Awesome Little Cats

Is there anything better than a couple of young cats for dinner?

Yup, I went fishing today. My stepfather and I first went over to Carter's Lake reregulation dam and tried out luck there with some medium large shad. I'd heard that the stripers were stacked up near the water outlet, but we couldn't cast over there. They were letting a lot of water out and the current was so swift and the bottom so rocky that all we were doing is losing tackle. It was frustrating. Several other fishermen(and women) were catching some drum, but I have always dreamed about stripers (hybrid striped bass)and that's why we were there. So by 11 AM, we packed up and headed to a more peaceful locale, Salacoa Creek Park. It is a county owned park, complete with lake beach and campground. It is a very nice, deep, spring fed lake that looks very clean. At Salacoa, we had the lunch I had packed for us, and then began throwing crickets at the bream. It is just past the full moon, and I think there were a few beds still active. There was a spot right off the dock that produced a fish almost every time the bait hit the water. We must have caught 30 or so between us, throwing them back as they were palm sized bream of varying species. Had we known we would be catching that many, I think I might have saved all of them. At any rate, there was a lull in the action, and when it picked back up, I caught a keeper bream and was walking back to the shore to get my 5 gallon bucket for the bream when my stepfather caught a small catfish on a cricket of all things. I had one line in with cut bait, fishing for cats on the bottom, but wouldn't you know those catfish wanted crickets. At the end of the day, just as a thunderstorm approached, we left with 2 small cats and about 10 average sized bream. It was pouring rain when I got home, and by that time, the bream had died. The cats were still alive, however. To save time, I decided not to clean the bream, instead, I cut them up and fed them to the chickens. It had been about 20 years or so since I cleaned a catfish, and I was a bit out of practice, but finally managed to get 'er done. We had 8 minnows leftover, so they are now happily living in my aquarium, which luckily is set up for goldfish/cold water. All the fish are about the same size. Maybe I will get lucky and they will breed, but I doubt it.

Skyguy has never been fond of freshwater fish due to the size vs. the bones, but his palate is changing. It was only a week or so ago that I mentioned to him that those big river cats were edible, but the best catfish were the small ones. There was no way I could allow myself to fail in the preparation of that fish...I knew if I botched it, he would never try catfish again. Luckily, it was delicious, and we were wishing we had about 10 more of them! Our dinner this evening consisted of the catfish(on the plate 1.5 hours after being in the water), grilled squash with olive oil and garlic brushed on (on the plate 30 minutes after being on a bush), new Red Pontiac potatoes (one day after being plucked from a barrel of dirt), cornbread, made with an egg that was an hour old and sadly, store-bought oil and cornmeal (we will be rectifying that situation hopefully in a few months), coleslaw, made with garden cabbage and carrots, and I made some 'hushpuppy patties' with the leftover batter plus some onions and such(also from the garden). When you pan fry, hushpuppies become hushpatties. :)

I just love to fish, even if I'm only catching little bream. Get about 40 of them, fry them up, and you've got a meal of very sweet meat, even if it is only a few bites per fish. I eat the crispy tails, too, love that! Skyguy never fished or camped as a kid, and he still hasn't caught the fishing bug, but I am hopeful that one day I will have a partner that loves to fish as much as I do. I got him camping, I got him eating Chinese food, I got him loving the country life, I got him growing herbs and veggies, and I'm hoping I can entice him to fish.