Old Pike

Pike is a fun fish to catch. It puts up a nice fight and sometimes it sits very still to make you think you lost it. But once you lift it up out of the water it is a display of shear beauty.

My Dad would cut the skin around the gills and skin it with pliers.
My Mom would then debone the meat and put it through the grinder.
Of course the entrails were disposed of.
(She learned from her turkey experience. lol)
I am not sure if she added any bread crumbs or eggs but eventually she got what we'd call great minced meat which she re stuffed the fish with . She sewed the head back on and put it on its' stomach to bake.
Once the fish finished baking she took out this amazing curved fish with jagged teeth still looking as if it was ready for a good fight. It made such a beautiful addition to the table when she served it.
We always loved to watch the look on our guests faces when we would ask them if they would like some fish.
First they would all think : Oh God! This will have many bones, which usually it does. lol
But my Mom would cut it in slices and serve it like a meat loaf and they couldn't believe what they saw.
Immediately they would ask what kind of fish this was and this is when my Parents began with the tall tales of this special fish that had no bones, they catch in the river.

Every one was interested to catch a fish like that once they were through with them. lol
No one would know anymore what kind of fish it was.
lol

Yes Pike were such good fish. Sometimes my Mom would jelly it and sometimes she would marinate it in vinegar and pickling spices. It was delicious no matter how you made it.
She never gave away her recipes.
Today I don't know if we can eat pike from the river but it almost makes you want to have a pool to raise this fish. Pike and trout are my two favorite kinds of fish. Of course we ate a lot of perch as well.
They are pretty good too.

When I was in Miami we usually saw barracuda swimming between our feet. They also have
spots on them like Pike do, so I never thought much about it thinking they were ocean Pike.
Needless to say, I was surprised to find, the huge monstrousities, lying at the bottom of 4 feet of water, were indeed Barracuda which attack for no reason.
They never touched any of us and we swam with them all the time.
Apparently they don't like the taste of white people, so they never bite them lol

I don't know if this is a compliment or an insult but I
if it's an insult, I'll take it as a compliment lol

In British Columbia they have so many fishing laws and restrictions, so we would go to the fish farms to fish. There was one in Abbotsford we loved going to. The man would obtain little fish fries, about 10,000 of them. He would raise them in one tank and as they grew he would change tanks, actually cement pools, until they were ready to dump into this pond he had.
He had lots of fish in there.
At feeding time he would come out and say: Watch this.
He would whistle and a ton of trout would rush to the top of the pond and some would jump out out of the water to the delight of the kids.
They were huge, fat and juicy. Some were reddish in color, ready for mating.
We would be so surprised the fish knew him and even saw him coming without whistling.
Surprising how well fish see in water.
He would then throw them grain and they would go into a frenzy trying to eat up.

It was fun for us to fish there because we required no license and we would catch fish fairly quickly. We would pay him and take our fish home. It was a nice way to spend an afternoon with the kids.
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Have a good one !
:)