Dinner

No more excuses. Some fish had to die.

Until tonight, I had not intentionally culled or killed a fish in decades. The main reason for this was conservation. I have always said that my determination not to cull was based on view that the watersheds I fished simply would not be benefited by my removing fish. Who wants to empty the cookie jar? Now that I am in environs that can easily support my harvest, I do. It does not seem proper, or ethical, to eat the flesh of a fish or an animal, without taking part in the harvest. Too many people have become desensitized to where their food comes from. Almost as if they have stepped out of, or are 'beyond' the food chain. Sorry, but meat is murder. If you eat the flesh of a fish or an animal, someone killed it. For you. To eat. Personally, I feel that a hands on approach instills in us a greater appreciation of the process. If something needs to die so we can be sustained, I wonder if it is not our imperative to be as involved with the process as possible.

Perch are one of my favourite fish for consumption. They are delectable. I have been looking forward to a meal of fried perch for a while. After some days of tracking them down, ascertaining their behaviours, figuring out where to find ones that were finished the spawn, I figured to have a good shot at some decent eaters. I had planned on being out in the morning, but I literally couldn't get out of bed due to back spasms.



So, it was down to the lake the evening, this time equipped with some #8 weighted streamers. The night before I was getting some better perch on a Yellow Bunny that was a little to big and was resulting in a lot of tail grabs. The smaller version proved just the ticket. Numerous decent perch ended up in the creel thanks to that fly, and Mickey Finns in the same size.

The evening action was solid. If it dropped off, it usually meant a larger predator had come in. This was ascertained on a couple of occasions through hookups.

After a couple of hours, I had enough for dinner and called it a night. Such a delicious meal was made from the catch.

.........as you can see, I was being literal about the creel.