our first fish taxidermy! Lucy dug right in!!!

So, I'm reading a book called The Last Man Standing and there was some obscure reference to taxidermy in it. Anyways, they said that most people use "Borax" now on the inside of their catch/kills after removing all the innards. I remembered Laura HAS Borax in the laundry room soooooo....

We did it. At lunch today, I bought a new Shakespeare rod and a couple misc tackle box goodies (Thank you Merkels for the birthday Cabelas giftcard and sorry its taken me so long to use it! lol). Then tonight, Laura went to Endow, God bless her, and Lucy Molly & I went to the lake. It was cold out and the sun was dropping fast over the horizon. It was a good thing on the 2nd or 3rd cast with my new 7' rod and new hook and new rubber powerbait lure I pulled in a little bass. We quickly threw him in some water and brought him home (after a small Sonic detour).

Lucy was so excited she was dancing around like she needed to pee. Molly? Well, Molly does whatever Lucy does so, the whole car was rockin' around on the way back. After Sonic, we headed to the garage, fish in bucket, in hand. They were through-the-roof about "cut fishie up" (Molly).

I didn't want to knock it between the eyes because that'd mess up the exterior and well, we're trying to stuff this one folks. So, I took it out of the bucket and laid it on the garage floor. Lucy, astonished, said "Dad, you know he's going to die, right? He needs water." Before I could respond, she continued, "But that's okay Dad he needs to die so we can hang him on my wall". So. Cute. Molly? running around in circles w/ her fox chair pulled up over her back screaming "It Eat Me! Fox Eats Me"[repeat forever].

So, fish flops around on the floor which is WAY exciting as the girls pretending "it's chasing them around the garage". They make fish faces at it and play the touch-and-run game from it. Perhaps a precursor to cow tipping? Yikes. Let's hope not. Anyways, that garage was HOPPING with two (loud, wired) girls and one suffering (lol) bass.

Fish dies. Lucy pulls up a chair to the table where I'm now cutting in and emptying the bass. She is HANDS-ON reaching in there and pulling stuff out. ***pause. proud daddy tear*** She is INSANELY curious about it ALL. We talked about skin, scales, muscles, heart, brain, intestines, spinal cords, fins, eyes, mouth, teeth, everything. She kept comparing the fishes parts to, well, her own parts :-) She ran her finger down its spine and said, "Hey, that's just like mines" and ran her hand up her lower back. Cute, but also gross b/c when she leaned forward her hair fell into fish innards on the table (she was none the wiser, and I certainly wasn't going to say anything, she was having a GREAT time).

We put a teeny tiny bit of meat in the freezer (which she was very very excited about). I told her that if we bring a fish home, we have to eat at least a little of it. I'm pretty sure this was a rule when I was growing up (but I could just be remembering poorly b/c I think Deacon Paul G was always a catch-and-release w/ the exception of fishing trips). Sorry. Tangent.

So, girls in bed. Fish prepped. Mount designed. Just waiting for Laura to return with the stuffing(s) that she accidentally stole and took w/ her in the van. Will try to have a picture up of the FIRST COOKE FISH TAXIDERMY 10 Nov 2011 on the blog in the coming day(s). Not sure how long Laura will let it last in the house... suppose that depends on if it starts stinking or not :-P

It'll look great in the dining room!