Here Fishy Fishy

I love fishing; specifically fly fishing.  There is nothing like standing knee deep in a beautiful stream with nothing on, or clouding, your mind but a dry fly falling gently on the water’s surface. Until this weekend all the fishing that I do is catch and release.  I figure why remove it from the population, when I can comeback another day and try to catch it again. However, this weekend a friend of mine invited me and my son (3 1/2) to join him and his family for a day of ice fishing.  Now I had never been ice fishing before.  Frankly I thought it was just an excuse to drink beer away from the wife.  But with a group of us going I thought it would be a fun time and a good excuse to get my son out for the day (and to give mom a day of rest). 5 adults, 5 kids and my son was the first to pull in a fish. That’s my boy!! Since the lake was full of “stockers” we decided to keep the days catch: 4 Rainbow Trout for us.

 

Now being a catch and release fisherman I had never cleaned a fish before.  But luckily Steve was there for a quick tutorial.  Pretty easy!  As far as cooking, I went to the Internet and found a bunch or recipes on foil grilling techniques.  I chose to grill it mainly because I did not want the house to smell like fish.  Now, not only was this a new recipe for me, but it was also my first time every eating trout.

 

After removing the heads of the trout I put salt, pepper, Italian spices, butter and a lemon slice in the body cavity. Then I wrapped the fish in foil and tightly sealed the edges.  I placed the foil packets on the grill and cooked on each side for about 10 minutes, over a low flame.  The trick then was to de-bone the fish.

 

Steve assured me that it would be easy. Lift the tail and the bones would follow.  Then use a fork to separate the skeleton from the meat.  Surprisingly it worked just like he said. I did up with a few small bones in my meat, but managed to keep my wife’s pieces free of bones. 

 

As far as the taste… Not too bad.  The meat was tender and very mild in flavor. Not much of the spice and lemon flavor seemed to seep in.  I will have to go a little heavier on them next time.  Overall though I am quite pleased with myself for my first trout dinner.  This is one dinner I will have to try again.  Next time thought, over the campfire. 

 

Until next week – Cook On!