How To Catch & Cook CRAPPIE (Kayak Fishing) | Field Trips with Robert Field

this is something else I got something else hung up all right guys well this is not a crappie oh man oh man digging straight down not long ago I decided to ditch the corporate grind to pursue my passions for traveling and the great outdoors so I sold everything moved into a trailer full time and now I'm fishing my way across the entire country there we go good job you're watching field trips with Robert field well hello guys and welcome back to another episode of field trips if I look a little weird right now it's because it's about 5:45 in the morning and Sun is not started coming up yet the only reason you guys can see me right now is I picked up one of these psionics Aurora sport night vision action cameras this thing is so sweet I got big plans we're gonna be able to do some night fishing now you guys I've never really been L do night fishing episodes this thing's kind of expanding a whole new world of potential episodes and we're gonna do together it's gonna be great but we are in beautiful North Texas and I'm down here at ham Creek State Park on the Brazos River and today we're gonna be doing a little crappie catching cook for you guys assuming we can find something but I'm waiting on Matt's Scotch if you saw my last episode where I did the Brazos River with him and our good friend Brooks Beatty we absolutely slayed the largemouth and the striper it's a rad human being he just got back from the Hobie Tournament of Champions where he took 2nd place he's been winning tournaments all year this guy's just one of the best anglers that I've ever known and he's a good friend of mine he's gonna show us how to get some crappie but in the meantime let me get my boat set up so when he gets here we're kind of ready to go it always takes me forever with all the cameras or anything so let's go get everything unloaded and yeah it's gonna be a good day sweet menu everything's smooth sailin yeah oh there's none the fact that it happens I got like two hours to sleep I couldn't fall asleep before dude that was my problem AJ and Christine were over and they finally left like almost 12:00 and I was accidentally wired for like an hour too and I think that's probably as I do it that's exactly what happened to me so yeah no string look at this together what our turkeys a flock big flock of turkeys gaggle of turkeys like all hens owns a lot of turkeys is it turkey season right now yeah shoulda brought the 12-gauge could've done a little surf and turf get you cook too cool man I haven't even lost yet pretty cool wildlife encounter here it's a little tandem rig huh yeah it's a little tandem right all I do is just wrap it around a couple times back then back there and that's that that's enough to hold a crappie right there we're doubling him down and Matt says this should be the jam it's pretty don't like that tail yeah it's not one of my favorites necessarily but it's gonna get it done yeah double the baits double the fun double the fish hopefully I like it I'd eat it all right so Matt Scotch made it we're a little behind schedule here that was a little hang-up so uh yeah we're gonna hurry and get on the water we're gonna talk more about Matt and what he does and what he just did last weekend and and why we're here now and exactly what we're doing on the way to the spot we got about 30 minute he said probably yeah yeah but a half-hour pedal upriver [Music] the first thing you notice that when you come here especially if you saw the last episode we did it together on the same River at an hour and a half north or so there it was very shallow rocky was high elevation big Bluff walls here it's the opposite as you kind of go south out of North Texas it gets a gets pretty flat we're kind of like back in the Great Plains so to speak so this stretch of the Brazos River is deep it's wide and it's slow-moving and that is key for crappie so see if we can't get in some fish all right so we're getting close to the spot and basically the spots called painted rock and you can tell why it soon as you get here this big bluff on the right-hand side of the river beautiful colors it looks like it's painted so yeah it just came around this Bend now we can see that getting close Matt says we are here a little early but he likes to get here early because hey the fish can always move in early especially with a couple these cold fronts we've had recently and B he likes to get here before the crowds start coming here more regularly and really kind of fishing the place out but there is one boat there a boat that launched next May at the ramp I asked him nicely at the ramp to save us a few cuz we're trying to do a catch and cook so hopefully they don't yank em all out before we get there place is beautiful though super calm morning no wind it is chilly but I am layered up head to toe and interests gear and honestly I'm starting to sweat it might be shedding earlier before a long peaceful out here though what a gorgeous morning whether or not the crop you want to cooperate it's gonna be a good day are you setting it much