Hit the rockwall this morning with some of my co-workers.  One brought a PB, and I came up with an idea to use it to tow the kayaks so they tack left and right.  With 50' ropes we had two kayaks with a ~40' spread and trolled all day in luxury.  The trick is to attach to the kayak at an eye loop near your foot, and have your trolling rig off the opposite side.  Both the off-center rope and the resistance from trolling make the kayak point away from the tow-boat, and kayaks have enough keel to them to tack out a ways.



There were a fair number of boats out, but I didn't see any fish but one:

32", 16lb.  Caught with an 8oz ball, 00 dodger, and a frozen chovie in about 20' of water out from the bay-facing corner in the rockwall, right around peak tide.

Gratuitous fish-sniffer:


The water was actually fairly clear.  I'd say 2' visibility.  It was a bit snotty in the AM, but okay by 10am or so.   I bet it'll be good tomorrow.

~1 cup pineapple juice
~4 pheasant breasts
~2 medium onions, diced
~2 cloves garlic, minced
~4 small hot peppers (serrano, cayenne...) diced or minced - to taste, not jalapeno
~4 tbsp vinegar
~4 tbsp olive oil
~2 tbsp lemon juice
Salt and pepper

Marinate pheasant breasts in pineapple juice for a few hours or overnight.
Grill pheasant breasts until they get crispy on the surface.  Dice breasts into 1/4" sized pieces, same size as diced onion.  In a skillet fry pheasant with onion and hot pepper until onion turns translucent.  Place in a bowl and toss with vinegar and lemon juice, then add salt and pepper to taste and serve hot.  Best fried up in batches on demand.

Sisig is a Filipino appetizer commonly eaten with beer.  It's usually made from pork faces, yes cheeks, snout, brain and ears, ect., which are somewhat firm and gratifying to chew.  Pheasant is on the tough side and results in a similar texture.  Also pheasant tends to be dry - frying it in olive oil and adding vinegar helps considerably to moisten it.

Real sisig has the face boiled in pineapple juice to tenderize it, then grilled, then fried - one of the few foods that's cooked three different ways.  I've found that if you use more normal meat like pork shoulder or pheasant, it ends up too soft this way.  Skip the boiling and get to the grilling and frying for best results. 

A note about the pepper, traditionally this is made with a small hot orange pepper called siling labuyo.  It is very similar to a thai red chili and cayenne peppers are also in the ballpark.  Jalapeno peppers are one of the most common medium peppers available, but they have a strong flavor that is not appropriate for this dish.  Labuyos and thai chilis are extremely hot little peppers, 20x as strong as jalapeno and just below habaneros in ferocity - be careful.

167.6 this week, 167.8 last week.  A whole .2lb improvement.

We had a big party on Saturday and I did a good job avoiding too much food.

Was 169 last week, 170.8 this week.  Nooooooo!
I was 166.6 Saturday morning, but we had a huge cabin party up near Tahoe Saturday.


I cooked 10lbs of chicharon bulaklak




And about 20lb of short ribs...

Maybe I'm lucky to only be up 1.8lb....

165.8, same as last week.  Had to scramble yesterday after the July 4th festivities.

168.0, same as last week.  My average weight is still around 169 and falling, I just got lucky and sampled a low point in the noise last week. 

I made a snap call to go fishing on account of FLAC weather.  My dad, son and I will be going out of Mill Creek early Sat.  Ch 69.