 Maybe that's a sign of good luck. Well, welcome back to the channel everybody. We are going to switch it up today, you know, I've been out hunting a ton. I'm ready to just get the rod bent, do a little crappie fishing, so do a little crappie catching cook to be specific. Today's video is sponsored by our friends at Mercury, powering the silver bullet. It's almost time to turn this silver bullet in, been a good horse and I've already ordered my next one, which will have another mercury on it, not a lot of different motors in my fishing life and the Pro-XS is definitely at the top of the list. So go check them out, they're in the link in the description, check out all the different kinds of motors. Oh, I almost forgot to put my pin in, a little lizard threw me off guard, dangling on there. Let's get out to the lake and let's snack some crappies. Goodness, it is undoubtedly a gorgeous day on the water, y'all. Just turning on the graph, I mean I've literally been looking at deer for weeks, over a month really, and not looking at fish. The last time I was out on the water it was pouring rain, it was bad conditions and then I had a tournament on Thick Sam Rayburn and it's been a while since I've just got out and enjoyed a nice day on the water. Right now it is December, it's essentially wintertime fishing, looking at the graph we've got shad from 10 foot out to 25 foot, so I expect to see these crappie and even bass really start to move out to deeper ledges, brush piles, things of that nature. Atmospheric conditions are good too, the pressure is good, it's lower, we're not on a high-pressure bluebird day. Doesn't mean the fish are going to get into the cooler, but I've got ice ready to go in the cooler, I'm planning on cooking these fish tonight with Stephanie. I think we're going to be doing a little blackened recipe is what she was feeling, I'm feeling as well, it's going to be delicious. Really one of the main things that urged me to get out here today and one of my favorite parts about working in the fishing industry and being part of the Guggen Squad and working with Ketchco and these other companies that we're affiliated with is I get to test product, so I've got a couple of sticks out here and I'm looking to bend them for the first time and they feel right in the hand, but we're going to see if they're going to be light enough for crappie, I'm pretty sure they are just feeling them, but we got some jigs tied on, we got a calm day, we can go anywhere on the lake, it's going to be good for positioning the boat over deep water and catching these fish, so let's go find some. Here's what we got on the new sticks, got a green series and a gold series and these are seven foot lights basically, they're fast actions, but they're light. I'm going to have your one on there is expecting it to be more windy, I'm probably going to switch that one to a lighter jig and this is an eighth ounce, so we're going to start off with that, we've got a pile out in front of us, I saw a bass move off of it, oh goodness, big bump, here's our first one, up there a little shower, nice keeper crappie, I believe, first one got to love it, okay got one in the box, set my first break off time to retie, some of the new stuff that I'm really liking too is these new bags, they basically have small pouches inside of the big money bag, so a lot of my money bags you know I just store different sorts of plastics, but this one what I like is I'm for crappie because you know there's not like a giant assortment like bass louvers, because I can just keep my my leader lines, my main lines in these little pouches, got these really cool new bass mafia, it's really crappie mafia, I've got mine you know by jig head weight and I've got four rows right here, so I'm basically going like 16th, 8th, you know up from there basically, then I'm just going to tie me a fluorocarbon leader on and I really like using the braid, you know especially with these lighter rods, you just feel so much with braid, it's not even a comparison, the knot that I like to tie most times with my leaders is a Alberto knot, and what you do is you just take a loop, make a loop in your fluorocarbon, you take your braid, feed it through that loop, on our Guggen Labs page, I'll link it down below we've got videos on a lot of different knots and this is one of the ones that we have, but basically I'll just make like eight to ten loops around this fluoro with the braid go back through, I like it better than the uni uni splice, but it also goes through the guides on your rod better, it's smoother, and then on 90% of my baits crappie and bass, I'll just tie a uni knot, it's a really low-profile knot with almost zero abrasion as you as you tie the knot down, good looking uni unit right there, we're ready to go again, sort of a shallow pile right here, I'm just gonna try it, see some marks on it, tiny crops, don't think so, back in there sir, grow up, there we go, how about that, big boy, big boy, there's a nice one, holy moly, that is why you need that soft rod right there, see how he's just