not really yeah there we go here we go oh well there was my first copy of the day I'd say about six seven pounds you think it's all right first ones artists you were right though I just let him take it that was the difference it's a valuable lesson I just learned from misters mr. scotch here I was setting the hook earlier and I missed I think four bites in a row maybe five back there and he said don't set the hook so quick let him take it and sure enough I just kind of let the rod load with his weight and got him up to the surface and I flopped off but he was definitely on ten inches so no big deal but what's biggest you cut out of like what's it what's a big one in here like fourteen yeah so he said four teenagers a big one that looked like a white crappie is that what these are mostly white so this is the second time I've ever targeted these fish the first time was with Matt scotch actually about gosh that was probably three or four years ago only other time I've ever tried to catch these fish and we caught something it was much different there we were fishing these very concentrated brush piles up in a really really narrow Creek kind of totally different fish and you're kind of picking your spots was pretty cool but those were white crappie he said mostly other than that day I've only ever cut crappie on accident while bass fishing and those have always pretty much been big black crappie because again I'll star on the bigger kind of bass baits and I've caught actually some pretty decent ones but never on purpose and never went out wanted him or was ready to keep him so I've never eaten these fish and they are widely regarded I mean obviously everything is up for debate but many people consider these the best eating fish and fresh water at least in the States very very good meat so I'm excited hopefully we can find a couple 10 inches and Matt's gonna show us that a how to fry them up and Matt is actually a professionally trained chef so it's gonna be good spoiler alert you just got to find him first so Matt told us basically to dead-stick this but after go a little while without anything I am giving it a little bit like a real slow bounce trying to give it's just some action I can feel brush down there which is a good thing yep oh dude that looks like a keeper to me bro you just put a hook in my waders yeah I think I got first keeper man pushes under my seat and there it is first copy to hand of the morning and that's decent I'll see if he's ten I brought my yak you're a fish stick to measure these guys with is it closed mouth or is it matter closed mouth I feel like I'm gonna turn it right now like I don't not want this guy to get away so close mouth that guy is maybe a single hair under 12 inches 12 you well look at that ladies and gents pressures off worst case scenario we just gonna have a couple Nuggets beautiful first white copy of the day I mean just look at the patterns on these guys they get that kind of sheen on the top almost like an oily sheen you're a decent looking really really pretty fish that's a pretty healthy guy I mean that's like kind of pants eyes right there a little couple of those that's a that's gonna be a sandwich you know welp oh boy beautiful beautiful beautiful mark this guy in the angler out and drop back down see if we can't get some more man you could tell the difference like he took it I don't know if you brought a cooler but I got one just if you need to I didn't bring a nice either but this cooler is sitting outside overnight it's cold all right put him in the Bison cooler soft pack right on top of my lunch guilt taste of crop you want to eat my sandwich all right we're in business matter figure something out we're up okay that about 20 more times and we'll have a decent meal but that guy back out live get your bath so I'm gonna go right back to that spot cuz certainly not always but typically these fish are gonna kind of be grouped up Matt says especially this time of year they're kind of pushing these shad he's been marking a ton of bait we've seen a bunch flicking out of the water they're kind of organized and they're pushing the shad up this river right now um so I'm gonna go back to the exact spot I just got that bite and hopefully he was hanging out about eight more his size we'll see Matt's got the four inches dialed in again Matt said you don't want to move it or twitch it real fast cuz the water's so cold that any small baitfish like this is gonna be damn near paralyzed so no sudden movements but just a little action make it look alive big one okay Matt's this is on a big one and Matt it's got a lot of crappie Tuesday yeah so just trying to reach I can't Erie time now they're bitin me and something's got him turning on twelve morville you think they just moved in or what how does that work and see this is the he's seen a school right here this is where I got hung up brother stirs fish Tommy nice look at that nice one Fermat's guys she's found me so there's 12 more underneath him so we'll put this guy in the cooler yep got him nice nice another tank from that Louie oh that's a stud I'm gonna be new Vegas