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40 Mackerel

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Dan must have caught almost 40 mackerel yesterday.  We motored out on Montbretia having waited until late afternoon and given time for the grey clouds and squalls of rain to blow away. It was still windy and sea was bouncy as we passed the line of Owen Island and moved out to the middle of the bay.
We could see gannets circling the air a few hundred yards ahead of us, occasionally pulling up short and plummeting into the sea a fierce splash of white water before rising again. One of them passed over the boat and we could pick out the dirty yellow of its head and the black feathers of its angled wings tipping at the faint fluctuations and nuances of breeze. There were terns as well cresting the waves and white-horses.




The previous day we had been told that three porpoises had been seen in the bay following the other Drascombe Lugger but the sea was so rough we would be lucky to pick them out.
We had two lines with us. I had brought with me some black feathers and tied them to one of the orange lines that morning. I wasn’t sure that they would present the right flash of colour in the dark waters but they looked good. The other line was strung with six silver and pink plastic sheaves wrapped around each hook.




I took the black feathers and Dan took the imitation fish.  Once we stopped the engine the boat settled into the rhythm of the swell coming in off the sea and we threw our lines over the side.  The fish started biting almost as soon as the lines were in the water. I had one but Dan hauled in four.  He and Galen took to them with a heavy stick and the side of the boat was soon spattered with blood as they took the blow to the back of the head and were delivered in the bucket. My fish was too small to keep and went back over the side and the lines went back into the water.
Dan soon had another lineful and for 10 minutes or so it became difficult to keep up with the activity. The fish tumbling into the bottom of the boat, the smack of the stick and the bucket filling up with fish that still twitched and trembled.
Someone shouted that we were close to the rocks. The boat had drifted quickly and we were only twenty five yards off Owen Island.  So the lines were hauled in and the motor turned back on and we headed to where the terns and gannets owned the wind. The lines went out again and before his line had unravelled into the deep Dan was pulling it back again with another 6 fish on his hooks. 
We now had more than enough fish for supper so the motor went back on and we drove back through the sea, heading into the wind and the swell, trying to angle into the waves so we weren’t caught with too much swell.
The fish were not big.  There was only one that was about 12 inches and felt heavy in the hand. The others were about 9 – 10 inches long but the small ones often taste better.


Back at the Cottage I gutted then down on the beach. The gulls were not as insistent as they can sometimes be. Other fishermen had come in that afternoon and there had been a glut of guts and heads for them to feast on.  My hands were soon mired in their black blood. I kept there heads on to help them hold their shape on the barbecue.


I had to beg a lemon from behind the bar in Arundel’s whilst buying the evenings first pint of Murphy’s. I tried to explain that it was for the mackerel but the girl told me that she knew we were up to tequila slammers.


I put half the mackerel in a bowl in the fridge. The rest were cut with the gutting knife and left to rest for a while in the juice of the lemon and some paprika whilst we relit the barbecue.


They were delicious.  The skins blackened and charred but the meat was light and sweet underneath.  The smaller fish were better. The bigger fish can sometimes taste too much of mackerel the meat sitting heavy in the mouth. 



Listening to the easy Canadian folk of Doug Paisley.

Lobsters for supper

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We had lobsters last night for supper, four of them from Tommy. He dropped them off in the morning in a SuperValu bag and I kept them in the salad box in the bottom of the fridge in the garage until I was ready to cook them.




To cook them I filled the large metal pan with sea water and brought it to a rolling boil.  I then took out the box from the bottom of the fridge and brought it into the kitchen. The kids crowded round to watch as one by one I picked them up and dropped them head first into the water. One of them twitched and boiling water was splashed all over the floor.



I left them for 20 minutes by which time the water had come back to the boil. I took them off the heat and fished them out onto the side. Taking a large heavy kitchen knife I split them and cracked the claws laying each half into a large bowl.




Whilst I was doing that I melted half a pat of butter with chopped garlic and salt and pepper.
Once all the lobsters were split and in the bowl I poured the melted butter over them and brought the bowl to the table.



We ate them with our fingers, sucking and slurping at the shells until our hands and faces were slick with them and their juices.  We used small metal picks to tease out every last morsel of meat. Some of best nuggets come from the small round piece of shell that connects the legs to the body. Twist them off and ease out the piece of white meat inside.  It may hardly be a mouthful but it is sweet and good.




Listening to Candi Stanton before lurching up to the Tin Pub for too many more pints of Murphy’s and dim memories of us all dancing with our famous neighbour to It’s a long way to Tipperary!

The first mackerel of the summer

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The first mackerel of the summer were a gift from Tommy. We had watched him for a couple of hours laying pots for shrimps across Kitchen Cove. I was hoping he might have caught some as well and we could have eaten those sat round the fire in the evening.


When I saw that his boat was in I took a walk down the pier to see what he had. He and Joe were sat in the cabin with cups of coffee. We talked briefly about the weather and how bad it had been. Maybe two days of it being good but that was it and the rain and grey would close down again. He was still catching lobsters and they were still going to Spain. It seemed that their financial troubles had not dimmed their appetite for good fish.



He then offered me a mackerel or two. I took them in my hand – slippery and hard still bright with their colour from the sea.  As I thanked him I said that we had friends coming that evening and so he gave me some more so that I was cradling them against my chest. We then poured them into a metal bucket and I took them back to the Cottage.


He had a whole tray of them – 30 or 40 fish, some pollock as well and was going to be handing them round to his neighbours.


I filleted them down by the rocks and put the fillets in the smoker for 10 minutes. We will have them this evening eaten with our fingers.


Later that evening we saw Paddy and Mary in Arundel’s. It was their grand-daughter’s christening. They both shook my hand and we talked about the weather. Paddy put my drinks on his tab. Two pints of Murphey’s and three bottles of coke.


So what can you buy in Bantry Market with 15Euros and a bit of loose change.

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There is a frustration in making the half hour drive to Bantry for the market  to open your wallet to find that  the  100Euros you put to one side to take with you for the shopping  was still on the side along with the cash-point card.


I had 15Euros in the wallet and a pocketful of loose change. I had already spent 4Euros of the loose change on a couple of old George Orwell paperbacks which with the benefit of hindsight had not been such a good idea.


The fish stall was selling bags of haddock for 5Euros so that was a start. He threw in a bag of bones – bait for the prawn pot.


I will be able to pick up a bag of potatoes later in Durrus.  Some vegetarian food was needed for the barbecue and this was going to be the only chance to get something. So some of the money had to be spent in SuperValu on 4 veggie quarter-pounders.
That was almost all of the loose change gone but I still had a 10 Euro note.
I recognized the guy on the Gubbeen stall from last year and the years before. Would he do me a favour and let me take a bagful of cheese, sausages and bacon on the promise that I would be back next week with a better trimmed wallet. He was happy with that. So three types of cured sausage, 5 packs of bacon and round of Gubbeen and a great chunk of the matured cheese went into the bag. I will need to make sure I bring my 28Euros with me next week.


The last of the lose change went on a loaf of sourdough bread leaving the 10Euros for The Olive Stall.  Two different types of olive, one of them picked out with red chilli, a handful of pickled green chilis, I was warned that although there were meant to be mild they had a good kick to them, a bag of smoked almonds, a purple bulb of garlic and a small bag of semi-dried tomatoes and I was done.



The iPod was still on shuffle in the car and a couple of King Creosote tracks came on quickly after each other on the way back. The rain was coming down again, flattening the sea.