Bill and Joe had a great Opening Day.
They were on the water at 6:00 am and around 8:30 or just before that, Bill called to say they’d be packing it up soon – they’d caught more than their limit and would maybe fish for another half hour, just for fun, and then head back, with ten trout. I think there were 7 rainbow and 3 brown. Or maybe it was 8 and 2. The largest, a rainbow, was about 17” long.
No, I’m not talking baseball, though that’s a big thing in this house, too.
I’m talking fishing. Trout, specifically.
Here in Rhode Island, it’s my husband’s favorite holiday:
Opening Day of Trout Season.
I’ve written about this before over the years, and apart from all of us being another year older (except me – I’m a year younger, I’ve decided), things remain pretty much the same.
Here are a few links to past Opening Day-related posts, in case you’re interested:
I made a batch of chèvre recently. Have I mentioned how much I love cheeses made with goats' milk? Something about that tang...yum. I wish we had more land. I'd raise goats.
This past Saturday, April 10th, 2010, was, in case you were wondering, Opening Day of Trout Season in Rhode Island.
Those of you who have been reading this blog over the years (or who know my husband) already know that this is THE High Holy Day in my husband's life. He WILL NOT make any other plans on that day. In fact, if, for some crazy reason, I had gone into labor with either of my children on or just before Opening Day of Trout Season, it is quite possible someone else would have cut the cord and Bill would have shown up at the hospital later, with a freshly caught trout dangling from a stringer for his newborn child.
We sauted them in sage butter. Saturday, April 11th, was Opening Day of Trout Season 2009. For my husband, this is THE Holiest of Holy days in the entire year. He will not book performances on this day. he will not make plans to do anything with anybody no matter who they are, unless it… Continue reading Because They’d Look Silly Mounted on the Wall…
They're named "Opening Day Salmon Cakes" because they were made with the last of the salmon that Bill and Joe caught on Opening Day of Trout Season in RI.
This is the face of a triumphant fisherman.
The face of a man who has had good Opening Days and bad Opening Days, and who now has had an Amazing Opening Day and who has photos to prove it.
He looks ready to tell you ALL about it, doesn't he? Every tiny detail.
And that's fair enough, because it really was an amazing catch.
They brought home 7 fish: 5 trout (4 rainbow and a brookie) and 2 landlocked salmon. One salmon was 27 inches long and weighed 5.53 lbs. The other was 21 inches long and weighed probably 3+ lbs, but we didn't weigh that one separately.
You can see a ton of pictures here - there are just too many to post here and it would have taken forever for me to decide which few to use.
The guys brought the fish to our house, and after letting the kids hold them and taking the requisite Triumphant Fishermen Shots of them holding all the fish on stringers, like so:
(That's Bill up above.) (And this is Joe, below.)
and hosing them (the fish, not the kids) down in the back yard and taking impressive pictures like this:
and showing the catch to our friends across the street...
it was finally time to bring the catch inside, weigh them, clean them, and cook them.
This is the 27 inch trout on the scale. Joe caught him.
And you can see Alex's arm - he was holding his camera, taking pictures of the event, too.
Like I mentioned earlier, this fish weighed 5.53 lbs.
All together, they brought home somewhere between 14-15 lbs of fish.
We didn't get an exact weight, as we didn't weigh each fish individually.
We just kept adding the fish to the bowl, and after we put the last one in, the scale shut off - it doesn't go past 14 lbs.
Bill said they actually caught more, but they let the others go.
You can take home 10 fish per person, but unless you've got a lot of mouths to feed, it's kind of wasteful to do that.
We ate fish for 3 days. Which is fine, because we all like fish, and we cooked it in different ways. And Joe took some home, and we gave some to our friends across the street. So there was WAY more than enough fish. It would have been greedy and wasteful to keep more.
But anyway.
I'll spare you all the gory photos of Bill and Joe gutting the fish. For some reason, I took many pictures of the process. It's probably a reflex.
The kids watched a bit (including one of the boys from across the street), but it got old for them and they went off to do other things.
The larger of the two salmon was actually a female - and she had eggs. We kept them and later on I sauteed them in a bit of butter and served them over rice.
Here they are, before I cooked them: 
I also took pictures of the fish after they'd been cleaned and placed in a big bowl.
I just like the textures and patterns and all that.
Bill cooked the fish two ways.
First, while he was cleaning them, he filleted two of the trout and cut the fillets into smaller pieces.
Then he laid them out on a foil-lined baking sheet, brushed them with a bit of soy sauce, put them under the broiler, and cooked them for a few minutes.
(While Bill was cooking, Joe, who'd had less than 2 hours' sleep the night before, was trying to rest in the back yard, and my children were torturing him.)
Inside, Bill made some sushi rice...
And combined them into bite-sized portions on a pretty bamboo platter I bought recently for just this sort of meal.
And then topped them with a delicious, syrupy, teriyaki-ish Japanese barbecue sauce that I have to dig out the recipe for so I can share it with you because it is SO yummy. It's like when you have the barbecued eel at a sushi bar. That dark brown glaze.
And the other 5 fish (3 trout, 2 salmon) were rubbed with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and cooked on the grill.
And I sauteed the salmon roe in a bit of butter.
And then - we ate.
And, of course, Julia ate the eyes.
And she didn't just eat them - she CALLED them before she was served. "Can I have my fish eyes?"
or something like that.
(Sorry, Beth!)
Warning: Graphic photos of my daughter digging out fish eyes and eating them are on the next page, if you're really interested.
That's 5 trout (4 rainbow and 1 brook), and two atlantic salmon. Joe caught the longest one - it was 27" long and weighed 5.53 lbs. Bill caught the other salmon - it's 21" - and he had another one on, about the same size, but it dove under the boat and got off the… Continue reading Opening Day of Trout Season 2008 – The Catch
Bill just called. So far they've got two salmon (one is 21" and about 3 lbs, the other is 27" and about 6 lbs) and 5 trout on the stringers. (The 27" salmon gets his own stringer.) They were on shore when they called, waiting out the thunderstorms that have been coming east from Connecticut. … Continue reading Opening Day of Trout Season 2008 – Report from the Field (or Pond)
The truck was loaded up yesterday - canoe secured on top, tackle box, boat motor, oar, life jackets, anchor (a heavy disk tied to some kind of strong rope), a trash bag in which to stow the catch when carrying it from canoe to truck, and, of course, the freshwater poles. I went to bed… Continue reading Opening Day of Trout Season 2008 – The Leaving