of the day great fish man chili for sure all right number three we are finding them we are finding Arman this is something else I got something else hung up blood it looks like a fish you all right guys well this is not a crappie not sure what this is but it is bigger I just dropped this thing down a little bit deeper and kind of feels like a catfish oh man oh man digging straight down I feel some brush getting get nervous get this ready he's in something I can't it's hard to tell but yeah it feels like he's in that around something come on feel the sticks or whatever man something just got the better of me I still feel him on there but yeah he's in something and give a little slack hope he hope he comes back out I don't know which way he went into it he got me you could even be like up under a Ledge under this is some overhang which is something flat I would definitely do God felt felt like I was coming on well I don't know if he's still there or not I'm just so cute I just want to know me a little excitement for the war and now we'll never know Wow vote my leader off and everything that ladies and gentlemen was not a crappie or it was the world record so mad and these guys theory is that that was a flathead catfish and you know if you heard of noodling they basically go up into rivers just like this and kind of stick their hands up onto these holes and and rip those fish out and I think he basically just did that to me went into his hole his little cave or whatever up under there it felt like kind of a rock ledge that he had gone up under and I was trying to pull him up and brought the line of the rock I felt like a pretty decent that was a good fish like if those flight I feel like it was 2015 like it was what I wanted to go it was it was heavy this isn't that a lot of rod know if you can see them but there it's a little otter you just heard some chirping noises as we're retying after the mystery fish broke me off and little otter just peeked around curious staring at us I see him swimming against the rock cute little guy we went underwater so these guys are very efficient fishermen in some parts of the country like in Florida I was told that fish get pretty spooky around these guys because they are such a threat I don't know if that holds true here but if easier there should be more fish here he's here for a reason I wish he'd come up with a 15-pound fly hat with two crappie jig those mouths just so I feel better knowing what it was it's too cool watching this this otter you can tell he's getting annoyed by my presence he's kind of huffing and puffing and it almost sounds like he's sneezing but he keeps looking over at me and making these funny noises and then diving down Duffey keeping tabs on me it's pretty funny you can tell your lifts right in there in these rocks look at him right there he's just running around swimming around these rocks I haven't seen a pull fish up yet but they are very efficient hunters sure won't be long these are kind of those moments I just can't help but put the fishing rod down just kind of observe and watch and look there he is again cute little guy that says that typically when there's one there's more they kind of have kind of like a family dynamic these quick guys she pups into one rock and then also he's out on another [Music] [Music] oh yeah okay maybe we won't leave yet Matt and I were just talking about about moving because it's a little slow here at least in terms of keepers and he just hooked a giant nice great fish alright so I just stuck my second nice crab no so Matt we were literally just sitting here side by side we were talking about leaving switching to another spot which we'll probably still do here in a bit unless more this happens right as we got done talking about it and I was literally kind of sorting to pack up to move he stuck this guy beautiful beautiful white crop you'll get a measurement on on her it's always good to dip your bump board in water it's good for the health of the fish now this one's health is about to decline assuming it's ten inches and it definitely is not super important here this one looks bigger than mine twelve and a half great size eater alright put him up in the cooler [Music] like out of a stick that taught that yep that last when I caught it was a very very it was just wait there's one deeper deeper probably like right at ten oh look at this he's got some crazy like a black stripe going down his back like a racing stripe it's like a some kind of pigmentation yep he's ten and a half another one damn just holding your mouth right oh we do have different jigs I mean well you got the money to you holding out on it give me the the crappie jigs hey scrappy alright that's four from that luckily I'm not stupid enough to come on here have a competition with Matt especially crappie fishing but if we were I'd be buying lunch which I can notice don't took it down hard yep they are all that sighs look at that you guys we are on them you know it's so funny about that is sometimes if you give you know the spots good you just got to stick with it and we talked about leaving that