Esox Lucius: Northern Pike

I like to eat fish, especially fish that is breaded and fried. This means that I like when people catch fish and cook them, because you really can't get breaded fish in a restaurant that's fresh and delicious and out of a Minnesota lake.When I was young I relied on my grandparents to provide me with fish. I remember eating the pieces of fried fish almost immediately after they came out of the pan, leaving very few to actually be had at dinner. It was wonderful. But, they're getting older and are enjoying gardening more than they enjoy hauling a boat out to the lake so I have to get my breaded fish elsewhere.

In comes Calhoun. You know by now, he is awesome and an outdoorsman and has been fishing since he could carry his pole out to the river behind his house. So, when the fishing season came around I thought I was in luck. Except I wasn't...his first three fishing trips were totally unproductive. Apparently the Minnesota DNR classifies streams as "trout streams" merely for purposes of funding allocation...Calhoun learned that one the hard way.

So I was thrilled a few days ago when I got this picture. Success! Thank you Lake Elmo!

Sadly, we had a few busy days in a row and were unable to fry the fish up right away but tonight we finally had our feast!


The beauty of fish at home is that it's not restaurant fish that is designed for presentation perfection, it's just plain old wonderful fish. And, Calhoun was educating me, apparently a Northern Pike is a tough fish to bone because of its unique skeletal structure, including something called a "Y" bone. This unique structure means that it doesn't always make a beautiful, boneless filet, but that doesn't mean it's bad for breading and frying!

We have enjoyed the rain tonight, the primary election results and the homegrown, Minnesota fish.