Fishin' for somethin'

Fish... the other (other) white meat...

Hunting season is almost here, and though I didn’t draw an early season antelope tag this year, I am counting down the days until I head eastward to go hunt elk on the Yellowstone border. In preparation I have (finally) been shooting my bow and breaking in my boots all between daddy/daughter dates while my wife tends to our ravenously hungry little newborn.

Shooting bows and doing hill sprints in the Boise foothills.

Yet, as the hunt preparations comes to a head, the late summer heat and newborn-related sleep deprivation has caused me to start to dream of cooler water related activities — mainly fishing. These thoughts were spurred by digging through our freezer and finding several small whole trout from the Yuba river up near our cabin. Those fish were gifts from a local resident who wasn’t planning to eat them, and made me *think* about getting my own fishing rod to play around with.

Prepping these guys for a brine before the smoker.

In fact, outside of my one unsuccessful steelhead fishing trip last February, I have never actually caught my own fish! I have, however, clubbed a single trout on the head with a stick while out elk hunting late last year. It was an act that caught me by surprise and made me feel like a true mountain man.

I had been following a creek bottom in the sawtooth wilderness during the late season rifle hunt in mid-November and kept seeing a small trout swim in circles. After watching him for nearly an hour, I decided to put down my rifle and do my best to catch the fish. Taking my glove off, I plunged my hands into the icy water to try and catch the slippery bar of soap.

Clearly, that tactic was never going to work, but my advances seemed to matter none to him and he kept swimming in the same vicinity. So, I went to grab a medium sized stick lying on the bank under a thin layer of snow. With club in hand, I expected nothing to happen as I smacked it on the water close to the fish and was surprised when I saw him float to the top and start to get carried away by the current. Like a neanderthal, I trudged through the cold water to try and catch him before he was out of sight so that he could find a place on our smoker when I got home.

My first and only clubbed trout.

To me, though, it’s pretty amazing what water can provide and I do miss being near lakes, swamps, and the ocean near where I grew up. Taking a boat out on water can provide just as much of a perception change as getting lost deep in the woods of the Northwest. In fact, the last time I was out on a boat was during a trip to the Oregon coast my wife and I took before the birth of our first child a few years ago. We ended up going out to catch some coastline delicacies, crab, and getting them cooked up for a great meal!

Blue steel heading out into the bay (where the watermelons grow).

All-in-all I think it’s high time my family and I get out onto the water and get some good ol’ seafood to augment our mostly meat based diet. It will also be another opportunity for me to gain some skills in an area where my baseline is, well, zero.

Oregon crab caught by my wife.