05.30.13 A true fish story with pictures!

We’ve heard much about the Northern Pike being really slimy and hard to clean. Then some people started telling us how delicious they could be once you’ve done the cleaning.  This evening, after baking the cake that didn’t come out so great looking but really did taste fine, I decided to go back to the lake to see how Roy’s evening was going since he was still working. Have I mentioned it is so cool living right next to a lake!  I found him sitting at the end of the pier (like he was in an earlier picture) still fishing!  As I got closer I could see he had hooked a fish and it was a Northern.  The fish up here don’t bite like southern fish do.  The bobber (that’s what they call the cork) just goes under a bit and you know you’ve got a fish, unlike the big jerk you feel when a nice trout is on the line.  He reeled the Northern in and we were both so proud.  I’d say he was about 16 inches long with lots of speckles on him.  Since all we had to do was walk from the end of the pier to the cleaning room I knew the fish wasn’t dead yet.  I’ve seen the other workers knock the fish on the head to kill him but never my own hubby, but kill him he did and in fine fashion!  Roy started in on filleting him like the seasoned professional he’s become. Looked like a good bit of meat on the fish and then he told me “now I’ve got to make the pants”.  Okay well that’s an odd northern saying so curious as I am I watched as he removed what they call “the Y bone”.  You can hear the scary music playing in the back ground when they say that like some people say “mother in law” with that dread and inevitable torture mixed in!  It’s a fairly long row of tiny bones that have to be removed.  This little part of the whole cleaning process takes as long as everything else and it leaves you with what looks like a long pair of pants, hence “making the pants”.  I so understand now.  This was a learning experience for me as I watched my hubby do his job (only this time on the fish he caught), then package fishy up to take home.  I’m posting a series of pictures I took this evening from when Roy caught the fish through the part where he makes “the pants”!  The pics are at the end of this post.

The resort is a licensed packaging place so there are lots of rules and regulations you have to follow to clean and package the fish.  I think our guys doing this is very cool and the guests sure like this free service.  I hope to never be included in the cleaning part, but the packaging and delivering I’m up to.  I’ve been told that many times the wife gets called in to help her spouse when the fish cleaning piles up.  We’ll see how I do on that one!

The pictures below are in reverse order because  I couldn’t figure out how to get them rearranged so please start at the bottom and follow the story up to the top!

Ya’ll come back now, ya’ hear!