I Eat Fish!

[Guest 420FLYFISHIN]

So i am an avid eater of trout (only in the mountains) and i was wondering if how you kill them changes the taste?

 

Does giving them the bonk on the head make them retain their fishy taste because the blood coagulates? Im just trying to get a bit cleaner taste.

 

i talked to one old guy and he just slits their throats and tosses them over his shoulder and gets back in the water for the next one.

 

Thanks

[SanJuanWorm]

Trout Almandine FTW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Guest 420FLYFISHIN]

i dont know if this makes me lame but what does that mean?

[SanJuanWorm]

Trout with Almonds.

 

 

 

I just bonk em if I keep em. If you can taste the difference after smoking 3 left handed cigarettes i'll give you a dollar.

[headscan]

And FTW = For The Win

[flyfishfairwx]

So i am an avid eater of trout (only in the mountains) and i was wondering if how you kill them changes the taste?

 

Does giving them the bonk on the head make them retain their fishy taste because the blood coagulates? Im just trying to get a bit cleaner taste.

 

i talked to one old guy and he just slits their throats and tosses them over his shoulder and gets back in the water for the next one.

 

Thanks

 

Why (only in the mountains) why not stockers and leave the wild trout to do what Ma nature wants them to do "Pro-create"

 

That way there is more trout in the mountains to fish and release..

 

I like stockers in the early spring and late fall..rolled in flour and S&P and fried in butter .. or smoked..

 

This is just question .. not a judgement you do what you think you have to ..

 

But I like wild trout to up there in the streams not in your digestive stream..

 

[Taco]

because brook trout are the bestest when they're dead, Mmmm brook trout

 

 

I just bash their little skulls in and clean'm right away Mmmmm brook trout

[DonAndersen]

420FLYFISHIN,

 

I like trout poached in a mixture of white wine, water and lemon juice. Catch @ least three 16>18" bull trout, rip their guts out promptly including the gills and blood vein along the backbone, place into a "desert" bag and into a willow creel.

 

When arriving @ camp:

 

 

1] Prior to cooking fish slice up 2 yellow onion rings and 2 sticks of celery into 1/2" chunks. Prepare about 4 cups of long grained rice till fluffy. Mix 1/2 teaspoon of corn starch into 1/4 cup of cold water ans set aside.

 

2] Place bull trout into a 18" fry pan with about 1/4" of boiling fluid - cover with tin foil

3] Flip the fish after 5>6 minutes and add celery & onions & cook for about another 4 minutes

4] remove fish and butterfly fillet onto a rice bed

5] thicken the water/lemon/wine mixture with the cornstarch

6] pour over fish

 

Enjoy after dialing the clock back 25 years.

 

Damn miss the good old days. Bull Trout = GOOD GRITS.

 

catch ya'

 

 

Don

 

 

 

 

[Jayhad]

Why (only in the mountains) why not stockers and leave the wild trout to do what Ma nature wants them to do "Pro-create"

 

That way there is more trout in the mountains to fish and release..

 

I like stockers in the early spring and late fall..rolled in flour and S&P and fried in butter .. or smoked..

 

This is just question .. not a judgement you do what you think you have to ..

 

But I like wild trout to up there in the streams not in your digestive stream..

 

Flyfishfairwx a very fair question I'll answer for Jer as I fish with him 95% of the time and pretty much 100% when the fishing isn't happening on the bow. If it gets to the point where we are able to see a decline in stream populations I can guarentee the eating will stop. But most of places we are fishing contain brookies and that is what we tend to eat. We did fish a lake last year that allowed us 2 cutties each and we took our limit..... but that is a 14K hike round trip so the fish went right into our bellys.

 

1) 420 doesn't fish many areas that are stocked

2) we only ever take 1 or 2 fish (unless it is brookies then you need a few), a maximum of 3 times a year per water source

3) there is virtually no one fishing the streams we fish, so the areas see virtually no pressure. Of the 20+ times we were stream fishing last year in the foothils we never saw another angler, or evidence of people period. Our foot prints would be there from the previous week.

4) only in the mountians because the only other water jer fishes is the Bow.

 

 

mmmmmmm brookies, June 16th hurry up

Jay

 

[SanJuanWorm]

If there was a lake here that we were allowed to keep walleye there would be some supper time walleye thats for sure.

[H2O]

Wild pan sized Brook trout, hell ya!

 

If you want clean tasting fish then you don't want a stocker especially in the spring. But, that's just from my Brook trout experience back East. Stocked trout equaled mushy white meat and wild Speckled trout equaled firm orange meat.

 

I haven't caught many Speckled's in Alberta so feel free to invite me on your next trip.

 

And what's a left handed cigarette?

[Tungsten]

If there was a lake here that we were allowed to keep walleye there would be some supper time walleye thats for sure.

I have fished all my life and can't stand the taste of salmon or trout,but walleye rolled in a little batter and fried in oil washed down with a beer.Awesome, no wonder they had to shut down harvesting.

[headscan]

I have fished all my life and can't stand the taste of salmon or trout

Glad to know I'm not alone. People always look at me funny when I tell them I fly fish but don't like eating fish or seafood at all. Well, other than fish and chips and sushi.

[pkk]

left hand cigarette = WEED

[Garlicmarshmellow]

Whack them in the head right away, process them (gut or fillet were size not n issue) as soon as possible and keep them cool. I can't believe the way folks teat the trout out of Arbour Lake. Some just throw them on the grass or in a bag in the heat of day alive and and let them bake in the sun. I'd rather eat my socks after a day of wet wading below the treatment plant than eat those fish. The only fish I've kept in the last couple of years have come from Spray lakes after ice out. I'd never keep a fish out of a pothole lake in the summer. They tend to taste really muddy and their flesh is not firm as in the winter.

