Somehow a month and a half has passed since my last blog post… yikes! I have no idea how that happened. Well, that’s not entirely true. I have been in a bit of a funk lately because things are not going well on the fishing front. It has been a disappointing crab season and I didn’t really feel like talking (or writing) about it. It’s a lot easier to talk about good news, but there hasn’t been much of that this season. Now, as the season draws to a close we are struggling to scrape together a Plan B that will tide us over until the next dungeness crab season.
I suppose that’s just the nature of the industry – ups and downs. Even long time fishing veterans tell me the roller coaster never ends when you fish for a living. Everything can seem fine and dandy until a bad season combines with boat troubles and really knocks you on your ass.
But on a brighter note… we went trout fishing with our boys for the first time!
Atticus with his pole
Yes, it was raining on opening day (isn’t it always), but the kids didn’t seem to mind. They were too excited about catching their first fish! After much tangled line and flying hooks they stared to get the hang of casting. The waiting for a fish to bite was quite a bit more difficult for them. 6 and 4 year olds just aren’t know for their patience. They had to keep reeling in their lines every couple minutes to see if they had anything. But, by the end of the day we had six trout in our bucket. The boys were just beside themselves with excitement and pride and I made sure to thank them several times for catching food for us. They are now officially fishermen, just like their dad – my little providers!
Atticus and Larkyn with their catch
We did the classic trout fry with the trout – dredged them in flour, salt and pepper, then fried them in butter. Pretty tasty! We went back out and caught a couple more this weekend. Not quite enough for a meal, so I’m going to smoke them and make them into a dip. One of my favorite food blogs, Savory Simple, just posted this recipe for Smoked Trout Dip, which looks amazing and would make two trout go a whole lot farther than if I just fried them up again. I’m brining the trout right now in a mixture of water, salt, sugar, garlic and pepper. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
I promise I won’t let another month and a half go by between posts this time – and hopefully next time I’ll have some GOOD news to share!
the fishing blues 
I’m so sorry to hear the crab season didn’t go well. Will your husband be fishing other “seasons” of fish during the year or do you have to wait all the way till next year’s crab season?
Hopefully he will be tendering in Alaska for the summer, but nothing is definite yet. He has to do something with the boat if we want to make it to next crab season. Wish us luck!
I wish you so much luck! Your boys are adorable. I hope the summer works our for you.
Thank you!
Love seeing these pics of your adorable boys. I miss you guys so much! Thank goodness the school year is coming to an end; let’s hide out at the pool STAT as soon as the weather gets better. xoxo
We miss you guys too! I can’t wait for summer, and hanging out at the pool sounds pretty sweet! I hope we see you soon.
Ah I feel your pain Robin. 2008 was like that for us. A bad crab season, no avocado crop, drought with the cows and to top it all off the salmon season was closed that year. With two boys in college it was a pretty bleak year. I was trying to explain to the Financial Aid depts. at the school why our income was so drastically changed and that we were going to attempt to fish for black cod. They wanted to know what our projected income was going to be…….trying to explain we had never fished black cod and I had NOTHING to base our season on. I was pretty much in tears I was so frustrated. SO here is the California Hug. Things will get better, they always do, there is always a plan a, b, c, d, e ………..
Lori
Thanks for the California hug – I needed that! Yes, I’ve had to explain our situation to so many people in the last year. I feel like I need to have a script ready explaining the different fisheries, how they work and why they are unpredictable. Uggh.
Well, thanks again for your encouragement. I’m so grateful to have friends that can empathize!
-Robin