Seviche or Ceviche

Are names for a fish dish made from fish cooked by the centuries old method of cooking by contact with the acidic juice of citrus instead of heat. It originated in Peru or Ecuador and the ingredients are highly variable from place to place and country to country. I have been experimenting with recipes and have finally developed what may be a better one.

Ingredients:

1/2  pound of fresh bass fillets cut into ½ inch cubes

6 limes, squeezed with pulp

1 orange squeezed

1 Roma tomato, seeded and diced

1/4 green bell pepper diced

3 small bunches of green onions, diced

3 or 4 or 5  Jalapeno pepper rings depending on your heat level, diced

1 clove of garlic, pressed

tablespoon of olive oil

1 tablespoon of chopped cilantro (some may want 2)

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 small can Old El Paso green chillies,  drained

2 or 3 good shakes of Tabasco

2 more limes juiced, to be added later

1/2 orange juiced, to be added later

Place cubed fish in a glass or plastic bowl and cover with juice of 6 limes and 1 orange. Cover and place in refrigerator. Turn or stir after 3 or 4 hours to make sure all fish gets soaked evenly. I like to leave it in the refrigerator for 24 hours. After 24 hours, drain and add fresh juice of 2 limes and 1/2 orange. Then add other ingredients and gently mix thoroughly. You can serve immediately but it’s best after it sits in the refrigerator for 2 or 3 hours. Keeps in the refrigerator for 3 days or so.

The firm flesh of a bass works well. Crappie gets mushy. Redfish works well too. Frozen fish will work but I prefer fresh. You can alter this recipe to your individual taste. This may be only a good starting point.

Mickey and I went to Lake Ferguson this afternoon. He took his boat and had Ed with him. We went where the bass have been schooling and they were there again. I was where the action was so I called them on the phone.  I was having trouble getting a bite even though I was in the midst of a school of striking fish. When Mickey and Ed got there, they started catching fish right away so I knew something was wrong. They were using a Yozuri lipless  crankbait that was more the size and shape  of the shad the bass were feeding on. It has a very aggressive rattle also.  They were out catching me 3 to 1 while we were  fishing close together. They caught 24 and I caught 7.  Mickey caught another grinner today and is trying to make a run at the Grinner Meister title currently held by Richard. Richard also holds the Goo Meister title and the Smallmouth Buffalo Meister title. A picture of his 12 pound Smallmouth buffalo, caught on a spinnerbait.

After a drubbing on Monticello, I went to Lake Ferguson this morning early.  Before leaving home the radar showed some showers directly across the river, then a large gap, and then some more showers.  When I reached to lake there was a tournament of about 20 boats going on.  I reached the intended spot where Rufus and Willie had fished yesterday afternoon and had seen bass schooling.  Willie hooked one on a spinnerbait that weighed ” 6 or 7 or 8 pounds”. It broke his line taking his spinnerbait. Not only were the bass schooling when I got there, but the white pelicans were there too.  The trusty Booyah would not get a bite even when thrown into the middle of a group of schooling fish.  Jackson was talking yesterday about the frustration of fishing for schooling fish and opined that a rattletrap was the best bait to use in that situation. Out one came. It was a medium sized one. Quickly I had a 3 – 14 in the boat.  Here is a picture of the bait and a shad that it snagged.

The bait was a pretty good match for the shad that the fish were feeding on and as you could see the hooks were sharp.  I snagged a total of 6 shad before the day was over.  By 9:00 went it started to rain, I had 11. When the rain started, the bite started to slow noticeably.  Even with the rain there were a good many people fishing.  One group of three was coming down the same bank I was covering. They asked if I was in a tournament and when I replied “no” they commenced to come right for my spot as if they were going to fish it too. Only after being asked, “You’re not going to come in here and fish my spot are you?” did they turn around and go back from whence they came. Some people. I ended up with 14 fish, the largest 5 weighing 18 pounds even, 2 over 4 , the 3 – 14 and a 3 – 4 being the largest.  I felt sorry for one of the tournament fishermen who was a back seater. He had on his knee length shorts and a visor in the pouring rain. A drowned rat was drier then that guy. A good day even considering the rain but I don’t feel like I’m completely even with them yet.

They whipped us again on Monticello. You’d think I’d learn after a few times. This morning Jackson and I started fishing about 7:30 on a unusually calm lake. Within 10 minutes I had a 3 1/2 in the boat on a swimbait.  Ten minutes later another smaller bass in the boat and ten minutes after that I lost another. I thought we were going to tear them up but we should have quit right then. There were no more bites after 8:00 except something that vibrated my bait twice in one place. I think it was a really small bass. The last one out turned off the lights. I’m mad and want revenge. That may have to wait until next April.

Not too many places to fish where I’ve been lately.

But I’m back, and Wednesday we attacked the Garhole in two boats. Frank Smith and Mickey in one and Hunt Lowery and me in the other.  Of course we wanted to catch some fish but mainly we wanted to invite some to Frank’s house to supper. The Garhole has too many  12 inch bass that need to be reduced in numbers so as not to be overpopulated.  We released all over 13 inches. This is a picture of Hunt and a nice Garhole bass.

We had great fun.  One unnamed party even got hung far up in a tree and had to get my lure retrieving  pole to rescue his bait. He left his rod hanging in the tree when he came to get the pole. Of course that had to get on the Bitespot.

