Speaker 1: Welcome to this Country Life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves,
Speaker 1: from coon hunting to trot lining and just general country living.
Speaker 1: I want you to stay a while as I share
Speaker 1: my stories and the country skills that will help you
Speaker 1: beat the system. This Country Life is proudly presented as
Speaker 1: part of Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you the best
Speaker 1: outdoor podcast the airways have to offer. All right, friends,
Speaker 1: pull you up a chair or drop that tailgate. I
Speaker 1: think I got a thing or two. The teacher catching
Speaker 1: catfish with trot lines. You're in for a tree Today.
Speaker 1: We're talking about catching catfish with troat lines. We're going
Speaker 1: to talk about what a trot line is, how to
Speaker 1: make one, what to use for bait, and word a
Speaker 1: fish them. Now, if you'll just tie it knut and
Speaker 1: hang on with me till the end, I'll share the
Speaker 1: Reeves family recipe for frying up a mess of falaise
Speaker 1: that will knock you out so hard you'll be hollering
Speaker 1: who flung the chunk? But first, I'm going to tell
Speaker 1: you a story. I graduated high school in nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 1: Graduation night, about twenty of us were packed and ready
Speaker 1: to roll to Florida for a week of doing what
Speaker 1: younguns did back then went away from adult supervision, which
Speaker 1: probably pales in comparison to what some do now. But
Speaker 1: as the time of our departure grew nearer, my interest
Speaker 1: in leaving for the week grew weaker and weaker, especially
Speaker 1: after I overheard a couple of acquaintances discussing the drugs
Speaker 1: they'd acquired and were taking with them. Now, I had
Speaker 1: no interest in that or being around it, which was
Speaker 1: the same view my friends had. They were just folks
Speaker 1: that were kind of hitching a ride and going along.
Speaker 1: It was also kind of ironic that a few short
Speaker 1: years later I'd be up to my eyeballs and the
Speaker 1: drug culture and making a living pretending to love it.
Speaker 1: But I wasn't there yet, and at the last minute
Speaker 1: I decided not to go. I surprised my family by
Speaker 1: showing back up at the house, explaining my decision and
Speaker 1: calling my older brother Tim and asking him if he'd
Speaker 1: liked to go camping for a few days down on
Speaker 1: the Slain River. You know that Selin river, the one
Speaker 1: that Dree'es family owns. Anyway, he said, of course, So
Speaker 1: we grabbed up all the camping and the fishing gear
Speaker 1: we could lay our hands on, loaded them and his
Speaker 1: old flat bottomed boat in the back of my truck,
Speaker 1: and took off for the river. The next morning, at daylight,
Speaker 1: we put in the river at the boat ramp that
Speaker 1: would eventually be named in honor of my daddy. We
Speaker 1: set off for the adventure of living off the land,
Speaker 1: vowing not to return to the truck until we'd spent
Speaker 1: our week in the bottoms getting fat and slick off
Speaker 1: all the fish we were going to catch to go
Speaker 1: along with all the side items we'd brung with us.
Speaker 1: It was going to be a week long on fish fry.
