Perhaps you’re one of the lucky ones, like Jeff, a past visitor to this blog, who, in the company of another angling friend, celebrates the start of Thanksgiving Day fly fishing Fall Creek every year. Most of us with families, and especially those who have angling-averse families, must resign ourselves to the traditional family get-together; watching football, drinking, and eventually sitting down at table adorned with turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry relish, gravy, more drink, pumpkin pie, and more drink. It’s not all bad, mind you. It’s just that the holiday is all about giving thanks, and what better way to give thanks than to catch and release a few.
My destiny this year, as in all years past, is chewing on a drumstick while visions dance in my head of fly fishing for stripers and blues with Captain Greg Cudnik out of Barnegat Light, NJ. Late November fly fishing in the salt can be very, very good. And in terms of table fare, striped bass is exceptionally good, though I release almost all I catch,
My mother always drummed into my head, no pun intended, that if you’re handed lemons, make lemonade, and so I decided to do a little research regarding this historic event in hopes that my findings might support a change in the family tradition – a change that might even extend to a cultural renaissance of this feasting holiday. What follows is sure to enlighten…
The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock on December 11, 1620 – towards the end of the striper run, oh by the way. Apparently, the Pilgrims were not too skilled with the fly or any other manner of fishing, because their first winter was terrible. They lost 46 of the original 102 who sailed on the Mayflower, to starvation. The next year, however, smiled on the survivors, as the harvest of 1621 was bountiful. The colonists, along with 91 Wampanoag Indians (credited with saving them from complete disaster), decided to celebrate their good fortune with a feast.
And what did that feast include? Well, my research shows many variations in the menu, but by most accounts, one traditional item that almost assuredly was missing was, of all things, turkey. Turkey was present in the wild at the time of the first Thanksgiving, but the word “turkey” was used by the Pilgrims to mean any sort of wild fowl. Good ole’ gun-toting Governor William Bradford apparently sent four men “fowling”, so more than likely, any “turkey” in the center of the table was actually a sea duck or goose. Also missing from the feast was the potato, considered poisonous by many Europeans at the time, and dairy products, since there were no domestic cattle available.
From other accounts and records of daily life in Plymouth, we know that rabbit, chicken, squashes, beans, chestnuts, hickory nuts, onions, leeks, dried fruits, maple syrup and honey, radishes, cabbage, carrots, eggs, and possibly goat cheese were available, although not necessarily all used in the same meal. The corn was most likely in the form of meal rather than on the cob, and pumpkin would have been served in the form of a pumpkin pudding or stew, and not in a crust.
Most noticeably “on the list” were some items few Americans would ever consider to be Thanksgiving table fare. Governor Bradford lists bass, cod, and “other fish of which they took good store”, these fish being herring, bluefish, and lots of eels. Clams, lobsters (without the drawn butter), mussels, and oysters were undoubtedly part of dinner, too.
So, seafood, yes, seafood, made up a good part, if not the majority, of the original Thanksgiving meal. And how might that seafood come to our modern-day Thanksgiving table? You guessed it; fly fishers could go out and catch, and maybe this one time of the year, not release, their favorite piscatorial delight for part of the feast. Imagine the pomp and circumstance as the weary fly fisherman returns in the early afternoon to spread the day’s bounty across the table for all to marvel over. This addition to Thanksgiving would surely strengthen the tradition, put smiles on the multitudes, and kill TV ratings around all the damn football games that play that day.
I therefore propose that the readership spread the word. This isn’t your grandfather’s Thanksgiving anymore – go forth and fish up some fare, and put a little Thanksgiving in Thanksgiving…
To all, a safe, belly-expanding, and joyous holiday…
Tight lines…
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