Thursday, May 15, 2008

A Fish Tale

I had a wonderful Mother's Day. The weather was absolutely beautiful. The sky was perfect, the temperature was perfect, and the boys behaved (for the most part).
The four of us went to our new property and fished in our pond. We caught four very nice catfish. They were probably 3-5lbs apiece. We decided that three of them would have been more than enough to eat, so we put the last one back into the pond, and packed up and came home. We prepared the sink with some very cold water and was about to start the messy process of cleaning the fish. We brought them out of the ice chest and placed them into the sink and found that all three of them were still alive. We were amazed. They had been out of the water well over an hour and a half, but they were still going strong. Hubby looked at me and asked me if I really wanted to kill them? My answer was no. I don't know how to clean catfish. The problem was, he didn't want to kill them either. His heart just wasn't in it. He told me that he hated to kill them when, obviously, they were very determined survivors. So he asked the kids if they wanted us to kill them and eat them or put them outside in the goldfish pool overnight and take them back to the pond on Monday. They decided to let them go. So we got a leaf net from my pool and fished out the goldfish and placed them in our aquarium with the guppies. Then we put the three catfish in our goldfish pool in the back yard. We had a time keeping them in the water. They kept jumping out. We had to keep a very close eye on them. They stayed in our goldfish pool until Tuesday. Unfortunately, one jumped out overnight Monday, so the boys got to eat her. But the other two were safely returned to their home in our pond. Yesterday we took some catfish food out there and fed them. They boys loved doing that. There are probably around 65-70 catfish in the pond. I think they will eventually become pets, because Hubby and I don't have the heart to kill them. Oh well, that's why there's frozen Cod in the freezer, right?

10 comments:

Leah said...

That's a great Mother's Day story. I love how much trouble you went to in order to save them, in the end. (I must add, however, that I looove catfish--to eat, that is)

kylie said...

had to smile at this....
my hubby goes fishing and mostly comes back empty handed but when there's a catch the fish is often still alive. it disturbs me to know that this fish will die at my place. also, the kids dont like the way mr k cooks it so no-one is really happy but we all just eat it respectfully.
i hope he takes up catch and release fishing soon :)

Suzanne said...

I love you. Thanks. XO

Anonymous said...

Cece,
A great story - I love the fact that you put the fish back - well, 2 of them anyway! I don't like eating fish, and I don't like touching them either, so some of this story gave me the shivers (especially the photo!!)

Peter

INNER VOICES said...

i have more fun "fishing" than catching fish.. although i do eat the fish i catch and mmmmmmm, good. but its the sport of it, the day, the fun, thats more appeling than the cleaning. thats not to say i go out and sport fish, but when the intention is to eat it after....

Gig said...

I love that you all got to go out to your pond and fished and had a great Mothers Day. That is what it is all about. I am not into fishing but Mr. Big and grandkids are. He has taught them how to cast and the list goes on and on. The younger ones don't understand catch and release, that's what is allowed on part of the river here. There are lots of lakes that they get to go to though.
Really like that really big fish!!

XO
Gig

Kookaburra said...

Cece,
Terrific Mother's Day story. I didn't know that cat fish got so large!! Glad that two were returned to the pond. Is your pond large enough to sustain 65 - 70 catfish without overcrowding??

Cheers,
Mark.

The Mistress said...

That's a whopper!

Inner Voices claims to hear that line all the time. Ha.

I'm visiting here via Inner Voices who is having us meet and mingle from blog to blog.

bindhiya said...

Dear Cece,
Nice to hear you had a great mother's day!
I am not into fishing...
have a great weekend.
love and ((hugs))
bindi

Suzanne said...

Hey you. Thanks for the email. I'm trying to respond, but it's so long winded I thought I'd tell you to have hope. It is comming!

XO