Speaker 1: We were prepared, Jack, this is the kind of stuff
Speaker 1: we do, and others only wished they could. I hadn't
Speaker 1: regretted my decision. There was nothing in Florida that I
Speaker 1: didn't have Right here. I had sand, water, sun, plus
Speaker 1: my brother, two tubes of crickets, and an ice chest
Speaker 1: full of eggs and bacon, a grub box full of necessities,
Speaker 1: and an advanced degree in snatching brim out of the
Speaker 1: river from my suffer. The river was low and just
Speaker 1: right for fishing. We had a little nine point nine
Speaker 1: Johnson outboard motors that would push Thams fourteen foot long,
Speaker 1: thirty six inch wide aluminum deercraft boat downstream, slightly faster
Speaker 1: than a sugared up toddler on a tricc. Coming back
Speaker 1: up stream was a different story, but it beat paddling
Speaker 1: like a rended mute. We'd already made up where we
Speaker 1: was going to camp. It was going to be just
Speaker 1: below the swimming hole at the head of the Stretch,
Speaker 1: just about our favorite place to fish. The Stretch, which
Speaker 1: was a section of the river that was deeper than
Speaker 1: most and had a gradual turn back to the west
Speaker 1: before sharply turning back east at a spot we call
Speaker 1: Bug Island. From there it continued on down its crooked
Speaker 1: path towards the confluence with the Washtaw River, some fifty
Speaker 1: miles further south. As the crow flies at the Stretch,
Speaker 1: you could easily float down either side of the river,
Speaker 1: fish in the shade, trading back and forth as you
Speaker 1: went to the best spots. Because we knew where every
Speaker 1: tree top and structure that was under that muddy water
Speaker 1: that always held the most fish. Bug Island had a
Speaker 1: gravel shoal and a good cool, shady spot to clean, fish,
Speaker 1: swim and cook. I'd be scared to guess how many
Speaker 1: meals we'd met there over the years, much less how
Speaker 1: many fish we'd cleaned. In hindsight, it would have been
Speaker 1: a whole lot better place to camp. And while we
Speaker 1: didn't think about that before setting our tent up below
Speaker 1: the swimming hole, I do not know it also wouldn't
Speaker 1: be the only thing we failed to think about that week.
Speaker 1: After emptying the boat of supplies and getting the camp
Speaker 1: made that morning, we hit the river fishing for our dinner. Now,
Speaker 1: once again, for everybody keeping score at home, dinner where
Speaker 1: I grew up is aut at noon, and supper comes
Speaker 1: after that. Breakfast, dinner, supper. Don't make me pull this
Speaker 1: boat over. We'd had a good breakfast that morning before
Speaker 1: leaving Tham's house, so when we started fishing, the noon
Speaker 1: meal was our target. It didn't take long to get
Speaker 1: a good mess to eat for dinner and a big
Speaker 1: head start on supper. The fish were biting and we
Speaker 1: weren't culing nothing. If it was big enough to bite,
Speaker 1: it was big enough to eat. Some folks might think
Speaker 1: we get tired of eating fish all week, but they'd
Speaker 1: be wrong. We eat a lot of fish all year long.
Speaker 1: Back then. In the summertime, it wasn't unusual to eat
Speaker 1: it several times a week, whether we was camped or not.
Speaker 1: Brim fresh caught was our favorite is and then everything
Speaker 1: else after that. So we decided we had plenty to
Speaker 1: eat and headed back up to the stretch to our
Speaker 1: camping spot. We done got hungry, and the only thing
Speaker 1: standing between us and the best groceries on the planet
Speaker 1: was getting some taters peeled, the fish cleaned, and a
Speaker 1: pot full of grease hoop. Tim said he'd start cleaning
Speaker 1: fish as soon as we got there. I'd get the
Speaker 1: fire started in a coal bucket, put some oil in
Speaker 1: the Dutch oven, and start peeling the taters. So as
Speaker 1: soon as we hit the bank by the tent, we
Speaker 1: both bailed out of that boat and went to work.
Speaker 1: I started the fire and opened up the grub box
Speaker 1: for the Dutch oven. All corn meal, taters, onion, salt,
Speaker 1: and pepper, the basics for any fish fry in a
Speaker 1: civilized country. Staring back at me from that old wooden
Speaker 1: box was a box of salt, a can of pepper,
Speaker 1: a gallon of cooking oil, and a loaf of light bread.
Speaker 1: Oh lord, we didn't bring a tater one, and it
Speaker 1: wouldn't have mattered if we'd had a wagon full. We
Speaker 1: didn't have nothing to cook them in. We had a problem,
Speaker 1: especially with the oath we took about not going back
Speaker 1: home for anything we didn't have with us. I walked
Speaker 1: down to help Tim and give him the bad news
Speaker 1: about not bringing the Dutch oven. We cleaned the fish
Speaker 1: and walked up to where I had the fire gone
Speaker 1: in the coal bucket, and that's when I saw our
Speaker 1: savior poking up out of the sand a five pound
Speaker 1: metal coffee can. That joker was covered in rust, but
Speaker 1: not rusted through, and Tim took it down to the
Speaker 1: river and scrubbed it out with sand and river water.
