My game plan during a recent fishing outing was pretty simple: replenish my fish supply. I realized that I had made a slight miscalculation regarding my fish inventory because my freezer was completely empty. That’s a red alert/mini-emergency and the person responsible for righting that wrong would be me, because it was my own fault. Either way, pike and crappies were on the agenda and in that order. 

Pike are more popular to catch than they are to eat and those pesky Y bones are to blame. For my money, northern pike are pretty tasty and the Y bones are only intimidating if you don’t even try to pull them out. There are plenty of times when I don’t keep fish but then there are times that I am a catch and eater. Catching a northern pike usually results in that fish getting an invite to my garage fish fry.   

Spoiler alert: Phase 1 of “Project Fill Up The Freezer” was a success. Almost right out of the shoot a 34- inch pike helped itself to my lure. It was big enough to have small shoulders which also meant that it could not be called a hammer handle, which is a popular term for short skinny fish. Honestly, that fish would have been enough but when I caught another one a few minutes later, I could already picture one fish in the pan and the other in the freezer. 

Having completed Phase 1, I was off to catch some crappies. They have become my summer time staple in the same way that Red Wing walleyes make up my fish diet in the winter time.   

To make a short story even shorter, I left my live well door open and tossed in my limit in no time. To be fair, I did try a couple of spots but more so to see if fish were present in boat places, and they were. With the live well full of fish, it was time to head home and clean fish. 

A sidenote: when I was a young pup fisherman my dad always had us “spoon” panfish, meaning that we would actually use a spoon to scale the fish and then he would either clean them whole or fillet them leaving the now scaleless skin on for flavor. I still do the same, but instead of a spoon I use Big Norm’s Magic Fish Scaler. It’s pretty inexpensive and it really is magic when it comes to taking scales off of panfish.  

To wrap things up, I am pleased to announce that the inventory in my freezer is now at an acceptable level. I only need to write down on my grocery store list: a small bag of potatoes and a small can of beans. 

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