boat actually they left without catching a single keeper look at Matt saw doubling up right now something changed and like Matt said earlier maybe that wind that wind picking up might've just kind of that was the subtle change pressure probably dropping they're all now losing count now we got six I think five or six I believe that a couple of studs this guy that's a 2 pounder I'd say easy man look at the belly like just been gorging on all the shad we had seen flicking out everywhere and I mean this one's solid and he's got another ten and a half inch in there that he was worried it was illegal just cuz sort of look small after all these studs look at that right there that so that's we're looking for pant size I like it alright these guys who are one sec a little guy but they're turning back on Matt Scotch with another nice one yeah these are all like nice grade man there's some meat on that boy there should I grab the net I wanted to cool uh you really kind of got to just put it in their face this time of year you know they're cold water they're not moving foreign oh yeah 11 and 3/4 with about a dozen crappie in the cooler we decide to call it good and head back in but the Brazos isn't done delivering as an adolescent buck whitetail comes crashing down to the riverbank as we pedal towards him he begins to cross to the other side not moments before this I spotted three dough's on the opposite bank and with the rut beginning here in Central Texas it's no mystery what caught this Bucks attention oh wow and he's booking it too that's how cool is that oh wow that's a decent buck too [Music] and there is getting out oh look at me sir you're just hanging out you even pose them God that's a that's a shot right there Oh a beautiful animal to cool what a fun day between the fish and all these wildlife encounters such a day well spent incredible I can't believe we just witness him run down to the water and then jump in and swim across this wild [Music] all right we made it that's Matt's place time to clean some crappie so Matt's gonna show us Juan show us how to do it and then I imagine what kind of just divvy him up so he'll do half and I'll do half based on what he shows me now but I mean they seem like a pretty straightforward fish it looked like they would filet like the average fish but yeah yeah I see how a kitchen big crappie instead of a tonic small crop is it's less work for more meat so we did it right I was gonna insist that Matt use mygerber fillet night but he has one of his own the first quarter version which is perfect and appropriate I like it like your style okay so what I'm doing is I come in kind of at an angle underneath the side of the scales when you come at an angle I hope you slide underneath it and you just cut down to the bone come right behind the goop yeah right behind the gill plate all the way to the bottom you'll feel it it's nice and flat down there and then he turned and he come along the spine with just the tip of the knife you just kind of cut in the outline and once you cut that one you kind of work your way back and then you it off the bone good you up in the skirt around the rib cage clean as a whistle all right finito done mascots just warm apart Blowfish man good six pounds of fish organic lean protein it was swimming today so we're gonna gonna let this chill let firm up a little bit I'm gonna go home and get changed because I'm disgusting and sick of smelling myself then we're gonna fry these bad boys up with all the fixin's Wow it's gonna be good all right guess who just came back to the rig got cleaned up real quick bout to head to Matt's to cook up this fish but first I want to show you guys something real quick so this is the rig that I was using second half of today to catch these crappie that is straight red braid right to this crappie jig and up here an even uglier straight braid tandem rig now that is 20 pound test red braid and not only did I not get fewer bytes when I went for my floral leader to that but I actually started getting more bites now I don't think there's anything to that but my point is if anyone ever tells you you can't fish straight braid fish won't hit it they're crazy they're lying some situations are gonna be different but these crappie today didn't care at all something else while we're talking about tackle if you're not a Karl's Club member at Carl's bait tackle I don't know what you're doing but you could be getting 30% off all your fishing tackle all the stuff you already buy and now through the holidays Karl's Club members can get an extra 10% off on top of the 30 for my holiday fish list so check it out link down the description if you like saving money on fishing tackle which I don't know why you wouldn't you can't go wrong it's a no-brainer so check it out but right now something's going down I gotta get over to Matt's and cook up this crappie I'll see you there all right just got back to Matt's think your Moe's here now good I know we're doing the camera I didn't dress this brush it's not like that well like that already got started I like it what we got going down here born yeah