Speaker 1: To clean it up. We boiled around the water in it,
Speaker 1: poured it out by grabbing the top lip with a
Speaker 1: pair of flyers, refilled it with oil, and started prepping
Speaker 1: the fish to fry. We felt confident that when the
Speaker 1: grease got around three hundred and fifty degrees, anything that
Speaker 1: was still living in that coffee can that the hot
Speaker 1: grease didn't kill was probably going to get us anyway.
Speaker 1: Then I told Tim we'd forgot the taters and onions too.
Speaker 1: Didn't a word He didn't look up, he didn't make
Speaker 1: a sound, He just sat there, looking sad. His shoulder
Speaker 1: seemed to wilt a few inches downward, like I just
Speaker 1: let the air out of him. I thought he might cry,
Speaker 1: and back then men didn't cry, especially in front of
Speaker 1: another one, not and live and tell about it. So
Speaker 1: while he sadly stared at that rust colored oil that
Speaker 1: was starting to bubble in our maxwell house fish friar,
Speaker 1: I looked back way towards the river to let him
Speaker 1: have his moment, and so he wouldn't see me if
Speaker 1: I started squalling. And that's when I saw mister Jones.
Speaker 1: Mister Jones wasn't a local, a fact that would come
Speaker 1: into play very soon. He lived an hour or so away,
Speaker 1: but he was retired and had a nice camp back
Speaker 1: up river, and had had it for years, so we
Speaker 1: all knew who he was. He come down by hisself
Speaker 1: and stay for a few weeks at a time at
Speaker 1: his camp, and I knew immediately where our tators was
Speaker 1: fixing to come from, because everyone where I'm from looks
Speaker 1: out for one another. I hollered at him as he
Speaker 1: fished by our boat that was pulled up on the bank.
Speaker 1: Mister Jones. I'm Buddy Reeves's boy. Me and my brother
Speaker 1: Tim's down here cavin for a few days, and we
Speaker 1: forgot our taters. Reckon, you got some back ap of
Speaker 1: your camp. You could let us borrow or let us buy.
Speaker 1: Who are you? He said? I told him again, we're
Speaker 1: Buddy Reeves boys. Oh yeah, how's buddy? I say he's good.
Speaker 1: He'd be better off knowing we had some taters deep
Speaker 1: with all these fish we caught today and the ones
Speaker 1: we're going to catch the rest of the week. Well,
Speaker 1: he started laughing, and so did Tim. Tim was back
Speaker 1: from that dark, taterless place he'd gone to only a
Speaker 1: few moments ago. I think he, like me, could see
Speaker 1: that mister Jones was fixing to hook us up. You
Speaker 1: boys got some onions now. When he said that, I
Speaker 1: knew we were home free. He's fixing to give us
Speaker 1: some taters and onions. Good night, nurse. We fixing a
Speaker 1: hit a lick with me, Jones. And that's when we
Speaker 1: were betrayed by our raisin. We were raised to be
Speaker 1: thankful for what we had and not be a burden
Speaker 1: to others. If you didn't have something, you just had
Speaker 1: to work harder to get it or do without it,
Speaker 1: but you never asked anybody for it. So when mister
Speaker 1: Jones asked if we had any onions, Tim's brain went
Speaker 1: on autopilot of not wanting to be troublesome, and he said, oh, yes, sir,
Speaker 1: we got plenty of onions. I thought to myself, you
Speaker 1: need to shut up. He's offering onions too, we'll take them. Huh.
Speaker 1: Mister Jones didn't hear Tim, so I repeated the lie, yes, sir,
Speaker 1: we got onions. Well, if you boys got onions, that'll
Speaker 1: be plenty. Y'all don't need any taters. And mister Jones
Speaker 1: floated on by like we weren't even there and like
Speaker 1: that conversation had never take place. We stared at him
Speaker 1: in silence as he floated and fished plumb out of sight.
