 Welcome back to the Chanel everybody. Good morning. Got the good vibes right now. It's not 100 degrees outside in Texas. We've got our first little cold front. It's only 78 degrees. Yes, and it is time to do a little dangling y'all. Today's video is brought to you by an app called Fish Brain. I'll tell you a little bit about that in just a second, but let me just give you what's going on today. This is a lake that I've been to a few times. Last time I was here I discovered that there is crappie in here and I haven't really done a whole lot of crappie fish in this summer. Normally I do more of it, so I brought some crappie gear. I got some jigs, some crankbaits, things like that with my good buddy Rob with Lunkers TV. We're also joined by Guggen Squad Production crew member Backwater Bryant. This is his official name. I've decided Rob is trying to tackle these bass. I'm going to be trying to tackle some of these crappie. Let me tell you about Fish Brain and why you need to get signed up. If you haven't downloaded the app, you need to go download it. The reason why Fish Brain is so awesome is it allows you to never be alone. While you're fishing or even thinking about fishing, there's an entire community. I'm telling you right now you will be absolutely shocked. If you live in a fairly densely populated area, how many people are on this app and how many people are posting pictures, posting information about where they're catching fish, how they're catching them, and if you download the premium features, which if you visit the link in the description, just go click it down there. You're going to save 20% off on these premium features like the exact lures that people are throwing, best times to fish. You can even check out me and see everything that I'm doing. What it also allows you to do if you're concerned about your exact fishing location, you don't have to post that. You can put the general area in there. You don't even have to put anything about the location. It's all up to you. You can have competitive competitions with your friends, buddies. Me and Lunkers can see like, oh, I'm catching them, but I'm not going to tell you where they are. Or, hey, I'm feeling pretty nice today. I'm going to tell you exactly where I'm catching them and exactly how I'm catching them. Start getting your brain on with the fish. Now it's time to launch some kayaks. A little bit of physical activity today. As we're getting into the fishing game, I have a cooler so I can keep some fish. Backwater Bryant, you ready to do this? I am. You ready to go, buddy? Give it at an angle. Bryant, did I not just catch one? You caught it on photo. We're taking photos. I just want everybody to know. Have you caught one? No. You just talking to a camera like me? I understand. Yeah, this is critical. I need to get in the water quick, but I have caught one. I caught a bass and I think I'm going to leave that little topwater tide on. I just threw threw right at the boat ramp here. I still need to load the gax. Man, tell you what I'm going to do tomorrow morning just just because I'm telling you. I'm taking my dad fishing for his birthday. So we're going to do some bass fishing tomorrow morning. So if you guys want to tune in for some bass fishing action, stay tuned. One of the problems with small lakes, ponds, whatever, if you stalk crappie in there, it can be bad for the bass spawn because in the spring they're both kind of in the same areas and the crappie spawn before the bass and they'll eat a lot of the bass fry. It's good to take those out of there. If you're trying to grow a big bass, another way to grow a big bass is to take out the little bass, especially in the hard times and the low food times, high metabolisms during the hot summer months. Take those fish out of there, those small little fish, so you don't have a big population of emaciated 14 inches and you can allow them to get to the next size class, start eating bigger bait, bluegills, you know, big, you know, you want to get those fish bumped up to the next size class. Part of managing that is taking fish out. I know it's weird, but I do actually have a cooler here so I can take fish out if I need to. The landowner already requested that we do so. So I'm here to help, you know, here to dangle and put them in the grease if necessary. