fight & fish, pike I

like i mentioned earlier today, the weasel has been taking care of some of the waste management at the cottage. however, the weasel has a competitor, namely a jaybird (that my father would rather not see visiting the yard).

here the weasel is making sure the coast is clear to spring across the yard to go and snatch some fish parings







made it back safe. amazing, considering that the parings were twice the size of the weasel (head and backbone of large burbot). he even sort of tucked the parings under the branches...







then the bugger arrived! weasel had gone hiding for a minute, that was enough for the jaybird to try it's luck. but, as they do in cartoons #!"&%½%&#!!







there was a lot of very fast movement, too fast for my camera settings (not even a chance to try and adjust them) and the jaybird had to fly away defeated! little weasel proudly towed his parings to wherever his stash is.

mom and dad got these with nets. i have no idea how dad is able to clean them outside, my fingers were freezer just for taking the pictures!







here dad shows how a pike is fileed. mom and dad usually throw all pikes back to lake as dad thinks pikes are bate-fish...

whack on the head! sorry, but that's how it's done

the belly fins are cut off first

then a cut just behind the head and full force towards the tail. obviously, a very sharp knife is needed

this ain't easy, it's cold, fish is kinda slimy and hard to hold on

this is a bit easier, well, at least it looks easier

this was what i got, 6 nice big pike filees. took half of them to my brother's, the other half i took with me to the shack

i had to take a pic of the lake and deck. water level of the lake was 90 cm higher this summer, what happened no one knows. it's normal to have some fluctuation, but this much in such a short time is just weird







these became dinner last night







i have made this compound butter once before, then on salmon. thought it might be nice with pike as well. there is recipe from martha, but i just mixed a blob of butter, 2 tsp grainy dijon mustard and 1 tbsp minced capers into paste that i put to the freezer fow a while to harden







the filees took approx 10 mins to cook on medium high heat, divine no matter what dad thinks of pike as human food. but... you absolutely need to use real butter for frying. there is no way out, no ifs, no buts, just butter







since certain someone had taken the dog for a long walk earlier in the day and fed him, he didn't get anything. that's why he's playing martyr on the kitchen floor