Stay Positive: Oysters

When we were in Florida, we ate at one of our favorite seafood restaurants, Captain Curt's in Siesta Key. 

As I usually do, I ordered a half dozen raw oysters. The oyster is one of my favorite foodstuffs. I enjoy its silky texture and briny goodness. 

One of the times I was in Baltimore for a conference, I ate at a restaurant that offered a plate of a dozen oysters from three different places: somewhere in Canada, somewhere off the coast of New York, and the native Chesapeake Bay oyster. Of the three, the Chesapeake was my favorite. 

I liked all of them, and I've also had oysters from New Orleans and Florida too, but Chesapeake Bay oysters are my favorite with the meaty, monstrous ones from New Orleans coming in a close second. 

Fortunately, the Chesapeake Bay oyster operations are doing much better than they have. Madeleine Thomas's article in Grist, "Half-Shell Hero," sheds some light on oysters in that area of the U.S.

Random Notes from a Crank

For a critical take on how history books get it wrong, check out "Setting Free Our History" by Tim Swinehart. It was originally published in Rethinking Schools and was reprinted in Utne.

In the current issue of Utne, they reprinted "Gone Hunting For Food" by Kate Bergin, which originally appeared in This Magazine. The article informs readers about the trend of urbanites discovering hunting and people rediscovering hunting and fishing. The urban hipsters and smart environmental folks have reasserted the practices of gardening, canning/pickling, and now hunting/fishing. I've never been much of a hunter. I'm a horrible shot, but then again, I never got any practice shooting. However, I enjoy fishing even though I haven't had much luck at all around these here parts.

In animal husbandry news (never used that clause before), check out happy pigs and their mudslide via Grist.

Gone Fishing

For whatever reason, Easter Sunday felt like a good day to take the boat out on the local lake and go fishing. Really, it was the kids' idea mostly.

So this afternoon I charged up the battery for the trolling motor, got our fishing licenses, mixed some fresh gas for the outboard, got the kids new fishing rods and reels, and then headed to the lake.

The first couple of spots didn't turn up any fish. But we settled in at a spot on the far side of the lake from the dock and actually caught some fish. I caught three smallish bass and a juvenile saugeye (pictured above) while Mrs. Nasty caught a couple of bass. The kids got shut out unfortunately.

I can't say I got a ton of fishing in with the kids wanting to change their lures on a regular basis. My daughter somehow messed up the line in her reel, which took some time to fix. And my son did the same, but I wasn't able to fix it.

I had never caught a saugeye before. At first glance, they look similar to a walleye and fight much the same: they like to dive to try to escape.

Since Mrs. Nasty and my daughter will be away most of next weekend, I think the boy and I will try our luck at the campus ponds or the same lake though we won't be taking the boat just with us two. And we'll be using worms (with bobber) next time, so the little fisherman has a stronger chance of landing a fish.

I first have to purchase a new reel for him though.

The Boat

Here's the fishing boat that we still haven't used yet since the weather hasn't cooperated.

Finally...

we've gotten a boat.

Besides going to see my parents this weekend, we also picked up Diana's grandfather's boat today. It's a fourteen-foot fishing boat with a old gas motor, circa sometime in the 1950s. Thankfully, it's a small boat since we only have a Ford Focus station wagon to pull it. 

So now we need to get a trolling motor and battery from my favorite store, Rural King. Link: https://www.ruralking.com/store/default.aspx

The fish in Coles County (Lake Charleston and the Embarass River) and in other parts of central IL need should be concerned. Hannah and her Scooby-Doo fishing rod will be on the case this summer. 

I expect to be outfished by four-year old pretty soon.