Perigean delight...

tod osier

tod osier

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Made it out for a quickie this morning to take advantage of the spring tide. Cold and windy at 30 knots for a good part of the morning. I hit my favorite clam bed for the early morning low tide window. After I scratched up my hard clam limit, I set up the brant rig in a great little lee for a lucky quick shoot and was pulling the rig by 9am. Today was not a day to be hanging around enjoying the scenery...

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Nice 1/2 bushel limit of quahogs...

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There has been some conversation about "H" style anchors and these are mine I made up a few years back...

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nice shoot, do you usually just use the Silo's for brant hunting?
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I made up those sleds to go along with a dozen full bodies I carved, I had always planned to carve more full bodies, but what I have is all I need. I love how they look on the water and they show a long distance - they let you get a tight knot of white on teh water that looks like a group of feeding birds. I wouldn't shoot brant without them. Those sleds have worked a lot of brant.

T
 
Nicely done Tod. I smell chowder in your future.

On the brant sleds, tell us a little more about them. Are they pine, plywood, something else? Like the paint scheme from what I can see. Care to trade a scoter sled pattern for a brant sled pattern?

Looks like it was a nice morning to be out. Suppose to be downright cold and nasty the next few days. Going to be 10 degrees here on Friday.


Nate
 
Well, surf and something flying anyway!
Cool, I love clams. I remember when they were $2.00/dzn steamed at bars back home in PA. But then that was 20 years ago!
 
Nate, for a better view of Tod's sleds look again at his brant rig picture on the Brant decoy post (1st pg). There are 3 sleds in the picture. They work really well, but don't let anyone else in on the secret.

Scott
 
Wow...that's kick ass. Are those Quahogs? (sp)

And I thought I was cool for going out and shooting two Canadas over 8 bigfoots in a chiseled cornfield that had nothing sticking above the snow but snow. Ground was too froze to dig up some potatoes! Bwuaahhhh!!!
 
Nicely done Tod. I smell chowder in your future.

On the brant sleds, tell us a little more about them. Are they pine, plywood, something else? Like the paint scheme from what I can see. Care to trade a scoter sled pattern for a brant sled pattern?

Looks like it was a nice morning to be out. Suppose to be downright cold and nasty the next few days. Going to be 10 degrees here on Friday.


Nate
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Hey Nate,

Jen and I are stocking up on clams - our reserves are low. We scratched up 90# between Friday and Today. I made stuffed clams for the freezer over the weekend - Nothing better than pulling them out and slapping them in the oven for an easy appetizer.

On the sleds, they are 1/2" ACX wtih cedar cross pieces and are on their 7th season in good shape. They are primed with Goldens GAC and painted with Goldens - an expensive way to do sleds, but they match my full bodies. I probably don't have the patterns I drew up for them, but they would be easy to trace. Remind be once season is over and I'll send them on.

I wanted to get out before the cold and make the most of this spring tide. It wasn't exactly nice withthe front coming through, but a least it was sunny. Question is if the cold we are getting will lock up the harbors here for the weekend.

T
 
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Wow...that's kick ass. Are those Quahogs? (sp)

And I thought I was cool for going out and shooting two Canadas over 8 bigfoots in a chiseled cornfield that had nothing sticking above the snow but snow. Ground was too froze to dig up some potatoes! Bwuaahhhh!!!
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It would be better if you could scoop up a dozen lobsters at the same time! I caught some lady crabs today too, but don't tell Jen.

Yep, they are quahogs or chowder clams or hard clams.
 
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Tod, you are playing dirty. Those clams sure have me thinking.
Nice photos of a productive morning. Think of all the poor folks who never go outside to get their food.

Tim
 
Nate, for a better view of Tod's sleds look again at his brant rig picture on the Brant decoy post (1st pg). There are 3 sleds in the picture. They work really well, but don't let anyone else in on the secret.

Scott
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Hey Scott, ice was building today on the leeward shores. I had to break ice in the ramp when I got back at 10 am.
 
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Speaking of chowder I just made a big pot of fish chowder and the kids love it.

The only quahog I ever found was at Nauset Beach on The Cape after a big nasty storm. It was about the size of a grapefruit as a I recall. I remember that after we got back to our rental in East Sandwich my dad simmered it for me and then tenderized it with the back of a big knife and sliced it so we could dip it in butter. Pretty tough as I recall but I was 10 years old so it was a pretty neat deal. Especially for a midwesterner.
 

