Day 24: Ice fishing.

I seem to update this a lot during the evenings, y’know, at 1am or such.  After everyone goes to rest, and I’m still up.  It’s a guilty pleasure, along with househunters.

I’ve noticed that my facebook has been off for as long as it has been.  You don’t know how amazed I am with that, and I, myself am quite proud to have that happen.  It’s nice being away from the real world, and as long as I have some communication with the outside world, I’m good.  It doesn’t mean that I’m not talking to people.  I’m talking via phone, I’m in the process of writing a letter to a special someone on the otherside of the world.  Very kind words are usually spoken in letters, and I hope to send Ms. Robyn a happier letter next time.  Talking about people, I’ve started to talk properly with Irene’s niece, Missy.  We’re getting along quite amazingly, and being around both her and Irene – I’m going to ensure I’ll get even better than I originally thought.  (No, Gitwinksihlkw isn’t for rehab, although I’m making it sound that it is).  I haven’t been biting my nails as much, but I need to stop nibbling on my beard…

Today, I went ice fishing.  I couldn’t have been happier, because I went out with Irene’s son’s family, and I felt welcome and invited to fish with them.  I was nervous, ‘cause it was the second time ever fishing, and I did extremely well.  Until today, I felt that I lost a lot of pride in myself, but I caught two extremely huge fish (bigger than everyone else) once I learned how to properly fish!  The best part was taking the fish back and eating it for dinner tonight.  Irene had cooked it with garlic powder (I believe), and it tasted delicious.  Apparently with cooking any fresh fish, it curls up, and due to ringworms, you need to cook freshwater fish well done.  I learned that any other carnivorous animals, you need to also cook well done, considering it all has ringworms that are obviously dangerous to humans.  Sealions are difficult to cooked, and usually are smoked, since the meat is black, and doesn’t change colour while cooking, unlike steak.

We started off by making the holes.  I’m sure everyone has seen those fancy devices to create the holes in the ice.  Turn the tool in a circle, and it digs a nice hole in the ice.  After the hole is created, the slush is filtered out using a ladle with holes, and bait goes on the rod and down goes the sinker!  With dragon lake, the fish swim near the bottom, and you needed to get down the bottom of the lake until the line doesn’t go any further.  Then reel it until it’s straight, and flick the rod occasionally, so the sinker looks like some prey.

I caught 8 fish today.  3 were small, 2 were massive and 3 were regular size; I had let the small ones and two regular go back into the lake.  The 2 ‘massive’ fish I had caught were quite gorgeous, and I saw their colours shine within the sun – hence “rainbow” trout.  Minus the blood flowing down the fish, of course.

Learned one interesting thing today.  If catching a small fish, look it in the eyes, and pry it's mouth open.  Spit in it’s mouth, and because the fish has some of your saliva in it, you both are connected.  Then as releasing mention: “Bring me back your grandfather”.  Luck of the charm comes with that, and it is a nice piece of culture.

All fish and crab guts, innards, and so that can be renewed by the ocean cycle must be thrown back into the river.  It’s for respect, and to give food or homes for the creatures that live in the ocean.  Just so they can return to their original place.

After catching the trout, there was crab also delivered.  Imagine how excited I became because of that.  Weird thing?  I never ate seafood other than sushi before I came here! Aha.