JD,
I do it the same way and it's fast, BONELESS, and imo wastes very little meat and freezes well. I'd hate to tackle a cooler full of perch any other way.
Justin,
I've also been accused of taking to many fish even though I release a bunch of big fish and fish many different bodies of water. As long as someone is staying within the legal limit it is their choice to keep what they please ( I'm sure they are well utilized). Hopefully the DEC would adjust limits if there was any concern with overharvesting. I'm not ashamed that I keep a lot of fish and we eat many meals of fish and game. It's the epitome of free range and wild food.
.
Hunted the river on opening day for ducks in Canada. Bluebird day and not much activity. Managed to 2 mallards and a woodie and 3 merganzers that don't really count. Hope next weekends NY opener is better since my brother will be visiting with his dog and we'll be hunting a few local beaver ponds which are holding birds. Also will be chasing grouse and woodcock.
Well I tried the river this morning and came up empty except for one smallmouth. I did have walleye on for a brief time on stick bait on heavy bottom bouncer. Tried downriggers and deep divers but could get them to hit.
Even though I could hunt tomorrow I decided to end the early season on a high note. Many geese around today and we ended up taking a four man limit of 60 birds. The birds worked well and often we had birds lite in the decoys and many others dropping in. At one point we had about 75 walking in the decoys and 200 dropping in and circling. An exceptional day in the field. I believe we had a good bunch of flight birds arrive in the last few days.
Justin,
I was really into the deer and the turkey for a long time but lost access to some nice properties I use to hunt and since I don't have very good areas left I've got into the waterfowl more. A couple years I took deer with bow muzzleloader, pistol, and rifle. I also like the camaraderie of water fowling and my back doesn't bother me as much from sitting in tree stand.
Sounds like you've got them wired not much time for bow season up here. I'll probably sit a few stands! Good luck.
Nice going Justin. I have been chasing geese and visiting grandson so I haven't fished in two weeks. I took my wife for a brief evening cruise and she caught one and dropped one between 5:00 and 5:30 pm which is encouraging. With early goose ending Wednesday and I plan to fish a bit more this week but Canadian duck open snext Saturday and NY dick in two weeks
I had another walleye on that we lost on the way up and I wasn't fishing very seriously with my wife. Trapper I thought that was you by Cherry. Next time I'll swing over for a chat. I'll likely be out there mornings or evenings this week. Trapper let me know if you want to get together to fish while you're up.
I have some brining for the smoker right now. Many ways to use it. I make jerky and smoke the breast of the larger birds and grill the smaller ones. I also save the leg and thigh meat and grind it and mix with pork for breakfast and Italian sausage. ( I hate to waste anything) I also sometimes have it made into sticks, pepperoni, kielbasa etc. but that can get costly. A lot of people say they don't like it but if you prepare it correctly it can be delicious.
I spent the morning in a goose blind with a friend I've hunted with for nearly forty years and his son who I've hunted with since he was a teen. Today we took the two grandsons age 12 and 14 and had a great shoot. It was their first real exposure to a goose blind and they weren't disappointed as we ended up with 32 birds. The large bale blind worked great.
Were you hunting with Todd? I never shot more than three times so not sure the new regs will come into play a great deal. I didn't hear of anyone shooting huge numbers. I think you would need ideal conditions with big numbers of birds to have much affect.