Filling the Freezer with Fish

Paul and a couple of his buddies went overnight fishing this past weekend.  He came home from work, shoveled supper down his maw, and headed out to the lake before it got too dark.  Rhiannon and I leisurely finished our meal, visited with my sister and her husband and went home for the night.

While Rhiannon and I were soundly snoozing the darkness away, Paul and his boating cohorts were busy catching their limits and filling the cooler.  Around 5 am, I heard the sound of tires crunching on the gravel driveway and Paul pulled in.  I think I managed to open a still sleep encrusted eyelid and asked if he brought any fish home.  He grumbled something incoherent (either that or I was already asleep again) and fell into bed.

Later that morning, after barn chores and feeding the human offspring, I looked around for the cooler of fish.  Finally found it in the trunk of the car, opened it and "Ta-Da"!  A wonderful, beautiful, cooler full of crappie!

Cooler full o' Crappie!  

We normally don't eat fish here unless it's fresh from the local lakes or river, so to say a cooler full of fish made me happy would be an understatement.  Rhiannon, of course, had to see the fish, touch the fish, play with the fish, make the fish "talk", and poke at their eyeballs.  But come on, what kid doesn't want to poke at a dead fish eyeball?  Ok.  So it's just me and my kid.  Oh, and am I the only one, or does everyone else looke at the word "Crappie" and say in their head "Crap-E" before they can say "Crop-E"?  Ok.  So it's just me.

Paul was up by now (no thanks to Rhiannon and I clomping around the house, trying to be quiet) and he got ready to start filleting the fish.  I would have helped, but my sister was in so I had to spend some quality time with her before she left. 

After we got home from visiting, I found a bucket filled with ice water and fillets in the sink.  I packaged them up and stuck them in the freezer.  There was just over six pounds of fillets!  So once again, Paul was left to catch the fish, clean up the fish, and provide for his family.  

I love fish my husband!

Paul's Take

She always says, "You kill it, I'll clean it & cook it".  But it's funny how there always seems to be something else that interferes with the cleaning part and she's nowhere to be found.  I could have used some help filleting all those fish, but Nooooooo, she has to go somewhere and leaves me with the mess.  She'd better cook them up good.