Fish fries, lies and wise guys

Ray, left, makes sure Bob gets in the first round of white perch filets

There’s nothing like standing around a good warm fire on a cold day.

Especially if that fire is under a double fish cooker and Dr. Ray “Cold Front” Jones is at the controls.  A week or so ago was the latest edition of the weekly-monthly-quarterly-or-whenever-it-happens random fish fry in the outboard motor shop at B&L Marine. The crowd is a bit different every week, month, quarter or whenever it happens, but I’ve been lucky enough to attend two of them recently. The “official host” of this group is B&L owner Pat McDonald. Mechanic David Clark somehow manages to work though the event in his shop. But Ray steals the show with his cooking.

“We just get together whenever we can, or whenever Ray catches enough fish to feed everybody, which is pretty often,” says lifetime friend and fishing buddy Bob Mitcham. “It just doesn’t get any better than this.”

Well, it gets a bit better when the fries and the hushpuppies and the onion rings get ready. And there’s always a cake or brownies that somebody brings. And the lies, I mean fishing stories. They’ll warm up your heart. And it really doesn’t get any better when Bob gets there in time for the white perch filets. If the white perch filets are about to run out, you can always tell Bob that those last three were caught on a yo-yo. Being the angling purist purist that he is, he won’t eat them.

Personally, I like the whole bream the best, but the catfish and bream filets are pretty good, too. I think the “Doctor” before Ray’s name stands for “Doctor of Bream”.  When the yellow bass filets hit the grease, Bob usually suddenly remembers he has to go get a  haircut or move his truck or check on the TV Satellite dude who he suddenly remembers is coming to his house in just a few minutes.

Get-togethers like this put the icing on the cake when it comes to fishing and hunting. In the outdoors, the chase and the catch is good, but the fellowship is better, especially when fried fish is involved.  I’ll have to share more about Dr. Ray and Bob in some later writings. Ray is a retired Botany professor who can explain things in the outdoors like only a Botany professor can. I usually just nod my head like I understand. Bob is the previous owner of Hook, Line and Sinker tackle supply. He kept fishermen in tackle back before The bass had a Pro Shop or the sports had an Academy. Both are avid fishermen and they’ve both played significant roles in the outdoors in our areas for years and years and years…okay, maybe I better stop before I get off the fish fry “A” invitation list …