Delicious Fish

Over the last couple of years fishing has become a part of my life. I have learned to bait my own hook, using different types of lures and live bait. I know when to use a bobber and when not to. I also have a lot of patience to wait out the fish.

I have caught some pretty big fish, including a 20 pound catfish that wore me out and a five pound large mouth bass. But none put up as big of a fight as the stripe that can be found in the waters in Alabama. You can catch a small four or five pound stripe and feel like you are reeling in a 20 pound bass.

Even though catching the fish is the best part, I think you should eat everything you catch (not including tree limbs, old fishing line, and other various items that you can pull up out of the water). So, I can now catch them, let my boyfriend clean them (even though I learned how), and cook them. This recipe is great for this fish, but can be used on bass and catfish as well.

Clean the stripe, be sure to cut out the red stuff (as you can tell I am not as knowledgeable in the correct terms as I would like to be, but I am learning). Filet, and then cut the filets into smaller nugget size pieces.

Rinse the pieces one more time under cold water.

Place the fish in a bowl. Cover with water and add lots of hot sauce. I add about half of a bottle, but you can add as much or as little as you want. I use Frank's hot sauce, but I imagine any type of hot sauce will do. Allow the fish to soak in the mixture for about 3 hours. Make sure the bowl is placed in the refrigerator. You don't want anyone getting sick off of ruined fish.

In the meantime, get a large sealable plastic bag. Put about 1 cup of cornmeal, ¼ cup of flour, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of black pepper, and ¼ teaspoon of cayenne pepper into the bag. Seal and shake.

After the fish has soaked, remove from the refrigerator and out into the plastic bag. Seal and shake.

Fry the nuggets in hot oil. Remove and drain on paper towels.

Enjoy! You better eat them quick because they won't last long.