Speaker 1: We talked about him a lot that week, mostly about
Speaker 1: how to we'd like to drive by him sitting on
Speaker 1: the side of the highway with a flat while we
Speaker 1: did donuts in front of him on the highway, eating
Speaker 1: fried tatters and chunk and onions at it. I learned
Speaker 1: a lot on that trip. Besides double checking the grub
Speaker 1: box for all your supplies, you can survive quite efficiently.
Speaker 1: I might add on nothing but light bread and fried fish. Also,
Speaker 1: a baled up slice of light bread dropped in the
Speaker 1: hot greases no substitute for hushbuk. And that's just how
Speaker 1: that happened. Let's get to work with a question. Why
Speaker 1: would you go to the trouble of making a trot
Speaker 1: line to catch some catfish when you could just go
Speaker 1: to a restaurant and eat them, or go to a
Speaker 1: store and buy them. Well, I'll tell you why, because
Speaker 1: this is America and we ought to be doing American things.
Speaker 1: And one of the most American things you can do
Speaker 1: is gathering up your own grocery from Nature's grocery store
Speaker 1: to feed your family. So you ready to beat the system,
Speaker 1: the system that tries to dictate what the quality of
Speaker 1: our food is and how we feed ourselves. A lot
Speaker 1: of you listening are probably already doing this, but most
Speaker 1: folks get all the groceries from the store, and we
Speaker 1: ain't about that life. So I'm going to tell you
Speaker 1: one way to do it yourself. Baiting of a trot
Speaker 1: line and teaching an ice chest full of fish how
Speaker 1: to ride in a boat is about as red, white
Speaker 1: and blue as you can get. Also, it's fun Bailey Suzanne,
Speaker 1: tell you o Mama to get the grease hot we
Speaker 1: fixed and catch a miss a fish. All right. You
Speaker 1: ain't got nobody to show you how to do it, Yes,
Speaker 1: you do me. Lots of good online articles and videos
Speaker 1: will give you all kinds of methods and techniques to try.
Speaker 1: You can get trot lines pre made with hooks and everything.
Speaker 1: It's just about any bait and tackle shop or the
Speaker 1: supplies to make your own, which is what I like
Speaker 1: to do. Don't be scared. This ain't hard. There's literally
Speaker 1: no way to mess this up. If you can get
Speaker 1: one end of a line tied to a stob or
Speaker 1: a tree and the other end with a hook on
Speaker 1: it and bait and in the water, you win. But
Speaker 1: just like anything else, the more you do it, the
Speaker 1: better you're gonna get at it better. Yet, to practice,
Speaker 1: you gotta go fishing. So what is a trot line.
Speaker 1: It's a length of line suspended horizontally near the bottom
Speaker 1: of a body of water, with hooks attached by individual
Speaker 1: links of a line at a measured intervals from one
Speaker 1: end of the other. I can't believe I did that
Speaker 1: makes sense? No, of course, it don't, But do this
Speaker 1: for me. Picture a section of power line between two
Speaker 1: poles in your head. Now, if every ten feet along
Speaker 1: that pier line you had a smaller line hanging down
Speaker 1: five feet from it with a hook on it, that's
Speaker 1: a trot line. And for the record, there's no such
Speaker 1: thing as a trout line. You can call it that,
Speaker 1: I guess, but that ain't what it is. You can
Speaker 1: say a rooster dip snuff, but that don't make it
Speaker 1: so until you seem spit, and I ain't never seen
Speaker 1: want to do that. Another thing. You can rig a
Speaker 1: trot line and make it as fasty as you want,
Speaker 1: but it's not necessary. One bottle of string and a
Speaker 1: few hooks will get it done just as well. Them
Speaker 1: filatis are going to taste the same regardless of how
Speaker 1: you turn them loose into grease. Last summer, I was
Speaker 1: digging around on the innerwebs and found a spot across
Speaker 1: the river called the Memphis Net and Twine. These folks
Speaker 1: have been serving commercial fishermen and anyone looking to fish
Speaker 1: with lines or nets since nineteen sixty two. They got
Speaker 1: more stuff on there than Carter's got liver pills, and
Speaker 1: will fix you up and help you out with what
Speaker 1: you need. You can look them up yourself at memphisnet
Speaker 1: dot net. That's how you get them anyway. Here's a
Speaker 1: recipe for a simple but effective trot line. These are
Speaker 1: your ingredients. One roll of number thirty six twisted tard line,
Speaker 1: one roll of number eighteen twisted tard line, one bag
Speaker 1: of trot line clips, one bag of six aut circle hooks,
Speaker 1: and some weights around threety five pounds each. Depending on
Speaker 1: how long the line is will determine how many weights
Speaker 1: you use. On one hundred foot line, I put a
Speaker 1: weight in the middle and then one on about halfway
Speaker 1: to each end, for a total of three. Now this
Speaker 1: is one of a million ways to make a trot line.
