Tag Archives: Fishing

Fish!

Another beautiful day in sunny Scotland!  After Rehab, I headed out for  couple of meetings.  The girls are away for a night, “sightseeing” (shopping!) in Glasgow, so I packed my fishing rod… just in case!

As a complete novice, I headed to the only place I know for Mackerel.  When I arrived, Inverbervie bay was packed.  There were up to 6 people trying their luck in the tranquil North Sea.

Apparently the fish were “flying in” yesterday evening.  Not so much this afternoon!

Inverbervie

Another beautiful day in Aberdeenshire!

Lady luck was on my side!

I caught a fish.  More than that… I caught fish!  Very exciting!

I’m still eating a lot of fish.  Mackerel is an oily fish, high in Omega-3.  Good for me (and you)!  So I bagged them up for tea.

Mackerel Haul

Today’s Mackerel Haul!

There’s something satisfying about catching, gathering and / or growing your own food.  I don’t do it very often, but I do think it makes you appreciate what’s on your plate, and think about where it comes from.

It’s fresh and healthier too, the absolute opposite of processed food.

Having bagged four fish (a single and a very exciting treble that was almost a quadruple, for a second or two at least… the one that got away!), it was way too much for me to eat on my own so I bagged and froze two (bait for later in the year!).

Having cleaned and prepared the fish (it’s OK, I made sure I cleaned up behind myself!), it was time to select a recipe. Unfortunately I couldn’t find anything that took my fancy so I decided to go free-form… Mackerel stuffed with crushed garlic, fresh ginger, lemon wedges and freshly ground pepper.  Baked in a hot oven for about 20 mins.   You might want to stuff yours with something else!

The finished article

A little something I put together earlier.

I served mine with broccoli and green beans that had been carefully gathered from the Supermarket, but you can serve yours with whatever you like!

The fish was tasty (nothing mush to do with me!) and surprisingly filling (lots of good meat).

I definitely prefer catching to fishing!

That’s why they call it fishing!

The Caribbean?  South of France?  North Africa?

Beach

No!  Balmedie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

We have beautiful beaches.  We also have fairly crappy weather.  The occasional cracking day brings people out in their droves.  Today there appeared to be a surprisingly large number of pre-school kids (and supervisors), a cross-section of society I don’t tend to rub shoulders with very often.

Visiting beaches in Scotland isn’t something I’ve done very regularly.  However, on Tuesday I made a move that might change this… buying a fishing rod!  It got it’s first outing that evening, feathering for mackerel in Inverbervie… without success!

Fishing

Feathering for mackerel in Inverbervie

Today was the rod’s second outing… targeting flatfish.  To be honest, beyond 5 minutes research in the internet, I didn’t really know what I was doing.  Fortunately, every nursery school pupil on the beach appeared to be highly experienced, and very generous with their advice:

Expert #1:  “Throw it out further!”

Expert #2:  “You need to put it in the water!”

Expert #3:  “The fish were nibbling my toes while I was paddling.”
Paul:  “Can I borrow one of your toes to put on my hook please?”
Expert #3: 
(After a nervous pause)  “No.”

Unfortunately, despite this sound advice and offers of assistance, my rod must still look forward to it’s first catch.

Still, it was a good excuse to switch off and stare at the sea for a few hours while the girls turned into kids again, playing chicken with the (near Baltic) North Sea waves, collecting shells, burying each other in the sand, and generally larking around.

Apparently it’s going to be even nicer tomorrow.  Head to Scotland, and bring your buckets and spades! (or fishing rods)

Driftwood

An arty picture of driftwood and rocks