<<Leafcutter ruminations>>
Suppose your hubby goes out fishing with a friend on his Boston Whaler on a Sunday morning, and he sends you a text with this picture and a single tantalizing question:
Guess this fish...
To the untrained eye, this is little more than a tail sticking out of a bucket of bloody water.
To the wife of a Eliotter fisherman, it can only be a salmon with its gills cut, being bled out!
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, fish bleed. Sometimes not so much, sometimes a lot. Herring, not so much. Salmon or tuna, very much. I don't bring up the topic of blood to gross anyone out, but to remind us all of the simple, yet brutal fact that fishing = killing, and eating meat = killing animals, and dying animals = blood.
Anyone who has ever gone fishing will know that once you get the fish out of the water, it flops like crazy until it doesn't. It's standard sport fishing MO to toss the fish aside and let it slowly suffocate to death on the dock or the deck of a boat. After all, who wants to grab a slimy fish and bonk it on the head and cut its gills to bleed it out? Easier to just look away and let it flop until it stops. That's the easy way out.
But to truly respect and honor the fish, we have to stop its suffering and preserve its flesh to the highest possible quality. How do you do that? Simple: knock it the F out and bleed it. You can literally see and taste the difference between a properly bled fish and one that hasn't been shown the same respect.
So the next time you land a fish, the thrill of the fight is over, and all you want to do is toss the fish aside so you can cast out again, think about respect and honor and do the right thing. Knock it the F out and bleed it. Your karma and your taste buds will thank you.