Speaker 1: Notice I didn't say thee way to make a trot line.
Speaker 1: We're just talking basics here, and this is how I
Speaker 1: make a basic trout line. The twisted line has been
Speaker 1: dipped in tar and makes them easier to hold when
Speaker 1: they're wet. They're not as slick as regular nylon line,
Speaker 1: and it helps protect it too. The number thirty six
Speaker 1: is our main line. The drops where our hooks go
Speaker 1: are made from the smaller number eighteen size line and
Speaker 1: just like the number suggests. The number eighteen is half
Speaker 1: the diameter of the main line. You ain't got to
Speaker 1: use two sizes of line, and if you don't want to,
Speaker 1: but the smaller line is easier. Thread through the hooks
Speaker 1: and the clips when we go to putting them on
Speaker 1: the main line. Now, stretch out about one hundred feet
Speaker 1: of that rascal out in your yard and tie each end.
Speaker 1: Here's where you need to check your local regulation so
Speaker 1: you don't get jammed up by mister Greene's. First, make
Speaker 1: sure trout lines are legal for the water you want
Speaker 1: to fish, and what the minimum spacing is for the
Speaker 1: drop hooks. If they're too close together, it could be
Speaker 1: considered a snag line, and that's a whole different animal
Speaker 1: when it comes to fishing regulations. I like to space
Speaker 1: mine about four or five feet between each drop. That
Speaker 1: gives you plenty of room for my caught fish to
Speaker 1: ramble around without filing himself on the next hook, making
Speaker 1: it easier for me to get off the hook, and
Speaker 1: when I run the line. Also, it keeps that hook
Speaker 1: fishing instead of jobbed and the fish I've already caught.
Speaker 1: So take one of those clips and clip it on
Speaker 1: the line and repeat that every four or five feet.
Speaker 1: Give yourself plenty of slack on it each end to
Speaker 1: tie your line off before you start adding the clips.
Speaker 1: Now doing some quick math in my head thanks to
Speaker 1: Miss Brenda McDougall, my most favoriteiss math teacher, who not
Speaker 1: only worked on my brain but also the seat of
Speaker 1: my breeches when my focus went from math to anything
Speaker 1: else I'd rather be doing at that time. You're going
Speaker 1: to wind up anywhere between twenty and twenty five clips, hooks,
Speaker 1: and drops. Before we start adding the hooks, make sure
Speaker 1: you know where the youngs are and you've got your
Speaker 1: pet squared away. The last thing we want to do
Speaker 1: is wreck our truck line with a non targeted species,
Speaker 1: especially one that can tell Mama on you. So how
Speaker 1: do we make a drop? This is easy. We want
Speaker 1: that hook to hang about two feet below the main line,
Speaker 1: so take four foot of that smaller line and cut
Speaker 1: it off the row. Match those two ends together, tie
Speaker 1: an overhand knot and take a lighter and burn the
Speaker 1: cut in so they don't start fraying and come unwound.
