Vern Hacker has been dead since March 1989, but I recall his smiling face and deep respect for rough fish whenever someone makes news for catching a huge gar, burbot, sheepshead or another piscatorial pariah.
That’s because Hacker was the Don Quixote of fisheries biologists during his career with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Hacker always encouraged people to eat rough fish instead of burying them to fertilize their gardens or flowers. And he especially despised those who tossed rough fish aside to rot, or killed them before dropping them back into the water.
Sad to say, Hacker’s idealism probably had little impact on the fishing public’s culinary preferences. Wisconsin is flush with savory fish like trout, salmon, crappies, bluegills, walleyes, yellow perch, northern pike and white bass, to name a few. Most folks simply won’t go out of their way to catch and prepare rough fish when they have so many other tastier and prettier options…