Victoria Gazette-Hook Line & Sinker

One of the appetizers at our home this year for Thanksgiving was smoked northern. When Allan comes home from his Canadian fishing trips with packages of frozen walleye and northern filets, I prepare the walleye in rather short order, but I stash the northern in back of the freezer until he feels like firing up the smoker. It's not a big deal. The fish is placed in the smoker for about 12 hours, which means it's not something you start up at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

Nobody wants to see delicious fish flesh go to waste, but I've had a fishbone almost caught in my throat as a youth and smoking is a better way to get rid of the northern. Their Y bones, which are easy to find, don't bother me so much as the broken Y bones, or the unbroken ones I miss. Pickling or smoking are wonderful ways to dissolve the bones of northern pike.

The hook I hide in each issue of the Gazette is a wonderful way to catch some of you each month who send me a note telling where you found it. Last month the fishhook was hiding in the dropped hand of the Halloween witch on page 34. Wow. You guys are good!

This month I swished my hand into the minnow bucket and pulled out Helen Schimmelpfennig of Fish Creek, Wisconsin. The name and the location make me smile as I put the ten pfennig prize in the mail to you, Helen. Congratulations.

There's another fishhook hidden in this Christmas issue of the Gazette. If you find it and wish to be part of this monthly drawing, email Sue@VictoriaGazette.com telling of its location or sinker in the mail to P.O. Box 387 in Victoria, MN 55386. Have a meaningful merry one.