Kathryn's House, Part 3: The Fish

Today's good thing is that my 20-year-old daughter drinks her coffee from a Star Trek mug.  It's my Star Trek mug ... from Ten-Forward on the Enterprise ... you know, the starship mess hall.  She could so easily think I'm completely lame -- and probably does, in other ways -- but she shares my love of geek-dom.  Live long and prosper. 

The third installment about our trip to Paducah is all about the fish.  Kathryn has a large pond on her property and a few years ago they stocked it, first with bluegill and later with largemouth bass that eat the bluegill, and they also added a few catfish for good measure.  However, they had never attempted to catch any of the fish -- until we arrived.

We got some worms, two old fishing poles that belonged to John's Dad, and an inexpensive "family" fishing set of two poles, one short and one long and both completely nonfunctional, and set out for adventure one evening.  Ally had hardly thrown her baited hook into the water when she got the first strike, a bluegill about 6" long.  The "family" fishing rods didn't work at all and we had trouble operating one of John's Dad's rods, but that didn't stop us from catching a whole bunch of bluegill.  I think Ally caught three by herself!  We threw all of them back because they looked too small and later learned that bluegill only get about 6-8" big. 

The next day we were ready to fish!  We went to a sporting goods store and bought another rod and several types of artificial bait and hooks, all based on the advice of a professional fisherman.  Ally couldn't wait when we got home and trotted out to the pond in the middle of the afternoon.  In a few minutes, she trotted back with a large bass in the her hands!  We filled up a cooler with water and put the bass in it -- still unsure exactly what we were going to do with it.  We told Ally not to name it because we might eat it -- so we named it "Sandwich." 



Ally and Sandwich (lens fogged from bringing it out of the cold house)




Sandwich makes an unsuccessful bid for freedom



At that point, we told Kathryn's husband, John, that we were going to have fish for supper and he laughed.  We took our three good rods and new bait and hooks out to the pond and began to catch fish.  It was ridiculous!  Fish were practically begging to be caught!  We ended up with five nice sized bass and two catfish (we threw two more catfish back!) and one bluegill, just to try.  We caught fish even though Ally jumped in the pond to retrieve a bobber and swam around for a while.  I was the worst fisherman of the group and even I caught a bass and a catfish. 

Then came the nasty part -- killing and gutting them.  We decided that killing them by freezing them was the most humane, so we added ice to the water they were in.  I watched a couple of videos on youtube showing how to clean fish and then we spread a plastic cloth on the tailgate of the pickup truck and started in.  As a former biology major, I started the dissection.  After the first fish, I wasn't grossed out but it was hard and messy work. Fortunately, I didn't take any pictures.  Jay and Kathryn pitched in and eventually we got them all cleaned. 

Kathryn cooked the five bass and bluegill with sort of a poaching method using lemon and herbs.  I cooked the catfish by breading and frying them.  They were all delicious and there were no leftovers.  But Jay says that he's cleaned his last fish ....



Ally returns her catfish to the pond

Jay with a catfish

Jay looks like he knows what he's doing

Ally retrieves her bobber

Kathryn with a bass

Ally and her catfish