By Andrew Clarke
Summer/Winter Sports Sales Manager
School is ending which means summer is finally here. It is this time of year a whole new generation of fishers get their first exposure to the open water. Whether by boat, standing on a dock or even on the shoreline, it is up to us to teach the next generation the joys of fishing. It was on a warm and sunny day like today I got my own first taste of preparing a night crawler, casting my line and waiting for dinner to hook on my line. My Grandfather was the one who taught me when I was 5 years old at his lake place in Wisconsin. When we grand-kids would visit, we would climb in to his 16' Lund with our favorite Zebco 202 (mine was Snoopy) and we'd cast off to find ourselves some Bluegill. After we caught our limit, Grandpa would put one of us at the controls of the motor and we would putter our way back to the dock. Once back in, Grandpa would head over to the small cleaning shack and have us watch him gut and clean what would become our dinner for the night.Back at the cabin, Grandma would have the kitchen prepped to bread and bake our fish as well as get the veggies and other meal ingredients ready for an evening meal on their sun porch. We kids would horse around for a while outside until the dinner bell rang and we rushed back to enjoy a well deserved meal. Before us was the spread of mixed vegetables, homemade chips and of course, our prize, the fish we had caught ourselves earlier that day. Those days are now long past, but this will always be a great memory for me and what launched me into the sport of fishing.
It is early exposure to sports like these that teach the next generation to enjoy the outdoor activities that we love. If fishing is an area that you don't have too much experience in, there are great guide services like Kids Go Fish to teach the younger groups how to enjoy a day on the water, either to catch and release or bring home supper. Speaking of supper, here is the simple recipe my Grandmother used to to cook up our catch for the day:
Cereal Crusted Panfish
2 lbs of fish fillets
3 cups of crushed Rice Krispies
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/8 teaspoon of pepper
1/2 cup butter, melted
1.
Rinse, and pat fish fillets dry. Set aside.
2. Place Kellogg's Rice Krispies cereal in shallow bowl. Stir in salt and pepper. Set aside.
3. Melt and pour butter into a second shallow bowl. Dip fish fillets in butter then coat with cereal mixture. Place a single layer of filets in shallow baking pan coated with cooking spray.
4. Bake fillets at 375° F for about 25 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with fork. When cooking, leave the fish alone until done. Internal temperature needs to be 145° for food safety.
2. Place Kellogg's Rice Krispies cereal in shallow bowl. Stir in salt and pepper. Set aside.
3. Melt and pour butter into a second shallow bowl. Dip fish fillets in butter then coat with cereal mixture. Place a single layer of filets in shallow baking pan coated with cooking spray.
4. Bake fillets at 375° F for about 25 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with fork. When cooking, leave the fish alone until done. Internal temperature needs to be 145° for food safety.
If you would like us to give out more wild game
recipes, give us a comment below and let us know what kinds of game you'd like to get ideas for.
And until next time, GET OUTDOORS!
* After scouring through family recipe's, I could not find my Grandma's fish filet recipe in time so I borrowed the closest published recipe our friends at Kellogg's. It is the same process and same ingredients I remember from all those years ago.
