# Tye Dye's 1st Pike and Yuba Bassin Day 5-30



## tye dye twins (Mar 8, 2011)

Yuba - Thats right folks after an 11 year avoidance of the place I returned to clear my name of the skunk associated with me and Yuba. Started at 10am at the bridge where Tube Dude told me to go and tossed a big kastmaster in orange. Well that got 2 followers. So I switched to Tube Dudes perch swimbaits and I hooked up with a 30 incher but after a few airs and runs he spat the hook right at me.

Determined to get a pike I actually hooked up with a Smallmouth bass on the perch swimbait and had plenty of Carp followers. So I switched to a Perch countdown rapala CD7 and landed my 1st pike at 16 inches. Then I saw a carp follower and jigged it near shore. Slurped it right in front of me and sat there till I got the net in the water. It was a good battle that lead to his early dimise. I threw Tube Dudes Gold swimbaits and had lots of carp following it.

Well 2pm arrived and I literally casted my arms off till 9pm when the bite kicked back on. That whole 7 hours it was just me and the **** birds! Ughh 1 actually shat on my head. I landed 2 smallmouth bass and another northern pike at 17.5 inches long. I lost lots of bass in the rocks. Sometimes you could jig them into biting! By 9:20pm it was dark and I called it a day. So 2 pike, 3 Smallmouth bass, and 1 carp! It was too windy to take out the pontoon.

Anybody from the midwest on here know a good pike recipe?

The 1st Victim of the day! A smallmouth bass.









My 1st ever Northern Pike!









This little piggy should have stayed home. This carp didn't survive its encounter with me. 









Don't expect to relax with these guys screeching all day!









Sunset at Yuba









Yet another Northern Pike for me!









A pike and a bass


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## tkjwonta (Jan 20, 2010)

As long as the water is relatively cold, we do our pike the same as the walleyes, fried up in Shore lunch, or some other similar fish batter. Once the water warms in the heat of the summer we try not to keep many northerns because they get a little "fishy", but some people claim they're better that way.

Also, be careful filleting the northerns, they have additional y-bones throughout the fillets as opposed to just the normal backbone/ribs of walleyes. You can take them out without sacrificing much meat if you catch a nice fat one, but on the skinnier ones you'll just make a mess of the fillet. You're almost better off just leaving them in and being careful to eat around them. Hope that helps!


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## EvilTyeDyeTwin (Aug 9, 2011)

Another species off the bucket list OOO°)OO .....just a few more to go. One of these days that fishery is gonna turn around from being a carp fishery. Amazing that it has taken so long for the fishery to recover....and it still has a long way to go too. If only you could have got permission from Wayne to fish "Waynes World". When we were kids we fished that area for trout (which there were none back then) but that place is loaded with Pike, Bass and Walleye....might just have to contact Wayne again and make a special trip down there! 

Big thanks goes out to Tube Dude for all his help/lures. What a guy! Can not wait to fry those pike and bass up for dinner. Gonna taste great for sure.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

I caught some pike there a week ago...just fillet them, taking care with the Y-bones, panfried them in bacon grease, throw in some onions and mushrooms, crack some eggs into it and you have one amazing omelet...


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## fordkustom (Jan 27, 2011)

good on ya, all i can pull out of there is carp


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## tye dye twins (Mar 8, 2011)

Golfcourseponds said:


> I've wanted a pike my whole life! Great report.


Thanks I felt the same way until that epic day. Now is your chance. Redmond in winter is a good one too. I wish there were more pike fisheries in Utah. They are a EXCELENT fighter. Now I will have to admire them all the more at the Cabelas fish tank.


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## caddis8 (Sep 10, 2007)

pike are actually quite excellent eating. But as many have said, pull them out of cold water or they'll be a little fishy, and smell like a tin can. 

The way I fillet them is pretty simple. make a cut behind the head and cut parallel to the ground or at a 90 degree angle to the backbone. You can feel the Y bones as you make this cut. Cut just above them, that's one fillet. Now, make a cut behind the ribs along the spine to the tail. Do this on both sides. That's fillet's #2 and #3. Now, you can see the Y bones sticking out where you made the first cut. Make another cut along the Y bones and against the ribs, cut to where you made your other cut behind the ribs and you'll have fillets #4 and #5. If you do it right, they all should be boneless. Skin the slimy little buggers and you'll have some good eating food. I pan fried the last ones in olive oil, old bay seasoning on a couple, garlic and lemon pepper, and garlic and herb seasoning. It was very good, but it was also caught in Feb or Jan. 

Tight lines.


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## tye dye twins (Mar 8, 2011)

Thanks Caddis8! I had to watch Yu tube and they kept saying "fillet it like a walleye". Well us Utah folks don't do that everyday! So I watch walleye videos too and figured it out. I now know what "y bones" are as I had a lot of them in my fry session tonight. Oh well it wasn't too hard to munch them and the fillets tasted great. Everyone on the beach at Yuba told me I was going to hate them.


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## caddis8 (Sep 10, 2007)

Y bones are along the back and they are exactly that, a Y. Help hold the structure of the fish.


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