Good day out today

Took my son to weymouth for a days fishing, his first, my second at the
seaside!

Came home with 8 pollock. yum yum. He was chuiffed to bits. VERY windy
today, but it gave him lots of practice with his gear ert, and at 9y.o.
that's got to be good.


On the lighter side, I was stopped from baiting up by an elderly chap who
told me "don't eat the bottoms of them fish. Fillet them and eat the
topsides only. They'm bottom feeders you see, their belly's are all
parasited" etc etc.

He almost had me going, when he added,

"I'm an ex sea captain. Fished everywhere. Dont eat the bottoms now!"

I was quite convinced when he added,

"Its the same in the med. NEVER eat ANYTHING out of the Med".

Then, to seal my disbeleif he went on "my Granny never ate wnything out the
Med. Lived till she was 200 (sic) she did".

Yeah. Okay mate. Still, had me and the onlookers smiling as he toddled
off.

David

I agree with conservation whole heartedly.

We DID return FAR more fish than we kept (in fact so many more that my son
started to think it was always the same fish with a death wish!), but we are
a family of two parents and four children. My son was excited about the
prospect of feeding the whole family from his catch.

When we got home all four of the non-fishing lot dived into the bait bucket
for a look, many "oohhs and ahhhs" and my son's pride was huge.

We gutted, fried in butter and ate as a family on what we had caught.

We wasted no fish and we killed nothing that wasn't eaten. Could the
trawler that would otherwise have provided our food have said the same?

I have no problem with killing to eat. I also hunt rabbits which we eat.
Like I said, I don't kill things for fun alone - we always eat the catch. I
get a real buzz out of sitting down to eat something I have hunted with
skill and caught myself, as does my son. And Derek Moody will assure you
that if I catch according to skill, most fish are more than safe!!

My future eatable catches will also be kept if I'm after feeding the family,
but those over and above supper will be returned. That's not wrong is it?


The one little Rockling (I think it was) we caught had a gawp at us and was
also released.

Thanks for the comments, I hope that satisfies!

David