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2010-09-02 14:52
10.7 lbs. Thirty inches. A local taxidermist is mounting it for me and I’m currently in high level negotiations with the local matriarch regarding how long it will remain over our fireplace.
Which means you’ll soon be telling us just what you had to give up, right?
I’ll report back after a few weeks. Anybody who has lived with a woman knows that you only find out that you’re in trouble for not doing something after you don’t do it regardless of whether or not you were made aware of that particular expectation.
mike g:
10.7 lbs. Thirty inches. A local taxidermist is mounting it for me and I’m currently in high level negotiations with the local matriarch regarding how long it will remain over our fireplace.
You are talking about the fish, aren’t you?
Eat the fish,
mountput the matriarch above the fireplace.Seriously, how do things things taste? That’s one helluva catch!
Save yourself some money, eat the fish, skip the mount. Few women want their homes decorated with dead animals. I’ve seen it too many times. It may seem OK at first, but in fairly short order it becomes a bone of contention.
You’re happy as a clam at high tide now, but it won’t be long before the cost of mounting will seem a small price to pay for peace and quiet. Sorry to throw cold water on your wonderful fish, but them’s the facts boy. Been there, done that, bought the T shirt.
lotta original & insightful gender politics on this thread, well done guys. got any lady driver jokes?
We’ve got a finished basement and I have no doubt that the fish will be relegated to one of its walls.
>Seriously, how do things things taste?
A fish like that wouldn’t taste as good as a younger fish that was under the “slot” limit. Bodies of water that get a lot of pressure will frequently enforce a slot limit that allows you to keep a number of fish over and under a predetermined length. This year we were able to keep one over and three under the 20 to 28 inch slot. All other fish within the slot had to be thrown back. This ensures that prime breeding stock is maintained. Incidentally, younger fish under 20 inches are superior table fare. Older fish like the one above start to taste a little “gamey” as they say.
Last decent seafood restaurant I ate at was Oceanaire in San Diego and Canadian walleye was one of the more expensive items on the menu. $15-20 a pound is usually the going counter rate.
Mike G:
Last decent seafood restaurant I ate at was Oceanaire in San Diego and Canadian walleye was one of the more expensive items on the menu. $15-20 a pound is usually the going counter rate.
Around here we have mostly salt water fish. The best fighter and nasty, but the oiliest fish is a Blue Fish. That sucker has teeth. Watch out removing a hook. But it’s best fixed in the oven in aluminum foil with a few lemon wedges to cut the oil.
TT, sure, here’s one.
Lady driver sits at a crossroads as the light changes from red to green to yellow to red to green, etc. She doesn’t move.
Finally, a cop walks up and asks, “What’s the matter lady, don’t we have any colors you like?”
Where did you catch it? Looks like a good Minnesota or Wisconsin walleye to me!
PS You’re right about the eating. All accounts are the little ‘uns are the best tasting, the big guys not so much.
York,
I may be preaching to the choir, but if you can get the little Blues, the ones they call Taylor Blues. Cut off the heads and belly clean ‘em. Put equal amounts of yellow corn meal and white flour, along with salt and pepper, a little Old Bay if you have it, into a bag and shake it up. Add fish and shake again, get an even coating. Fry in a combination of olive oil and real butter, and add a few drops of fresh lemon juice as they come out, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Don’t over cook.
Make fish cakes out of the larger Blues, same way you make salmon cakes or crab cakes. Start with cooked fish, flake it and set aside. Saute a mix of fine chopped onion, red bell pepper, green onion tops, and parsley. Use a very small amount of bread crumbs. If you can taste ‘em it’s too much. Add some fresh lemon juice, not too much, a few drops of hot sauce, Louisiana Crystal works best. Use either egg, mayonnaise, or my favorite, a blond roux to hold everything together and fry till you get a thin crust. Everything is already cooked so go easy.
In your oven preparation above, Make deep cuts top to bottom every 2-3 inches in both sides. Stuff cuts with a half slice of lemon, half slice of onion, and some parsley, rub with olive oil, salt and pepper, lemon juice, and a little white wine. Wrap in foil and bake till done, the more liquid, the more forgiving the time required. Works great outside on the grill too.
You can also use cooked Blues instead of Tuna to make a fish salad for sandwiches.
If you keep eating Blue fish, you’ll either get to like the oily taste, or at least it won’t seem as off putting. They are great fighters and deserve to be eaten. BTW, the oily taste comes from the various Herring family fishes the Blues prey on. Blues are like a wolf pack traveling with a herd of caribou, only in the ocean instead of on the tundra.
