To keep or not to keep

[Quinnebogger]

Guys and gals - safe travels on Erie this season and may your luck, I mean skill, be with you at all times.
For those of you that catch those early season hogs (females with eggs), consider taking a picture and releasing them.
The smaller males are better eating anyway and letting those egg landing females do there thing will only ensure a stronger, better stock for us all in the years to come.
Now before someone gets all bent out of shape, this is just my suggestion and something I plan to do.
Feel free to keep those ladies after the spawn which is basically from May onwards. We can all have a great time, catch our limits and still return the pre-spawned eyes back into the water, unharmed.

Be safe out there.

[FishOn205]

I woukd agree with u that the big hog females don't taste so good .. Therefore I like to fish for the jacks. As for catch and release on the hogs I'm for it but that's just me just my opinion and some guys probly do that. Either way keep or release it makes no difference to me. I can understand guys coming from out of town looking for pounds to take back so I guess it's 6 to one and half dozen to another. Either way I cannot wait to get out there and just start fishing!! Good luck

[jiginitis69]

I agree also. Being a local I only want the jacks. It's fun catching a pig. But I must admit I don't catch many jigging

[wakina]

I agree also. Being a local I only want the jacks. It's fun catching a pig. But I must admit I don't catch many jigging

The fact of the matter is that you almost have to target the females in order to catch them. Jigging on the reefs is almost a 99.9% male (jack) catch, the females (hens) are hanging out in the deeper water off the reefs and when they come in to the reefs they have only one thing on their mind. By targeting females I mean slow trolling crank baits, the 2 most popular are Reef Runners and Deep Down Husky Jerks. The females that are caught jigging are few and far between. Please don't get me wrong there are some females caught on jigs on the reefs every year, just not in large numbers and each angler has to use their own judgment and conscience about whether to keep a female or not! I personally prefer the jacks myself.

[walleyewhitetailpro]

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.

[MBLMIKE]

Guys and gals - safe travels on Erie this season and may your luck, I mean skill, be with you at all times.
For those of you that catch those early season hogs (females with eggs), consider taking a picture and releasing them.
The smaller males are better eating anyway and letting those egg landing females do there thing will only ensure a stronger, better stock for us all in the years to come.
Now before someone gets all bent out of shape, this is just my suggestion and something I plan to do.
Feel free to keep those ladies after the spawn which is basically from May onwards. We can all have a great time, catch our limits and still return the pre-spawned eyes back into the water, unharmed.

Be safe out there.

I am going to do this also I dont troll that much but I do like jiggin and catch far more jacks than females will release females untill spawn is over what is it for every female released to spawn you get 10 keepers later ?

[Green WhoreNet]

Pictures are great, and if you keep one big girl for the wall every now and again that's okay in my book (I've never caught one big enough to mount, opefully this year). I'm not into trolling either really. Other than that I prefer to throw back what you aren't going to eat. As for someones on trimming the meat. I've heard of cutting the throat and draining the blood immediatly makes the meat a little better. I have never tried it but it makes sense. I have seen on tv the tuna farmers for sushi kill the fish immediatly so they dont have a ton of stress and adreline going which affects the meat. Not a fact, just something I saw on TV

[DoubleD]

We have been bleeding our fish for years. Once you decide to keep the fish, put it on a stringer, hold it over the side, and cut its throat with kitchen scissors( much safer than sharp filet knives on a rough day). Then throw the fish overboard for 5-10 minutes for it to bleed out. At that point you have to put the fish in a cooler, but the filets are extremely clean at the filet table, no blood. We also cut the dark meat off of the filets after we clean them. It helps if the filets are cold and firm so sometimes we do it the day after the fish have been cleaned and sit in the fridge overnight. We will lay the fillet flat with the dark side up and gently shave off the dark stuff with a sharp rapala knife. We also zipper the fish, essentially removing the dark / bony section that runs through the centerline of the filet.

[LOWE LIFE]

Thats the only way to cut up a fish. Cheeks first gives you something to hold on to Zip 'em and I trim ALL red and silver off the filet. Gives it a less fishy taste and you end up with nuggets of delicious white flakey meat! I dont bleed them out. And for the HOGS.. I'm still searching for a wall hanger but I do release all females. Good luck be safe
Lowe Life!

[B can man]

I'm in! Females go back

All this talk of jacks made AC/DC's "She's Got The Jack" pop into my head. Might have to add that to my thumbdrive to listen to while jigging this spring