Cookin’ or Catchin’

You’ve got to have the right ingredients for both

Part 1

There’s a relationship between cooking and putting fish in the boat.

Think that’s putting the cart ahead of the horse? Or perhaps I should say the frying pan ahead of the fillet? Guess again! There is indeed a relationship if you’re going to be successful in either area of endeavor.

Ever heard of a gal named Jennie Logsdon Martin? If you’re a Far West angler with access to the Internet, odds are you have. Why? Because Jennie runs a popular Internet site that has captured the attention of fishermen all over the Pacific Northwest. If you do have Internet access and haven’t yet found www.ifish.net, better go take a look.

I mention cooking, fishing and Jennie Logsdon Martin to further explain why I say there is a relationship between cookin’ and catchin’. My friend Jennie, you see, is an expert in both categories. She could put together a meal in her kitchen blindfolded and with one hand tied behind her back.

She’s every bit as adept at putting fish in the boat. And that applies when she walking the banks of the Kilchis River or with her rear end parked on a boat seat while searching for salmon on Tillamook Bay.

But while in the kitchen or on river, lake or ocean, Jennie will tell you she has to have certain essentials to get the desired results. If you know enough about the culinary arts to distinguish between a biscuit and a banana, you know you’ve got to have the proper ingredients for whatever it is you’re planning to prepare.

Be assured, my friend, that’s just as much a necessity when it comes to achieving desired results in your piscatorial pursuits. Unless you’ve got the stuff necessary to follow the right recipe for the species you’re after, you’ll be better off joining that throng of knuckleheads who enjoy whacking a little white ball around the countryside.

Jennie, as you’ll soon find out if you go to her web site, is a full-blown expert where the migratory species like salmon and steelhead are concerned. That figures. She’s one of those gals who doesn’t get into anything half way. An accomplished pianist, who once helped entertain the president of the United States, she brought the same kind of study and application to computers when she launched www.ifish.net.

She accomplished both of those endeavors by developing the abundant talents God gave her. It didn’t happen all by itself. Talent, no matter how inspired, has to be paired with dedication and generous amounts of perspiration before it amounts to much. This special lady also brings the same kind of intensity to her efforts as an angler. As you’ll discover if you read her columns that are a featured part of her web site, you’ll see she’s managed to do it despite physical problems that would have had a lesser person the ropes a long time ago.

In addition to things I’ve already mentioned, Jennie Martin has raised two sons as a single parent. Bring up a couple of active kids, they’re now teenagers, it’s essential you learn your way around the kitchen and it better be sooner rather than later. Jennie did that, too.

But in every one of her many accomplishments, there’s a thread as strong as 100-pound braided line binding things together. Jennie, you see, has always used the right ingredients whatever her activity. Those ingredients have covered a wide range. They’ve been there whether she was cooking, catching, sharing her musical talents or bringing up her kids. They’ve included everything from baking powder and spices to countless hours of study and research mixed with equal amounts of practice. Every darn bit of it has been well seasoned with generous amounts of love.

I know what I’m talking about because I once saw it happen. As I’ve mentioned, the long limbed lady I’m writing about is a salmon and steelhead-fishing fanatic. She lives smack on the shore of Oregon’s Kilchis River. If the bright-sided beauties that go finning by her home had access to pencil and paper they’d start working on a petition tomorrow morning. They’d be trying to get Oregon fish officials to post “No Fishing” signs along the banks where Jennie hangs out. She causes them more misery than the seals they’re forever trying to outsmart.

But while Jennie could, and one day probably will, write books about salmon and steelhead, she hasn’t done that much bass fishing. She’s caught some largemouth a time or two. She had never gone smallmouth fishing before I invited her to join me on a float trip on Oregon’s famed Umpqua River.

In my next column I’ll provide details on the “ingredients” Jennie used to hammer those Umpqua River smallmouth. Don’t miss it because it’s going to provide suggestions that will work as well for you as it did for her.

-go to part 2-

 

copyright 2005 Outlaw Baits  Florence, Oregon    EMAIL