it's gonna be a creamed corn so do you what do you do with this well what it is there's like some sugar and starch the stuffing the cobs and like my Pam that's not hot earlier when I was going off so I threw a couple of these in there just to render some of that sugar out and cool the pan down while I was cutting oh nice you know you're already Wow and me man so what's the overall plan for I'm gonna get the corn going and I'm gonna make it small gonna get the flesh stuff mix up then we'll fry the fish and we'll fry the potatoes money do it got fries creamed corn hush puppies and some fried crappie to star the show fried fish it sounds like some super simple bar do you know this guy's gonna make it fancy let's just how he does it [Music] Guillermo Gonzalez it's the man the myth the legend so anyone go ahead man sack natural tennis on here so anyone that follows the competitive kayak bass fishing scene knows that we got basically four powerhouses in the house tonight now we're cooking crappie so not relevant with Guillermo Gonzalez Christine Fisher we got AJ McCord her in there they're all feeling a little under the weather and of course Matt Scotch who you guys been hearing about all episode oh yeah if you guys have any questions about bass tournaments secrets tips tricks comment down below ask away and I'll bug them for the next couple months and try to get y'all's questions answered I wonder how many like tournament place finishes we are sitting in this year and in this room you know collectively all of that a year for the record book so it's a so what all's going slow it's gonna be lettuce like a fresh ranch lime cilantro and some chili powder and some carrots - all right so Matt's got the slaw all mixed together that's it in the fridge kind of letting those flavors melt a lot like ceviche the last catch will cook you guys and now he's taking this creamed corn he's taking 1/4 of it out he's gonna blend that up and then add it back to it so that it's got some smoothness but still has those kind of chunky bits of the corn it's like this Oh a little butter so you didn't didn't mention that secret ingredient so just gonna make this a little bit creamier but then still have plenty of chunks cuz to me I mean that's really key you wouldn't want to blend it all go creamed corn is it one of those things that like as a kid no way I would have eaten this but now I've fallen in love with it and this smells and looks like it's gonna be some real solid pink one and you just make that a little shape like that and drop it in it's called a holder cornell corn now ya seen this done on like Top Chef yeah I've networked yeah you just make a little oval shape and then dropped it down with the spoon that's how you make hush puppies that's it that's how I'm gonna do it 10 years of fine dining restaurants and culinary school you guys are getting all these tidbits and knowledge for free creeper cut seasoned fries are down frying these in a cast-iron skillet just until they get crispy [Music] Walter's prize now it's not all the JIT fish-fry without some your scenes been doing us all a favor and just sampling the food make sure it's not poisonous make sure it doesn't hit something different very selfless of her we appreciate your efforts we've seen hungry yes that's feeling the pressure act believe I thought about this on the water but just in case mass Koch is in my opinion him and his partner Joe Davis Lone Star Kai guys they are the kayak fishing guides in the state of Texas if you want to catch a fish in this state you could not find a better guide than these two guys everything from large mouths small mouth any kind of bass you can imagine he knows where to catch them all year redfish striper crappie blah blah the list goes on I'm gonna start Kaka links down in the description you know the deal you wanna have a fishing trip that you're not gonna forget hit these guys up wintertime summertime doesn't matter he'll put you on him you and your family he's gonna do these crappie two ways so we're gonna deep fry some and some kind of traditional fish fry batter and then he's gonna do some of the oven with some panko crumbs did Japanese breadcrumb basically and he said that the panko crumbs are best done in the oven not deep-fried which I've always pan fried fish with panko crumbs on it he's saying the ovens the way to go which I had no idea I've never heard that I did not know that so we're all learning tricks today guys remember that panko crumbs first off if you're not familiar you should be they are incredible and it turns out baking them is the best way to do it it's gonna be good yeah all right I don't know not true either never man yeah when you make your egg wash out of the water to that or a little bit some sort of liquid tricks y'all we're learning tricks I hope you're paying attention Gerber fillet knife so basically you said you're gonna cut these into what kind of like the evident cut them into like chunks that they cook nice and even light and you were saying it because it's kind of a softer meat that you really wanted to crisp up so you you don't want to use