# Best fish to eat out of the LMR



## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

I rarely keep fish, and i always eat what i keep. I never keep more than I can eat, 2 or 3 fish. But I am poor, I enjoy fresh fish, and I am wondering what people enjoy from local waters like the LMR. I am thinking of catching a meal soon. I like catfish and bluegills but I was thinking some saug/eyes. I've never heard of people eating white bass but they can be plentiful, at least they were in the hocking river in southeast Ohio where I just moved from. I also know gefilte fish typically contains carp but I have no clue how to clean/prepare such a fish. Any suggestions are welcome!


----------



## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

Also I never have nor do I plan to eat a bass.


----------



## terryit3 (Jul 15, 2011)

Yellow Perch, crappie, sauger, walleye are my favorite fish. In that order. I don't know of LMR has perch or walleye, but saugeye and crappie should be plentiful there.


----------



## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

From what I can tell, the LMR doesn't have perch or walleye, but does have sauger/eye and the occasional crappie that has washed over the damn from a lake


----------



## 9Left (Jun 23, 2012)

Saugeye taste great! Cats are very good too.... Honestly .. I'm pretty skeptical of eating fish from rivers around here(Dayton area)...I'd go farther up north above Dayton if I was gonna keep one for the table.


----------



## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

You think up north the waters are any cleaner? Have you been to Toledo? Haha

Plus the LMR is supposed to be one of the cleaner rivers around.


----------



## 9Left (Jun 23, 2012)

Yea... I should be more specific... I would eat a fish up north from the MAD RIVER... I think the GMR down near Dayton is pretty well disgusting


----------



## zuelkek (Jun 8, 2011)

Saugers are light, flaky and delicious--tops. I always release the noble smallmouth bass, but last year I had one get a treble hook tangled up deep in the gills. It was bleeding badly, and I knew it wouldn't survive. It came home with a sauger and I cooked them in the same pan. The sauger was excellent, but I actually preferred the bass. It had a much stronger flavor, but was one of the best fish I've ever eaten. Respectfully sacrificed and given proper thanks, I think it would be OK to eat a bass on occasion. I've brought home some catfish this year--big ones--and they're always good. Meaty and flavorful. The LMR ones are very fatty. I also brought a nice drum home this year, since I just could not get the hooks from deep in its throat out past its little mouth. Try this: Fillet a drum, then cut the fillet into shrimp-size strips. Boil them for about one minute or so in water with lots of lemon, and lots of Old Bay seasoning. Just till they're done. Ice this down, then serve it like shrimp cocktail. Does it taste like shrimp? Not really. It tastes like fish. But the texture is dead on, surprisingly firm. It's really good dipped in shrimp sauce. You can also dip it warm in melted butter like lobster. It doesn't taste like lobster either, but again the texture is the same, and it's quite tasty in its own right. Some people disparage drums for some reason, but I don't get it--they're native, they're powerful fighters, and they're great to eat. Try the "poor man's" shrimp and lobster. It's good and it's fun.

Oh, and I checked the state recommendations for the LMR earlier this summer. The river is surprisingly clean, so one meal a week is fine, except for two species, I forget which ones, and those are suggested for every two weeks. These are recommendations for pregnant and nursing mothers, though--sensitive people who need to be protected from poisons. For strapping blockhead guys like us, we're fine eating LMR fish if we don't make pigs of ourselves.

I wouldn't eat a fish from the East Fork, though, or from the LMR below it. The upper LMR is relatively unpolluted.


----------



## Boat Dock Sam (Feb 25, 2010)

saugeye #1 in lmr.


----------



## Dandrews (Oct 10, 2010)

I love fresh fish but I only keep 1 or 2 fish per year, they are normally sauger/walleye/saugeye, some years I don&#8217;t keep any fish at all. I&#8217;d rather got to Bonefish Grill or somewhere. 
I have a friend who eats white bass and I&#8217;ve seen them in the case at Kroger and Meijer, believe it or not.