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we are in. Just to start off throwing a little poppin bait just because I just caught a bass on it and I like to catch none of them. So I'm throwing this on 12 pound mono, Guggen Squad mono. Always want to make sure you're throwing your top waters on mono and you can also crank with it if you're doing shallow cranking and that's exactly what I plan on doing with this rod. So this is like my small square bill, small crankbait, topwater rod. It's a 6'10 medium. It's not windy today. Look at this. Beautiful morning. Yes, sir. I only have half a paddle because the other half you brought doesn't connect. I might try to catch me. Catch me a bass up here. Toppy, toppy, topwater. You know, there's only so many minutes in the morning. Can't really get that topwater strike. So, oh, got him. Oh, this is a crappie. No, it's a bluegill. Yes, I did. Oh, that's a magnum. You're coming home with me, sir. Screwed up, dude. Okay, here's the deal with this, y'all. Like my cooler's right at the truck. So I'm just going to let him flop in this cup holder for a minute. It's good to know. There's a big bluegill up here. I mean, big bass, just a blast of those things. This is actually our brand new popping bait. This is still a prototype right here. I've been throwing, but production models will be available soon. Just a big fan of that bone color. As one of the colors, I was like, you got to have for the toppies. Totally just forgot I had a fish flopping in the middle of the boat, and it scared me. Okay, I think I got to go get my cooler. Okay, here's where it gets pretty serious. It's like, what is going to happen with these crappies? Well, we just drop them on down here. I got one already. No, that's a bush. No, I got him. It's coming up. It was like immediate. First one is gone. Oh, they're there. Last one was for sure a crappie bite. First one might have been bluegill. Got it. Oh, shoot. It's running with it. They want to play. Just going to have to get right on top of them. Oh, it's a magnum. Oh, it's a magnum. Oh, gosh. Don't be a bass. Oh, it's a big crappie. Come here, baby. Oh. Oh, yeah. That's a freaking hammer. Absolute hammer. Come here, slabby roo. Oh, yeah. Wabam. Whoo-hoo-hoo. How about that little slab, huh? In case you guys are wondering, Brian is our main photographer at Guggen Squad. So when you see those dope picks, that's who's getting them. That guy's a thousand percent going in the cooler. No need to measure, but just in case you all are wondering, it's one of the few times I've ever said don't be a bass because I thought it was going to be a magnum crappie. If you find yourself in a situation, you know, most lakes crappie have to be 10 inches. This box right here, this bass mafia box, this mid-size box is exactly 10 inches from right there to latch to latch. So that's, uh, that's like a 14. Hee-hee. Mando. Dude, that thing jammered me up. Like just straight up jammed me. Man, y'all. First crappie of the day. Absolute magnum. There's some definite baitfish activity around this little brush section right here. So thinking that the crappie might get, they're getting active down there. Just gotta figure out the right depth. Oh, there he is. Begging, begging, begging. Oh my gosh. This could be a bass. Oh baby. This is a crappie. It's a magnum. Oh, get out of that brush. Get out of that brush. Six pound test swinging me around. Oh, it's a bass. Oh, it's a bass. He's got me. Oh my god, I'm tangled. Come here. Oh God, look at this little rod, y'all. Oh, don't go that way. Come out. Come out. Come out. Come out. There you are. There you are. That's a decent bass, y'all. This is an incredible fight on this little yamper river in a crappie jig. Woo hoo hoo. There we go now. Oh man, you want to have a fun fight. Little crappie jig. Six pound line. Little ultra light rod like this yamper. It's good times. Now that one is not quite small enough to take out. That's a nice healthy fish. You know, I would definitely take it out if it was emaciated. It's over 14, you know, it's got potential. So I'm going to let this one go. See you buddy. Just stay away from them and crappies, okay? Just got a bluegill bite. Got him. Ah, dang it. I'm going to put some brush. If I can just keep myself out of this brush, I'm going to catch some fish. Oh, golly. Got thomped. Thomped big time right there. Oh, seriously? Jesus. Okay, try a different color. Another one on. Oh gosh, this could be a big one. Oh baby, what are you? Please be a big crappie. Oh, you're a bass. What are you doing big bass? You're not quite as big as the last one, but golly, you're putting a bend in the rod. Come here. Just switched up colors and first drop got one on. Now this one is pretty small. So I'm going to take him out of the herd. You know, crappie fishing versus