What's on your WORK BENCH - July 2020

No these are a combination of orders I need to complete, decoys for Tuckerton and for me to hunt. I know my Dad is working on yours though. If I'm at his house to work on my sneakbox this weekend I'll see if I can take a couple pictures for you.
 
Very nice, Joel, how old is your lab?

Oh, how rainy has your summer been, compared to the last three years or so? We seem to be getting "wetter" over the years here.
 
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Hey Rick,

She's coming upon 11 weeks old right now. Very bright but at times pretty mischievous.

This has been a very wet summer - July has to be double the normal rainfall. My old stomping grounds Thief Lake is 15" over target for this time of year - tough during production season.

Joel
 
That's great, thanks for the update! We have experienced some amazing rainfall events this summer. Again, great birds!

You are about to go into the window of I don't hear you anymore. Wolters advocated going to live birds. After eight labs. trained, we've just made sure the dog understands hand signals and whistle commands well prior this phase, then we shift over to a predominance of these in handling since they don't convey anger or frustration. One command and wait 'em out until they respond Damn dogs. still better than any cat on the planet!
 
Nice, Pat, I also appreciate your "fine adjustment tool" sitting on end by your outlet strip; just employed mine this week to convince my brake assembly to separate from the mount plate on my rear trailer axle on the Whaler.
 
Carl said:
Does a cutting board on the bench count??

Tampa Bay grey (mangrove) snapper-fest with with my daughter this morning.
Click to expand...

In my world, you better believe it counts Big time, and now I'm really hungry for Fresh Fish.

Thanks for the post, made me smile.


VP
 
Vert nice catch, Carl, you must have a good fishing partner. These are one of my old salmon fishing partner's favorite targets. He was just up at Cedar Key for a couple of weeks with his son.
 
Carl said:
Does a cutting board on the bench count??

Tampa Bay grey (mangrove) snapper-fest with with my daughter this morning.
Click to expand...

Carl,

Nice mess of properly iced fish. [;)] Good job on both accounts.
 
Yep, I have a great fishing partner!

Grey snapper are thick in this part of the Gulf. The big ones can be tricky to catch inshore, hard to turn them around before they head into the pilings. But the 10-13" ones are almost to easy to catch some days.
 
Icing down the fish is more important than catching them down here in this heat! I normally have more ice than this but we didn't plan to stay out late.
 
Carl, we had a parasitologist who was on sabbatical from Hope College work-up parasite loads in Great Lakes fish for a summer at the MSU Great Lakes Research lab. We set-up a dissection station next to the fish sample processing site in the lab. where he could do serial dissections, removing parasites from the gastrointestinal tract, swim bladder, liver, and muscle bundles of the species he was working-up. We had an ice machine in the lab. that we would start-up the night prior an anticipated big lift. filling both the bin and several 100quart portable coolers to take out with us. He maintained that full immersion of the fish in ice water delayed free CO2 build-up in plasma and tissues, pH shifts, and changes in extracellular enzyme arrays that are perceived by trematodes, cestodes, and nematodes from migrating out of their native "habitats". I still have not too fond memories of loading the Conservation Officer's cooler(s) with lake trout with massive cestodes hanging out of the incision line we cut to determine sex during processing...a very different pasta. If you snip a gill arch and let them bleed out prior tossing in the cooler your filleting mess will be lessened but this will also remove most of the free Co2 via the blood compartment, which drives the pH shifts that induce migrations.
 
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If I am going to keep a saltwater fish for shashimi, I try to remember to bleed them.
I would do ikejime too but I don't have the wire.
Otherwise, mackerel are about the only fish I fillet anymore, we cook most fish whole, simply scaled, gutted & gilled.

I have heard the parasite loads in salmon and lake trout is high. Same with spotted sea trout and big black drum. Not the spaghetti you want to be eating....
 
Yeah, for lake trout which are so long lived. Salmon and brown trout get a lot of nematodes, particularly in their swim bladders. He always argued that the protein dose from the parasites added to the total... White suckers had fairly frequent infestations of Ligula inestinalis.

Do you make fishhead soup from the leftovers? Several versions I have had were quite sodium-load heavy, but all were good eats.
 
We have made fishhead soup in the past, a Japanese version which is less salty.
But since I usually bake fish whole with the heads on, we don't end up with a lot of heads to use for soup.
Not much left but bones once my crew gets done with a baked fish.
Good reminder though, next time I fillet one for sashimi, I will make soup with the head and carcass.
 

Carl, I like yer style.

My Sicilian grandmother was a incredible cook, especially fish & wild game. She taught me well.

She would inspect everything brought into her kitchen, and it better have met her high standards. If not, there would be a lesson, and a lecture about not wasting God's bounty.

Just about all fresh fish were made with heads on. Much easier to eat, and done correctly very few, to no bones. As you wrote, "note much left".


Every time I watch the movie Chinatown. I smile about the scene when baked fish are served at the Albacore Club, with heads on, and the eyes are not white. The fish look baked to perfection, and not having white eyes does not happen, except in the movies.




VP
 
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