Fish Fry

There is nothing more traditional in our semi-annual visits to Big Shag Lake than a fish fry. Catch a bunch of pan fish - mostly bluegills - clean 'em, bread 'em, fry 'em (or grill 'em) and eat 'em.  However, in recent years, with the invasion of Northern Pike and subsequent DNR elimination of any size requirement to keep said fish, our culinary habits have changed. Undersized pike are easy to catch, and we essentially treat them like pan fish - except - we're being a bit more gourmandish about the preparation. We're as likely to poach the filets with a bar poche au champagne recipe or saute them in a tarragon, garlic, lemon and butter sauce as we did earlier this week with visiting cousins Judi and Hanna.

Today it was back to the future. Dad, Harlan and I are still catching pike during breaks between rainstorms, but decided go old school and pan fry the filets using flour, egg wash and Italian bread crumbs - aka - Lou's North Beach Recipe. It wasn't completely old school. We did include a few abalone steaks imported from California into the mix. Call it fusion cuisine. But the basics don't change...

 Catch 'em

 Clean 'em

Cook 'em

Eat 'em

Life is good.

[Editor's Note: Your loyal blogger is once again seriously behind the curve on this blog before getting around to his first post of the Michigan trip. As is now standard operating procedure, we are publishing a current post, and hope to move both forward and backward in time filling in missing entries. That is all.]

Tuesday We Fish

 Our first full day at camp of the Semi-Annual Spring Trip. One day before more visitors arrive. We have a few thing to take care of before we can start fishing in earnest.

First fish of the spring trip

We get our fishing licenses and wait for Craig to arrive and float the pontoon boat.

Once the boat is in water, it's time to get to work.

Nice bass, but the season is not open yet, so the right thing to do is toss it back.

Pike season is open

 It's cool, windy and wet on the lake.

We'll be dodging rain squalls, but looks like we'll get some decent fishing in over the next couple weeks.

Getting There: SFO - ORD - Big Shag Lake

Uber to SFO and United to ORD on Saturday, getting our stuff together on Sunday, and driving to Big Shag Lake on Monday.

I like to post the current headlines at the airport when departing on a trip. It's a time capsule reminder of what was on the hive mind when we departed. This day the New York Times was wondering about Trump tapes, USA Today was reporting on the massive money flooding into the Georgia District 6 special election and the San Francisco Chronicle was besides itself regarding 1 -the Attorney General threatening harsher drug penalties and 2 - Homeland Security considering a ban on laptops on international flights.

The flight itself? Well, it's United. So...

That said, I want to give United credit where it is due - as I reported in my Facebook comments about this flight:

"Given all the crap that United has taken recently, I must report that I actually was impressed by one aspect of United service. While I was sitting at the bar having that beer I received yet another notification on the United App that my flight would be delayed by an additional hour. Along with the notification was a link and invitation to look at earlier flights with no charge for changing. I was able to switch flights while drinking my beer and get out an hour earlier using the app. Here's the big benefit: I never had to speak or interact with any actual human United employees to change the flight. This is the key to United restoring their reputation and brand. They just need to make it possible for patrons to never have to talk to any United employees."

Kudos to United for letting me fix the situation on my phone with an app while a drinking a beer. I switch flights, walk down the terminal to my new gate, and am on my way.

Sunday we do some shopping for the trip, and family gathers for a birthday. I'm not sure who. The family has gotten to the size where there's a birthday celebration every week.

Personally, I've reached the age where I am adamantly opposed to birthday celebrations. But I digress.

Monday we are on the road.

Packed and ready to roll.

There is a bad smell here.

We pick up growlers at the Rail House. Cousin Mike meets us with a gift of wild leeks

Made it. No problems, although Dad's head & foot are giving him some problems

It is raining when we arrive at camp. A preview of coming attractions:

Monday evening we rest. Tuesday we fish.

Spring Golf at Sharp Park

I have my foursome lined up for the 6th Annual Alister MacKenzie Benefit Tournament to Save Sharp Park on June 3. Between now and then I'll mostly be fishing at Shag Lake in Michigan. This was my last chance to play the muni course before heading East. After our record breaking El Nino winter rains, the course was barely open and not really playable in our last outing at the track in March.

The good news is, this day, the course was not only playable, but actually in reasonably good condition on most (but not all) holes. There is still evidence of a lot of tree damage that has yet to be addressed, and even some recent dangerous tree falls. Since tree work was a major component of the San Francisco Rec and Park Natural Resources Plan recently approved by the SF Board of Supervisors, I am hoping to see some City action to maintain and cut dangerous trees on the course before someone is hurt. Stay tuned.

I scheduled the round with Brad and the starter partnered us with Steve and Matt. Couldn't ask for a nicer day. Just a beautiful day for golf on a beautiful course.

Brad was killing it on the front - 3 over through 9

My golf was not so beautiful, but the regular reader knows that goes with out saying. We'll get the bad news out of the way out front: 105 - 54 on the front, 51 on the back. So it goes. Some action shots from the day...

Brad's approach on 3rd fairway. That's my drive 10 yds in front of him.

 On the 14th Tee:

Matt stripes one on 14 - right next to my drive.

Both of Steve's drives on 14 - first left,  then right.

Brad goes frog hunting with his drive on 14

Matt stripes another drive on 17

Steve goes for it on 18 with his 2nd shot, which would have been great except for that tree. 

It was a fun day despite the score, hope to see these guys out here again.