by Ron Foster
“All good to know stuff eh, Annie?” Hogan said looking over at Annie who was taking all the wise advice in.
“So Hogan you saw our Tetra Pod and decided to pay us a visit.” Lori said not believing that after everything that had occurred that was such bad luck for them all had allowed for such a great reunion.
“You were lucky to have seen that boat and the fact that we were still in camp. I usually try to camouflage that Tetra Pod better but me and Lori were going to drag it down to the clearing and try using it for a deer blind. There is a clearing and a small fresh water lake back about a ¼ mile from here.” Sam said before explaining to Hogan he had a duck blind for the boat that could do double duty as a deer hide.
“I ain’t worth much for helping out pushing or pulling right now.” Hank said referring to his injured leg.
ATV Off road version shown. (Sam’s version has only two wheels and is meant to be pulled by a vehicle on a paved road.”
“I smelled you cooking, is there anything you need to tend to?” Annie asked wondering if they had forgotten about their campfire.
“Oh yea we got to be getting back to that. What you were smelling coming from the cook fire was us making flat bread. Come on and join us for supper we got plenty, that is if you like scallops.” Sam said with a wry smile.
“I love scallops!” Annie said brightly ready for a wonderful treat.
“He is funning with you Annie, what we are actually having is sting ray. Do they taste like scallops? You bet, Stingray and their relatives do make good eating and I can cook one all sorts of ways.I guess you have heard the myths aboutsome Florida restaurants using a cookie cutter on a ray and serving them as scallops? I always doubted that to be true because the procurement of any kind of stingray “scallops” in restaurant quantity would cost more than buying the real thing. But I make a cookie cutter of sorts by sharpening the edge of a two-inch iron pipe with a file. When I hammer it though the wing of a ray, the makeshift cutter produces a neat plug of meat which after the skin is sliced away it makes a passable scallop.” Hank said being a connoisseur of such.
“I wouldn’t even know how to begin cleaning one.” Hogan said intrigued.
“Ain`t much to it, if you can filet a flounder you can fillet a stingray. The only difference being between the two is that rays have cartilage in place of bones. I got two over there that I haven’t got around to cleaning yet, come on and I will show you how to do it.”
First Hank placed the small ray lying flat on the split log he was using as a cleaning table. Next he showed Hogan and Annie how to poke with your finger to find the line where the tender wing joins the hard back. Then using a sharp fish filleting knife, he sliced downward along the line from front to back, just deep enough to reach the cartilage.
Next he showed them that you then turn the knife blade flat and work it along the top of the cartilage out toward the wingtip—just like separating the fillet from the bones of a typical fish.
“Well now I know what to do with one. I never thought about them being edible before. Next time I crank up a stingray instead of my intended catch I won’t cuss it and I will eat it instead.” Hogan said.
“I have heard some folk’s debate at a dockside bar whether or not something was a real scallop or not so I heard about that ray thing before but had forgotten about that. So you think that’s not true huh? Dang look at the size of that Sting ray Hogan.” Annie said pointing at one that was about two and a half feet in size.
“Oh they get bigger than that. With one this size you simply cut off the wing, place it in a pot, and simmer it for about 30 minutes. Unless you have a very big pot in your gear, you’ll probably need to cut the wing in halves. Once you get them good and parboiled, the skin comes off rather easily. It also makes it easier to scrape the meat away from the cartilage. Now something I like to do in some of my cooking is kill two birds with one stone by adding spices or other flavorings to the water in which I parboil the wing. Once you flavor that water up you can refer to it as bouillon or broth depending on what you want to use it for.” Hank said giving them cooking instructions.
“Oh he has lots of good recipes and we make do all right. Hank is a great cook; I just wish we had access to some things he needs to do it right. Hogan, we need to find us some chickens for eggs. He has a fried scallop recipe I have been dying to try.” Lori said before letting Hank recite it to them.
MOCK SCALLOPS
2 stingray wings, filleted, skinned, cubed
2 eggs beaten
1 cup plain bread crumbs (more if needed)
Salt and pepper
Garlic powder
Take your cubes from the thickest portion of the wing as these are best for this recipes treatment, although I must say the thinner parts are good too. Sprinkle cubes lightly or to taste with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Dip cubes in beaten egg, then in bread crumbs. Fry at about 350 degrees until golden brown.
“Problem is we are getting light on garlic powder and we don’t have any cooking oil.” Hank said.
“I got a bit of both oil and garlic powder. Where we can find a chicken I haven’t a clue but I would trade most anything for some.” Hogan said.
“I have some garlic cloves I am going to need to plant before too long.” Annie said.
“Ah, you have hidden treasure? I think you have been holding out on me, Annie!” Hogan joked but overjoyed with the news.
“No to be honest I just now thought about those cloves and us needing to plant them.” Annie said thinking they were indeed a treasure now and the only source of replenishable seasoning and medicine that they had.
“Plant them here; we got plenty of fish gut fertilizer and seaweed to make them grow.” Lori suggested.
“We can do that. I have some herb seeds also to plant!” Annie said excited that she could make such a great contribution to the group’s diets and wellbeing. Spices equal happiness particularly when you are limited to consuming only certain things for awhile. Without them, food boredom can rapidly set in.
“After we get us a bite to eat you can help us move the Tetra Pod back to the field by the lake. There are alligators in that lake by the way but you can kayak there, if you use good sense. I have never seen it done in an inflatable before though.” Hank said.
“It’s pretty much the same being around gators in an inflatable as it is in a hard body kayak. If you ever have to borrow mine this fact might make you feel a little safer using it. If you are kayaking in an inflatable kayak most of the material components in these type kayaks are designed to keep you afloat even if the hull of your boat is punctured. For example, even the smallest Sea Eagle 330 inflatable kayak has three separate air chambers for the floor and each side of the kayak.” Annie said which got everyone talking about kayaking around gators. Here are a few things they agreed on. Everyone was up for a little alligator poaching to reduce the threat and vary the cook pot.
