Shad Roe (Daily Limit Hit)
I know—I know—Most of you guys don’t like Roe, but that’s mostly because you never had any. LOL
Bear Jr seems to have gotten the hang of catching the “American Shad” on their run up the Delaware River.
He’s Captain of a Pool Team in this area, and a couple years ago, an older Guy “Magaro” joined his team.
He turned out to be the most knowledgable Shad Fisherman of the whole Delaware River Basin.
This guy is known as “Shad Pappy” by All Shad Fishermen in New Jersey & Pennsylvania, and catches Hundreds of Shad annually.
He was President of the DRSFA “Delaware River Shad Fishing Association”.
Over the years (80 years old), Magaro's reputation has made him the subject of numerous articles in outdoor magazines and a sought-after speaker for shad fishing seminars. Magaro's nickname, "Shad Pappy," started at his hunting camp in Wayne County, where he was dubbed "Pappy" because he is one of the older members. The word shad was added later in reference to his Shad angling exploits.
So it didn’t take long for Bear Jr & Shad Pappy to become Buddies, and the old boy took him under his wing with some extra “Shad Fishing” tutoring.
So this time, Bear Jr took his Young Buddy, “Brian” with him. Brian is his helper in his Woodshop, and his “Director of Operations” of his Corporation “TAC Pro, Inc". — ”Towers, Antennas, and Cabling Professionals Inc.” that he started back in 1999.
This day they caught 23 Shad, but only brought the legal limit home with them, which is 3 American Shad per person. And since all we want is the Shad Roe, they brought 6 “Roe” Shad home.
So Bear Jr brought me a Big Zip-Lock with a mess of Shad Roe sets in it. I then proceeded to separate the sets from double lobes to individual sacks. Then I cleaned them up a little & put them in a bowl full of salted water. After an overnight soak in the fridge, the water had turned to a pale Red from the blood being pulled from the Roe, by the Salt Water. I drained the container, rinsed the Roe, and put them back in the container submerged in clear unsalted water, to get rid of excess salt.
A couple hours later I gently rinsed them again, Dried them off pretty good, and bagged them all in the thickness of one, added some hunks of Butter, and vacuum sealed the bag.
Then at 10 AM I set my Sous Vide Supreme at 140° & put the bag in, clipped to my SV rack. At 4 PM I removed the package & put it right into a big bowl of ice, and then into the Fridge.
Time To Cook: (Ninja Time)
I lightly rinsed the Roe Sacks one more time & patted them dry with paper towels.
Then I set my Ninja at 390°, on Bake, and let it Pre-heat.
When it was Ready I put 6 big thick slices of Bacon in for 4 minutes & removed the Bacon. Then I put all the Roe in the Baking Pan, in the Bacon Fat, & closed the lid. It was a tighter fit than I wanted, but I got them all in.
At 3 minutes, I flipped them All over & at 5 minutes I checked them out. They were nearly done to my liking, so I put the Bacon back in, on top of the Roe, and gave them another 2 minutes, and called it quits.
As you will see below, that Bacon, along with all that Roe, and some Cranberry Sauce gave this Roe Loving Bear some awesome Shad Roe Meals, and I bagged a few more Roe & Bacon Meals for my Freezer for another time, and a few meals for Bear Jr, so all he’ll have to do is heat them up & enjoy them.
Don’t miss the Pics below, and I’ll describe them in the captions above each Picture.
Bear
6 Sets of Shad Roe soaking in Salted Cold Water over night:
6 Sets of Shad Roe soaking in clear cold water for a few hours:
12 separated Sacks of Shad Roe patted Dry before going in SV:
12 Sacks of Shad Roe, after 6 hours of 140° in my Sous Vide Supreme:
Cooking in My Ninja (See Text):
Bear's first Night's Meal, of Shad Roe, Bacon, Broccoli, and Cranberry Sauce:
Bear's 2nd Night's Meal, of Shad Roe, Bacon, and Sliced Baked Potato Fried in Butter: