Jackson: A bluegill meal fit for a queen

My wife is probably one of those rare women who work ultra-hard to pull off special events for family and friends.

After months of planning that began more than two years ago to prepare for our youngest daughter's wedding, as well as all the planning for a recent baby shower, my wife became terribly ill after both happy occasions were completed.

Now she is sidelined with pneumonia. Even though I've stocked the larder with heavy-duty chicken soup, she is slow to react in a positive sense to realize the healing powers of that liquid penicillin.

What's a husband to do?

I told her I was going out for a while to bring home some dinner. And off I went, with fly and spinning rods in hand.

My first and only stop was a small nearby pond with lots of heavy weed cover as well as a shoreline loaded with yet-to-go-brown cattails.

Pan fish maven Dave Genz told me on a recent edition of my outdoor radio talk show that has occurred because we are experiencing a warmer-than-normal autumn in the Midwest. In other words, many of our local and regional lakes and ponds have yet to transform themselves into wintertime showcases. That simply means fall turnover has yet to be experienced.

And the turnover stage is basically defined as colder layers normally transition to shallow water and thereby displacing the warmer layers to the bottom.

During that annual switcheroo phase, anglers will sometimes fail to grasp what is going on. The end result is a many complain they haven't caught a single fish.

I was on a mission, however, to bring home a meal that could appeal to my wife's neutral, on-hold taste buds.

I gingerly wound around the pond's bank, being careful not to step on loosey-goosey ground.

It took three casts with a sinking fly before the water roiled-up. A fat pumpkinseed inhaled the fly and made for the heavy cover. It was a tad too small to warrant a filet job and hot oil in the pan.

I made a half-dozen more casts and nothing happened so I moved a tad west.

I had a small container of medium-sized leeches with me. My ultralight rod was rigged with a No. 8 hook.

I made a cast to the edge of a weed clump, and in a matter of seconds the leech attracted a school of big bluegills. The whole process lasted close to half an hour with seven 9-inch 'gills to show for my effort.

When I arrived home, I found my wife asleep in the bedroom. I quickly went to work in the laundry room, cleaning and filleting the fish.

I came up with a special concoction of garlic, brown mustard and some corn meal. I dredged the fish pieces in the mixture and then covered the lot with plastic wrap.

When she was awake and somewhat alert, she asked me what we were going to have for dinner?

I didn't answer but proceeded to gently sauté the fish until they were perfectly cooked.

With a small side dish of red potatoes and some fresh vegetables I subsequently found the right formulae for awakening neutral taste buds.

She loved her royal meal.

• Contact Mike Jackson at angler88@comcast.net, catch his radio show 7-9 a.m. Sundays on WGCO 1590-AM (live-streamed at www.1590WCGO.com) and get more content at mikejacksonoutdoors.com.