Hunt and I were rounding a point where Hal, Mack and I had a casting contest in our high school days and in that contest Hal caught a fish that was strange to us, a chain pickerel. I was telling him the story, when Mickey shouted from the other boat that he had just caught a chain pickerel, his second of the day. What a coincidence.

The two boats caught  108 fish for the day, 28 of which were invited for supper . They came and were delicious. Most were caught on spinnerbaits and on worms. I even caught 2 on a swimbait. The FOD was 3 – 12. It seems to be the spinnerbait time of the year. The last few trips a spinnerbait has been THE bait.

Mark and I went to the Upper Lake Monday afternoon. It is almost cut off from Lake Ferguson at this water level.  He left them biting there Sunday at noon fishing with grandsons. They caught about 15. I remember the last time we went there where we caught an ice chest full. We went to the best spot right off the bat where we had a bump or two on the Yozuris that Mark has made famous. I pulled out a worm and caught one but even the Minnow Wand rubbed on the baits could not make a difference.  A catfish did make a pass at a small crankbait and got hooked in the tail.  One more small bass on the crankbait and that was it.  Just like Sunday with Rufus, we thought we would tear them up but the fish did not cooperate.

Rufus and I went to Lake Ferguson this afternoon once again under beautiful weather conditions.

The fish were not as cooperative today as yesterday. They were there and chasing shad but it was hard to get them to hit a spinnerbait. With as many shad as are in the lake now I don’t see why a fish would ever hit an artificial lure. We caught 9 bass and a couple of stripes using a 1/4 ounce Booyah spinnerbait.  Mickey was there too with Ed as his fishing partner. They caught 15 or so but it was obvious that it was not the same as yesterday.  The word must be out because there was a good crowd of fishermen.The good part is the ones we did catch were the small good eating size fish. We kept all but one we caught and a couple of  stripes.

That is what the ice chest looked like just before we left.

Lake Ferguson stood at 17.4 feet when Mickey and I went fishing Saturday morning. The major period was in the afternoon so we did not start at the crack of daylight. As the morning progressed, we caught a few on DT – 6’s and worms but we could see some schooling fish that were just not interested in those offerings.  We started rattling around in tackle bags to find out what would work.  A 1/4 ounce Booyah spinnerbait seemed to do the trick.  There were millions of small shad that the bass were chasing in shallow water. A lot of the bass were small but every now and then the big ones showed up. After noon is when the bite picked up and remained for the rest of the afternoon.  We did however catch a couple of 4’s in the morning on a DT – 10.

Mickey caught a large Goo and also another grinner too.  He is within striking distance of wresting the Grinner Meister title from Richard.

The afternoon also had an appearance from Dr. Metcalfe when Mickey had a hook from a 400 Bandit stick up to the barb in the pad of his right index finger.  It hurt the doctor more to look at it than it was hurting the patient. After a pull didn’t work, a little finessing by the patient finally got the hook out.  Watch out for the 400 Bandit hooks because they are the sharpest I have seen. After some antibiotic and a bandaid, the fishing continued. We had to keep moving because the fish were spread over a large area. Later in the evening, Mickey pulled out a Yozuri lipless crankbait and caught a few but the  big stripes were giving him fits.  He said he got the Yozuri because he heard Mark liked them and it was one of his main go to baits. I did not keep count, but I’d guess we caught 30 stripes.  Most were big ones too. I did count the bass and our total was 103. A terrific day of fishing – I mean, catching.

Wednesday morning I went to Lake Whittington with the water stage at 8.8 at Arkansas City. I have not been there in a long time and have heard some success stories from there but had no idea where to go or what bait to use. Looking for some wood in the water was a good place to start. The water falling had left most of the tops up on the dry ground.  I found a few in the water and a Booyah spinnerbait started getting good results.

Around 10:00 or so things started to pick up as the fish started to sting the Booyah and get the hook deep in their mouth.  I ran out of  productive tops and moved to a different part of the lake. There were a line of tops down the bank and only a slight change of the steepness of the slope of the bank made the ones on the steeper part better than the others. By noon I had 33 and called John Shackelford on the phone to return his call that I had missed.  I was sitting on one side of a treetop. When I finished the call, I moved to the other side and it was on!  The fish had the shad hemmed up and were working on them. I started catching them every cast, those zinging hits that make your line go out to the side.  Hence the name of this post. Old Milwaukee beer had a TV commercial a good while back whose ending line was “It just doesn’t get any better than this”.  That was  exactly what I was thinking.  23 bass came off of that top.

It was getting close to the time I needed to go if I wanted to bowhunt that afternoon so I only caught a few more before I left.  The total for the day was 59. Most were in the 1 1/4 to 2 1/2 pound range.  I had some guests for supper in my backyard too.

The truth is the bass at Monticello have me whipped for now.  I went there this morning and fished in good conditions only coming up with one 3 1/2 pound fish on a swimbait. The fish  had a larger one trying to steal the bait out of it’s mouth. Florida bass got cussed, as did the full moon, but the truth is I just can’t figure them out over there at this particular time of year.  I fished where I caught or hung fish the last couple of times I’ve been there but nothing at all. The only thing that has been steady is all the contact with fish the last three times has been in 7 to 9 feet of water. When I caught one today with a follower at 12:30, I thought they were schooling but I circled and circled to no avail. The water was clear and beautiful with 4 foot visibility so I know they can see the swimbait.  I’ve never done very well there on a full moon but I know that’s not the problem.  A look at the front deck before the baits were put up for the day shows  that I didn’t just stick with one bait.