What's My Favorite Fish to Catch You Ask?
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Do you have a favorite fish you fish for? Are you a muskie man? How about a captain walleye? A bass crusader? I'm asked this often and like my answer to "Where's my favorite place to fish or be outdoors," my answer is basically the same - all of them. I fish for crappie, blue gill and walleye to eat. I fish for large-mouth, small-mouth bass, northern pike, and muskie for the hunt and fight. I fish for trout mostly just to get out where they live. I seriously like to just go fish!
For me crappie, blue gill, and walleye are the best-tasting fish. That firm white meat is so delicious! In my experience, nothing has ever beaten a shore lunch on a Canadian shield lake where pan-fried walleye along with baked beans, potatoes and cornbread are on the menu. So for these reasons crappie, blue gill, and walleye are my favorite freshwater fish to eat.
A Davidson River beauty.
Don't get me wrong, sure there is skill involved in hunting down that honey hole where all the crappie or blue gills are stacked up like cord wood, but large and small bass have been a little more elusive to me so the hunt for them is really fun. And then the fight! Pound for pound the large mouth and small mouth bass are ferocious fighters once hooked. It's the same for me with northern pike and muskie. Studying lake maps, checking wind direction and the weather is just half the battle when stalking these fish (muskie aren't the fish of 10,000 casts for nothing). I also do not eat bass, pike or muskie. They are catch and release only in my book and for these reasons these fish are my favorite to catch.
Lastly, trout. I'm not a very good fisherman of trout yet. I have a lot to learn about fly fishing for trout here in North Carolina and Tennessee. One thing that keeps me in pursuit of these gorgeous fish is where they live and work. I can't seem to get enough of the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains along with the rivers and streams (not to mention all the beautiful waterfalls here too) that flow through them. I have really enjoyed laying out the map and targeting the high mountain streams and the routes I'll take to get there, along with the views I hope to see. I’ve pretty much already gone thinking! So far this luscious temperate forest has not disappointed. And so for those reasons fly fishing for trout involves my favorite places to be.