To keep or not to keep

[Dr.Ed]

You won't find a boat with more rules than my boat, the Holly Lucas. In the spring in the shallow waters (30 feet or less) all females are released after a quick picture. Keepers are immediately tally-wacked and put on ice. A counter is used so as to not go over the limit which is 4 walleye right now. The other rules are simple: No booze, no smokes, no Pepsi and of course, no bananas. I almost forgot: no four-letter words like bass, carp, golf or Blue as in 'Go Blue'. I only keep the fish I plan to eat or share with friends and family so I have yet to mount a fish and I never will. Enough of this. The docks are in at Catawba State Park and the ramps are open so what are we waiting for?

[SteelEyes]

I agree with you guys on letting the females go, especially when you can easily catch a limit of jacks. Quick question though to the guys who don't like the taste of big females? Say later in the summer you catch a big female who is all spawned out and you keep her. Before you throw the fillets in the fryer, do you trim the red meat off of the fillets? I have found that by taking a little extra time to trim this meat really improves the flavor. I personally can't tell a 17" jack from a 30" female when tasting it after. I even feed it to the girlfriend who claims she only likes perch hahahaha.

I release pre-spawn females as well, but I like to jig rather than troll, so not much of a problem.
As for cookin up the late season big fish. I cut up the fillets for fying. First I cut along the length, near the rib bones, in order to seperate the thinner lower portion of the fillet from the thicker upper portion. This keeps a consistent thickness. Also trim away the lateral line / red meat. Just a small cut along the length. Takes away a lot of the overpowering fish flavor. Then I cut the long into shorter pieces which helps me fit in my pan better.

[Afishhawk]

I release pre-spawn females as well, but I like to jig rather than troll, so not much of a problem.
As for cookin up the late season big fish. I cut up the fillets for fying. First I cut along the length, near the rib bones, in order to seperate the thinner lower portion of the fillet from the thicker upper portion. This keeps a consistent thickness. Also trim away the lateral line / red meat. Just a small cut along the length. Takes away a lot of the overpowering fish flavor. Then I cut the long into shorter pieces which helps me fit in my pan better.

We strip the red vien out by slicing the tail one inch on each side of the vien.
Then pull the fillets apart, the vien normally stays with the loin meat. Pinch the vien, peel it off and throw away. We also bleed out all of our fish in the livewell before heading up. This method has always worked well for us.
Always seem to get nice clean meat and less mess on the ironing table of the hotel when filleting. lol

[BossHogg]

Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't the 4-7 lb. Females producing way more offspring then the 9# plus fish? Thus its more important to throw back those midsize females then the big big ones. Other than the obvious reason that she may become the next 15#+ er.