A BIT OF SEVERAL THINGS by Ralph Bice
From Wednesday July 4, 1979
Seems like the last few weeks I have been finding some fault with the way things are going in the woods. Not that I expect my beefing will make things any better. Recently there was an announcement that fishermen could expect to have to pay $5.00 for a fishing licence, but perhaps not until 1982. They did not wait that long to increase the hunting licenses. Too, the Minister stated that the reason the licences had been discounted about ten years back was that it cost too much to administer. Another time it was stated it was too hard to collect. I do wish there would be an explanation as to why it is harder to administer and collect money for fishing licences than hunting licences.
There was a fishing licence for Algonquin Park since there has been a park and no one thought it too difficult to administer. We started paying $1.00 for gun licences several years before the last world war. Non-residents still pay a fishing licence. But why was the resident fishing licence hard to administer?
From Wednesday July 11, 1979 Cleaning Fish
I never could understand why many people like to go fishing and of course catch some but hate to clean them. I can remember the first years I acted as a guide so many of the older guides dodged the work of cleaning said fish. So many seemed to think it was a horrid job. I was lucky for I fell in with one of the older guides, also one of the best, who showed me how fish should be cleaned both for keeping to take home or for the pan. He wanted it to look as nice as when it came out of the water.
Trout are so easily cleaned. A few slits with a sharp knife, the use of a thumb nail and the fish is ready. Two easy movements cut out the gills, another to slit the belly. The membrane that holds the belly of the fish to the head should be left as is. When cleaned it still shows a natural look. Takes more time for a larger fish but for the usual run of lake trout a man should be able to clean such fish in less than half a minute.
Bass take more time. Small bass have to be scaled, de-finned so they can be made ready for the pan. Larger bass should be skinned and after years we discovered you make better time if you start at the tail. When the bass is skinned, it should be filleted. We found that bass have a better flavour if kept until the next day to cook and eat while trout have more flavour if cooked for the next meal, same day.
I have had very little experience with pickerel but several times I have eaten pickerel that were skinned and filleted and they were much better than just scaled and cooked.
It is not such a job cleaning fish except in fly time when it seems the flies wait until both hands are all fish slime and you can not swat your face or neck and then at a signal they all dive at the same time.
Fish must be cleaned before they are cooked. Fish are such beautiful creatures they should look that way as long as possible.
The Man Who Cleans the Fish
There’s one in every group and clan,
A willing, happy-hearted man
Who gets the wood, and lights the fires,
First quits his bed and last retires
He makes the coffee, fries the ham,
And opens every jar of jam,
And while a round of cards we play
He cleans the fish we caught that day.
The most of us who fishing go
But little of the burdens know.
We proudly talk in easy chairs
Of rods and reels and lures and snares
And where the speckled beauties lurk.
We love the sport but not the work.
But he knows best what fishing means
Who does the work behind the scenes.
Give him a knife, and board and pail
And every fish we catch he’ll scale.
While we go in and bathe and dress
He cleans the evening supper mess.
Beside the river’s edge he stays
To earn our everlasting praise.
He says “Do anything you wish.
I’ll get to work and clean the fish.”
Without this kindly useful man
Were he to leave us, few I know,
Again would ever fishing go.
He grants to us the long day’s fun
And gladly does the work we shun,
So here’s the camp’s devoted wish:
Long live the man who cleans the fish. – Alabama Game and Fish News.
