Pink Salmon - Catching and Eating Humpys from Whidbey Island

When my wife was convincing me to move to Whidbey, that the commute to the mainland would not be that bad, it did not take much convincing.  But what sealed the thought to me, was I looked up fishing from Whidbey on YouTube and found this video of a couple of guys catching salmon from the shore.  Growing up catching salmon from rivers, that idea was very appealing versus the usual ocean trolling for hours to hook a fish and reel one in.

The first weekend in August, with Tracy and the boys in Montana, I spent hours on the beach trying to hook a pink to no avail.  Saw a few landed, but not that many.  I used every combination of pink lures available with no luck.

So this last weekend, we made a trip out on Saturday morning - Tracy, boys, and baby girl who is only two months old.  After 20 minutes of fixing tangled lines and setting up two boys to fish, I was on about my tenth cast with a standard Buss Bomber setup when I hooked a salmon.  I couldn't believe it!  I had even only brought my light gear, reel and pole, and it was a great fight on a light pole!  After about 5 minutes, I finally managed to tighten the drag down while keeping the tip up enough to get the salmon up onto the shore and land a beautiful pink salmon!

Dylan, my 3 year old, helped me through the landing and everything else.  My first pink, or humpy, salmon.  This was a male, though it did not have the hump they get once they reach the rivers. I immediately slit the gills to bleed the salmon out as recommended for pinks, then kept him cool in the ocean water for the remaining 30 minutes while I tried to hook another.

It was great to watch the beach.  When I caught my pink, 1/2 dozen other people within sight also hooked up as a school went by and there was a lot of action.  I missed the next round of action checking on the baby and the fish, then it was time to go.  But as noone but me was likely to eat this fish, one was enough!

Cooking Pink Salmon:

With everything out there about how these fish go bad quickly, I was very concerned about getting this cooked right away.  So I did what I think of as a normal quick salmon cooking.  I prepared tinfoil, enough layed out for a double wrap of the salmon.  I had bled and gutted the salmon at the beach, so I gave it a quick wash then set it on the tinfoil.  I drizzled a couple teaspoons of olive oil over the salmon, inside and out, and added some chopped garlic (grown from my garden) into the gut cavity.  I had already started the grill and had it at a good 400 degree point, so I turned the burners to medium and put the salmon on for 20 minutes.

It came out perfect!

Carter tried some bites, as did Tracy, but for the most part I got to indulge my primal instincts and gorge myself on a 6 pound fish all to myself!  Definitely made for a great weekend!

Preserving Rhubarb

Rhubarb is such an easy thing to grow here in the Northwest.  It pops up early in the year and ours produces through September providing several months of tart vegetables used mainly in desserts.  My beautiful wife thoughtfully gave me the book Rustic Fruit Desserts: Crumbles, Buckles, Cobblers, Pandowdies, and More for Christmas.  The book goes through by season and covers a great variety of good desserts by season.  In the Spring section, I have made their Rhubarb Cream Cheese Pie with Fresh Strawberries and their Rhubarb, Oat, and Pecan Crumble and both have turned out excellent.

Well, Tracy, the boys, and our new baby girl left for Montana for a week, and our rhubarb was so massive that it was starting to crowd out other plants.

Rather than make and eat a dessert by myself, I decided that it would be good to preserve some of the rhubarb for a winter crisp or pie.  You harvest rhubarb by grabbing the stalk below the leaf, then pulling with a slight twist to pull the entire stalk out.  Pulling out the entire stock helps the next set of leaves pop right out so that you can get a steady supply.  Before bringing the rhubarb into the house, I cut off the leaves from the stalk.  The leaves can be or are toxic, so those go into the compost bin.

I found some great Rhubarb information, including the directions for freezing Rhubarb, on this site:  Rhubarb Central     I decided to freeze the rhubarb plain with no sugar added.

First, I cut the ends off the rhubarb.

Then wash the rhubarb to remove dirt, dust, etc.

I dried the rhubarb on a towel for 20 minutes.

Then I dice the rhubarb - cut into approximately 1 inch lengths.

I put the diced rhubarb in ziplock freezer bags an removed as much air as possible.  A vacuum sealer would be nice, but spending money is not nice.

After that, I wrapped the Rhubarb in freezer paper to prevent any freezer burn.  That should keep them nice until we are ready for some late season crisp!