My Favorite Fish

This section on my favorite fish is based on all around preference, including abundance, dependability of location, willingness to bite (not finicky), sporting quality, and table fare, among other less obvious factors. I love to fish and anything I catch under any conditions gives me a thrill. But below are my favorites, in order of their importance in my overall enjoyment of the sport. All are important and all are tasty, but the order indicates the strongest factors of my favorite fish.

1. Catfish: A much maligned fish that provides more table fare for more "fish fries" than any other fish caught out of U.S. waters. People not familiar with the joys of catfishing associate the fish with nasty, slimy, scaleless, bottom feeding, junk fish. But that attitude is born of ignorance. Catfish are some of the apex predators in most lakes and rivers. Their ability to pull like a freight train when hooked, and to provide succulent table fare when cooked are legendary among the initiated. Top on the list of my favorite fish, they provide.....Read more

2. Bluegill: This one is probably a surprise to most people landing on this page. Bluegill are known among most people as perch or bream. Talk to people about bluegill, and the first thing that comes to mind are the small, bait stealing nuisances that inhabit the areas under boat docks and around the banks of virtually all lakes. But when I talk about bluegill as second of my favorite fish, I'm talking about the kind on steroids....Read more.

3. Largemouth Bass: The only surprise here with a lot of anglers will be that this one wasn't first of my favorite fish instead of third. But, remember, I don't tournament fish anymore and I love to eat fish. So, the first two provide me with more opportunities for a well rounded experience. But in the sporting category, nothing beats the fight of a largemouth bass (and it's cousins - spotted and smallmouth bass). Hook into one of these bucketmouthed eating machines and hang on.

4. White Bass: These voracious predators are number four on the list of my favorite fish because I don't hardly ever go fishing specifically for them. But I regularly run into them by accident. And when I do, it's not unusual to fill a livewell or stringer in short order. Traveling upstream in spring time to spawn, small creeks that empty into major lakes and rivers are chock full of the romance minded spawners and a limit can be caught standing in one spot when they are in this mode. Otherwise, in warmer weather, they travel in marauding schools of voracious shad hearding eating machines. On my local lakes and rivers, it's not unusual to see a half acre of surface feeding white bass in summer and early fall.

5. Crappie: Now crappie afficionados will no doubt take offense at the place they take on the list of my favorite fish. But it's not that there is anything wrong with them. It's just that I've never learned to become a "crappie fisherman". And there is a difference between fishing for crappie and being a crappie fisherman. The main difference is that for two short periods of each year I will catch some good crappie. Real crappie fishermen will catch them year round. When I am after crappie, my favorite hole.

I love to catch all of these fish and all have made their way to my table to feed my family and friends. I wouldn't be ashamed to serve any of these species of fish to anybody, any time, or to put my fishing friends on top of them on the lake for some angling action.