Do you know what a hybrid striped bass is? I’ll spare you the guessing game. It’s a cross between a white bass (more commonly known here as a sand bass) and a striped bass (also called a “striper”). Some folks refer to them as “wipers”, but I don’t like that name because it sounds like bathroom talk. I don’t want to associate my fish fry with something that happens in the bathroom. So I don’t call them anything other than “hybrids”. As in, “Let’s go fishing for hybrids.”
Did you know that Oklahoma is one of the premier fishing spots in the country for hybrids? Every year during the month of May the fishing goes white hot as these amazing fighters school up in about 30 feet of water and start feeding aggressively on shad. The local guides are booked solid in May for months in advance, sometimes a year in advance, by those who are in the know about this incredible fishing.
My oldest daughter, Molly, just graduated from Broken Arrow Senior High School in the largest class in the state: 1035 students. Does this statement sound totally random given the intro about fishing? Hang in there. It all ties together here in a second.
My parents live in New York so they drove down in their new Ford Escape – which they absolutely love — to attend the big event. It was held at the Mabee Center on the Oral Roberts University campus. The place holds 11,000 people and it was completely packed. The graduation ceremony was well coordinated and moved at a good clip, but it still took four readers announcing two lines of students about an hour and a half to hand out all the diplomas. Yowza.
As a way to celebrate Molly’s graduation and get some family time with Grandma and Grandpa, I set up a fishing trip on Skiatook lake with local guide David Clark for an afternoon of what I hoped would be exciting hybrid action. This was my first time out with Dave, so I wasn’t sure how it was going to go, but it turned out there was no need for concern. Dave did a great job for us. He put us on top of fish right away and using live shad for bait we limited out inside an hour. After that it was catch and release until everybody’s arms were aching and we called it quits after about 3 hours on the water. Grandma caught the biggest fish at over 7 lbs. It nearly dragged her under. Her rod was curved in a complete semicircle with the tip submerged in the water as the big guy tried his best to get under the boat and get away. No dice, though. He ended up in the cooler along with the rest for the big fish fry I put on the next day.
Everybody has their own special fish fry technique, but here’s how I do it:
- Skin the fillets and remove all of the red meat the same day as you catch them and leave only white meat. The red meat in hybrids is so fishy tasting it’ll spoil the taste of the fish if you don’t cut it out. The white meat cooks up firm and has a very delicate fish flavor, making it one of the best eating fishes — second only to walleye and crappie in my opinion.
- Soak the fillets overnight in salt water to help suck out any remaining fishy taste.
- Get ready to fry: Dip in milk, then coat in flour seasoned with salt and black pepper, then dip in beaten eggs, then coat in crushed Club Crackers.
- Fry in your favorite oil for 10 minutes until fillets turn a deep golden brown.
- Eat until it hurts and you have to be rolled away from the dining table.
If you ever get the chance to come to Oklahoma in May for some world-class hybrid fishing action, don’t pass it up!
Shaun
Shaun
Chris "TW"
