I think this post qualifys under "food" discussion. Sometimes when I'm in the backcountry I like to do a bit of fishing on the remote lakes. As rewarding as it is to catch some virgin trout, I thought maybe this time around I would try eating them instead of releasing them. (BTW, these were hatchery fish stocked by fish and game a few years ago. Normally I'm a zero limit type guy who releases all the natural fish back to the wild. With the exception of hatchery fish that were added to the population, or non-native fish for control purposes) So no flaming please.

Unfortunately I didn't plan on eating fish before I left for this adventure, so I didn't bring anything to cook them with. I normally don't like trout, being raised on walleye it kind of ruins it for you. But the idea of cooking fish on an open fire was too tempting to pass up.

So I made a fire from deadfall and pine sap tinder, found some willow shoots to use as spits and a few flat rocks. The fish were cleaned, but the head/jaw was left on. The willow skewer was inserted through the open mouth, ran through the open belly and inserted in the fleshy part of the tail so that it was secure and could be rotated. The fish were rotated until the meat was done. You can tell when it is done by the texture and when the fins are easily pulled out. Unfortunately cooking them also makes the jaw rip out not enabling you to rotate them. So then they were placed on the flat rocks in the middle of the fire for the final cooking. When they were done the skin peels right off and fins removed.

Like I said, i'm not a big fan of trout, but they tasted good. I think it was the immediate catch and cook theory along with some smoky flavor from the fire. With a little bit of spices they would have tasted grand. This was a very fun thing to do and added to the fact that I had wild raspberrys and huckleberrys to eat all day long, it was an aweseome day.

How do you cook your backcountry fish? Recipes, etc?

Doug