bass fishing as far as action goes, not a whole lot. Like once you get the depth in the right spot, from my experience they don't like a whole lot of action. They just kind of like it sitting in front of their face and then small, small bounces and that's why you need a really light rod, sensitive rod, and you can also see the bite. Sometimes they just suck it in and you don't even know it. Just going to try taking it down. Another spin. Okay y'all, I think I'm going to come back to that one, that particular area. There's a lot of bass in there. I know there's some giant crappies, but what I'm going to do is I'm going to tie on one of these mini-recons, which crappie will inhale. I think almost all the fish are just suspended high in these trees, so I can cover a little bit more water. And if I get a bite on this, I'll know there's some activity in the tree and then I can proceed with the dropping on them. Okay, I'm just going to try this brush because it looks too juicy, not too. Oh, I think I just had one. Got it. Oh, yep, those are crappie nibbles. Something being chased right here. Got a fall. He was running with it. Gosh, dang it. Okay, for sure I had a crappie bite right there. They're just so close to the cover right now. You know what I'm tired of? I'm tired of this motion right here. Like, I'm spoiled with the pedals, man. Man, these crappies don't look like a lot of boat noise, man. Dude, let me tell you what, when you hook into like a two-pound bass with a six-pound line on this thing in a tree, it's fun. It feels like you're fighting a tuna. Oh, top of the tree, backwater Bryant. You got this? Well, oh, I just threw, I threw me a little mini recon out there in search for these crappies, but a pesky old largemouth got on the line. Oh, don't you do it. Oh, Rob's hooked up double. There's a couple in these trees, a little translucent color. I haven't thrown too much. We don't have too much clear water in Texas, but the water is clear right now, so. Oh, there he is. Oh, did he come off? Oh, he came back and hit it. Dude, that was awesome. He hit it like a topwater. That was cool. I was going to tell you what color has been just doing the damage. He liked that little float up action. Yeah, I just stopped it and float it up, and he tried and hit it. Oh my gosh. I'm going to let this guy go. He's a little, he's got a big head on him. He's got a future. Got to pause for Bryant's awesome photos and then let this fish go. That was really cool. I mean, Rob doubled up right there, really almost on the same tree, and the bass chased his lure out like two times and then grabbed it on the surface. That makes me just want to throw a crappie jig in there and see what happens. Oh, there he goes, the crappie jig. All right, I got a straight angle. Oh, oh gosh. Oh yeah. That just happened. Yeah. Yeah, I know. Just think about an actual big bass. Okay, that's a eater right there. Really want to slab crappie again though. In my opinion, that's the best to eat, but you know, honestly, bass aren't bad. Oh gosh. Oh, come on baby. Hey now, another largey. Oh, another eater. Come here, you little mini bucket face. Oh yeah. That's going to flay up nicely. Catching little bass on little minners. Oh, I'm in here. Going in. Oh, Rob just drives a largemouth right into my crappie tree, then rams his kayak into it. Totally unnecessary. Now all the crappie of dispersed. I'm going to have to go to the other trees now. I'm going to try these gangly looking ones first. Oh, blue geek. Absolute hammers in here. Another one for the bass. Oh, okay. Oh, little guy. Absolute pound town on that guy. It's gone. I've got three bass that might weigh as much as my crappie. It is Louisiana catching cook. I mean, I gotta go hit up my magic tree one more time. Come on, big dog. Oh, I had a fish on. I didn't know it. Well, y'all, it is a little past 10 and it is time to go in. That's the summertime motto. Past 10 got to go in too hot till the evening time. The crappie were like biting first thing, then they shut down. The bass were kind of biting too, and then they shut down. I wasn't really fishing for bass that much, but ended up catching quite a few. So here's what we got going on in the cooler scene. Massive crappie. I mean, that crappie might be 15 inches. It's definitely over 14. And then we've got three largemouth and two bluegill. In case y'all are wondering about length regulations, this is a private lake. So it's not like this is a public lake, and the bass have to be 14 inches long, and the landowner wants us to take out anything that's