>Where did you catch it? Looks like a good Minnesota or Wisconsin walleye to me!
It is indeed. Caught it on Little Bay de Noc in Escanaba, Michigan. We marked some larger fish on the sonar but they didn’t seem to be active.
>Blues are like a wolf pack traveling with a herd of caribou, only in the ocean instead of on the tundra.
Walleyes will do this as well. When you see clouds of shad on the graph you will frequently see larger fish traveling just below the larger mass of baitfish.
ropelight:
York,
a little Old Bay Only a barrel will do!
You can also use cooked Blues instead of Tuna to make a fish salad for sandwiches.
Always thought of a Blue as a mini tuna.
If you keep eating Blue fish, you’ll either get to like the oily taste, or at least it won’t seem as off putting. They are great fighters and deserve to be eaten. BTW, the oily taste comes from the various Herring family fishes the Blues prey on. Blues are like a wolf pack traveling with a herd of caribou,
only in the ocean instead of on the tundra.
We had so many Blues one year, I finally planted what was left in the garden. Good tomato year!
Mike, yeah, those bait fish have a rough go of it. Striped Bass hit shad pretty hard too. I’ve seen Stripers work together to run a school of shad into a small cove, patrol the mouth to close off any escape and then take turns cutting into the bait ball.
I go after Stripers on medium weight spinning tackle using a basic bucktail. Stripers are also one of the best eating fishes. It was my Mother’s favorite. They also go into crab pots and get stuck inside, by the time I get to them they’re already scuffed up pretty good, but it doesn’t matter so much as long as they still have some life left in them, otherwise they go into the bait bucket.
BTW, I once saw 2 whales, a pod of porpoises, a dozen or so sea lions, and numerous King Mackerels work together to herd huge schools of bait into the shallows and keep them there while till they couldn’t eat any more. It was the first time I ever saw different species cooperating for their mutual benefit. Saw it in Estero Bay, California in late Summer.
York, if you like Old Bay that much, get yourself a pound of Baltimore Crab Spice. About $5/lb give or take. You get more intense flavor at a better price. Go real easy till you get a feel for it.
The Crab Spice is used dry sprinkled on layers of Blue Crabs as they go into the pot to steam, as well (about a cup or so per bushel) as in the steaming mix of water and apple cider vinegar, more vinegar than water (55-45%).
There’s nothin’ like a bushel of Blue Crabs and a cooler full of ice cold beer to make my monkey dance, except a frisky blue eyed girl.
My grandfather took me fishing on the shore of the San Francisco Bay when I was five or six. I stuck a hook all the way through my hand, and I haven’t been back since!
ropelight:
York, if you like Old Bay that much, get yourself a pound of Baltimore Crab Spice. About $5/lb give or take. You get more intense flavor at a better price. Go real easy till you get a feel for it.
We have used J.O. Spice also. Go to VA and ask for steamed crabs. They’ll ask what planet you’re from. They boil the poor cructaceans. At least the steamers do work in York Co., PA. No Boiling allowed, shrimp too.
Are you guys talking about Chesapeake Bay? I didn’t think there was much life left in there because large parts of it had become hypoxic. Happy to be wrong though!
mike g:
Are you guys talking about Chesapeake Bay? I didn’t think there was much life left in there because large parts of it had become hypoxic. Happy to be wrong though!
The Chesapeake is a mixed bag of stuff. The worst parts are the deep holes that are 100 to 125 feet deep. The reality is that during the last ice age, this was the Susquehanna River to the Atlantic. The bay picks up drainage from VA, WV, a real tiny part of NC, VA, WV, MD, PA, DE and NY. A large part of the watershed is rural and a lot of farming. So, a lot of nitrogen, herbicide, and pesticide run-off. A lot of the farmers are using methods to curb these run-off.
The other part was the bay was overfished of Rockfish (Striped Bass of the saltwater variety), oysters, and crabs. The name Chesapeake is Indian for Great Shellfish Bay. The two main states of MD and VA have put severe limits on the rockfish 15 years ago, and they made a comeback. Crab harvest is down, but MD is buying back commercial crabbing license. VA is limiting crabbing for Mudders (crabs hiding in the mud for the winter) and limits on female crabs. Oysters are still problematic. They were going to bring in Chinese oysters, but didn’t due to risk. There are successes on some of the bars in the back bays and tidal rivers. Problem was the native stock nearly was wiped out by dermo.
