Since most catters are interested in “big” fish…I thought you might find this post by our Nebraska Staff Memeber Ben Garver interesting. It’s down a few posts in the thread.
I know I would like to hear more…no…ALL about paddle fishing from tag application to prepairing them for the table.
Why isn’t this in the paddlefish forum??? 
Just ribbing you. 
That first flat they caught trolling sure is fat!
I HAVE BEEN TO TRUMAN RESERVIOR, WAUSAW MO. A COUPLE OF TIMES AND THEY HAD PICTURES ON THE WALL OF PADDLEFISH OF 150 LB’S (OR BIGGER), WHENEVER I SAW THOSE PIC’S I SAID I WOULD LIKE TO GO BACK DOWN THERE FOR THE SEASON TO TANGLE WITH ONE OF THESE THINGS, BUT IT HASN’T HAPPENED YET.
“YOUR GOING TO NEED A BIGGER BOAT” (JAWS)
BK, My father caught a 77-pounder in 1977 below Gavins Point Dam. I was only six years old but I still remember that fish. He used to snag quite a bit back then and I’d go along and fish for sauger (I was too little to run a snagging pole). I think we used to get to keep three at the time, but now the limit is one and you have to apply for a tag, similar to deer hunting. I’m not sure if you’d like snagging or not. There’s no bait or lures involved. You use a heavy rod with very heavy line. You tie on big treble hooks with a few ounces of weight and start slinging. Pull and reel. Pull and reel. Eventually you hope to snag into a big one.
They are very good-eatin. If I remember all this correctly, there are few/no bones in a paddlefish. They have a cartilaginous skeleton. They have a spinal cord running down the center of the fish, from head to tail. I remember my dad cutting around the head and removing the head from the body, except he left the cord intact. He then began pulling the cord from the body as it seemed to stretch forever. Eventually, the cord was fully removed and then he cut the body of the fish into steaks, similar to a salmon steak. The meat is white anf firm. They’re an incredible fish – a living dinosaur – and we’ll have to be very careful with our harvest of these fish. I’ll see if I can find info on their current status as far as being endangered…
This is another fish I would like to catch. Also a GAR is on my list of fish to catch yet.
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