Something I've never done before...

I'm not very good at fishing. I was never really interested in it. My dad can fish. I've seen the pictures of him smiling with fish when he was probably about my age. I never really wanted to learn, and frankly, I was more interested in things like putting a ball through a metal circle, boxing out, and how to break a full court press (which is of course to hit the man flashing to the middle. Getting the ball to the middle of a defense is the best way to break it down. oh, ya, talking about fish here.) When I was in college in Florida, I brought a fishing rod to school, cause I lived by a lake. I had dreams of bringing fish back to the dorm room to cook up, but that never happened. Every time I tried to cast, the lure would get stuck in the grass. That is, it wouldn't make it to the water where the fish are. (To be fair to myself, I was decent the first day, but then I just lost the rhythm somehow.) So I gave that up for a while.

I've been fishing a few times, but I've never really harvested the fish, cleaned off the scales, pulled out the guts, and cooked them. This, I did a couple weeks ago at the Lazy Man's Farm with Marcelino.

They have aquaponic 2 fish ponds where they grow Tilapia and another type of fish related to Pyranha. The ponds were getting a bit crowed so we decided to harvest some for dinner. Marcelino made a little net and went at it. We caught the fish and ate them that same night. Marcelino taught me how to clean them and encouraged me to eat the small ones whole after we cooked them. So I did, head and all. Was delicious! And all the more so, cause I helped throughout the whole process. We've harvested chickens a few times before, but now we can add fish to the list. It feels very different and special eating animals that you raised. I'm not completely comfortable around fish. They're pretty slimey. They smell, well, fishy. Touching all their guts with your fingers is, hmm.., what's the word? I don't know, but I have more of an appreciation for fish now. The more you do something you're uncomfortable with, the more comfortable you become.

Not your normal fishing experience.

Was "muy rico!" as we say.

At the end of this video, you can hear John explaining that the fish are pyranhas. I tell Junior to touch them in Spanish. He goes for it, and I shout, "No, no, no! They have teeth"