Michelangelo’s Trout

Many thanks to my ghillie for the day, Sig. Luca Castellani, who also took this video of my first brown trout (the fish in the previous post) on the River Tevere tail water.

Fishing Sanriku Summer 2008

Well I made it to the Sanriku coast, more specifically the fishing town of Sakihama on Okirai Bay, Iwate Prefecture, for the second time this year. Initially I planned to go fishing for hirame using live sardine bait, but according to the skipper this year’s hirame fishing is not so good. However, in the area both Pacific cod and karei flounder were both apparently putting up a good show, so I booked myself in for two consecutive days fishing, the first, offshore for cod and the next, inshore for flounder. As always, the hospitality of the locals was wonderful, the local produce delicious and the fishing fantastic.

Filleting Japanese goby (haze)

Gobies have slightly tougher bones and larger fins than whiting (featured in my earlier video) which just means that the edge on your cooking knife gets dull quicker.  Also, they produce more slime which means it is a good idea to scale the fish with the blade of a knife, as this removes a lot of the slime with the scales.  Otherwise the technique for filleting is identical.  I deliberated slowed down for the camera, but with practice, it is quite easy to fillet one goby in about 45 seconds.  This lot I did in about ten minutes, easily enough for five servings.

Make sure you have a good helmsman

when you are fishing for tachiuo on Tokyo Bay; it’s quite crowded.

Miyakojima Folk Song

Live traditional music in the restaurant “Goya”, Hirara City, Miyakojima (Okinawa Prefecture).

Video: Filleting Japanese Whiting

NB the fish in the vid has already been scaled. Will soon be posting a series of photos, with explanatory text, describing in detail each stage of the filleting process; the video should just give you an overall idea of how quick and easy it really is.  This technique is identical whether you are filleting whiting or gobies or Japanese aji jack mackerel, for deep-frying.  It is not suitable for making sashimi; a different technique exists for that.