barely hooked in the nose, I pulled up on that one, it just felt solid, that's a no-checker, oh yeah, get a few like that, we're gonna have a nice dinner, got a few just on this little tree right here, tried fishing a little heavier jig, didn't work, I just dead-stuck this little light one, another one, come here baby, they are wanting that slow, slow, small jig, light presentation, 11-inch, good eater, this water is 58 degrees, so despite it being you know 70 degrees outside, it's still a little cool down there, gotta slow down a little bit for the old crappie, gotcha, ah dad gum, sometimes I like that just little lift, goodness, pumped it good, oh dad gummit, ah that's another keeper, switch up, we've seen that a few times, go with a little chartreuse, black, juice, little guy, that color really good, man when you hook anything on these lighter rods, it just feels like you've got a dad gum stud on there, kind of see these crappie, they're sitting right in the middle of this cover, some on a tree and then there's some, this is like an old like sunken dock or something like that, you see one kind of close to my jig right now, how you want to position your bait around crappies, you want to just keep it right above them, so I got one kind of coming up to it right now, and sometimes what I'll do is I'll just kind of, if I see them following it on the live scope, I'll just slowly lift, yep that one came and munched it, I'll just slowly lift kind of like a game of chase, it's like cat and mouse and they'll chase it up and smack it, oh there he is, oh my gosh, oh gosh we got, this is a stud, that happened, that happened in real time, you guys got to see it, that one felt so solid when I pulled up on it, I thought I was home, nice one, doing the pockets, oh come on get that, oh yes, that's a good one, got the umbilene you're gonna keep, laced it in the pocket and got him, oh I think we got ourselves dinner y'all, wow, one two three four five, some nice ones, never hurts to have a little extra for the old freezer bags, still got some in here they're just slow, oh goodness, yes sir, I like when you do it like that, could be your lucky day, yeah, yeah you're just 10, it looks like we might get a little weather coming in here, it's good to get them, could get all the fish turned on, all right, got a little hang up, this might be the end of it, move on to a different spot, check a little deep spot out here, by the way how good do these look right here, Guggen Squad, performance long sleeves with the squad tech in just amazing designs, I'm so proud of our design team, thank you guys, thank you gals I should say, that north wind has just decided to make its presence known, the wind has just totally shifted, just dropped like 15 degrees, yeah it's happening, come here, floated me, felt you on that rod though, solid wintertime crappie fish, hands are getting all slimy, I love it, right on top right here, look at this guy, he's gonna come up and pop it, yep he's coming, there he is, still managed to get him, that's a good one there, putting the shellacking on him now, just lightly came out and grabbed it, y'all are being some good sports today, I'm gonna feed the Rackley fan, there goes the jig, going into the obis, man it got you in the bottom jaw, it's unusual, once you get it in that zone is just smashing it, they're just thumping this thing, there's a black crappie, see that, see that tear right there, that's from someone else catching that fish before, but if you don't have a light rod, you will lose this fish because of those tears, someone looking at it, it's just drifting a little too far, he's not gonna chase it, that one did, it's getting a little smaller, going to exit on a good note, extra jump, extra like button, alright let's clean some fish y'all, traditionally I like to crack a cold when I'm when I'm cleaning my fish, today a shout out to Matty B at Guggen Squad, providing the new Glaris only in Wisconsin spotted cow, yummy, tasty, save ourselves some time and I just find it a lot easier and better to get through the rib cage, we're going with the electric, then I do my my little cleanups with just a standard little trimming knife, really nice stringer y'all, we ended up with a solid dozen, I gotta watch this this bubble blade thing, this thing will get away from you, just not as good with this one as I am with my regular one, little delicious everybody's got their way of like cleaning up their fish and storing it and all that stuff, but when I'm cleaning them, I mean I typically barely use any water and I just keep a stainless steel bowl, using my wife's really nice William Sonoma bowl right here, she doesn't always like it when I do that, but I keep it on top of the ice, so it stays cold, so we don't have to have ice in there and there's ice water getting mixed in and then I'll take them inside and do my final rinsing and all that, I'm gonna take out these flexible blades, I don't know, I just can't, I can't get it right, I'm gonna go with stiffer blades, much better on another gear note, you know one