within an hour or so of Indy to pull out eatin' fish, and what SPECIES makes for good eating in Indiana?

Any info would be appreciated, I really want to have a fish fry!

-mnemonic76

[bassmanic1]

Hi ,
Welcome to the board ! I believe the easiest way for you to find out how to clean the fish you catch is to just go to google.com and search "cleaning fish" . I did this and got 2 million hits so there should be something there that will help . Personaly Im in southern IN so I dont really know about fishing around Indy but my Sportsman Indiana fishing map Guide says that Eagle Creek Reservoir is right in Indy , has 1,350 acres to fish and has walleye stocked regularly . Anybody out there fish it much ?

[idbefishing]

Eagle Creek is good, Morse in Noblesville and Geist in Fisher are all within an hour of greater Indianapolis. Eagle Creek does have a 10 hp motor size limit.

[Streamer]

I used to live in Indy. Eagle Creek isn't too bad if you have a boat. The 56th street bridge can be productive from shore, but it's better from a boat. As for types of fish that are good for eating...panfish (bluegill, redear, crappie, etc.) are at the top, thus their name. The perch family (yellow and lake perch, walleye, sauger, saugeye) are also top notch. The afore mentioned Eagle creek has a decent walleye population as well as Cataract Lake, which is only about 35 to 40 minutes. You can find panfish in most of the ponds in apartment complexes (try Fisherman Village) and subdivisions. I enjoyed fishing Big Eagle Creek near Morris St and also near Lynhurst. The channel catfish can be very active here too, but check the advisories on them first. The big blue river in Johnson county can yield some good fishing as well. Good luck.

[Col Forbin]

It is hard to beat a crappie for eating! Fun to catch too.

[Moose1am]

I have to agree. Crappie in the 9" to 10" range are very good eating. The larger they get the more time they have to bio-accumulate more toxins such as mercury and PCB's. Get 25 of them 9" crappie and or 10" crappie and you have a good meal.

Fry them up in peanut oil heated to 375 deg F or broil them in the oven and let the fat drip off them into a pan below. You can grill them too or even smoke them in a slow smoker.

I use a fry daddy with hot peanut oil which is cholesterol free and doesn't burn as quickly as vegetable oils.

If the oil is hot and you don't put too much mean in the oil at one time and keep the temperature up above 350 deg F after the fillets are dropped into the oil they can cook in about 4 minute and be lightly browned on the outside and flaky white on the inside.

Drain the crappie fillets and or pat them with paper towels to remove the excess oil.

Now get some bread of your choice and put some Miracle Whip Dressing, horse radish and mustard on the bread and add two to four crappie fillets and make a sandwich. That's good eating IMHO. I'll normally eat at least two sandwiches like this for lunch or dinner.

Or you can just eat the fired up crappie fillets with some melted button and lemon juice spread over them. That's really good also.

Just be careful and don't eat to many each week or month. Mercury can be excreted out of the body over time. Be careful if you have a wife who's pregnant and don't feed her too many fillets of contaminated fish. Consult the IDNR and the IDEM web sites for information on fish and what contaminates they may have in them when caught from different waters in IN. KY has the same information and I would imagine that IL does too.

It's hard to eat what you don't catch... So to help you figure out how to catch a few crappie I would suggest two things. Pick up a copy of "Crappie World" magazine at your local book store. And order a copy of "Crappie Wisdom" from In_Fisherman. I would also recommend purchasing the books called Crappie Fundamentals and Crappie Location also from In-Fisherman.

Check out www.In-Fisherman.com

http://www.in-fisherman.com/magazine.../article_list/

https://store.intermediaoutdoors.com/shop/Default.aspx

http://www.crappieworldonline.com/

http://www.ecrappie.com/index.html

It is hard to beat a crappie for eating! Fun to catch too.