big pieces right yeah and especially on the fryer and the baking and design to make as big a difference I'm just kind of separating this top one on the bottom piece this bottom piece a little bit thinner than the top piece y'all if you watch my catchin cooks you already know of this stuff but if you have been living under a rock and don't know about Tony how did you say Sasha Sasha Ray Wow I've tried to pronounce this in probably ten videos and I've pronounced about eight different ways and never said Sasha raised so and shout out the Kelly's ashtray who was a kayak angler in Louisiana is that right and he actually brings this to the tournaments are you Laura no it brings about the case Kelly says you're a look at that this guys getting texts on the sash or a family that might be the coolest celeb name-drop I've ever heard all right so your season them up with some Tony so you go wrong you go on the batter okay good you our in the egg wash and then into the panko breadcrumbs it's a nice good evening so Dean shake off the excess bottom up you flip that half way through here yeah yeah you did put that April so it's nice and crisp Hush Puppies going down what you call that thing Cornell shaping up some Cornell's I don't really know what that means or that's what you see terminology makes any sense yeah that's shape crowding that I've been actually joking about it for a while now that we just keep like looking over his shoulder we're given some space against the space but fish its prying up deliciously at the same time he's juggling keeping these fries warm the panko breaded fish that's been in the oven it's been going about seven eight minutes he just took that mound he's gonna flip those over put him back in the oven you want to flip those halfway through to make sure they get nice and crispy on both sides sometimes it'll take a little bit less time on the second side of anything you flip but he's saying about seven on each maybe it'll be in up you know eight on the first six on the second you gotta kind of just gauge it you know the panko bread it baked crappie last batch of fried fish fried coffees coming off it's gonna be good oh yeah and I want everything yeah this is a feast yeah could be good all right place you're going down AJ's been stuck in a podcast for two hours hopefully Christine took him a couple pieces of fish but he's missing out on the initial fresh plating but we're getting down on it right now crappie this is the Louisiana fish fry one clean white flaky meat still steaming nice and crisp on the outside oh my gosh I'm sorry tells me good that's such like a light mild-tasting fish over there this is phenomenal super nice light like almost like a fluffy meat I can't really describe it hush puppies what is is the husband it look at corn fritter hey instead of having like cornbread not like a so it's growing corn oh yeah I did not know that it was porn bass learn all kinds of things around kinko breaded baked fish this is a trick that if this is good I'm about to I'm about to start doing this a lot hmm and it is delicious do that such a good crisp from baked fish yeah flour egg wash panko crumbs in the oven 420 degrees 7 minutes on each side this is delightful oh this is so good you wouldn't believe it but the big fish is crispier than the fried fish I'm double-fisting fish right now this is so good Chris penis aside man it's hard to beat that that fried fish not Louisiana fish fry I love them both that is incredible crappie all bryant bake it doesn't matter it's delicious especially when it's this fresh especially when the guy in the kitchen knows what he's doing he's trying to clean corn mmm dude I need to go back and re-watch this video to learn how you made this potential add-ons for the corn guys jalapenos diced up bacon diced up what they wouldn't but it is delicious just like this all right guys didn't fill my seating as I want to make it weird they got to get out of here they're going duck hunting at 3:00 in the morning soon they're going to bed but that was phenomenal I hope you learned a few things about catching crappie I know you learned a few things about cooking crappie if you got your own crappie recipe that you want to share comment it down below maybe I'll use it in the future catch and cook and shout you out of the video but for now that's all we got guys Matt's over here doing dishes still working just the hardest working best friend everybody's just doing it all hope you guys enjoyed it that's all we got we're all stuffed I'm ready for for bed catch you guys next week [Music]

Channel: Field Trips with Robert Field

Views: 792,350

Rating: 4.7769446 out of 5

Keywords: fishing, kayak fishing, crappie fishing, brazos river, texas, how to catch crappie, how to cook crappie, best way to cook crappie, how do i fry crappie, speck fishing, black crappie, white crappie, best way to fry fish, fried fish, travel, field trips, crappy, YakFishField, fly fishing, traveling, kayak, deep sea fishing, ocean fishing, catchandcook

Id: Ym3xaR7FsSk

Length: 35min 40sec (2140 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 24 2019