My fishing partners and my loyal readers all know that I am an avid striped bass and hybrid striped bass chaser on Ross Barnett Reservoir.
It is my passion on my home lake, one that most people don’t understand and very few share.
* Diehard bass fishermen despise the fish because they compete with their beloved largemouth. They’d rather see the money spent on hatching stripers used to stock more largemouths.
* Crappie fishermen hate them because when they run across a school of the brutes, it usually results in a lot of messed up tackle.
* And fishermen who fish for dinner think that there is no good way to cook the fish. They are so very, very wrong. Cleaned and cooked correctly, they are as good as anything swimming in the lake.
Let me explain my love of the fish.
First and foremost, they really put up a fight. They grow big and they grow big fast, and they are not shy about knocking the fire out of a crankbait. When they are feeding on the surface, they will knock a topwater plug three feet out of the water and then crush it when it falls back to the water.
As much fun as they are when they are mature, they are equally fun to play catch and release with as juveniles. Simply switch to ultralight spinning gear and fish with small grubs cast on jig heads. On 2- or 4-pound test, they are a scream.
Second, when you catch one, you are likely to be amongst a hundred or a thousand of them. They travel in big schools, or as I call them, wolfpacks. Once you find them, you can sit on one spot and catch one after another. It is, in the vernacular of the day, stupid fun.
True story, last week, fishing an 8-foot hump about five boat lengths from the river channel on the lower main lake, I found a school of stripers that averaged 5 to 8 pounds. With a front approaching, the weather was awful. The wind was blowinga steady 15 to 20 with gusts to 25, and the lake was white capping.
We still went because I knew ahead of that front, the fish would be going nuts, and because my hot spot was on the northwest side of the lake about 500 yards off the shore. The white caps that made all other areas of the lake unapproachable didn’t have time to form over the hump.
I found the fish the week before in calm weather, and they were sitting on top of the hump. But on this blustery day, they were holding on a drop to 14 feet, and within 20 yards of that spot is another drop to 40 feet of water in the river.
We were limited by the weather to trolling off my pontoon boat, and were using 200 and 300 series Bandit crankbaits. My friend Tommy Sutton and I were each hooking up on every pass. Every time we’d reel a fish to the boat, there would be four or five more chasing trying to get the lure away.
We could pick up another rod with anything on it, drop it over the side, and hook up every time.
It was insane, and was the peak day of a two-week run that produced over 200 stripers or hybrids brought to the boat. Most were released, including the bigger ones, but we kept a limit of six 3- to 5-pounders apiece every day.
The secret to cooking these fish is in the cleaning. Once filleted, it is important to remove the red bloodline that runs lengthwise through the center of the fillet. That leaves you with two pieces of fillet. The small thin piece behind the belly cavity under the bloodline is ideal for frying. The other piece is the longer fillet from above the bloodline. I usually cut the thintail end of that piece (maybe two inches) and add it to the frying pile.
The thicker “loin” piece from the rest of the top fillet is what we love.
In the last two weeks, I have:
* Cubed it and cooked it in fish chowder.
* Grilled it.
* Poached it in a combination of water, liquid crab boil and butter, then flaked and made into delicious fish cakes that rival the finest crab cakes I’ve ever been served in restaurants.
* Pan-seared with a seasoned and light flour crust in olive oil, and served with an orange sauce — the favorite at our house. After cooking the fillets on both sides for about 3 minutes each and removing them to a very warm plate, I combine an ounce or two of an orange liquor like Cointreu or Triple Sec with a few ounces of fresh orange juice and pour enough in the pan to deglaze it over high heat. The sauce is ready when the amount of liquid is reduced by half (usually two minutes) and is like a thick syrup. Serve over rice or penne pasta and drizzle generously with the orange sauce.
Almost as much fun to eat as they are to catch, and, boy, that’s saying something.
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To share your fishing reports, stories and recipes with our readers, email Bobby Cleveland at bobbyc7754@yahoo.com.
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