Tod,

When I was out there I saw a few boats raking quahogs. Then saw the result in the local fish market and was surprised at how cheap they were - If I remember right they were $.99/lb. versus $2.50/lb for little necks. Of course I imagine it doesn't take many quahogs to make a pound. Tough way to make a living.
 
Speaking of chowder I just made a big pot of fish chowder and the kids love it.

The only quahog I ever found was at Nauset Beach on The Cape after a big nasty storm. It was about the size of a grapefruit as a I recall. I remember that after we got back to our rental in East Sandwich my dad simmered it for me and then tenderized it with the back of a big knife and sliced it so we could dip it in butter. Pretty tough as I recall but I was 10 years old so it was a pretty neat deal. Especially for a midwesterner.
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I do love fish chowder too. I used to make it a lot out of lake trout from my parents place. You using those big rainbows you catch to make it?

If you got a clam that big it was probably a sea clam, very similar, but a different species.
 
Tod,

When I was out there I saw a few boats raking quahogs. Then saw the result in the local fish market and was surprised at how cheap they were - If I remember right they were $.99/lb. versus $2.50/lb for little necks. Of course I imagine it doesn't take many quahogs to make a pound. Tough way to make a living.
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We usually get a mix of littlenecks, cherrystones and chowders that are biased towards chowders, so a couple bucks a pound if you bought it at the market A 1/2 bushel comes in somewhere around 30#. It would be nice to pull a 1/2 bushel of littlenecks.

Wouldn't want to do have to make a living doing it, but I love it.
 
Sea clam...got it! Makes sense...it was so out of place like a turd in a punchbowl.

Ahhhh yes, the rainbows! No, I don't kill them typically unless they die when I try to release them or other unintentional mortality. Though admitedly I went out for blood a couple days ago. Had that mid-winter taste and they're actually edible this time of year. At 31F degree water I shouldn't be surprised that it didn't happen.

I'm using some bluegill and bass, may be some perch and crappie in there too actually. Been in the freezer a long time and I like to eat fresh fish so I chowdered it.

I'm also corning some goose and slow cooking some goose breast in the pepperoncini to make fake Italian beef also.
 
Jay,
What is your basic fish chowder recipe? I've never tried making chowder and I get enough panfish to try something different every now and then.

Tim
 
Tod that is nicely done...I envy your triumphs of the day...Clams...Brant...Awesome...

Regards,

Kristan
 
Okay, you are opening a pandora's box with this one. Bring on the variations boys!!!

I'm sure that heavy cream or at least half and half would be preferable but I'm fat and had some 2% in the fridge so I started out with a 1/2 gallon of that. Based on this I put a half stick of butter in to compensate for the lack of butter in the milk(and therefore increase the amount of fat making goodness that was missing from the get go). Frankly, I coulda used more. Then I chopped a really big onion, about thumbnail sized, and about 5 small/medium sized baker potatoes skin on, scrub them good or you'll get dirt in it. This took about 5 minutes. You can put some celery or corn in too if you like but I passed on those because I was in a hurry. I get that started and then season as I go. This time I put some taragon in, maybe about a half tblspn...that's a powerful spice but I always like how it complements the potatoes in particular. I poured some sea salt in my palm and slowly worked my way up the salt chain as the process went on. Don't over salt obviously as it cooks down it'll get saltier. I also dumped some powdered chicken stock in...maybe a tblspn, which is also salty so be careful but this is a flavor maker. Black pepper and a nice big heaping tblspn of minced garlic. I left it at a high simmer for about 20 minutes and dumped the fish in...whatever you have and be generous. I even dumped in a small half bag of "salad shrimp" I had in the freezer that I bought last week for steelhead bait. Let it simmer a while and then I sifted some flour in and lightly whisked it so as to not beat the potatoes and onions into mush. The flour, milk and butter will thicken after a while but I wasn't looking for Chunky style thickness, just a little heavier so I didn't use much flour at all, maybe a third cup if I had to guess. Then I chopped some fresh parsley up I had on hand...maybe about a quarter to third cup and threw that in. I stared at the spices for a while and almost started gettin' silly but this is a basic recipe that was never intended to be elaborate. Simmer it and be careful with the fire because you can wreck it real quick with a burnt bottom. If you can lift the grate off an adjacent burner then stack them and tone the fire down a bit on the bottom of the pot. I don't do lectric burners so I can't help you with that.

The kids jumped on it right out of school but it was too early to eat it. I just had a little cup and it gets much better with time like most soups and stews, and women. Enjoy!
 
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