Fishing: Unusual Table Fare

So here I am on the rocks, fishing line in hand, my friends and I are at “Back-bay” Plymouth hunting for the prime fare of every rock fisher in Tobago, young Amberjack locally known as “Amber Cavalli”.

We heard the tales and saw the evidence that at this particular fishing hole there was an abundance of our preferred quarry during this August 2018 season, The Amberjacks were in such abundance in this pool that it was tantamount to shooting fish in a barrel. Upon hearing this we gave the spot a scouting and saw some people there with no less than twelve young amber jacks cleaning them on the rocks, we then set our date around our work schedules and headed out to the spot. To my fellow fishers dismay upon casting our lines in the water we did not see “Amber Cavalli” but instead a pack of Filefishes attacking our lines. Personally, I did not mind since it was an acceptable protein for the pot, but this was a disaster to my friends, after twenty odd minutes we plucked three File fishes from water of two different species. We should have known better! The spot was too quiet, and such opportunist circumstances would be plundered by now, we took too long to get here!

 

we then decided to head to Mount Irvine’s “Back-bay” to continue our excursion, while an opportune harvest of sea grapes (known as “Coccoloba uvifera” if your scientific), coloured our palates during the trek to the new site, the fishing there rendered only two Parrotfish locally called “Rock Chubb” and one Needlefish aka “Long Gar” we decided to call it a day and divided up the quarry.

 

 

While dividing and cleaning on the shoreside my compatriots and I began to argue which of the catches were proper table fare, and they are shunning the File and Needle Fishes, condemning them to the halls of poor dining and strange eating to which I rebuffed stating that these fish were quite fine. It was at that moment I decided to turn their minds by preparing these “Trash Fish” and shutting them up once and for all. So I took the cleaned File and Needle Fishes and set off on my journey to prepare and cook these fishes and make my friends eat the Fish, their words and their fingers in the process.

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