Confession: Despite many years of fish cooking experience, I have never actually gutted and cleaned a fish myself. I leave that for others. Others with hardier constitutions than mine. Others who don’t feel the bile rise as the poor fishy is killed and cut up. Others with more willingness to put up with the stink and mess. Others with more gutting experience. (Although, as I think about it, I have been gutted myself. Ha! But that’s a whole other story...) Truth be told, the man of the house/boat has always done the fish killing. A summer on an Alaskan fish processing boat taught him well, and so, I happily allow him to do the honors while I stand back at a safe distance.
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| Thumbs up for the little guys. |
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| Jamie got one. |
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| Fishing out another shrimp. |
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| Shrimp. They're alive. |
But, the man of the boat is away. And the boys have been fishing with live shrimp. I told Brady that he has to bait his own hook - I’m not doing it. (Those things wiggle and jump when you hook them. Do they know they are about to be sacrificed? Shudder.) So, for the last few days, I have gotten away with cheering for each little bite, and helping to remove to hook and throw back all the little guys the boys have hooked...
because so far, each one has been too small to keep.
because so far, each one has been too small to keep.
So far, that is, until today. Today Brady caught a 12’ Snapper. It’s big enough. And Snapper are tasty. The boys are exultant. Fish for dinner!! they say, jumping about madly. Much like the fish now flopping on the deck of the boat.
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| Doomed Snapper. |
I had hoped to avoid this moment, but here it is: I’m gonna have to cut this thing up.
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| The first cut. |
Ugh.
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| ughgut |
Despite whacking the poor guy upside the head numerous times, he refused to die quickly. I dug out some gloves, and a knife. I clearly don’t know what I’m doing, and mostly guessed that the head needed to be removed, somehow. And the tail?
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| Slaughtered. |
Probably. There were guts somewhere that needed to be removed, too, right? It smelled. There were scales, and innards, and blood. It is not an experience I enjoyed. But, the fish has now been beheaded, de-scaled, gutted and washed.
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| Success? |
I may not let them fish again. At least not until the man of the boat returns.
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