You hold in your hand the 37th issue of The Fisherman Magazine for the year, the 26th and final weekly of 2019. Our December edition will come out next week, at which point we will go to our monthly publishing schedule for the winter season. Subscribers will get those weekly copies back again in April.
Make sure you’re signed up to receive our weekly email alerts; while you won’t have the printed weekly reports to turn to through the winter months, we’ll still be contacting our local tackle shops and for-hire captains to report on the fishing for posting at TheFisherman.com.
The Thanksgiving holiday is fast-approaching, probably my favorite holiday of all. It’s a uniquely American tradition of course, meant from the start to celebrate the harvest with friends and family (The first Thanksgiving having been organized by William Bradford in 1621 following the Pilgrims’ first successful crop of corn, a three-day festival enjoyed by our nation’s first colony and their Native American allies, the Wampanoag.).
In addition to all matter of fowl – turkey, ducks and swan – historians believe that much of that first Thanksgiving feast consisted of seafood; mussels in particular were abundant and easily accessible to those first New England settlers, as were lobsters, clams, oysters and striped bass. As Colonist Edward Winslow described the bounty of seafood near Plymouth:
“Our bay is full of lobsters all the summer and affordeth variety of other fish; in September we can take a hogshead of eels in a night with small labor, and can dig them out of their beds all the winter. We have mussels…at our doors. Oysters we have none near, but we can have them brought by the Indians when we will.”
My father is pretty well-known in the neighborhood for his cooking prowess, having a had a cool little cable access TV show in Southern Ocean County for a number of years that folks still ask me about. Perhaps it’s a bit of a nod to that first Thanksgiving as much as a celebration of our own colonial harvest, but the Hutchinson Thanksgiving table usually has a few items that Winslow and crew would’ve enjoyed (Forgive me however if I pass on dad’s oyster stuffing.).
Thanksgiving at our family’s home typically starts with Hutch, Sr.’s famous striper dip made from a 1-pound fillet that’s been poached and cooled, then mixed in a food processor with a half-cup of chopped onion and half-cup chopped celery. When at its proper consistency, that’s then mixed in a large bowl with 3/4-teaspoon of garlic powder, 3/4-teaspoon of ground black pepper, 3/4-teaspoon of salt and 3/4-cup of mayo. Refrigerate until well-chilled, garnish with a little paprika and parsley and serve with crackers.
With all the debate about striped bass harvest today and into the future, I guess we can give thanks to having other options available this month to serve on the holiday table (fresh tautog, sea bass or even smoked bluefish would be equally as tasty in place of the striped bass used in dad’s dip.)
Yet through all the striper doom and gloom, I’m reminded of the great Thanksgiving Day blitz of 2016 in Central Jersey, when good bass attacked schools of bunker along the shoreline during a 10-hour stretch that left many meals going cold and surfcasters late for dinner. I trust you’ve done enough raking, painting and errand-running to earn yourself a few points towards that holiday potential; you still have a couple of weeks, I encourage you to commence with the groveling.
Whether putting one on the table or enjoying a successful day at sea releasing for another day, here’s looking towards our own bountiful holiday season along the coast.