under 14. So that's the deal. So the bigger bass can grow. I've never had all three species like this in a cooler before, so I thought it would be interesting if we took them home and put them in the grease and saw which one tastes better in the real time. I've had all three bass, like it's been a long time since I've had them, but they taste pretty good. Not gonna lie, it's kind of surprising. Anyways, I'm gonna have all three, and we're gonna filet them same way, do the ingredients the same way, and we're gonna see which one tastes the best real time. I have my personal preference of crappies, really because of the texture, but the last time we had bluegill, amazing. Gills and grits are amazing. Let's go put these guys in the grease and see which one takes the cake. Fast forward 24 hours later, we are here at LFD's post-dangle station. This is where fish get cleaned and put into the grease. Actually, me and Pops, we went fishing earlier today. We did pretty good. Caught some certified mandos, so that video is going to be next. As you've heard on a lot of my videos, I like to let my fish sit at least overnight, and if they can sit on ice for a while, you know, really firm that meat up, just makes them easier to clean. I think it also just takes some of the gaminess away. It just seems to work for me. So they've been sitting on ice for a while. We're going to take the old knife here and chop them up and put them in some grease. We've worked up an appetite out on the water today, so it should. The palate's gonna be nice and ready for a frosty adult beverage and a golden crispy. Now we are dealing with the sunfish family of fishes. The Centrarchids, and we got them all in this cooler, and I want to do a rating system on how easy they are to catch, how easy they are to clean, and then how good they taste. The Centrarchids, that's crappie, that's bluegill brems, and that's bass, like largemouth bass, spotted bass, things like that. All these fish are within that family. Now, on the part about how easy these fish are to catch, I would say that the bluegills, that's a wasp, he's gonna be a problem. I would rate the bluegill the easiest to catch. You can just catch a ton of these really quick, but, you know, as far as like eating them and skinning them, they fall farther down the scale. The crappies, I would say, are the hardest ones out of these to catch. Got to know real specific depth. Usually they're finicky on a certain color or presentation or size that they want. That's a hammer right there, but they're usually pretty finicky. That can be similar to big, four-to-bass. I would say the largemouth bass is, he comes in the number two slot. You talk about big bass, those can be hard to catch, but smaller bass, they're super aggressive. They'll go way out of their typical strike zone, typical area, and chase down bait a lot. Just way different than those other species that really like to hide and cover, and just kind of nick things right in front of them. Now, let's see how hard these are to clean. Largemouth bass. Let's see what we got going on here. The largemouth bass, I have a clean one of these in forever, and again, these were part of an ecological biologist basically surveyed the lake and said that there's need to take out ones that are under a certain size, so that's why we're doing this. I'm going to use a little bit flinsier filet knife here. So far, been fairly easy. This almost feels wrong. Flaying the largemouth. Go down here to the tail. Pretty smooth, quite honestly. Flip them over. There's quite a bit of meat on this largemouth, and if you look at it, it looks pretty good. That's a nice solid chunk. I mean, it's not quite like see-through, like crappie, but it's pretty darn close. A little bit of bones in here I just noticed. A little bit of bones around that ribcage, so that's something we'll take out. So, difficulty on cleaning. I would say it's harder than a crappie. Once you get to that part on the bass, really easy to clean. There's just some bones right here. You can pull them out, I guess, if you want to. I would say that's pretty easy to clean, you know, and you can basically see through that bass right there, so the meat comes off quite easily. Now, let's go to the old bluegie. Bluegie, small. Not going to get a terrible amount of meat off these guys. Now, this one is good size. And me and Steph, who's behind the camera right now, we have cooked these, put them with some grits, call them gills and grits, and it is tasty. They're meat real similar to a crappie, I would say. Cleaning them is a