WORLDESS WEDNESDAY

A November Spent Searching for The Elusive Banded Sunfish

For the past three weekends, we tried catching banded sunfish, one of the 13 species left to catch on our quest.

Banded Sunfish (Enneacanthus obesus) from Wikipedia CC

This fish only gets three and a half inches long and they are listed as a species of Special Concern in the state due to their limited range in southeastern NH and vulnerability to habitat destruction. They live in swampy ponds into which some developers just love to divert polluted stormwater.

They are listed as Special Concern for us because we can't catch one.

There is very little written about fishing techniques for banded sunfish and nothing on fall fishing for them. We have tried two areas that fisheries biologists reported seeing them in the recent past, but no luck so far.

We tried Ice Pond in Hampton:

Shout out to the NH Coastal Program and NHDES who helped Hampton manage this conservation land. 

Nice looking banded sunfish habitat.

I checked every sunfish that came in at the right size: notched tail  = not a banded

We experienced inverted fishing: We were disappointed anytime we hooked into a fish too big to be a banded.  Beautiful male bluegill in fall colors. 

Nice looking pond and a zillion small sunfish.

Pumpkinseeds came to the party too. A bit big still. 

All of these fish were very dark. We wondered if they were matching the dark , dead vegetation in the pond. The little red edge on the gill cover indicates this is a pumpkinseed. Size #20 hook and a piece of redworm worked.

And a pond in Lee:

Perfect habitat for banded sunfish: shallow, brown water, weedy, in Southeastern NH.

Phragmites around 20% of the pond. The old reeds in the water create an impenetrable catacomb that we just know protect banded sunfish. 

Another sunken boat.  Moby banded sunfish strikes again. 

We are hoping that winter will focus these fish into the deepest part of the pond, since during the summer they like to swim in dense vegetation. We can then target them icefishing, using sonor and light jigging poles. Until next time Moby.

Goldfish Squared? or Goldfish Goldfish? Name this Recipe!

OK What kid can resist yummy goldfish crackers? We decided to put this question to the test when we cooked fish number 34, the goldfish.

Clay named this recipe goldfish goldfish, Dave named it goldfish squared., we'd love to hear your ideas...

Here is what you need to make this.

•  Goldfish
• 1 C flour
• 8 oz of shredded cheddar cheese
• pinch of salt
• dash of pepper
• 4 T of super cold butter cubed
• fish cookie cutter

Feel free to make this without the goldfish if you just want yummy crackers...

Pre-Cook the goldfish, we fried ours...

Get a food processor and throw in all the ingredients and the fish and pulse it a few times to mix it well. By now the goldfish should be mixed in nicely.

Now this part is super important, drip in super cold water and pulse, add the water slowly a tsp at a time. Pulse and add water until the dough rolls into balls and rides the blade.
Now take the dough out and wrap it up and stick it in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.

While that is chilling pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.

Now the fun part!
Roll the dough out parchment paper or a well floured counter and cut fish out.

We couldn't find a fish cookie cutter, but we had a coffin shaped one and just bent it into a fish shape.

Place all the cut out fish onto a pizza stone or a cookie sheet  and cook for 12-20 minute or until they are crispy.

Now share them with friends, we shared them during a speaking gig at Wiggin Library in Stratham, they weren't too bad and everyone tried them. They'd be great without the goldfish!

PITCHAPALOOZA the News Release!

Yeah, we sat on the floor!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

11/14/11

Two NH Men on a Fishing Quest Win Shot at a Book Deal
Clay Groves and Dave Kellam won Pitchapalooza at Waterstreet Books in Exeter during a celebration of the independent booksellers 20th anniversary.

EXETER, NH - Pitchapalooza, an American Idol for books, was won by Conway’s Clay Groves and Exeter’s Dave Kellam who pitched a book about their quest to catch and eat every kind of freshwater fish in New Hampshire. www.catch-m-all.com Their prize is a personal introduction to an agent or publisher interested in these kinds of books. The event on November 12th was hosted by Waterstreet Books of Exeter as part of their 20th anniversary celebration.

From the crowd of over one hundred people, twenty writers were selected at random to pitch their book, each getting one minute to convince a panel of judges that their idea could be published.

Pitchapalooza is an event held at bookstores all over the country and is the brainchild of Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry authors of The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published: How To Write It, Sell It, and Market It… Successfully. In the last month, three writers have gotten publishing deals as a result of participating in Pitchapalooza.


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Email: info@catch-m-all.com

PITCHAPALOOZA!

We attended Pitchapalooza at Waterstreet Books in Exeter NH last night.
Pitchapalooza is like American Idol for writers, here is news segment of a DIFFERENT pitchapalooza that will give you a good idea of what the event was like. We think someone videoed our pitch and when we find it we'll post it!

If you buy this book through this link, we get a little love, so go for it!

Our name got chosen, we pitched and.... WE WON!
 That means we have a great opportunity to get out book published! We'll share details as we get them, but now it appears the quest is really taken off!

Support Catch-M-All BUY OUR HATS!

We are working hard to finish the project and are now trying to raise some money to get our book published.
You can support us by buying our hat. They look great and are available in any color you'd like. We're partial to grey but you can name a color and we'll get it made for you.

All hats are made to order and take about a week to get out, so be patient (we can't afford an inventory yet).

Hats are $20 each and the money will go to getting our book published.
Domestic shipping is just $3.00 per hat or you can get them from us directly and save the shipping...

You can be as good looking as Clay!

Choose your color

Grey Pink Choose your own color

Sue "Mumsy" Nelson get's hooked on Catch-M-All