Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Fishing For Rainbow Trout

It's been years since I've been fishing for rainbow trout. Here in Georgia the stream and lake fishing is supposed to be excellent. Now I'm sorry I sold my fishing rods. I might have to get a new one. There is nothing better than a stream or lake caught wild fish cooked over a campground fire. Once I tried for hours to catch a big rainbow trout in the Stanislaus River. It was one of the first times I'd gone fishing on my own. The trout was in a deep pool and he kept eating my bait. Finally I caught him, pulled him up on the big rock I'd been sitting on. Then I had to kill him. That was one of the hardest things I ever did. Later that day the fish which I and others had caught (stored in our ice chest) were stolen.

When I used to go fishing at Lake Davis in California I sometimes would catch a kokanee (land locked salmon). I would gut the fish but leave the head on, stuff the cavity with lemon slices, wrap the kokanee in bacon, piercing the skin with a toothpick to hold the bacon on. I had a wire basket and when the campfire coals were just right, I'd cook the salmon over the hot coals. Oh so delicious.

One time my brother, Larry, (sadly he passed away suddenly at 44 years of age) took me fishing off the shore of San Francisco Bay in Marin County. It was one of his favorite fishing spots. There was only one problem we had to slide down a gravelly steep cliff to get down to the shore.  Larry carried the fishing rods and I carried the live bait in a five gallon bucket. We fished for several hours and we caught two rock cod and one lingcod.

When we decided to leave, Larry gave me the choice of carrying the three fish in the bucket of water or the fishing rods. I chose the bucket of fish. I literally had to crawl on my knees and clutch the earth digging in with my fingernails to keep from slipping down that hill. If you knew my brother you'd know I'd catch hell if I dropped that bucket of fish. Luckily I made it up the hill more than ten minutes after he'd made it up the hill. Whew, what a close one.

Later we cooked the fish at my house on my BBQ grill and I invited Gary over for dinner. This was all before we were married. I still remember the flesh of the lingcod was fluorescent blue. When cooked the flesh turns white and poses no health risk. Only one in one hundred lingcod have the blue flesh. I also remember I made bearnaise sauce for the fish. Those were the days. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

11 comments:

  1. We used to follow my father along the river banks with a frying pan. When he caught a fish was when we ate. Brown trout and/or rainbow trout. Cooked less than half an hour after being caught - and truly delicious.

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  2. Hi Sue, thanks, yes fresh is definitely best.

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  3. My husband was a fisherman. The lakes and ponds near us yielded mostly bass. Good eating, when we had enough.

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  4. Hi Joanne, thanks, I think folks get their love of fishing from their relatives, my uncle Dan loved to fish and we'd visit them as kids, probably where my brother learned to love it since our dad didn't fish, I never liked bass because they have that second set of bones in them, but fisherman like them a lot because they are fighters and often get off the line so it's a challenge to catch them.

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  5. I'll let you fishermen/women do the catching...I'll gladly do cooking and eating. I was camping where they had a pond to catch fish once, and the family had extras so they gave us a couple, and we grilled them...oh such good tasting trout!

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    1. Hi Barbara, thanks, then you know what I mean about how good fresh caught fish tastes.

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  6. Your Rainbow trout painting is beautiful. Nice to remember old fishing memories. I was raised on fresh caught Salmon and Trout. So tasty. Dad always said my Mom could clean and filet a fish better than anyone he ever met. She caught her fair share also.

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    1. Hi Barbara, thanks, nothing better than fresh, love both salmon and trout, used to go on boat trips in the SF bay area to catch salmon, I think the cost was more than the fish cost but it was fun.

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  7. Linda, my dad and uncles had a fishing camp on Grand Isle, in Louisiana. They fished a lot and my mom and Aunt cooked them. One of my favorite memories was being taken there to fish with my dad.

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    1. Hi Rian, thanks, oh was a joy to have a fish camp, must have been something to go there and camp out and get fresh fish. The restaurant near us routinely has Louisiana red fish and I get it if I go there occasionally.

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