What do I do with a fish after I hook it?

[colowyo0809]

So, I've fished before. Used to be every summer we would go fishing. I've even hooked the stupid worm, caught the stupid fish, and put it on the line

But, I've never actually processed a fish before. What do I do after I catch it? Do I put it, still alive, on the stringer until I have more? Do I kill it immediately? Do I dress it up in a gown and heels and take it to dinner? what do I do with the stupid thing? We are thinking about actually buying fishing poles and getting tags and doing the whole fishing bit this spring/summer/fall Advice? Scorn? Comments? Gold?

Thanks!

 

[chefsdreams]

Arkansas... reminds me of the time my brother took me on a trip floating down the buffalo river. that was a really magical adventure. we floated and fished and camped. we caught small mouth bass. his girlfriend at the time was choctaw and she brought us to her granny's house for dinner. that fantastic woman fed us and then took us out to sit on her front porch where she poured us some of her own moonshine! .
we were dancing in the moonlight that night, i can tell you

 

[chefsdreams]

all this talk of fishing has stirred up some old memories. this post may get a bit long, so i apologize. but i want to tell you a tall tale about fishing.
when i was young and growing up in ohio, we'd fish mostly farm ponds for bluegill and bass. there were the worm bait guys and the artificial bait guys but they seemed to get along okay. one time a neighbor brought over a fly rod and i was entranced.
there wasn't really anybody around who could teach me the proper way of using a fly rod, so i read some books ((yeah, it was that long ago. . . no dinterweb). it took me about 5 years before i could actually cast and have the fly land anywhere near where i was aiming. and every now and then i would be rewarded for my persistence with a small trout. i saved up my pennies to buy equipment. and many years later my dad gave me, for a birthday gift, a kit to build my own rod. (i still have that rod and still use it).
okay. fast forward. i'm married and our son is working on a horse ranch in montana. some of you may know of it. if you have seen the movie 'a river runs through it' with brad pitt, the fishing scenes were filmed on that ranch. the blackfoot river runs through the back of the property.
well, we go out to visit our son one summer and i bring along the flyrod. it is montana, after all and there is this river, y'know?
one morning, i get up early to sneak down to the river. and my darling wife pokes her head out of the sleeping bag with this sweet early morning smile and says: 'where ya goin'?' down to catch a fish, says i. ahem, she interjects, down to TRY and catch a fish, eh? (yep, that's her. all the way down to the ground.)
can i come? she asks.
you bet! hurry up and get dressed.
so, off to the river we go... (some of you have figured out where this is going, i'm sure)
i begin the religious routine of the morning cast while my lovely companion sits under a tree and watches.
about 30 minutes pass and she gets up and announces: 'okay, i think i've got it.'
she walks forward, arm outstretched and i surrender both the rod and my spot on the perfect rock. and i step away.
she tangles the line around her feet two or three times. but with a patience i have rarely witnessed, she persisted.
'what do i do if i catch one?' she asks with the simple directness of one who is utterly confident.
i choke back the first couple of knee-jerk responses that flash into my head and try to respond calmly:
'i would say...'
that's as far as i got.
'No Really! What do i do!?'
i am standing now, staring slack-jawed at a perfectly taut line. a bent rod tip that can not be faked and a commotion in the water that could mean only one thing.
you guessed it. my beautiful wife, after a total of 40 minutes of fly fishing was about to land a 12 inch brook trout out of the blackfoot river in montana.
was i embarrassed? you bet. was i humiliated? oh yeah, way down deep inside.
but i was also really proud and delighted. we giggled and laughed and danced around and in the end returned her trophy to the river.
on the way back to our cabin, after removing the epic fly, my wife declares: 'we're going into town. i want to find a tattoo parlor to get a tattoo of this fly!'
and we did. and she did. but she won't let me show you a picture, because it's in a very secret place...

 

[rebecca100]

You are talking my talk now! We fish almost daily in the summer. Now first of all, you put it still alive in the livewell, bucket, or on a stringer until you have enough caught to eat. Now usually by the time that happens and you've made it home they are already dead. They will still flop a little, but rest assured that they are dead. They die easily when transported. Now what you do after that depends on the fish. If it is a catfish then you skin it. If it is a scaley fish then you use a spoon or a scaler to run backwards against the scales to remove them. Pull out the fins(not the tail and I use pliers for fin removing). Remove the guts after that and then cut off the head. That is the easiest way I can think of to tell how to process a fish. The other method is to fillet it, but that is harder and takes a little mastery to do right, so if you are new to fishing I would just suggest doing it the easy way. Then you cut your fish into sections, fry, and enjoy. Just watch out for the bones. Someone here may have better advice, but that is how we do it.

 

[k0xxx]

As my dear old Pappy used to say, "Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day".

 

[Denim Deb]

I've always outfished my hubby. Maybe that's why we don't go fishing any more.

 

[chefsdreams]

i think i shared with y'all that my son is a wilderness ranger in the sierra nevada mtns. every year i visit him and we hike into the high country and he takes me to new places to fish. his girlfriend comes along when she can. and i learned very early on not to tease and just be grateful for dinner...

 

[frustratedearthmother]

That's a great story! Congrats to the wife for her fish AND her tattoo!

 

[sumi]

@chefsdreams Love that story! Thank you for sharing, that brought a smile to my face now...

 

[Denim Deb]

Don't know how many times I've gone fishing w/hubby and out fished him. Maybe that's why he no longer wants to go fishing w/me.