A Weekend Off At Last...Gone Fishin'

 This past weekend my husband and and I enjoyed a much needed three day weekend. On Thursday evening we packed up a few things and headed to our camper at the lake. Almost without any work but at the last minute I had a home inspection scheduled and did have to work until noon on Friday. Once back at the camper my husband had prepared us a late breakfast of ham and scrambled eggs. It was yummy! I cleaned up the dishes and he headed outside to get a couple jigging poles ready for fishing. He bought the rigs last year but we had never had a chance to use them. This weekend he came to the lake with a plan to go crappie fishing.  Crappie are freshwater fish in the sunfish family. There are black crappie and white crappie. Both are popular gamefish because they are considered some of the best tasting freshwater fish. 
This time if year you can always tell when the crappie are biting because as you head out on the lake boats are parked everywhere in the creeks and points and guarding their spots, not budging. If they
are biting that boat may sit there for hours until they get their limit in the live well or cooler. 
We didn't get on the water until around 3:15. The first stop we had no luck then we headed to a cove in Flat Creek where a customer at The Home Depot had told me was a good place to catch black crappie. We stopped on our way in at an area with lay downs. (Trees that have fallen in the lake with submerged branches) right away Dwayne caught a black crappie but it wasn't a keeper. Regulations state they must be at least 10 inches to harvest. Then he caught a bluegill, also small but a little fighter. I wasn't having any luck, not even a nibble. We decided to move on back in the cove. Bingo! 
We found crappie in some more lay downs along the bank in the very back. Another boat was on the 
other side and they weren't moving so I figured they were doing more than fishing. They were
catching! They had a little boy with them and I heard him say he was having the most fun. What
wonderful words coming from that little boy fishing with these men making memories they will never forget. I can't wait to take my grandson fishing although I am not wishing time away.  
I caught a fish! Wow, it felt great! Then I caught another one. Dwayne and I caught at least 15-20 fish in the short time we were there, seven of which were keepers. We headed back to the ramp and then 
back to the camper after stopping for a bag of ice to ice our fish down in the cooler until we could clean and filet them later.

While Dwayne was cleaning up the boat, I saw a neighboring camper was 
cleaning a fish just a few yards away. I headed over, introduced myself and asked if I could watch him. Why, sure he said. He had caught a walleye 
fishing down on the banks of the lake and had caught this walleye which 
was going to be their main course for supper. He made filleting that fish 
look easy.
We didn't have a filet knife so we had decided to go grab something for dinner then stop by Bass Pro Shop to pick up a knife. On our way I watched a video on YouTube on how to filet crappie. Looked easy enough. Kinda, anyway.  Im thinking that I believe if I can ignore the queasiness of that first cut around the gills I would be ok. 
                                                         I can do this! I can do this! 

I picked up my first crappie. Oh my, how slippery it is. I couldn't hold into it. I grabbed a piece of

paper towel and was able to hold it. First cut....I can do it. Oh my! My knife was too dull. I sharpened it then tried a different approach using only the point and first few inches of the knife blade to do the
cutting. It worked! I did like the video showed and wound up doing pretty good. By the last fish I was feeling pretty comfortable. My husband was very impressed and proud of my first attempt of filleting
 fish.



Tonight we had crappie for dinner. They were excellent.

How I made them:

Ingredients 

1/2 c self rising flour

2/3 c self rising corn meal

Salt 

Pepper

1/2 c Cooking oil

1/4 c milk

  9 cleaned and filleted crappie 

Put all dry ingredients in a gallon  sized  ziplock bag. Pour milk over fish in large bowl, add salt and pepper to desired taste.

Add milk drenched fish to bag with dry ingredients and shake until evenly coated.

Heat oil in large cast iron skillet until hot over medium high heat. Add fish a piece at a time. Until skillet is full one layer thick. Fry until golden and then flip over and fry until golden and crispy. Remove to a platter lined with paper towels and parchment paper to drain.

We had ours with vegetables and cornbread. 

YUMMY!

I can't wait to go crappie fishing again.