Sep 7/8 - to the dogs

Ok, what did I do yesterday ... I did go fishing at end of day, that I know. I remember today better than yesterday !

So ... starting with today:

I went fishing in the a.m., catching a couple of bass, losing many minnows and one hook. I stopped at Jim & Bonnie's on the way home, for two reasons: first, to see if I could sort out a connection problem that Bonnie was having with the internet, and second, to ask Jim what it was that I caught last night fishing !

When I described the fish -- dorsal fin that ran right back to the tail -- Jim pronounced that it was a dogfish. When I told him that I'd filleted it ... he suggested that I bury the fillets. I guess that he would not eat dogfish ! Back home, I looked the fish up on the internet and got a variety of reviews. One said that to fillet the fish you nail the head to a plank, do the filleting, throw away the fish and eat the plank. Most, however, were fans of eating it.

The bowfin is listed as a warm water game fish. It really fights -- like a pike in the shallow water -- and since I'd never seen one before, I had no idea what I was netting. Once in the boat, I had no idea what I'd caught.

At just over 4 pounds, there was a lot of fish. We had the first fillet tonight for dinner and it tasted ok, but the texture was a bit strange. Dry but soft, it reminded me of Pompano. I'm typing this blog now and will post it just in case it's the last you hear from us ! I don't know if we'll bother eating the other fillet. If we were really hungry ... perhaps it would be better deep fried ? Note that I'm not a huge fan of Pompano either. They're ok ... but ... pretty soft meat.

What else -- lots of packing (both days), power washed the ATC's, power washed the Whaler and small boat -- which I'd pulled from the water yesterday and turned over on the dock. I'm pulling the Whaler up on the ramp while we are gone. One of the things that I did do yesterday was drill out the chamber holes in the little boat so that dirt wouldn't plug them when water flowed from front to back. I also removed the cover to the live well in the center seat, fiberglassed closed by my Dad eons ago. While I was using the power washer I did both cars -- not a fancy car wash but helped get rid of the bugs, bird guano etc.

Just before Jim and Bonnie came over for a drink, I mowed the lawn. I was tempted to leave it but didn't want to see what it would look like when we get back a month from now.

I did have a snooze yesterday, still recovering from Sunday's ride.

We are planning on leaving around 7:30 or 8:00 tomorrow morning, on our way to St. Anicet PQ.

That's all that I can think of.