Speaker 1: Which reminds me of a horse I was setting a
Speaker 1: straddle of one time that come unwound. Before it all ended,
Speaker 1: I done travel from one end to that rascal to
Speaker 1: the other before he picked out some soft rocks for
Speaker 1: me to land on. Me and him parted ways. When
Speaker 1: something unexpectedly comes unwound, it's never good, So tire a
Speaker 1: good knot and burn the ends. Now you got a
Speaker 1: two foot drop of number eighteen line and you about
Speaker 1: to rock your first drop on your first trot line.
Speaker 1: Take a hook and feed the double line through that
Speaker 1: eye and pull the hook through the loop it formed
Speaker 1: on the other side, securing the hook in one end
Speaker 1: of the drop. Now repeat that process by looping it
Speaker 1: onto the clip you've already attached to the line and bingo,
Speaker 1: you got it. Now do that for the rest of
Speaker 1: your line, and you're ready to fresh. But Brent, what
Speaker 1: am I gonna do? Now? How do I get my
Speaker 1: trot line from the to the river? I hope y'all
Speaker 1: really don't sound like that. But remember Memphis net and twine.
Speaker 1: They make an item called a plastic wine, or you
Speaker 1: can buy or you can make one out of a
Speaker 1: scrap piece of paneling, or you can just use a
Speaker 1: five gallon bucket, hang the hooks from the inside and
Speaker 1: have all the line contained inside the bucket. Personally, I
Speaker 1: like the wine because it takes up less bait in
Speaker 1: my boat, but using the bucket is usually faster to
Speaker 1: each his own. To me, the best tasting catfish is
Speaker 1: the belly meat off a flathead. But we're not gonna
Speaker 1: worry about targeting specific species of catfish right now. Outside
Speaker 1: of the mudcats. We'll take a blue cat, a channel cat,
Speaker 1: or a flathead. Sometimes the mudcats are fine. It just
Speaker 1: depends on the water you're fishing, and since we're headed
Speaker 1: to the river where the water's moving, we're gonna be
Speaker 1: good with any of them. There's really no way to
Speaker 1: wrongly fish or trot line. Some are just better than others.
Speaker 1: Right now, talking about fishing the river, and the example
Speaker 1: I can give you is the Mighty Celine River in
Speaker 1: Cleveland County, where currently, as my niece continues her research,
Speaker 1: the count is up to eight generations of reefs that
Speaker 1: ran around that part of Arkansas, breaking hearts, killing animals,
Speaker 1: and catching fish. That's where the Lloyd Wilton Buddy Reeves
Speaker 1: Celine River access is located. I have so many wonderful
Speaker 1: memories of this place, and a lot more stories from
Speaker 1: down there that I'll share with you all in the future.
Speaker 1: But now we've got to get some bait. And you
Speaker 1: can catch some flatheads with live bait, but you can
Speaker 1: catch them all with bait that leaves sin in the water.
Speaker 1: So on the way to the river, we'd stop and
Speaker 1: we used to get some beef liver or chicken hearts
Speaker 1: or livers at the grocery store, and some folks would
Speaker 1: just buy some pre made stink bait to use. Lots
Speaker 1: of folks make their own bait, and we might talk
Speaker 1: about how they do that sometime, but right now we're
Speaker 1: going to go with this. The river wasn't real white,
Speaker 1: and we could stretch a line across it pretty easy
Speaker 1: in most places. We just had to make sure that
Speaker 1: we waited it down enough where the boats wouldn't hit it.
