Clear Creek Trout

     Last week I devoted some opportune time to a little fly fishing.  Tie Hack Lake in the Bighorn Mountains was my destination, while the base of the lake's dam and the very source of Clear Creek was my target.  My brother-in-law reported catching many large rainbow and brown trout in the pools below the dam on a trip here two years ago.  This was my first trip back to the lake since then so I was not sure what to expect.  I had a variety of dry flies, twenty-some-odd feet of leader, a cooler packed with ice for a creel, great weather, mild wind (for Wyoming), and solunar timing was excellent midday.  

     

     Hunting season is in full swing around here so it is wise to wear something bright in the woods.  Although I would love to fill my freezer with elk meat, I am not an experienced hunter.  My shot is consistently accurate but there are many other factors involved in selecting and stalking a kill which I feel should be learned appropriately.  Last fall I worked at the local slaughterhouse as a meat cutter throughout the hunting season and witnessed the resulting damage caused by eager hunters with no experience.  A shot through the gut or a that shatters a large bone can ruin most of the choice cuts surrounding it.  Until I learn the necessary skills, I fish instead.     

     Making my way into the Cloud Peak Wilderness in the Bighorn mountains, I travelled up through the geological layers of time, past craggy spires of multi-billion year old rocks (the Bighorn mountains are some of the oldest in our country), and finally up into the high meadows with views of the now hardly snow-covered peaks above yellowing aspen and birch trees.  With very few cars and plenty of trophy mule deer along the road, Tuesday was a good choice to get out into the hills.

      I parked at Tie Hack and hiked down the trail to the falls over the dam.  The main pool is very large, plenty deep, and well oxygenated.  I found a log to cross a few yards downstream and got right to it.  The light was coming from above creating visual access through the glare with a pair of polarized glasses.  I could easily see fish approach and strike but with a lack of conviction.  For two to three hours I watched these picky little trout examine and dismiss four or five styles of flies.  I tried everything.  Different techniques result in different presentations which the fish are very keen to notice.  Finally around 2 p.m. I began having some luck.  Small brown Adam's fly, elk-hair caddis and mosquito each caught two fish.  One by one I landed a total of six rainbow trout, all good fighters on the line.  However, none were over six inches in length: too small to feel good about eating.  I tried my luck with a wooly bugger in the lake on my way back out but in the end, came home empty handed.  Oh well, a bad day fishing is still better than a day working!

     Fortunately, for the sake of this blog, I managed to pull a ferociously fighting, big brown trout out of the creek a little upstream from our house two days before on a small elk-hair caddis.  I prepared the fish in my personally favorite method and took some photos to share.

     Simply put, this is pan-roasted trout.  It is a cleaned, whole fish stuffed with sliced lemon, garlic, onion, and fresh thyme.  Wrapped a few times with butcher's twine, seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper, it is then seared in a smoking hot pan on one side until golden brown.  A heavy cast iron or black steel pan distributes even heat while achieving excellent searing temperatures.  The whole fish is then gently flipped and finished in a 500°F oven for ten minutes or so.  One method for testing the doneness of a whole fish is to insert the tip of a small knife into the dorsal muscles along the back near the spine, then quickly check the temperature by holding the tip of the knife to your lip.  If it feels hot it's done.  Of course, be very careful when doing this.  Oh, and this is not an approved method according to any comprehensive sanitation standards, anywhere. . . But, it actually kind of works.

     Serve family style with rice or what have you.  Be careful for the little bones and enjoy freshly caught delicious!

Smoked Trout

     Ruby and I went to the pond in the field behind our house the other day to picnic and do a little fly fishing.  I caught a personal record: 16 fish!  Most were small brook trout averaging 5-6 inches, but two were worth keeping.  I used a bead-head prince nymph and dry black fly to catch them all, yet the way they were striking, I'm sure almost anything would have worked well.  The fish were actually jumping out of the water to catch small mayflies and damsel flies on the hatch.  I am pretty sure the fish in this pond are stocked seasonally because it is part of the Veterans Home of Wyoming public use land.

   The two rainbow trout that I kept were about eight inches each.  Beautifully colored and good fighters on the line, rainbows make fishing very entertaining.  Usually, I enjoy trout simply pan-seared with a slice of lemon and onion, crushed clove of garlic, and a sprig of thyme stuffed into the chest cavity.  Butcher's twine wrapped two or three times around the body keeps everything from falling out when flipping the fish.  However, this time I decided to hot-smoke the trout over some cedar.  Hot smoking is used to cook the flesh while cold smoking adds a smoke-flavored character without raising the temperature.  In this application, the fish is fully cooked in a smoke filled chamber preserving the meat for longer than normal.  Bacteria that spoils meat cannot grow easily on a smoked product.

Soaking the wood chips in water keeps the wood from burning up too quickly.  However, large chunks of dry wood can be used to bring the temperature of the smoker up to above 275°F.  I started a fire with real oak charcoal on one side of the barbeque, then added my chunked cedar once the coals were smoldering.  The fish was seasoned with oil, salt and pepper and placed on a sizzle platter on the other side of the grill.  Keeping the fish away from the fire provides a slow-cooking, indirect heat.  Next, a foil lid was placed on top of the smoker with one side opened (the side with the fish) to draw the smoke over the product and allow it to escape to prevent stifling. Unfortunately, my barbeque does not have a lid or I would just use that with the vent placed above the product. The fish smoked for about 30 minutes on each side.  I needed to add more wood half-way through the smoking process to keep the temperature up.  The fish had plenty of smokiness but still needed about 20 minutes in the oven to cook through entirely. 

     Smoked trout is delicious hot, but I decided to serve it as a salad.  To cut the smoke with a spicy textural contrast, I added some sliced French breakfast radishes from our garden, baby arugula, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.  Some crunchy rye toast completed the dish thanks to Ruby's fabulous bread baking abilities.  Fried capers would have been nice, but I did not have any on hand and sometimes it's hard to wait for delicious.