Composing the Fall issue of Coastal Angler is always a challenge. It’s now mid-August and the livin’ is easy. It’s high summer and we are spending as much time on the water, with family and friends, as is economically possible!
But when this issue of Coastal Angler lands in your hands in two weeks time, it will be back to school. Labor Day. And despite our best efforts another summer will slip into memory.
So make the best of these weeks – and to that end, check our great articles this month from both Tom Schlichter and Zach Harvey, your intrepid Coastal Angler masters of the fish-geist. Tips and good advice are abundant in this issue – enjoy.
I especially love Zach’s article on the scup. As a young girl on Shelter Island porgies (as we call them on Long Island) were easy to catch and delicious to eat. But they had a bad rap as not -quite-ready-for -prime- time and my grandmother tried to ban them from her kitchen. My father – despite being a Republican – was a man of the people and declared that porgies were to be prepared with honor and welcomed heartily to the dinner table.
Many of us are convinced that with a little branding help the humble porgy (scup) can make the grade in the nest restaurants. We remember the legendary Lee Lantz, a fish wholesaler who, in 1977, transformed the lowly Peruvian Toothfish into a sensation by renaming it Chilean Seabass and the rest is history. $25 and more a plate in fine restaurants everywhere. Our friend Mike Wade (Watchhill Outfitters) has been on a mission for years to rename scup silver snapper or pan fish. Keep up the good work Mike and we hope to see more scup on plates in great restaurants!
And to catch the largest, most succulent pan fish, read Zach’s article on page 3.
Get out and fish!
Tight lines.
Mike and Lisa Danforth