pain. I'll just tell you right now. Now, some people, the way they cook them, they will actually just do the whole deal. I don't like that. I don't like bones in my fish. I don't like picking them out. So, what I like to do is just take a real sharp knife and be careful, and just kind of go in here and surgically take off the best parts of the meat. Definitely harder, like the bones feel harder. There's just a lot more to get around. It's a wide-bodied fish. You should feel it. Look at the difference. Huge difference there. Okay, this is the bluegie. We got one more side to do on him, and we got old Mondo crappie. Crappie, done. The fillets just come off of there easy, and that's a giant. So, we got a couple more bass to clean. I think one more bluegill. We're going to get the grease hot, and then we're going to give them the taste test, but as far as ease to clean, I would say, honestly, the bass. The bass came in number one, bluegill, hardest, and crappie right there in the middle. But I got a feeling crappie is going to be number one at the dinner table, and it's worth the effort, both fishing and cleaning. Grease is hot. Flour is ready. We're going straight flour with a little salt and pepper in it, keeping it simple, so the palette is ready to go, and these are the fillets, everybody. LFD is here to assist with putting them in the grease, making the golden crispies. It's a family tradition. Go ahead and just hit the like button for it. That's what we love to do around here. We're going to leave the fillets whole. So, it's going to be like, you know, your own fillet dinner. So, everyone is going to get a crappie, a bass, and a bluegill. I don't know how to keep them separate. This is a, what's a crappie? It's a big crappie. Yes, sir, it is. Oh my gosh. The crappies are the widest. They have the widest bodies. This is another crappie right here. That is actually a bass. So, this is the second crappie. And then when the crappies come out, just put them on one side. Okay. I think you would be surprised how many grubs and different parasites and things live in fish meats, but bass tend to get a lot of them. Crappies are normally pretty clean, and their meat's so clear. You can pretty much see if there's anything in there, but it's going in such hot grease. It's not going to matter. It's going to nuke those things anyways. It'll be a little extra bonuses in the meats. By the way, y'all, I understand. Eating raw liver, that was probably not the best move when I was in Africa. Number one, it's Africa. Number two, it was out in the hot sun. Number three, it's in the wild animal. When I was up the fishing at the Great Lakes of Jeremy Starr, so we were talking about hunting, he's a big bell hunter, and I was telling him my whole hunting story, and he's like, what? You ate the raw liver, man? And he's a biologist, and he was like, dude, that's where all the bad stuff is processed, and you probably have worms. And it so happened, I ate some really bad, like, hot buffalo wings, and my intestines were just churning. It was due to the hot wings, not worms in my system. At least I think so. I haven't had an x-ray or cat's head, but I'm pretty sure it was just a bad case of the bubble guts from buffalo wings. He's not a fan of the tongs. Everyone that watches this channel, you should know by now when to take your fish out of the grease, but I'm just going to tell you, I'm going to let LFD tell you one more time. When are your fish ready to take out, Dad? When they start to float. When they get a little crispy, a little brown, and start to float. Yeah, of course, make sure they're golden crispy in color. Something I'm not sure has been done before is a fried T-bone. LFDs bring that out. There's a little extra sustenance to what we have, because, you know, I actually have more fish than what I thought I did. Right. Like, there's some decent filets there, and crappies, they're ready. First batches of bass are ready, and then the little tiny gills and a few more bass are in there. Are you ready for the fishing? Nobody get excited. All in one. Okay, jeez. Do I have to pay you guys to get excited on camera or what? Forget about them. Okay, it's all about my taste buds. We have the fish ready to go, categorized by size, and it's beefy. So obviously the gills are out front right here. A little crispies. Then we got our basses, and then we have the crappies. OSG, would you help me out here? Sure. You know, I don't want this to be a totally biased thing here. I was going to say I'm already kind of biased because I'm kind of scared of that