The lake was almost completely windless all morning.
Early there was some overcast parts and later even a half hearted sprinkle, but most of the weather was all sun and very hot.
I guess this is also humid. I don't seem to be feeling that.
One plastic oar extender just snapped. Too bad.
I still get buy but I need to make some oars soon and I think now I'll try to reinforce them with a bit of metal where the plastic is the weakest part.
I fished in the Second Lake bay down along the shore in the shade from the morning sun.
Few boats passed.
Two kayaks passed, one with a pretty nice looking blond. He was fishing. She was on her phone. Nice. So much better than water skis.
I caught 11 fish. Many of them were very small. It was not like yesterday or like my last time in that hole along the shore. It was slow. Here is the entire mess of fish. One meal.
I know most fishermen laugh at perch this size and at my cleaning them.
Well, once my Buffalo mother laughed at the chicken wings everyone seemed to want. They too are small. And bony.
I'd rather have fifty perch this size than just a few large ones. They are so sweet and cook up so easily.
I remember too once when Keith was about 5 years old. Just he and I were in the boat and we had anchored over a school of fish just like this one. He could fish with a small hook and a small bit of worm right off the back of the boat and he could see the fish bite. He was filling the bucket and I suggested we move along and try something different. But he wanted to stay and so we did until that school was exhausted or moved on. He had such a good time. And when we ate them I marveled at how tasty they were.
I was out over an hour and then came back to clean up the fish. Here is my cleaning station. No longer do I worry about cleaning in the direct sunlight. Years ago I never worried about that because while there was sunlight I wanted to get out on the water again. I often cleaned fish from 9 PM until early hours of the morning, in the living room, watching old Black and White movies. That is one reason I started filleting. No scales and so the mess was minimal.
Now that I am rarely looking at 50 or more fish to clean, I scale. We like them cooked whole and not filleted.
Here are my tools.
I built the fish cleaning board from a battery cable clamp and some left over pine. After a couple decades the pine gave out, so I added with fine piece of hardwood that was one of Keith Reynold's scraps and exended the board just a small bit. The bottom park of the batter clamp often fits well in the mouth of the fish.
Decades ago I did not clamp the fish for scaling or cleaning whole, but now my hands are just not reliable. I love having this clamp hold the fish so that the most I lose with clumsiness is an occasional tool.
The scaler here is new. I bought it in Florida last winter. Before that I had the last of the old scalers I bought for a dime a piece at a KMart bluelight special. I gave many of them away to my fishing club students. I still have one. However, I love this scaler. It is designed much better.
The knife on the left is a serrated steak knife that up until today I was using. Today I went back to doing some of the cutting with a fillet knife and liked it better, especially on the smaller fish. The knife on the right is an old fashioned butter knife, shaped wide. It is perfect for popping the eyes out of the fish without piecing them. I save the eyes in small packets in the freezer and use them for bait.
Years ago I would have laughed at wearing gloves, but I seem to knick my hands lately and some of those knicks became strangely infected and gave me a good bit of difficulty.
I like these gloves. Mr Clean is the brand.
Early there was some overcast parts and later even a half hearted sprinkle, but most of the weather was all sun and very hot.
I guess this is also humid. I don't seem to be feeling that.
One plastic oar extender just snapped. Too bad.
I still get buy but I need to make some oars soon and I think now I'll try to reinforce them with a bit of metal where the plastic is the weakest part.
I fished in the Second Lake bay down along the shore in the shade from the morning sun.
Few boats passed.
Two kayaks passed, one with a pretty nice looking blond. He was fishing. She was on her phone. Nice. So much better than water skis.
I caught 11 fish. Many of them were very small. It was not like yesterday or like my last time in that hole along the shore. It was slow. Here is the entire mess of fish. One meal.
I know most fishermen laugh at perch this size and at my cleaning them.
Well, once my Buffalo mother laughed at the chicken wings everyone seemed to want. They too are small. And bony.
I'd rather have fifty perch this size than just a few large ones. They are so sweet and cook up so easily.
I remember too once when Keith was about 5 years old. Just he and I were in the boat and we had anchored over a school of fish just like this one. He could fish with a small hook and a small bit of worm right off the back of the boat and he could see the fish bite. He was filling the bucket and I suggested we move along and try something different. But he wanted to stay and so we did until that school was exhausted or moved on. He had such a good time. And when we ate them I marveled at how tasty they were.
I was out over an hour and then came back to clean up the fish. Here is my cleaning station. No longer do I worry about cleaning in the direct sunlight. Years ago I never worried about that because while there was sunlight I wanted to get out on the water again. I often cleaned fish from 9 PM until early hours of the morning, in the living room, watching old Black and White movies. That is one reason I started filleting. No scales and so the mess was minimal.
Now that I am rarely looking at 50 or more fish to clean, I scale. We like them cooked whole and not filleted.
Here are my tools.
I built the fish cleaning board from a battery cable clamp and some left over pine. After a couple decades the pine gave out, so I added with fine piece of hardwood that was one of Keith Reynold's scraps and exended the board just a small bit. The bottom park of the batter clamp often fits well in the mouth of the fish.
Decades ago I did not clamp the fish for scaling or cleaning whole, but now my hands are just not reliable. I love having this clamp hold the fish so that the most I lose with clumsiness is an occasional tool.
The scaler here is new. I bought it in Florida last winter. Before that I had the last of the old scalers I bought for a dime a piece at a KMart bluelight special. I gave many of them away to my fishing club students. I still have one. However, I love this scaler. It is designed much better.
The knife on the left is a serrated steak knife that up until today I was using. Today I went back to doing some of the cutting with a fillet knife and liked it better, especially on the smaller fish. The knife on the right is an old fashioned butter knife, shaped wide. It is perfect for popping the eyes out of the fish without piecing them. I save the eyes in small packets in the freezer and use them for bait.
Years ago I would have laughed at wearing gloves, but I seem to knick my hands lately and some of those knicks became strangely infected and gave me a good bit of difficulty.
I like these gloves. Mr Clean is the brand.
Here is where I clean, tucked under an old umbrella to keep the sun off me and my fish.
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