fishing at waiahole

It was a fine, sunny afternoon that my sister, Elika, invited us all out to Waiahole to do some fishing. 

In a pond.  For catfish and tilapia.

We had nothing better to do, and the kids always LOVE hanging out with cousins, so we said YES!

Actually, the kids also LOVE to fish!

This was a private pond, owned by a friend/work acquaintance of Elika's and he was very kind and gracious to provide extra fishing poles, bait, and nets.

There were chickens roaming around and even a stray goat that nearly knocked us over when it got loose...but the kids had fun!  It was also very, very, VERY, dirty.  But it was a Saturday and we were not doing anything particularly important, so what the heck! What's a little dirt, right?

Oh, was I wrong!

Dirt is NOT my friend.

But anyway, the fish were biting pretty good!  Anna caught this tilapia first.  We hadn't planned on taking any home so ended up throwing it back into the water.  It wasn't until later that we realized how much of a waste that was!  We could take it home and eat it!

So, after releasing one tilapia and one catfish, we all began casting in earnest to catch us some dinner...

And not to toot my own horn, but I ended up catching 2 catfish and a tilapia for our dinner.

A couple other kids caught some fish as well, but they ended up getting loose and swimming away.

However, with our 2 catfish and tilapia in a borrowed bucket, we packed up our filthy kids and drove up to Elika's to eat some freshly caught fish!

Please excuse the bloody mess...but with the aid of a couple of Youtube videos....I filleted all 3 fish successfully!  

Honestly, it was pretty gross and I don't look forward to ever doing it again, but I was pretty proud of myself today!  I seasoned it and dusted it with flour and then cooked it up with some garlic and olive oil and wouldn't you know it, everyone said it tasted good!  

Everyone, except for Anna, that is.

They were, of course, alive when we brought them home and Anna was none too pleased with our having to make them "un-alive."

She was the only one that didn't eat any fish that day because it hurt her heart to think of the fish no longer swimming freely in the water.

Poor girl...I wouldn't be surprised if she became a vegan one day...