Guilty Pleasure Species?

[Siebert Outdoors]

For me this goes in waves.  Sometimes its crappie.  Some times its white bass or bluegills.  Its random.   When I go to MI though its Musky, Pike, and Walleye. 

[casts_by_fly]

My dad's phrase is 'anything that pulls my string' and I don't disagree with that.  Pickerel are common here and are a skunk saver, but they do make a mess of lures.  Crappie are around and I'll target them once or twice in the spring for a good cookout.  Catching walleyes on topwaters is fun when it happens.  A couple of the lakes I fish have muskies and I LOVE catching them, even if I am underequipped.  Most any fish is fun, but if you're fishing bass lures/tackle but want an occasional rush, then a big hybrid striper is the answer.  They eat bass lures in the places bass live but when one hits you know you don't have a bass on.  They just go electric for a bit until you wear them out.  The best bit- just lip them to handle like any other bass.

 

rick

 

[volzfan59]

I'm with @RipzLipz, I love catching big bluegill!

[Bluebasser86]

Idk if it's a guilty pleasure, because I love catching big wipers when I'm fishing for bass. Big catfish are fun too, but I'd rather catch them when I'm targeting them. 

[Eric 26]

For me and my current situation I’m not able to get out fishing as much as I’d like and when I do it’s mainly retention ponds which by me means smaller bass so smaller lures usually. The bonus of using smaller lures is on any cast I can catch a bass, crappie, bluegill and on occasion a channel cat. Here’s an example 😃

[Harold Standish]

Big Pike or Muskies are always fun when Bass fishing.

 

 

[GreenPig]

I'll catch hybrids all day on a spoon. 

[VolFan]

I love hybrids and strippers when I can get them. Locally I fish catfish probably more than bass any more, but I also love a good white perch bite when you get on a school of bigger ones.

[gim]

1 hour ago, VolFan said:

and strippers when I can get them

[RipzLipz]

@gimruis I hear they’re nibbling on big worms & fat wallets.

 

[KSanford33]

That must be why I can't catch any...

[RipzLipz]

@KSanford33 ……to the poor grub fishermen!

 

[JackstrawIII]

On 12/14/2023 at 6:10 PM, A-Jay said:

Local By-Catch on the bigger inland waters here includes Musky, Pike, Walleye & Trout.

Early season, the brown and rainbow trout are a total blast on light spinning gear,

putting on quite a show. 

My strike to land ratio on big Musky is pretty low but I've managed to hold a few.

Pike are almost always a huge PIA, even when they are bigger.  They trash everything.

But when I hook a big one, I'll still work hard to land it; just to get my bait back if nothing else.

When the toothy critters are thick, I'll either move or add a trace of wire.

Then there's the walleye, I like them.

Because they taste very good, I'll knock the sides of a limit of cutters just about every chance I get.

I will often make them my target species after initially heading out for Brown Bass.

Depends if the season's open on them yet or not. 

Panfish taste awesome too, just not a fan of cleaning so many at a time. 

A-Jay

 

 

AJ… that is a SLAMMER walleye. Wow. Very nice. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

 

To answer the OP’s question, I get bycatch very infrequently. Occasionally I’ll catch a rock bass off a dock, which is ok as I enjoy eating them. Most frequent bycatch is catfish when trying to catch walleye in the Seneca River, but we eat those too and they fight way harder than a walleye and catching them on light gear is fun, so I don’t mind. 

[ironbjorn]

When I'm fishing for LMB, I'm not sad when I catch a SMB. And when I'm fishing for SMB, I'm not sad when I catch a LMB.

 

Does that count?

[Zcoker]

When I go bass fishing, I hate catching Bowfin, or mudfish as they are often called ugg. On the other hand, when I want something to practically pull my arm off, I hit the surf for blacktip sharks using only topwater lures. That'll work! 

 

 

 

 

 

[RipzLipz]

@Zcoker Never enjoyed catching them either, when I was down there bass fishing. Complete lure wreckers. Gar were also nuisances but less common.

 

[Zcoker]

 

They're awful, those bowfin. I've lost some nice lures from them doing their death spin. And don't ever net one. I had one completely rip apart the rubber mesh on my $100 YakAttack landing net. YakAttack gave me another mesh at no charge, thank goodness! 

