The blustery days of March are still here – and snow is still everywhere – but these are ideal times for an angling activity that is great fun: bullhead fishing.

Ugly late March days are perfect for catching bullheads. And bullheads provide surprisingly tasty eating too.

Bullheads are found in farm ponds, mountain ponds, some beaver ponds, small lakes and certain locations in rivers and streams. Be sure to check your license digest to make sure the spot you may want to fish for bullheads is open to it.

Even though most bullhead fishing is done at night the bad weather days of March provoke good bullhead angling all day long since the wind and rain seems to stir up food in the water and so bullheads bite readily.

Some say that you can always tell a bullhead fisherman by his ‘aroma.” It’s true. Bullheads like their meals alive and wiggling, such as fat nightcrawlers or else very, very dead. It’s fairly easy to locate semi-active nightcrawlers under the layers of leaves in your backyard.

The best bullhead baits, however, are those you have to stand upwind of to get them on a hook. Chicken livers are the stand-by bait. You get them at a supermarket. Let them ripen and you are in business. Blood baits are dynamite too. Again, get your butcher to save you some animal blood. Then soak pieces of sponge, foam rubber, dried bread cubes, miniature marshmallows, etc. in it and let it dry well before you go fishing.

Strips of liver or any meat allowed to get on the ripe side, old minnows, anything that was once alive but is now unmistakably dead makes good bullhead bait.

If this all seems a bit gruesome, there are quite a few commercial bloodbaits on the market that are very good and well worth the purchase price and save you a lot of messing around with smelly stuff.

Bullheads love earthworms and nightcrawlers, if you can find them this time of year. If you use worms, thread several on one hook. One nightcrawler to a hook is sufficient, if you loop it around and hook it a couple times.

Air-inflated nightcrawlers are especially good on raw March days. I put a three-way swivel on the end of my line. From one loop of the swivel, put a sinker on about a foot of line. From the remaining loops, I attach a hook on about eight inches of line. On the hook, put an air-inflated nightcrawler. The sinker takes the line to the bottom but the bait bounces freely above the bottom in the water.

Bullhead fishing requires patience. You have to sit and wait for them to bite. Bullheads bumble around over the bottom “smelling” for food with their eight barbels or whiskers.

When he does find the bait, a bullhead is apt to nip at first and you must resist the urge to set the hook then. You’ll just yank it out of his mouth. Wait until the fish begins to swim away with the bait to set the hook, which means you wait for a strong tug on your line or for your bobber to go under.

Plain old deep-fried bullhead filets can hardly be topped for eating pleasure. In the South, they are a delicacy. But if you are looking for a new way to prepare these fish, try pickling them.

To pickle fish, cut them into bite-sized chunks and soak them for an hour in a brine solution composed of 1 cup salt to 1 gallon water. Use a clean plate to keep the fish immersed in the solution. Drain the fish and place them in a tray. Cover with brine made of cup non-iodized salt and 1 quart white vinegar. Place in the refrigerator and let stand one week.

Remove the fish from the brine, drain, then soak one hour in ice cold water and drain again. Fish will be firm and white. Now pack the fish in pint jars and pour over them a boiling brine made as follows: 4 cups sugar, 1 quart white vinegar or one-half quart regular vinegar, and one-half quart white wine, and one-half box of pickling spice.

You can cut onion slices and place them in the jars if desired. Seal the jars and let them cool. Fish prepared this way should always be refrigerated. Pickled fish should stand several weeks before opening the jar to allow the flavor to develop. The longer you wait, the better it will taste.

Cook fish in butter about 5 minutes, turning once, until lightly browned and fish flakes easily when pierced with a fork. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from pan and keep warm. Add almonds to pan drippings, cook and stir until golden brown. Add wine and Worcestershire sauce, stirring into drippings. Spoon over fish. This recipe is quick, easy and scrumptious. Fit for company. Take my word for it!