Deboning Da Fish

My dad wanted to go fishing for his birthday, so one cool Sunday morning in August he picked me and my husband up and we met my sister at Fenton Lake about an hour north of Albuquerque.  It was perfect fishing weather: cool with a light rain.  We set up our lines and cast out into the unknown yet small lake and waited and waited.  A big part of shore fishing is waiting, which is probably why some people consider it relaxing and others boring.  It can be both, but the waiting also creates an air of anticipation – waiting on the edge of a folding chair, waiting for the unknown, waiting for a possibility, waiting for that slight moment when the tip of your pole dips and snaps back upright, waiting for that bite, waiting for the exhilaration of setting the hook and reeling in a mystery – is it a fish, a boot, lake muck, who knows? – waiting.

Eventually my dad walked back up to the truck that was parked not too far away.  As soon as he was out of sight, the waiting ended.  My sister’s (the Pie Goddess) line jerked, she grabbed her pole, set the hook, and reeled it in.  I ran to get the net to the surprising cacophony of clapping and cheering from fellow fishers.  The Pie Goddess had an audience!  I unnecessarily netted the fish.  It was little and the Pie Goddess decided to throw it back.  My dad missed the entire show, but from then on the bite was on!  At least for the Pie Goddess.  She had a number of missed bites, but caught two more and kept one.  I even managed to catch a little one that I threw back.  Somehow the girls caught the fish and the boys were skunked!

But this is what the waiting game is all about: it’s fun – you never know what might happen or what might not happen.  But luck is always on my side with this game because my dad and sister don’t eat fish, but my husband and I do!  So even if I don’t catch anything, I always go home with the fish! 

But that means I have to figure out how to cook it.  (I always manage to have someone else clean it!)  However, I still had to debone out how to debone a trout.  Wikihow gave 3 options on how to do it.  Because this fish was still on the small side, I decided to cook it with the bones in.  The cooking part was actually a lot easier than I expected.  I thawed the fish, combined olive oil, parsley, and a little salt and pepper and basted the inside of the fish.  Leaving the bones in with all of the seasoning seemed strange, but I did it even though it felt wrong. I wrapped it in foil and put it in the oven. It cooked fast too – maybe only 10 minutes.

And then for the deboning.  I couldn’t do it; I was too nervous of ruining the whole thing.  The husband stepped up to the plate and did a fabulous job!  He put his fingers into the hot fish and pulled the entire backbone out.  Impressive!  There were no bones left in the meat of the fish!

Trout is a bit on the wild side and has a definite fishy taste to it, but the olive oil and seasoning mellowed it out.  We paired it with some shrimp (concocted by the husband) and some veggies for a yummy, healthy dinner.