Gone Fishin' *updated* (graphic description, no pics)

[Cassandra]

I promise, this is related to meat birds if you will just bare with me.

I am trying to coordinate a fishing trip this weekend. Every day on the way to work my 4-yr old asks me "how many days of school left?" wanting to know how long it is until the weekend. This morning I told him two days (today and tomorrow.) So, then he said, "I want to go fishing this weekend." He has never been. I think he has heard my mom talk about every once in a while. He really has no idea what it means to go fishing.

I started fishing on my own when I was probably 7. Mamaw had a good sized pond on her 18 acre farm. And mom would have killed me if she knew I was going to the pond by myself, but of course I did. At that age, I was agile enough to bait hooks with worms or crickets I'd caught myself. And I could get the fish off the hook most of the time. We'd mostly catch bream (the occassional catfish).

I guess I was probably 8 or nine when I would clean them myself. Not catfish. I have never skinned a cat. The uncles had the proper tools for that. LOL But I could scale and gut bream, take their heads off and get them ready for frying.

Then, up through my teen years, I helped skin squirrels, rabbits and deer.

SO FAST FORWARD

The reason I want to go fishing (aside from taking my son) is so that I can hopefully catch some fish to clean. Over the years, I have become sheltered and the thought of killing and processing a chicken is just repulsive to me!

And I need to get back to where it is not. As time goes on, I would like to add some meat birds to my flock and perhaps rabbits, eventually. But if I am too squeamish to process them they will be wasted!

So, I'm hoping to work my way up again, the way they did us in science class through middle school, Jr. High and high school. When we started disecting things, we started with a worm... then a starfish, then a frog, then a fish, then a fetal pig in human physiology class.

Did y'all have to work your way up through degrees of animal processing? I know it is perfectly natural for humans to kill and dress their own food. But the prospect is still making me a little queasy.

Cassandra

 

[wegotchickens]

Makes perfect sense to me!
And a good time to teach your son this progression as well.

 

[eggzettera]

I am in the exact same boat. Can go fishing by myself and clean etc. not a problem. As a teenager I helped process 100 chickens in 1 day, fast forward.....got a roo by mistake had to euthanize, just killing was an issue let alone....all the mixed feelings..killing something and not putting to best use...1 step at a time....Good Luck & good fishing.....think I may just go this weekend to before my license expires....thanks for the post!

 

[Cassandra]

Somewhat graphic description to follow. I have elected to not add pictures. LOL

Well, alright! I and my son went fishing today at a friend's pond. Brennan learned quickly and within an hour managed to start reeling them in all by himself. (we are going to work on casting later.)

Most of the fish we caught were bream too small to keep. So we practiced mainly "catch and release." But we did bring home about six hand sized bream and a four or five pound catfish.

I gutted and cleaned them all myself as soon as we got home, but I had to have John (dh) help me with the catfish. I've been having some wrist problems and just didn't have the hand strength to behead the thing. It was like sawing through concrete with an emery board!

I realized that I don't have the proper tools for this work, and that is my most important lesson learned. I need some MUCH sharper and sturdier knives. I think I should probably get a good heavy meat cleaver for chopping off heads, a small thin knife for gutting and a very sharp fillet knife. I wasted a lot of the catfish simply because I didn't have a knife sharp enough to cut the meat off the bones and skin.

I ended up sawing their heads off and it would have just been SO much easier with the proper tools.

We also got sunburned on our face and arms. Brennan had a great great time. He watched me clean a few of the fish and he was telling them (while I was cleaning them) "Sorry, sorry... sorry fish." So I talked to him about how lots of animals eat other animals and WE are animals that like to eat other animals. I told him how the fish ate worms and bugs and smaller fish.

John was grilling when we got home (he grills enough meat to last us the whole week so we don't have to cook!) We took two of the breams and put them in a fish grilling rack with some lemon slices and grilled them up for Brennan. He at a little of it, but not much. Breams are very bony and have tiny bones throughout the meat, so I had to pretty much flake him some off and pinch it with my fingers to make sure there were no bones in it. It was like fish mush by the time I gave it to him. LOL Not the most appetizing thing.

Anyway, the fishing trip was a success, I think. My husband said never bring him another catfish to clean because he wouldn't do it. I told him he was going to have a hard time after the revolution.

Cassandra

 

[MRNpoultry]

The working you way up sounds like a good idea. My dad is teaching me how to skin deer and squirels. Squirels are really hard to skin with out a good knife. I have been skinning fish since I was since I was real young. Now I ain't got no promblem skinning fish.