We've had some wonderful weather recently (although interspersed with heavy rain which is really slowing down the sheep shearing process!) and Chris and I decided to catch some sunshine down at the Faery Isles and see if we could find some fish for dinner.
Chris of course did all of the fishing, while I played with the dogs and tried to convince them that he really wasn't throwing something for them every time he cast!
It didn't take long before we were in business. Mackerel swim in shoals and so every now and then a shoal swims past and things get a bit manic for a few minutes, followed by a period of not getting so much as a nibble.
Periodically a shoal of juvenile mackerel would swim past, glinting deep metalic turquoise in the clean blue sea. Following them would inevitably be a shoal of larger fish trying to eat them!
My job was the killing and gutting, while Chris continued to pull fish out. Inside several of the fish, I found a load of juvenile mackerel. I guess when you're a mackerel, anything of the right size is fair game!
At the end of the afternoon we had 20 fat healthy fish landed and ready to eat. We gave a couple to some young girls lighting a fire on the beach, and some to friends. There's nothing like catching your own local, sustainable dinner :o)
3 comments:
Really enjoyed this post, Jenny. Great photos-what a great life!
Oooh, mackerel!! They are really one of my favourite fish and I never, ever see them here in Iowa. I used to catch them off the coast of Nova Scotia in a canoe of all things! Makes me miss the ocean to think about it. Loved your pictures!
Yummy! Did you barbecue them?
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