Tuesday, April 21, 2009Write headline
Well what a crackerjack day... We are in the midst of a rather groovy high pressure system which means the weathers pretty good, little wind, the odd shower but calm sea and often blue sky. Rowing was v slow today - as ever! So growing impatient with that and the drift was about the same as rowing anyway we set about a bit of fishing. Put the rod out with a few jiggers on and let out about 200m of line, then tied the rod onto the rail and rowed slowly on. We seemed to be in albatross HQ today there were masses of them all over the shop and other birds too, so we had something of an air display all day. I suspect it must be good feeding hereabouts with the shallowing waters and the temperature gradients changing, and upwelling nutrients etc.. Often a smell of fish will drift across the boat presumably from a nearby shoal of fish or maybe a whale at the surface. I see on our current course we should also pass over a sea mount where it shallows to only 117m, here it is about 770m deep. SO all this activity should stay around... Made my day (1st part) when I saw an albatross fly past with his head bent backwards - liiterally so he was lookiing behind him and his face was covered up with his large, pink webbed foot with which he was scratching his head! Quite a sight. Then after brunch I thought I would change the lure on the fishing line and put on a lightstick to try and attract something overnight. Anyway started reeling in and bit of a jerk, another then a hell of a tug, woop woop afish! Anyway reeled him in and it was pretty heavy and took about 20 minutes as I had so much line out. Up he came though without much of a fight and came to the surface to get a gaff in his head - not sure what he is - some sort of snapper I think. But great excitement all round - especially for the birds. I gutted it and made a rather clumsy job of filleting it, skinned him and he produced enough flesh for about 2 people - probably 3 if it had been butchered more skillfully... Suddenly the fc was like Piccadilly Circus, Albert Ross arrived with many pals, grey heads, great wanderers, mutton birds... They enjoyed fighting over the skin and scraps - they are incredibly voracious, as well as pretty stupid, they don't seem to have very good eyesight as often they would miss morsels of snapper... Anyway the rest of Monsieur snapper was headed to the Carrot kitchens. A little had been served up raw as an aperitif, this was ok, certainly fresh, and rather tasteless. Then he was fried in the kettle, unfortunately I couldn't think of anything to use for fat so this method made him a little dry and so for the large part we had him boiled in the kettle - or perhaps we should be a little grander and say he was poached in the fish kettle! This final method turned out the best. A white fleshed poisson, with a little lemon and butter would be proper. So after about 1 kilo of snapper 3 ways and apple and custard for pudding we had done well. Interestingly spades don't eat fish but gnomes do. So after 80 odd days the fishing trip has been an unmitigated success.....
posted by Olly Hicks @ 3:59 AM