bass. What if we did a blind taster? What if I gave you, I just gave you something. You didn't know. Okay. So if you just turn around. I just turn around. You just turn around. I'm going to pick you out something, and you can't even, you can't look at it. You just got to take it. First one here. There you go. Try it. There it is. The breading is pretty good. The what? The breading. Okay. That's not what we're going for. We're not judging the breading. We're judging the fish. It has a little fishiness. It has a little fishiness. Okay. What do you think about texture? This is, again, no. It's not as flaky as I thought it was going to be. Not as flaky as you thought. Yeah. Okay. Okay. All right. Well, let's try another. Let's try another. Is your palate ready? It's not bad. It's not bad. Okay. I give it a seven, six, six, seven. Okay. All right. What do you got on that one? I really like it. You don't really like it? What's going on with it? Tell me about texture flavors. The texture, it's like, it's thicker. It's thicker. Like mushier. It's mushier. Okay. Maybe mushier. Mushier. Mushiers bad, you're saying. Okay. I want it to be more flaky. You want it to be more solid flakes. Okay. All right. Turn it back around. Five. Okay. Okay. Turn around. Let's see what you got on that guy. I like that one better. You like that one the best. Why? Maybe it has a good flake. It's not thick. It's not mushy. It's just kind of like buttery. Buttery smooth. Yeah. Okay. All right. Eight and a half, nine. Eight and a half, nine. Well. What was that? Was that the best? That was the gill. Oh, okay. That was the gill. I thought that was the gill. Okay. The first one you ate was the crappie. Was it? It was. Oh, but the second one I didn't really like and that was the best. That was the best. Okay. So blind taste test, bass lost. Okay. I'm going to give it a taste test myself. All right. Are you ready? I'm ready. Before we start, what do you think you're going to like the most? Crappie. 100%. 100%? Even over gills? Well, yeah. Yeah. That's what I think. You'd probably put it in my hand. I guess I didn't have mouth. Here's your first one. Just smell the bite. Wow. Really small. Just so you don't know. Which one I did. I like it. You like it? What would you rate it? I give it an eight. I like it a lot. Okay. I'm also hungry. This guy. It's a little bigger piece, but not necessarily a bigger fish. Love it. A little, a little more firmer, is that right? A little more firmer. Yeah, yeah. Okay. You're not being very descriptive in your... It's because I already know what's going on here. Okay. What's the best? You thought that was the best? Yep, that's the gill. It is. Wow. We're both the same. Crappie was second. Bass was first. All right. Bass was first. Okay. I already knew it from her description and just, you know, flavors of the past. Emmy, try to do something here. I already knew. When soon as she handed me the first one, I was like, that's large amounts, but I like it. I like the large mouth. It's good. But it had more of like a mushier taste. It was kind of like grainier, a little mushier. I like that though. I like a little softness. I know, Emmy. Come here. There you go. So um, I would say the gills are the best though. They're the hardest to clean. They come out. Number one, I would say gills, crappie, and then bass. Considering everything on the scales, I would crappie. I would go crappie because you get a lot of meat. That's right. Let me go with crappie. Because you get a lot of meat. It's easy to clean and it's delicious altogether. Okay, y'all. I love eating fish. I love the golden crispies, but if I had to fish and eat one fish for the rest of my life, I think it would be crappie because number one, they are delicious. Number two, it's a challenge. I like it. It's, it's like bass. You got to figure out a pattern to it. And then they're just, they're just easy. You can load the boat with them and they're just, they're the best, I think overall. But let me know in the comments down below what you think is the best fish to go out there and put in your mouth. And that is where I'm going to leave you today, Fish and Freaks. Don't forget to check out in the links down below the family channel, the Lake life family channel. It's linked down below. And if you want to check out all the merch that we got going on and sign up for the t-shirt or the month club, that is linked down below as well, including this guy right here and many, many others. I will see you right back here very shortly, Fish and Freaks. Catch you on the next day.