The worst fish I ever ate came from the bow about 25 - 30 years ago. My dad caught a large rainbow from below the city. My grandmother was in town and we thought we'd treat her with this great catch. One taste and everyone spit it out. I don't know why the poachers on the Bow take the fish home. Worse fish ever

[Guest 420FLYFISHIN]

so not many people just bleed them out eh. I will work on my processing speed, usually we just bonk em and put them in the net where the basket is in the cold water and the wood is on the rocks.

[humblefisherman]

I don't keep many fish in my travels, but i think it's fine to reap the spoils of the art from time to time.

When i was a kid fishing rivers with my Pops, we would walk a section of river and would often keep our limit.

Our killing technique was simple and quick.

 

Find a oval stone half the size of your fist, give two good whacks on the head slightly behind the eye's on the back of the skull, theres a softer spot where the skull ends and the body begins. It's an instant kill most times and you'll know because the trout will vibrate like a cell phone. Put it back in the water for a moment for the soul to release... and then get down to business.

A fast clean after the kill is the secret to fresh fish. That being said, cut the fish down the belly from it's whoo-hoo to it's gills. This is done while it's upside down in your hand, and with it's head facing away from you. Once you reach the triangular skin between the gills, cut in front and behind the gills in an upward fashion. Then just simply pull them out from the body of the trout and the guts will come along with it via the food tube.

Run a thumbnail down the spine inside the cavity and remove the black **** you possibly can and then rinse . Check inside the stomach itself to see what the fish is eating. Then, throw the guts to the river as offering to the resident Bull Trout.

 

Find a stick that is shaped like a Y and feed an arm of the branch in the gill and out the mouth, then break or cut the branch an inch above the mouth. Pin the branch under a stone to keep the fish in the cool water while you fish. If you have to walk some distance over dry land, wrap in grass or place in a creel. We would sometimes leave fish in the river with the branch end pinned under the rocks, and gather the fish as we came back... but when we lost a few to the Crows, that put an end to that. We rarley saw people along the backcountry rivers in those days.

 

It was a treat for my Pops to at the heart raw, although i don't advise it...

 

Fish was usually eaten for breakfast, we would batter it in Coyote pancake mix, then fry it in a pan with a little butter. Squeeze a bit of lemon, sprinkle some pepper and eat.

Once in awhile we would eat on site, but would usually do this run early morning and feed the family breakfast.

 

Last year I ate two river livin fish , and two alpine lake livin fish. All eaten in this manner on location, all delicious. I tend to leave the domestics and eat the imports but will eat a cutt on occasion. My mom used to make a whitefish stew that would soften all those little bones. We would do a fall Highwood River whitefish run to supply her with the contents. I miss those day's.

 

I have noticed i catch less fish the day after the fishy meal, not sure why that is. Once i *hit, the lucks is right back to normal.

 

I'll get out and give you and Jayhad a troutside demo lunch on my favorite brookie stream this year to repay you for the awesome shoreside you put on for me last year. Thanks again boy's. The steak and veggies was superb.

 

Hope this helps Jer.

[jksnijders]

 

 

My dad usually bleeds out walleye caught from rivers. Not sure of the advantage, but I've seen him do it many times. Can't say I'm keen on trout out this way, we had a rainbow stocked pond on our place when I was a kid, they never tasted too screaming hell to me. Pike caught through the ice I really enjoy, had some a couple weeks back, and the one thing that I noticed was that day I whacked 'em right after landing and filleted them the skin comes off the fillets much easier. Usually I'd just land, bonk, and set aside. I found them easier to handle when frozen a bit. Same in summer, (for the rare times someone else wants one..) I find the skin harder to remove if they've sat a bit. Never eaten a fresh caught brookie, looks pretty tasty Taco..

[Taco]

Breakfast of champions JK, way better than any mountain caught rainbow or cutthroat, although it's been a while, hard to make a meal around 2 stunted brookies unless you're inclined to start poaching.

[Guest 420FLYFISHIN]

well most brookie limits are 5 per day so you need to bring soe veg to make up for the size of the fish.

[Taco]

where? in the new regs?

 

Edit; 2 waterrats in every stream I'm prone to fish, Alberta's too chichenshit to do what most of the Western States are doing....10/15/20/25 fish daily limits on waterrats

[H2O]

left hand cigarette = WEED

 

 

Ah, should have known but we didn't have that very often in Nova Scotia. Lots of hash though. I guess that's where the term "a hash and a hash not province" comes from, don't hear about hash much out here.

[egocop]

If there was a lake here that we were allowed to keep walleye there would be some supper time walleye thats for sure.

 

Just because there are no Walleye's in the Bow, that doesnt mean there are no Walleye's in the province, or within a few hours of Calgary. If you look 'outside the box' and check out the regs, there are SEVERAL Southern AB lakes which allow you to keep up to 3 Walleyes over 50cm.

 

That is all.

[Alinden]

So, how do most people eat their Brook trout? What kind of preperation is needed? I haven't ate a fish I couldn't fillet since I was 12 years old.

[fishfreak]

I frequently keep brook trout from Elbow Lake, mainly because there are so many of them and I love camping there. The lake is overpopulated with little brookies, and they're all competing for what limited food is up there. This is one of the lakes that has a catch limit of 5, but you rarely get anything over the 10" range. If I catch an edible size brookie, I put two fingers under the jaw, and my thumb behind the top of the skull and pull back until I hear a crack. All they have up there are large sharp rocks, so bonking would get a little messy.

 

After cleaning out the guts and cutting off the head, I just throw them in a pan with some butter, garlic, and seasoning salt. Sometimes I add a splash of beer. Squirt some lemon juice and enjoy!

 

I have a pic of my little setup, but my photobucket account got nuked recently.