Captain Justin of the Samarai is such a great guy, he offered to take me and my co worker out for ling cod and black bass at a cheaper rate and it was going to be just the two of us on board. What a guy! How could we refuse! Less money and less people on board…we pounced on the offer! The weather forecast was perfect, so off to Westport we went, arriving early and eager to set sail at six thirty that morning. I also love ling cod and black bass and they have been nailing them in Westport recently, so we were extremely confident that we would limit out and be back at the dock for lunch by noon.
Well, the wind gods decided to frown upon us and it was blowing twenty five knots. The tide was ebbing and the wind was against the tide so we had a massive chop and some really gnarly conditions going out over the bar. We took several waves over the bow but on we went. When we finally got into the ocean the waves were still pretty big, a few fifteen footers, but for the most part it was just fine. And Captain Justin is a great helmsman so he kept us on our lines. Because of the wind we drifted really fast which meant we had to keep pulling up our lines and head back up the hill to the rock patches we were angling. But catch fish we did. All of us. Even the Captain’s friend who was invited at the last minute. Three guys reeling them in, in big wind and big waves- too much fun!
It was my lucky day as I caught the most black bass, six, and I limited out on ling cod catching my quota of two. But the best surprise of the day was the massive wrenching tug on my line that bent my rod and started my reel singing as the line played out and whatever it was that ate my bait began to run. And run. And run. I finally came to my senses and tightened the drag on my reel and began the arduous but fun process of reeling whatever it was on the end of my line in. I reeled. And reeled. And reeled as my fellow fisherman made some really funny jokes like “What did you hook, Moby Dick?” and “It must be a halibut!” It turns out that catching a halibut where we were drifting is pretty rare so I figured I had a monster ling cod. Visions of winning the derby danced in my head……
Then suddenly we could see color beneath the waves and guess what I caught? That’s right, a halibut! Woo hoo!!!!!! The Triple Crown! The trifecta of fishing! It was a really nice sized fish, just right, about twenty five pounds. Perfect for me to enjoy for quite some time. We landed the beauty in the boat and I was ecstatic. So was everyone on board. We all high fived and everyone congratulated me. It was awesome. I asked the deck hand to save me the carcass as I wanted to make a fish stock. I also asked him to save me the liver as they are really tasty. The filets are the perfect size and Brian, the deck hand, did a great job of filleting all of my fish.
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| Steve, Deck Hand Brian, Chef Stu and Bruiser |
I will add the recipe for my fish stock to the blog soon. I am also putting on the recipe of the halibut dish I prepared when I did my Chef interview for my current Executive Chef position here at Comcast Arena and Event Center. Ah yes, my Executive Chef interview. What a day THAT was. That will be one of my next blogs, so please stay tuned!
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| Black Bass on the Barby |
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