All in all it’s not dead. Places are on life support. The biggest gordian knot to undo in the next decade is Conowingo Pool behind the dam. It has 70 years of sediment that needs to be removed, but how?
The big thing that is happening is two fold. One is working the heads of streams and rivers and working down, and the other is tertiary WW treatment plants. Even our community is affected. We have a tertiary WWTP but it’s almost maxed out, so we have building moratoriums
Yeah, Mike, the bottom end of the Bay for me. Just inside Cape Henry, past the Light at Fort Story and the mouth of the Lynnhaven River where the Bridge Tunnel runs North on twin elevated causeways to 4 artificial islands with tunnels between pairs, and then on across the Bay to Kiptopeke on the Eastern Shore. Great fishing all along the way. Plus dozens of rivers and creeks flowing into the marshlands bordering the Bay. All kinds of fish, crabs, oysters, and clams. Ducks and geese too. Year round a great place to filet and release.
ropelight:
Yeah, Mike, the bottom end of the Bay for me. Just inside Cape Henry, past the Light at Fort Story and the mouth of the Lynnhaven River where the Bridge Tunnel runs North on twin elevated causeways to 4 artificial islands with tunnels between pairs, and then on across the Bay to Kiptopeke on the Eastern Shore.
I’m on the north end about 30 miles as the crow flies to the Susquehanna Flats where the Susi-Q River empties in the bay.
A small but interesting point is if you start the long version of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vita by Iron Butterfly at the beginning of the bridge-tunnel, you can drive the whole thing with just that song. It’s neater South Bound, you get the drum solo flying through the Chesapeake Channel Tunnel (I think that’s Thimble Shoal Tunnel). Two years ago in November I crossed the bridge at night. It was in the upper 40′s on the Eastern Shore, but my car thermometer maintained a steady 56ºF on the bridge (you’re about 25 feet off the water), then dropped when back on land.
Sounds great guys. When are you going to take me out there? I fished Puget Sound this last August and had a great time but that’s the extent of my estuary fishing experience.
York, next time you’re around, pull off the BT at the island fishing pier and have a look around, but lay off those funny cigarettes.
Then, when you get off the Southside BT, turn left on Shore Drive, go over the Lynnhaven River (Lessner Bridge) and take your first right. Park and find the Dockside Inn. Ask anyone. There’s a big fancy hot spot on your right, don’t go near the place.
The Dockside doesn’t look like much from the parking lot, step down, go through the fish market and marina offices, you’ll see the bar. That’s where you wanna be. The beer is icy cold and pretty much anything on the menu that’s fresh is good and well worth the price.
You too Mike. Puget Sound is spectacular. I especially like Gig Harbor and Raft Island on Henderson Bay. The oysters at Dabob Bay near Quilcene are magnificient. The place abounds with blackberries during the summer, I love ‘em.
Mash up about 3-4 cups of blackberries, add some lemon juice and smear it all over a medium size dressed fresh salmon, inside and out. Salt and pepper to taste. Plank the salmon on a yellow ceder shingle, red ceder will do if you can’t find yellow. Wrap it in 3 layers of foil. Put it carefully into hot coals for 30 minutes. Unwrap it, throw away the salmon and eat the plank.
ropelight:
York, next time you’re around, pull off the BT at the island fishing pier and have a look around, but lay off those funny cigarettes.
Then, when you get off the Southside BT, turn left on Shore Drive, go over the Lynnhaven River (Lessner Bridge) and take your first right. Park and find the Dockside Inn. Ask anyone. There’s a big fancy hot spot on your right, don’t go near the place.
Stopped at the pier a few times to take pictures. I’ve used Shore drive to go to VA BCH. I like the drive thru Christmas displays on the concrete boardwalk.
For those wondering why there are two tunnels on a 17 mile long bridge, it’s because of the NAVY at Norfolk. You can bomb a bridge and block a channel, or you can bomb a tunnel and make the channel deeper.
Mike, is it me, or does that fish get a little bit bigger every time I click on it?
Mike, 10.7 lbs in a fat pigs eye!
Am I lookin’ at a photoshop? I’m just not goin’ for it. Something ain’t right here. Come clean.
Oh, I believe it. My Bro-in-law caught a walleye about that big up in Ontario a few years ago. Got a nice photo, then he released it (all fishing except for eating sized walleyes was catch & release. On the same trip I caught a 45″ or so Northern Pike, which we also let go)