Speaker 1: And that shouldn't be a problem if you have it
Speaker 1: said right, because fishing on the bottom is where you
Speaker 1: catch catfish, So don't forget your weights, get one end
Speaker 1: tied off to a stob or something solid on the
Speaker 1: bank near the water, and run that line out at
Speaker 1: about forty five degree angle to the opposite bank. Now,
Speaker 1: catfish feed upstream on the bottom, and having your bait
Speaker 1: close to the bottom and at an angle, gives the
Speaker 1: fish more opportunities to find it as he makes his
Speaker 1: way upstream. Once you've tied off each end, go back
Speaker 1: and get on the downstream side of your line, catch
Speaker 1: a hold of it, and pull yourself across the river,
Speaker 1: baiting as you go. Remember to put enough slack on
Speaker 1: each end so your weights will pull it down near
Speaker 1: the bottom. Now, we'd usually bait up an hour or
Speaker 1: so before dark and then either go back to the
Speaker 1: camp or build a fire on the bank and just
Speaker 1: sit there, or we just go back home. We didn't
Speaker 1: live far from there, so it really didn't matter. But
Speaker 1: we'd run the line after darker couple of times at
Speaker 1: night if we were camp close, or if the fish
Speaker 1: are biting good. When we got all we wanted to clean,
Speaker 1: or we didn't want to keep checking it throughout the
Speaker 1: next day, we just take it up and get skin
Speaker 1: and fish. Y'all, Please remember to wear you life jackets,
Speaker 1: and it's a lot safer when you're messing with a
Speaker 1: trout line to have some help. You're fishing in more
Speaker 1: water than you can drink if you fall in, so
Speaker 1: watch yourself. All right, here comes the best part. All
Speaker 1: the struggle up to now is about to pay off.
Speaker 1: When that peanut oil it's three hundred and fifty degree,
Speaker 1: that's the time to slip that catfish fla into that
Speaker 1: golden cauldron of bubbling goodness. For the love of humanity.
Speaker 1: Here's how you do it now. What I'm about to
Speaker 1: reveal has been a closely guarded secret for years. If
Speaker 1: Colonel Sanders would've had this mixture and cooked the fish
Speaker 1: instead of chicken, a dude would have been a general.
Speaker 1: This mixture has evolved over time, but at my father's passing,
Speaker 1: this was the recipe for his fish bread, and we
Speaker 1: use the same one for all fish crappee brim bash.
Speaker 1: It didn't matter. This was it. It's our favorite. I'm
Speaker 1: happy to share it with y'all, but y'all fix it
Speaker 1: how you like it. Ours was made by using three
Speaker 1: cups of yellow corn meal and a big mixing bowl.
Speaker 1: Put a third cup of lemon pepper and an eighth
Speaker 1: cup of granulated goodness. That takes your fish to the
Speaker 1: next level, and that is caging Land brand crawfish bowl.
Speaker 1: It doesn't take a lot because the flavors are pretty
Speaker 1: intense and concentrated, but at that ratio, at least for us,
Speaker 1: the flavor is great and the kick ain't enough to
Speaker 1: knock the baby out of the high chair. But you
Speaker 1: regulate it for what's best for you and yours. It's
Speaker 1: a lot easier to add than it is to take out. Also,
Speaker 1: it's going to depend on how many folks you're trying
Speaker 1: to feed, and definitely how much fish you have as
Speaker 1: to how much bread you make. A good rule thumb
Speaker 1: is cooking about a half a pound of fish per person.
Speaker 1: If you're a little light on fish, use little plates
Speaker 1: and make sure the taters and the hush puppies are
Speaker 1: out at the front of the servant line. There's a
Speaker 1: pro tip for you now. I like soaking my filets
Speaker 1: and sweet milk before our bread them, but you ain't
Speaker 1: got to. You can just pat them dry and chunk
Speaker 1: them in the meal and bread them that way. I've
Speaker 1: et them both ways, and I like them both ways.
Speaker 1: Makes no difference to me. Just be sure and holler
Speaker 1: when it's done. This is something the whole family can
Speaker 1: do from start to finish, and you ought to be
Speaker 1: involving them anyway. Mama's Daddy's youngins neighbors, old folks who
Speaker 1: don't like a good fishing trip, or at least the
Speaker 1: community and bonding of a fish fried man. It's good stuff.
Speaker 1: I hope you all have enjoyed this as much as
Speaker 1: I have. I hope you'll come back next week. We're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about some more country stuff and have a
Speaker 1: good time while we're doing it. This is Brent Reeves.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Yeah, I'll be here.