That sturgeon shot out of the water like a Polaris missile late for its appointment with apocalypse.
This was but my second fishing trip in 50 years and I was unsure what to do. "What do I do?" I yelled.
"Reel it in!" everyone yelled back. Oh. Yeah.
And yes, I know it should be me – the guy who caught it – holding that sturgeon up by its gills. It's just that I don't care for that kind of intimacy with anything that stopped evolving 200 million years ago. Not that I'm judgmental or anything.
The poker dealer
There's nothing better than smoked sturgeon, and I'm giving some of my filets to Jane the Antichrist to smoke for me. Jane's the wife of Jerry, the fishing guide pictured above.
Besides being an expert sturgeon-smoker, she's also a poker dealer. I gave her that nickname after teasingly quoting a Doc Holliday line from the movie Tombstone. "You may be the antichrist," I told her just before she dealt out the three face-up cards of a Hold Em flop. And the cards she dealt were 666.
Jane smiled sweetly. "Bet that one, Dick." But I digress.
I still have the fresh sturgeon to deal with. I think I'll just sautee it in olive oil and butter with a little salt and pepper. Maybe some capers as per Nancy Leson's suggestion.
Play the audio above for the full exchange of our fish preferences, including why I don't like salmon. Later today, I plan to present a report with photos of how my fresh sturgeon dinner turned out.
"Fishing is boring unless you catch an actual fish. Then it is disgusting."
– Dave Barry
“Food for Thought” is a weekly KPLU feature covering the world of food as well as the thinking that goes into it. The feature is published here and airs on KPLU 88.5 every Wednesday during Morning Edition and All Things Considered.
