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My morning routine consists of sitting on the front porch, looking over the lake, watching the birds and other wildlife while I drink my coffee. If I spend a half hour or so doing this, I am more prepared for the less relaxing parts my day may bring. The heat wave we have been experiencing recently seems to have increased the wildlife activity in the early morning. During the days when the temperature and humidity near 100, not even the sparrows come out. Everything seems to be making up for lost time in the relatively cool early morning hours. Deer were streaming down to get a drink and the bluebirds were quickly devouring the mealworms my wife left out for them the night before. I started wondering about the fish. Would fish take advantage of the cool water of the early morning? I know in temperatures like we have been experiencing, the first foot or two of a lake or pond can warm up dramatically. I could forego my second cup of coffee to check it out.

I grabbed the fishing rod, a bucket, and the dogs, and headed for the lake. The dogs were happy to start the day with a swim and thankfully ignored me while I started casting off the end of the dock. On the second cast, I felt that familiar light tug and set the hook in an eating sized crappy. I put him in the bucket and went back at it. Within fifteen minutes, I had five nice crappy as well as twenty minutes to clean them, take a shower and leave for work. Being short on time and not thinking to bring my fillet knife, I decided to just gut them with my pocket knife and deal with the details later. Just as a word of caution, it is always good to inform one's wife when a person leaves a bowl of almost whole fish in the refrigerator. My wife has grown accustomed to many things, and is amazingly tolerant, but it is not good to startle a woman early in the morning.

As I worked through the day, I thought about the tasty crappy cooling in salt water in the refrigerator. The thought of sweet corn and crappy could cause a person to lose concentration. Rather than go ahead and fillet them out as usual, I decided to grill them whole on a cedar plank. I am not sure if the cedar planks sold in the lumber yard are the same as the ones a person can buy at cooking supply or sporting goods stores, but just in case they are not, I get mine from a major sporting goods store that sends out a new catalog twice each week.

I soaked the cedar slab submerged in water for an hour or so and fired up the grill. I rubbed the crappy with olive oil, salted and peppered inside and out and lined them neatly on my cedar board. The steam rose and hissed when I placed the board on the hot grill. I closed the lid and turned off the fire under my fish leaving the other side of the grill on high. Fifteen minutes later, the sweet smelling steam rolled out of the grill when I opened it up. The meat flaked and the skin rolled off.

My wife had the sweet corn done at about the same time I finished the fish. It is hard to beat the sweet taste of fresh corn, but the sweet smokey taste of the crappy did just that.

I discovered, even in the heat of summer, at the right time, a person can catch at least enough fish for a meal, and it is well worth the effort for such a gourmet treat.[[In-content Ad]]

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