Spring "trash fish" spree

[Ifishforfood]

for the last month or soo ive been catching some good amounts of "trash" down in the lower columbia off of marine drive. most recently have been the peamouth,sculpin, suckers and bullhead catfish. all caught on nightcrawlers on the bottom. good fun for sure, its nice to finally get action down there.

 

[Modest_Man]

So what do you do with the fish? Do what you want with the invasive species but it would be nice to release the natives.

 

[Ifishforfood]

Modest- very true. those were only a small number of the few i kept, actually from last year. i have been releasing all the suckers this season tho, would hate to see them all go. these fish have provided countless hours of enjoyment i woulld hate to see ever go.

 

[Modest_Man]

So what do you do with them? Eat them? Resident lower Columbia and lower Willamette fish have high levels of heavy metals and PCBs in their tissues.

 

[Ifishforfood]

none from this year buddy. i wanted to see if they were any good since over east they are caught by the hundreds and fried at the sucker festivals. if you didn't already know, they actually are good to eat, but unless your an expert filleter like myself, you wont have a good experience. Not only do you have to fillet them right, but you have to cut the white meat off the red meat. oh, and btw, the red meat is the stuff thats got the condensed pcb's and whatnot. cut it out, and generally its fine. as for the willamette.... huh uh, never. that things a flowing sewer. the columbia's quite a bit better, i dont have too much of a problem with a sucker fry every once in a blue moon.

 

[Ifishforfood]

oh, and you also have to score the fillets to get through the pin bones, which crystalize then shatter when fried. but in the end, its worth a bit of effort when you get a platefull of golden fried pieces in the end.

 

[salmonslayer1991]

One mans trash is another mans treasure!

 

[troutmasta]

One mans trash is another mans treasure!

So it would seem.

 

[igquick]

kind of want to try one of those deep fried fillets right about now