Catch of the Day

Growing up in a South Texas household of outdoor enthusiasts made fishing along the Gulf Coast a routine family affair. We spent our springs hooking red drum in the bays and our summers pulling king mackerel, amberjack, pompano, and red snapper from offshore waters. At 14, I hooked my only sailfish, a leviathan that leapt out of the water, flashed its sail-like dorsal fin, then defiantly spit out the hook before it disappeared into the deep blue.

Had I caught the sailfish, I would have eaten it. We ate everything we could legally catch and prepared our wild fish in midcentury American fashion: whole flounder baked in lemon zest, butter, and parsley;