Things to Remember When Paddling Near Alligators.
They mostly agreed that despite their stealth and cunning, alligators are not a creature to be feared; instead they should be treated with respect.
Hogan said he had no problem respecting them but would rather shoot them on sight if they were going to be using the lake access a lot.
Pretty much everyone understood attacks on kayaks and canoes are rare, but paddlers should remain watchful and cautious around these animals and when one is spotted it should be given it a respectful distance.
When paddling it’s important to remember that, like sharks, alligators are most active at dusk and dawn. During the day they like to hang out near shore amid thick plant growth and can often be spotted basking onshore just around bends in creeks and rivers. Paddlers should avoid paddling too close to the shore, especially when negotiating turns. Never block an alligator’s escape route to the water.
Now although a gator will slip off a bank on your approach and might be somewhere underneath you and may even follow you a little, stay calm and know that it wi
ll not "thump" you from underneath or lunge out of the water at you. Keep paddling, be wary, and if you are a little spooked a group of kayakers familiar with alligators advise that you bang your paddle on your kayak a few times to intimidate it. Some believe this may sound like wounded prey thrashing about in the mud possibly peaking its interest. Now I would try use my survival whistle because their hearing is sensitive. Since this isn’t a scientifically tested method, distance is the safest recourse. Of course if these methods fail and the vessel is attacked, I agree try to remain calm and use the paddle for defense. Strike hard and get away fast.
“Here is a tidbit that I heard that might help you decide how close to get to an alligator. Someone once told me that a 7-foot alligator can kill an adult, a 9-footer can eat them and all alligators no matter how small will leave you with a nasty bite that you'll remember for the rest of your days.
For me, distance depends on the size of the 'gator. My personal rule goes like this - stay 4 feet away for every one-foot of length of the gator, with a minimum of 10 feet. So 5-foot alligators get 20 feet of room. A 10-footer gets 40 feet. You can make up whatever you feel comfortable with. If you see one go under going in one direction, go round in the opposite direction: chances are he will keep going in the direction he was headed. Traveling in groups helps also.
If you see young gators, do not approach them. Even though a 12 inch gator may look very cute, an 8 foot mother nearby will not like you for a babysitter.
An alligator with a hissing, open mouth is issuing a clear warning to back off. Never approach an alligator nest or baby alligators because the mother will aggressively defend her young.
There were other suggestions for avoiding the prehistoric reptiles but everyone knew to be on their guard for them and the subject changed.
“Let me show you my latest project, Hogan. Hank made me think of it because even though he was an experienced “wade” fisherman that shuffled his feet when moving forwards in the water, the stingray that had got him was one he had accidentally stepped backwards on.” Sam advised explaining how the accident had occurred to the seasoned fisherman.
Hogan had seen anglers before that practiced a type of fishing that involved wading out from shore into waist-deep water to get near a shelf or drop-off, so he was familiar with the kind of fishing Sam was talking about.
“I started studying about how to maybe get out of the water to fish and maybe build me something on the bottom to stand on at low tide and come up with what I think is a great idea. Now this winter the water is going to be very cold due to the season. So standing on something makes sense and gets you out of the cold water. I have a ladder and homemade anchoring structures for a fishing platform that I am trying out. There are a few other reasons that a ladder in the water is good, like sight fishing and making it easier to cast. Sam had tied a floatation device to his ladder to help locate it if it fell over.
“Now that looks like a pretty unique way to fish. I would rather float on my boat though and watch you perch on that thing.” Hogan said speculating he didn’t much like the idea of fishing from a partially submerged ladder.
“The fishing out there is excellent, let me tell you. There is an unusual drop off right there that narrows towards the bend the fish and crabs congregate at. If you go out at low tide, you barely get your feet wet. Come on, I will show it to you while we still have plenty of sunlight to see down into the water!” Sam said.
“Ah hell here we go. So to move around in this lagoon of yours I got to shuffle." Hogan said and proceeded to exaggeratedly but safely doing the dance as his friend had recommended and stomped his feet and splashed the water a time or two to make noise upon entering so that the rays would swim away even if they couldn’t see him. Hogan and Sam then shuffled along in the sandy bottom watching flitting shapes and sand sprays coming from departing sting rays as they proceeded towards Sam’s fishing tower contraption.
“I still ain’t liking this!” Hogan said clutching the Super Stick push pole with the flounder gig on the end of it that Sam had handed him as a confidence builder to step out into the ocean that far after all the dire warnings of today.
“Once you do it a time or two, walking out here becomes just instinctive and you care less about the rays. If you were hungry you could have tried to poke one of those things. They grill up pretty good just searing them on each side on a piece of corrugated tin we place over the coals of a fire.” Sam said.
“Are you going to stay with us here, Hogan?” Sam asked.
“That’s going to depend on what other nutty things you ask me to do!” Hogan said with a laugh as both men reached the ladder and climbed up for a look see into this alleged seafood honey hole.
“We have a lot to adapt to before this story is done. Walking that minefield of sting rays is but one of many things we must learn to overcome and persevere at in order to survive.” Sam said as he looked over his shoulder and saw Lori giving Annie a hiking staff on the beach and some last minute instruction before they gave it a go.
THE END
Closing Thoughts
“The fears that burn in your mind today should not blind you to the speculations of tomorrow, but instead they should alert you to their presence by the smoke you see on the horizon of today.” December 13, 2016 Ron Foster in regards to clouded judgments.
“Live by your first instinct and die by your last.” Author unknown
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