hooligan for my hooligans

Hooligan are smelt-like fish that return from the ocean each spring to the rivers in which they were hatched. Also called candlefish, they are high in vitamin rich oil. When the hooligan return we know it is the beginning of our food gathering season (which is quite short). We know the salmon will be coming soon and our many yummy berries.

Mal and Eoghan are mid picture, on the bank of the river.

When we heard that the hooligan were in this last week, we knew that we had better go and find them before they were gone. Eoghan was licking his lips at the thought of the small fish, as he found out last year that he loved eating them (tails and all!). We checked river after river for 27 miles, until we saw eagles plucking them from a distance. The two oldest hooligans were off with their net and buckets.

Eoghan trying to catch with a stick, and then quite pleased with himself as he actually caught some using his bare hands. Yay!