of my main focuses today was testing out these rod samples, I really like the blanks, the blanks were perfect, they were very soft but fast, the green one, the green series is a two-piece, it still felt great, not as sensitive as the gold, because the gold's a better blank material, one thing I'm just, I can't figure out the best place to put a hook keeper, but you know I originally thought this was great, but as after fishing the braid, you know the braid is so limp, sometimes it'll just go over your blank, you don't even realize until you put a hook keeper there, so it got it got snagged on that a couple of times, I don't even like hook keepers unless I'm fishing spinning rods, if I'm fishing a casting rod, I just always prefer to put it on the reel itself, but you can't do that on spinning, so there might be a better place to put this, I was thinking there might be a way to integrate it into here and have it recessed, but I'm not sure, it's just anywhere you put it on the blank, the rod, there seems to be an issue if you use braid, where it'll kind of wrap up, but it wasn't terrible. The little bug was just killing it there at the end, the whole thing is nasty, and then the dangle dart, just kind of a go-to, so both of those pretty small profiles, not a lot of moving appendages, yeah and both my rigs are the same, 10 pound braid with that, I got a 7 pound fluoro leader on there, so typically get a lot of bites on that setup, I like the sensitivity, and you know, I really don't have that many complaints, but honestly I think these are pretty dug, I'm good for property fishing. In the kitchen, the OSG. It's the point now that people are like singing along with you. I hope so. Now an official author. Yeah. Thank you guys very much for forgetting the book, a lot of you did. Now when you open the book, you could start singing it too. What book am I talking about, you might ask? This one right here, simple sweet things in life with that sweet face on it. I eat your cookies all the time, look at me. I mean I don't know how, I don't know how it happens, but somehow I stay skinny around here. Now let's let's move on to the protein. The protein aspect of tonight is going to be these delicious crackers. 24 filets in there, some are a little stippy because the filet knife got away from me a little bit, didn't have didn't have my usual one, but we're gonna do blackened. I actually don't know how to do this very well at all. Every time she does it though, it's awesome, so we are gonna go with with that. I always use this skill, it's a nonstick, but I think I'm gonna try this one tonight. Okay. So I think it's sticky. You're gonna get risky. Now the thing with blackening is you gotta get it pretty hot, right? A lot of butter to get it hot, and I think that's part of the issue. Yeah, the two things you need to know about blackened is butter and paprika. Oh paprika. If you don't have anything else, it's the only thing you need to know. Gotcha. Good tips. There's a lot of tips in this episode. Fishing tips, cooking tips, smash those like button tips. I'm gonna probably five. I was gonna say, I probably have like three. Okay, let's do ten. That sounds good. Alright, that's step one. I like to go with a smoked paprika around here. Is there an unsmoked? There is, you can get regular or smoked. Yeah, definitely get smoked. Okay. Oh, she keeps her pepper out and ready, just exposed. You want some oregano? Don't get too crazy. Just do your usual program. Oregano. Okay. Now you like a lot of blackened seasoning. I kind of like the the mid. I don't like it like crunchy with seasoning. That's some cayenne. I could do that. Maybe just a touch, a dash. Cayenne is a long way. It is oddly quiet in the house right now because I mean usually we there's no silence during cooking or eating but Em is sick on the couch and Ben is sleeping right now. He's been sleeping all day so I don't know if he's getting sick too. It's almost like I don't know what to do with myself when they and you even took him out too. At one point today all three of you guys are napping. It's a posting map. What do I do with myself? Is this an important move? These swirl clockwise layering coating thing. You got to get pretty hot so I'm just melting it right now. I'm gonna do a little orzo thing over here. Okay orzo to go on the side. Yeah. Got you. Peas, tomatoes and spinach. Yeah. That sounds good. And some sourdough bread. Sourdough bread to go along with it. Yeah. Sounds delicious. Honestly like a olive teppanade. Like if you crusted it with some panko and olive teppanade. That sounds good. You're gonna go there? Maybe next time. Maybe next time. Next angle. Yeah. Next time you catch some crappie. Or we can save this and do it next time. Teppanade crappie. He's like I'm not so sure about that. Why doesn't know in the comments what you think about that? Like a panko crusted with a little crunch. Alright we'll go fancy on crappie. You know I've advanced my crappie taste buds. I used to just straight up Golden Crispy all the time but that gets old after a while. Still