Chad came home from work the other day with this:
There are two fish in that bag! I said . . Chad, what are you going to do with those? He said . . I’m going to dump them in a bowl. And so he did!
And then I said . . NO! What are you going to do with them long term? He said . . Oh! Jessi and I have an aquarium. In the dorm! Whose room? Mine. You do still have separate rooms, right? Yes!
The next day he went fishing after work and came home with this.
He was cleaning and talking and talking and it was getting dark and he still had to drive back to school. I asked Vince to help clean the fish and Vince said . . I don’t clean fish! Oh, yes, I remember that! One year we rented a cabin in Indiana, they had a fishing guide and fished all day long. I stayed at the cabin and sewed. They arrived back about dark and had at least one ice chest full of fish. Vince looked at me and said I don’t know how to clean fish! Chad was probably 10 years old and I wasn’t about to turn him loose with a sharp knife. We had no electric knife and did I say we had an ice chest full of fish? I finished cleaning the fish at 2 a.m. and I dared them to bring home a fish the next day.
So, Vince isn’t cleaning fish, Chad needs to get on the road so . . what’s left to do?
Give me a knife and . . hey . . put that camera down!
Eewwww . . this is kinda getting gross but . . I can do it! And I did. We got them all cleaned and Chad got back to school . . with his two little fish for the aquarium.
Another fun filled weekend at our house! 
{ 33 comments… read them below or add one }
He needs to do a little more catch and release! LOL!
I agree with Vince…………. I don’t clean them either.
Good momma!
LOL! Do you get to cook them, too? That was a nice group of fish he caught! My husband just texted me to tell me he was taking off work and heading to the lake . . . but thankfully, he does clean his own fish!
Hi Judy,
Love your blog – fish stories and all.
Loved your idea on pieced borders – doing them first. I am big on tradiation a big-flower borders with fabric I fall in love with first and inspire my whole quilt. But, I am fascinated with this aspect of figuring out pieced borders and then working in.
Keep up your wonderful blog. It is on my list of daily reads, fish, chicks, gardening, and all, especially quilt inspiration.
Wow Judy…is there anything you don’t do? I think I’d have to love somebody very much indeed to gut fish for them. Luckily for me, when my son Max goes fishing he never ever catches anything at all!
OK, this covers a couple of things on my “to do” list – learning to fish, and learning to prepare said fish (assuming I could catch some) for eating. Chad must be quite the fisherman! Good job to both of you!
Does Vince realize what a good catch he made when he married you? LOL I don’t think there is anything you can’t do, Judy. I have never cleaned a fish and not planning on learning anytime soon, lol.
YUM-MO… Crappie are THE BEST!! I tell DH that since I married him there are 2 things I no longer do… clean fish, and change the oil in my car. Those are now his tasks. But I sure love to go help him CATCH the fish!!
Kat
I didn’t realize how much you look like your mother. When I saw the first photo, I thought you were still in LA. Two beautiful southern ladies.
I admire you as a mother! But I draw the line, I can’t clean wildlife, I just eat it!
You are good! I don’t clean fish either. And Dan cuts up all the elk (I do wrap). Long ago he got me a game cookbook and wrote on the inside, “I spy ‘em, you fry ‘em.” I do my part.
You look so cute!
Have you thought of green for the t-shirt? he he he
I love the look on your face!!!! So much being said without saying a word lol! If someone brought me fish to clean, they would starve! I don’t know the first thing about cleaning fish.
Oh, my goodness…….I’d not know what to do with those fish and would have no intention of learning. (Of course, I don’t like to eat them, either, so I don’t feel one bit guilty about not cleaning them!!!) Rarely do they catch any around here and when they do, it’s such a big deal that they don’t mind cleaning the fish themselves.
hmmm…what time do we eat? I would even learn to help clean them or, eek, do dishes for some fresh fish!
I agree-YUMMMM. The lake just opened here last week (29th, 3 weeks early) we dont have the dock out yet, so no boat either, and are heading to CHICAGO for 3 weeks, so no fishing for us for awhile…I can clean them but not easily, (hub usually does it) but lately I hate it, because they are usually not DEAD YET. I can clean anything, but I HATE killing things. Weird. But I LOVE crappies, they are my favorite, along with sunnies. Bass I like, walleyes are not big deal-to ME. Around here, they are GOD’s fish, and people go crazy. I am surprised there are any left. Our lake has no public access, and about 20+ people live on it. It has all of the above, plus Northern Pike, suckers (which i hear are good smoked-yuck). I am so jealous, those are NICE crappies. We get them up to 2 pounds, 15 inches, but not many, 1-3. And we have to find them. YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMY…..