Sport Fish Consumption Advisory
http://www.epa.ohio.gov/dsw/fishadvisory/index.aspx


----------



## DLarrick (May 31, 2011)

i would have to go with sauger/saugeye/crappie at the top of the list too. i know alot of people are all catch and release especially the bass but i love to eat fish so i will keep them sometimes. alltho most of the fish i end up eating are from private ponds that when i go im specifically going to catch some food but have eaten fish from the LMR and they are just as tasty. gotta have alot of gills to make a good meal but they are pretty darn good too. nothing better than inviting some friends/family over and having a nice cook out with a few cold ones.


----------



## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

I'm not exactly opposed to eating bass, but I have never targeted them for food. I hear about how long smallmouth live, and I would feel bad to kill it. I would if it was too injured/I was in serious need. I also would consider maybe a largemouth sometime. I will try anything though. I actually have eaten drum before, on a suggestion from some of the guys at roughfish.com. They fillet well, have a lot of meat, and are firm, but taste just ok. Maybe I need to try it your way, I just pan fried it same as the other fish I had caught.


----------



## Fish-N-Fool (Apr 12, 2004)

Smallmouth bass pulled from cool water is some of the finest eating fish there is. I did most of my smallie fishing on Erie and we used to keep a few each trip and eat them fresh. In a large group one trip in April we had 6 smallies in the 3-5lb range that ended up coming back to the cabins along with several walleye limits. We used the same batters and deep fried the walleye and SMB and most were shocked to find out they prefered the SMB! Water was nice and cool though. I have also been to Canada on trips where locals would eat them regularly (we were all C&R on the trip).

I'm not advocating folks target SMB for eating. My point was that most don't consider them fine eating when in fact they are comparable to the finest eating fish that swim OH waters.

LMR - got to vote saugeye...light and sweet.


----------



## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

I think my favorite fish to eat are bluegills and redeye. Panfish. I've never had crappie but they look like they would rank right up there. I am sure that bass would be good since they are so closely related to panfish.
I've enjoyed some perch and walleye up north too, and I'm excited at the idea of eating the similar sauger here. I've just never found a reliable way to target them. I always seem to catch them far less than the more aggressive bass that surround them.


----------



## zuelkek (Jun 8, 2011)

Sauger are active pretty much only during the hour or two before it gets dark. Don't know about the morning, but probably something similar. When they're moving, they are aggressive and hit anything hard. (Never topwater though.) I can tell one by the feel on the line. They're not very scrappy after that first big hit. But like everyone is saying, they're really good to eat.


----------



## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

Yeah walleye barely fight either. I would love to land some huge saug like crankbait81's though. That's an impressive fish!


----------



## zuelkek (Jun 8, 2011)

Good luck. I catch saugers almost every time out on the LMR. I like them, with the teeth and the round torpedo shape. Like I say, though, only in that hour or so when dark is coming but it's not quite dusk yet.


----------



## 9Left (Jun 23, 2012)

Just keep poking away in the rivers with cranks and jigs... Sooner or later you'll hook up with some saugeye... I think if you specifically teyvto target them... It'll get frustrating... If your really wanting some saugeye, try ceasars creek with minnows or crawlers.
Best of luck to you


----------



## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

Whenever I've caught sauger in the past, it's been on inline spinners like rooster tails and mepps. Maybe I'll try some crawler harnesses like I used to do for walleye in lake st Claire up north. I've never fished the harnesses from the shore/wading in a river, only trawling in a lake, but it might work. I'll be trying more jigs and cranks too. I just got a rebel craw finally, as well as some of the notorious Zulus, they will also be used next time out.


----------



## Dandrews (Oct 10, 2010)

I dont fish the LMR often; I live within minutes of the GMR. I catch sauger and saugeye frequently and at one time or another Ive probably caught them on almost every lure in my boxexcept top water of course. In the early spring and in the fall I get them most often on a 3 twister tail on a round jig head. During the later spring and summer I catch them on crank baits, most often something like a Husky Jerk or an X-Rap type. My personal best (26) came on an &#8539; oz green an chartreuse rooster tail, I caught one just as long but not quite as heavy back in May on a lipless crank bait. Ive found that sauger and saugeye from a river fight harder than a walleye of similar size out of a lake.


----------