good. Still you know it's almost unbeaten, undefeated. But I like these new recipes. If we did like kind of like a bigger crust on the east. Like if we coated it in mayonnaise first and then did it the... I think for that you need a bigger fish. You'd need whopper crappies. Yeah you know I think just going thin crust. This method is good for the smaller ones but maybe large white but striper would be excellent for that. Yeah. How would you get some of those? I will. I will do that. Thank you for my excuse to go fishing more. There's our little baby boy. If I get ready for deer camp. He just woke up. He just woke up. Yeah. Chunker growing like a weed. Thick thighs. Oh I love his thighs. His thighs are swear like my favorite part. Well he looks a lot like I did when I was a baby. In the face and on the legs. He's gonna be your little twin. I think so. We had little mini me's going on his eyes are looking green. Also waiting for a blowout. Because he hasn't had a poop. I heard some warm up toots over there. You know tickles belly right now. You might get a big surprise. Just gonna follow your moves here. Show us how you do it. Into the mixture and then straight into the butter. No olive oil just right on there. Yeah. I mean the butter is the olive oil. Gotcha. It's not a scary sizzle. No. Honestly it could be a little bit hotter. Could be a little hotter. But that's okay. The color looks great. The brown or the butter to get too brown. It's a little bit more butter. You could always use more butter. Oh I hear the other one up. Did she just say crocky? We need to go potty. Oh we're getting crusty. The wrong pan choice. No it's not sticking but I do need more butter. I just heard a major dookie. A major dookie. Look at that concentration. He's so big. He's a big ol' baby. Next steps. How's this looking? It's looking kind of rusty colored. Because of the paprika. Yeah. The color looks great. Yeah I mean this one right here might give it just 30 seconds longer. I bet these are all done. Really good. Falling apart that's always good. This one's definitely done. Crinkling up on the sides. You can see those individual muscle fibers are starting to flake. Come here. They look burn-o-crest but they're not. They're not. It's all that paprika. Butter and paprika. That's all you need to know. You love blackened fish. I always forget about making it until you're like me. I have to really request it hard. I asked you yesterday. I was like I'm a little fishing more. You think we do blackened fish? Yep. Okay. I'll do it for you. All right those are done. Ready to go. Don't you give it a taste. Yummy. Oh my goodness. He's so smiley. He's a hard one not to love. I think he's got mama's. He's got mama's heart pretty good. He does. I'm smitten. Just full blown. He gives me that look. I'm like melt. It's a melt. Mush then. Water. Put it under. I'll access water. Honey this looks amazing. Nice and fresh. Good job. I know it's going to be tasty. I do have some white balsamic honey and ginger to go on top if you want some of that. Oh man that might add a little something. I know I'm just going to eat straight up like this. That does sound amazing as a little extra. I like a little sweetness sometimes on the blackened stuff. All right we're going to finish this video out with eating it. You know got to see the whole thing go down. Dinners around here have evolved over the years right now having two kids. It's rare that we actually get to sit down and all eat together. One of us is holding Ben feeding Emmy helping her. See that flakiness you're looking for? What are you doing dad? I'm filming my fish. You remember the crappie I was talking about catching? They're in the plate right now. They're in that plate. Sugar. You want sugar? Uh huh. That's what I know you do. Okay for your sugar. Here we go. Oh that is good babe. Is it? Yeah. That risotto is awesome. Little tomatoes in there with it. Well you were just talking about how dinners have evolved. A mixture bite. Eating has evolved. I feel like my cooking has evolved. What can we throw in this healthy and you know what can I whip up in about 15 minutes? This is incredible. No lie not because you're just standing here but this is my favorite. Crappie dish that you have done. Oh. Nailed it on the it's not too spicy. Not too spicy. It's great but when you just mix in a little bit of that risotto and the spinach and the tomato in there as well. It just those flavors mixed together it's amazing. That is off the chain. Woo. I'm telling you what that is seriously the best crappie dish that I've ever had in this house. Maybe we're borderlining ever here. I mean if we're not talking about golden crispies the best of the best that beats it right there. And I think this probably needs to be in the next cookbook that she does. I'm gonna suggest this one. Thank you guys so much for hanging with me today on the water and at home. And give this recipe a try. You're going to love it. Thanks to Mercury for sponsoring this video again. God bless you and the great outdoors. Godspeed. Thanks out.