What A Waste

So this is kind of a two part deal. The first mistake was with the camera. I was fishing Carmel like usual and had a ling follow another ling that I hooked up to the surface. I thought I put my camera on video and proceeded to film the awesome encounter that lasted about a minute. I would have had awesome footage of the free swimming ling following the hooked one around. So I pull my camera out of the water and it was on picture mode! No video. I ended up popping the 20ish ling I hooked into the boat and I landed the follower a 23 on the next drop.
 

So I keep the 23 and let the other fish swim. The last stop of the day and I hook this a mystery flattie.

Now I have two fish in the kill bag and this is unusual for me. I typically only retain one. So I went home and cooked the flattie for the wife which she devoured.  The ling fillets were coming close to being gifted or frozen so I decided to try ChuckE's Indian Candy smoking recipe.
It went well enough though for unknown reasons I omitted the maple syrup. I brined the fish for 24 hours and cooked it for a little less than three at 175. I would cook it longer, cooler but my gas smoker doesn't operate below 175. I tasted the product hot...
 
And it was great. The glaze really seemed to make the difference though this is likely because I didn't add the maple syrup and it was a tad salty. I suck at tasting the brine and almost always end up with too salty smoked RF. This is the very first time I have smoked fish and it was edible. I was stoked.
 

That pic is both ling fillets in a paper bag. Now for the crappy part. I left for work that night and returned home in the morning. The wife wakes up and walks into the kitchen. "Is this supposed to be out?" I look and see my precious paper bag full of tasty sweet ling sitting on the counter. Let's just say I wasn't happy with myself and we'll leave it at that. I put the bag in the fridge like 11 hours out wouldn't matter but I knew it was spoiled. I seem to recall that hot smoked meats cannot survive out of refrigeration like cold smoked ones. Throwing that fish away for a small mistake was tough but I learned a hard lesson and it absolutely won't happen again. The worst part is I only ate a few pieces of the still hot fish so I didn't even really get to try it cold how it should be eaten. 

-Tim

Man, that sucks!  Good looking eats though!

Bummer on your misfortune.

Didn't have any animals to feed it too?  Wild or otherwise?

i like the way you think Meat Hunter.....i once gifted some Hali-fillets....only to hear that they were tossed due to a worm found in the plastic bag when they got home. My mistake for not informing them that they are not harmful.
i'm sure the fish gods will cut you some slack on this one 

That's too bad Tim. You won't do that again. I had a very similar situation recently. I caught a halibut and a mess of rockfish and had a fish fry at the in-laws house. I didn't cook all the halibut so I put 2 of the 4 filets in my car to take home and forgot to put it in the fridge. Found it the next day in a hot car. I was so pissed at myself. Lesson learned I suppose.

-FF

I wish there was a way to let those ahole who assume fisherman are all 'pillage/plunder' types and see how much it hurts us when we waste any part of our catch.

I wish there was a way to let those ahole who assume fisherman are all 'pillage/plunder' types and see how much it hurts us when we waste any part of our catch.

Fish are friends AND food, I love to see fish just following the lures. Pains me every time one gets hooked badly and obviously won't make it released. I'm a conservationist by nature and a redneck at the dinner table. Even my Kids know, if you kill it you eat it!!!! NO WASTE!!!

Thanks for the replies. I hate wasting fish and even freezing it. I fish a lot so I have ample opportunities to harvest great tasting fish and love having fresh fish on hand. 

I guess I could have fed the smoked ling to my chinchillas  . They used to eat live meal worms like the ones you would buy for bait. All kidding aside the worry here is botulism and other very resistent microbes. I wouldn't risk the K9 or anyother desirable animal to find out if the fish had lethal levels.

That sucks! That fish jerky looked good too . Can you share the recipe? I think that mystery fish is a diamond Turbot.

Wes

I had a similar experience(but with a better end result) last night when I woke up from a dead sleep to remember I hadn't taken the fish fillets out of the mini cooler!!! You know my ass got up and went out side in the dark in my nightshirt to get those into the fridge.

Thank god they were still cold, the ice hadn't melted all the way...it was a good save.

I can't stand wasting food, especially fish my man catches 

Brining and smoking preserves meat.  I would have eaten it, unless it obviously was funky.