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Sunday, Aug. 18, 2002 - 7:44 p.m. After a big Sunday breakfast this morning, I went down to the garden to harvest what had ripened during the past week. There was more than I expected. I had about 5 gallons of ripe tomatoes, including a few of a �new� old variety called Cherokee. The fruit is a different shade of tomato- the color is best described as blood-purple. I also had a few more heirloom plants ready with their first ripe fruits of the summer. Most of these varieties produce large fruit, and almost all of them are later than all the hybrid varieties. But the flavor? Unbelievable! This has unfortunately been lost in the never-ending quest to produce perfectly round, all-the-same-size fruit for the markets. The flavor wasn�t what the markets wanted. They wanted a �pretty tomato�, and that is what they now have. The rich, deep tomato taste of these old-timers is what gives my salsa that extra blast of flavor. At least, that�s the way I see it. Oh yeah- I made these tomatoes (with some of my Spanish onions, mild Jalapeno peppers, cilantro, lime juice, and garlic) into my third batch of salsa of the year. I canned up 17 pints, and had enough left for a short pint to eat with my lunch this week. See what I meant by it getting back to normal here? The rest of my grapes are turning sweet. I made the jam last week (before we left) in case the tree rats decided to eat them while we were away. They haven�t touched them. I have about a 5-gallon bucket full left on the fence. I think they will be made into unfiltered grape juice later this week�.. The fish story�� We had to be at the boat we chartered by 4:30. That�s in the AM, not PM. Since we were staying in Green Bay and the boat was docked in Algoma, 30+ miles away, that meant our alarm clock was set for 3:30 am. At the time I set up this charter, I debated whether it was worth the early start just to try to catch a few salmon. After we filled up our cooler with 60+ pounds of filleted salmon flesh, I decided it was worth the loss of sleep. As I left Green Bay that morning, I made a wrong turn and ended up headed the wrong way. What did I expect at that hour? Here is a shot of Codeman, trying to wake up as we headed out into Lake Michigan:
We were only about 15 minutes late when we arrived at the boat. Our captain was Doug Schreiber of Hot Jigs charter service. His first mate was his 8th grade-aged son, Zach. Doug could win a George Wendt (Norm from �Cheers�) look-alike contest. He even sounded like him when he talked:
The reason why you pay for a charter captain for these fish is simple- they have the equipment, the boat, and the know-how to take you to the fish. Doug was very good at all of this, and even maneuvered the boat in such a way to help us land the biggest fish easier. Let me tell you- when you have 10 (yeah, 10) lines in the water at various depths and methods of trying to coax these giant fish onto a line, you better know what you are doing. He really knows what he is doing. We had our limit in about 4 hours of fishing. That was even after having several of our lines cut by another boat (which really pissed the captain off- he said he would have a talk with the other boat�s driver later that morning. I pity that other boat�s driver) and the fact that Codeman and I managed to lose several fish that we should have brought to the boat. The smallest fish weighed only about 2 pounds. The largest? 22 pounds! We had 4 that were over twenty pounds, and of the twelve that the boat landed, only 4 were less than 10 pounds. I didn�t want to keep the fish, mainly because it would have to be cared for in the hotel room for 4 days. Doug convinced me that I should keep at least some of the fish., because he didn�t want all of it. Once you land a fish, if you throw them back the become seagull food (his words), so everything caught has to be kept. After a 20-minute fight, most fish succumb to exhaustion. So, while Doug and his son were filleting the fish, Codeman and I drove to the Algoma hardware store and bought a $15 plastic cooler for only $25.99. Bet they sell a bunch of those every summer. They had a whole isle of nothing but coolers. The one I bought was the least expensive of the non-Styrofoam models that they had on display. We ended up keeping about 2/3 of the fish, and Doug took the rest home for his supper. I think he knew we wouldn't keep all of the fish (I did hint about that when I called him a few weeks ago), because he told us (while we were catching the fish) that he would be having salmon for supper that night.We still kept enough fish to fill the cooler to near-bursting, with little room for the ice to suround and protect the flesh. By the time we got back, Doug had cleaned the largest fish. I grabbed the biggest one remaining (might have weighed 20, but probably more like 17) and had Codeman snap this shot:
I think it was the fish located next to me in the photo I put up here yesterday. I guess I can drop it in here too, can�t I (he says, still proud of the fish that were caught;):
If you look closely at the photo, you can see the tiny 2-pounder. It is inside of the mouth of the largest fish, in the center of the photo. Yes, changing the ice (and removing the water) twice a day was a hassle. But it was worth it. Today, I cooked the fish two different ways. I cooked two of the largest chunks of boneless, skinless Chinook in a bath of wine and water (cold poaching) to be eaten cold in the next few days. I tasted the end result while it was still warm, and the flesh is very firm and tasty. I made a dip of sour cream and dill with limejuice, and bought a box of Ritz � crackers to eat the fish on. I might take what is left tomorrow and make a salmon salad spread to eat as lunchmeat. By the way�in case you are wondering, Lease did not want to go fishing in a boat that would be 5 miles from shore in 75 feet of water, thank you very much (I think I have mentioned before that she can�t swim and doesn�t like to be in a boat unless she can see the shore, haven�t I?). She could have came along for the ride and didn�t have to fish, but she decided that she would be much more comfortable sitting by the pool, reading her novel while we went fishing. We were back at the hotel by 11, and even after taking a short nap we still had most of the day left for other things. The other salmon I cooked today was one half of a smaller fish (5 pounds maybe?) that I marinated in teriyaki and honey with garlic. I have cooked salmon this way for many years, but this time I had really fresh fish to work with. You could tell. It was moist and full of flavor. Lease and I called up all our relatives and told them to come and get some of the meat for their own uses. I bagged up 7 large bags of salmon for this purpose. I then divided up the rest of the fish and bagged it in Ziplocks� using the �water bath� method I use for all other fish. I still have 8 more bags of salmon to eat at a later date. I might never do something like this again, but we sure did enjoy the trip. Yeah, catching these fish required almost no skill on our part. I don�t care. I have the bruises from where I held the butt of the rod against my belly to show I caught them, and we will both have the memories of the day for the rest of our lives��.. Sorry for the long entry. I will try to edit myself better in the future�� Tomorrow, if work is a boring as usual, I will write about some of the other things we did in Cheeseheadland����
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