OMG! You are such a good mom…I’m with Vince on this one…yuck!
Been there done that!!!!
Judy you should of had Chad cut off the heads and gut the fish. Rinse them well and put the fish in a container of water. Put a plate over the fish so they don’t float and put the whole thing in the refrigerator. I have my husband do this all the time and when they are good and cold I brush the scales with a new, cheap tooth brush to get any slippery stuff off. Then I filet the fish. I can do this indoors, sitting down. I also remove the skin instead of the scales.
When I freeze the fish I also freeze them in water.
Growing up it was my and my siblings job to clean all the fish caught by our father, uncles and grandfather. All those younger then 10 got a tea spoon to scale the fish and the older ones had the gutting/fin/head removal. What memories were made all of us lined up along that old board with scales flying a full gut bucket! Catfish skinning was saved for the adults thank goodness.
What a loving mom won’t do for her kids….
Judy, I am an old fishing nut. I love to catch them, filet them and then eat them — espeically crappie. They are my favorite too. I once cleaned over 100 sunfish with my filet knife and said I’d never to THAT again. You only got one little bite on each side of the backbone. What a waste. I’m not one who can eat any fish from the bone or that might have a bone in it. That’s why I learned to do the fileting myself. I’m proud of you that you went ahead and cleaned them. It’s really no big deal in the larger scheme of things.
Tell Chad that’s a nice catch! Dar
Nice catch. I love to fish but I can’t touch, eat or be in the house when they are being cooked. Very allergic. I take them off the hook with rubber gloves and toss them back into the lake.
Maybe I should send my fishermen up your way. Two went Sun. and didn’t catch much, nothing to bring home. Of course they spent the time fighting the Oklahoma wind.
A totally awesome catch!!! But why does MOM need to do all the work????? I would tell Vince – no work – no fish!!!
It isn’t like it is so hard to do!!! Many hands make short work!
time to teach the son and his girl how to do this job. along with time management… another day teach them both to COOK those fish too.. nice to be needed, but time to pass on the skills.
Chad was cleaning the fish. Believe me . . he does it much better than I do now. It isn’t a time management issue. He’s in college and works an almost full-time job. On this day, he had gotten off work at 4, drove 30 minutes to the fishing spot, drove 30 minutes home, never took time to eat the steak we had saved for him. He had to get the fish cleaned and drive back to school. Granted, coming in at 7 p.m. with fish to clean wasn’t ideal but with his schedule, it’s about all he could do in order to get some fishing time in.
And he cooks fish better than I do. When they’re camping, Chad is the chief cook and it almost always involves fish so he gets lots of practice.
The girlfriend wasn’t here this weekend but she’s an outdoorsy type girl and I’m betting she already knows how to clean fish.
Good for you Judy – but I think everyone who fishes needs to know how to clean them (that would be Vince, LOL). My Mom was great at cleaning fish. Camping fishermen would catch way more bluefish then they ever needed so we usually ended up with 1 big bluefish just about every night. Every night in the summer, can you imagine – because bluefish is very fishy. But we ate it! Mom always gave the head to the cats – she would wrap that fish in foil with tomatoes, lemon, salt and pepper and grill it and then sprinkle cheese on it and it was good – did I mention just about every night! Chad had a good catch there!
That is a fine looking mess of fish! Makes me hungry. My grandmother could cook the absolute best crappie (or any other fish) in the world. Lemon Pepper and cornmeal. Thank goodness my husband can as well, although he doesn’t care for Lemon Pepper so I have to lemon my own. All four of us can fish and we do it as a family when we can. Our ten-year-old daughter usually does the best as far as quantity!
I am proud of you!!!!! Good job—creating memories for a life time!!!!!
You cook, you bake and you clean fish – Awesomeness!!!
Ugh! I haven’t fished in years and I think I probably was taught to clean a fish but it’s been so long I don’t remember how and doubt I’ll ever clean another one in my life!
Wow! I LOVE the first picture of all the fish lined up! The visual was actually a patchwork quilting inspiration! I made a quilt of the shores of Lake Erie years ago… maybe a followup is due??? Thanks for the inspiration!
MaggieB
http://www.patchworkquilting.net/