[gim]

17 minutes ago, RipzLipz said:

Never enjoyed catching them either, when I was down there bass fishing. Complete lure wreckers.

 

Lure wreckers is accurate.  Jaws like a vice.  Only ever caught one, wouldn't bother me if I never caught another one.

 

Pike are lure wreckers too.  Way more so than bowfins here because pike are so numerous and aggressive.  They are an endless assault on my lures.

[RipzLipz]

12 minutes ago, Zcoker said:

And don't ever net one. I had one completely rip apart the rubber mesh on my $100 YakAttack landing net. YakAttack gave me another mesh at no charge, thank goodness! 

At the time, we were in a bass boat & conservation nets didn’t yet exist so we were OK in that regard. Wasted many a golden shiner on those vile creatures & that was back before shiners were $20/dozen.

 

@gimruis I know - started fishing BWCA out of Ely in `89. My spinnerbaits still complain about the pike. I can still recall I’d cast them out & they’d be like, "Nnnnnoooooooooooooooooo"

[JackstrawIII]

On 12/18/2023 at 1:01 PM, gimruis said:

Seriously if you can't catch at least a few snot rockets, fishing may not be your thing here.  Billiards or bowling may be a better option.  You'd have to really be doing something wrong to completely avoid at least a few.

I’ve noted this fact on the forums here before… but I’ll say it again. 
 

I fish in upstate NY, and our waters are supposedly full of pike. Whether I’m trying to catch bass, or specifically targeting pike, I just don’t seem to catch them. I just caught my first one this year actually, after hundreds of hours of fishing around “pikey” areas. 
 

I don’t get it. I guess I shouldn’t complain… but they’re a fairly appreciated sport fish around here and it’s weird that they avoid me so doggedly. 

[A-Jay]

10 minutes ago, JackstrawIII said:

I’ve noted this fact on the forums here before… but I’ll say it again. 
 

I fish in upstate NY, and our waters are supposedly full of pike. Whether I’m trying to catch bass, or specifically targeting pike, I just don’t seem to catch them. I just caught my first one this year actually, after hundreds of hours of fishing around “pikey” areas. 
 

I don’t get it. I guess I shouldn’t complain… but they’re a fairly appreciated sport fish around here and it’s weird that they avoid me so doggedly. 

Be careful what you ask for . . . . .

Pike are the Bait Monkey's Minions.

A-Jay

 

[gim]

13 minutes ago, JackstrawIII said:

I fish in upstate NY, and our waters are supposedly full of pike. Whether I’m trying to catch bass, or specifically targeting pike, I just don’t seem to catch them. I just caught my first one this year actually, after hundreds of hours of fishing around “pikey” areas. 
 

I don’t get it. I guess I shouldn’t complain… but they’re a fairly appreciated sport fish around here and it’s weird that they avoid me so doggedly

Ya that is quite odd. Pretty much any weedy area here is likely to produce a few here.

[Jar11591]

@JackstrawIII I fish in upstate NY as well, and I’ve only caught about a half dozen pike in the last 2 years. That number is way lower than the previous 10 years or so. I used to catch several dozen or more per season. I’m definitely concerned about the pike population around here. 

[FishTank]

For me it's trout and maybe walleye. I grew up fishing for bluegill and crappie so both species are kind of boring. 

 

Trout though are a tough animal to catch and are a blast to bring in on light gear. They definitely are one of the cooler looking fish to catch and they are, to me, very rewarding.  

 

My hope is to bring in a nice size musky one day. There are too many awesome species and not enough time to catch them all. 

[MIbassyaker]

I grew up fishing for everything that I could get to bite in the places I could access.  That turned out to be catfish, bullheads, pike, walleye & sauger, drum (sheepshead), suckers, rock bass, and occasionally perch, crappie, bluegills & other sunfish.

 

What I didn't have much access to were bass and trout. Those are the species that give me most pleasure now that I live an a place that has both in abundance.  I don't feel guilty about either.

 

I just wish I had time in the fall/winter/spring to really get into the salmon & steelhead runs here, but that's busy season at work.  I have caught a couple steelhead and a coho mostly by accident fishing from shore in the fall....and hooked a few more that I never landed.  I always think, this year I'm going to devote a few outings to the Fall Runs....but once mid-September hits, I just can't get out very often until about May.