Tutorial

Apr
28

Trout Recipe

I am not sure where we got this trout recipe. I know that great-grandfather Alma cooked trout in this manner. I wonder if he would mind me sharing this recipe? Ever cooked with a dutch oven. You will need one for this recipe.

Is trout good for you? Trout in general can be very good for you. It is high in Omega 3 fatty acids which many physicians feel helps to lower bad cholesterol and increase good cholesterol. This assumes that you are careful how you cook the trout. This trout recipe probably pushes the limits of healthy eating.

First of all, and the most fun, you will need to catch some fish. Make sure and check the regulations in your area. Small fish are better. They fit nicely in the dutch oven. You also don’t have to cook them as long as big fish. The bones of the smaller fish tend to dissolve during cooking too. Clean the fish well. I don’t like to eat my fish with the heads on. Just a preference.

You will need a very hot fire. Around here we use dead willow branches for our fires. They burn hot and fast. You want the fire to burn down to coals fast. You will be cooking over the coals and not the flames. Willows break down fast so you don’t have to wait very long to start cooking.

Place a pound of butter in the dutch oven. Now take a pound of bacon and toss it inside. Let this simmer for a about 5 minutes.

Place salt and pepper along with some flour in a trash bag. Place the trout in the bag too. Now shake it up so the trout gets covered in the flour, salt and pepper.

Now you want to pull the dutch oven out of the coals. Take a slice of bacon and put a slice into each trout. Take any left over slices of bacon and place them on top of all the trout. Once this is complete, place the dutch oven back in the coals and cook for 10-15 minutes.

The trout are ready to eat when the tails are crispy like bacon. Serve with corn-on-the-cob and dutch oven potatoes. Enjoy.

Got a trout recipe of your own? Feel free to share.

0 Categories : Fish, Tips, Tutorial

Jan
23

PMD Parachute Tying Tutorial

by Matt Berry

PMD’s, (pale morning dun’s) hatch more prolifically and over a longer period of time than any other mayfly in our area. They constitute a very important food source for the trout in Idaho rivers. Every angler should have a strong knowledge of their characteristics and life cycle. The parachute that we tie in this video imitates a pmd in the dun stage. A dun is a mayfly that has just emerged from the water. The time most commonly referred to as a “hatch” is when duns appear on the surface. The parachute patterns that mimic duns float better than any other imitations. When tied properly, they represent the insects very well. We hope you enjoy this tying instruction and have success spinning up some of your own.

2 Categories : Hatch, Tips, Tutorial, Video

Dec
7

Landing Big Fish in Fast Water

by Matt Berry

[flv:/Videos/tips-landing-big-fish.flv 480 368]

The technique showed in this video is contrary to almost every thing taught in landing fish. We call it dipping the tip and it really works. No matter how big the fish is it will work. We have tried it on trout, steelhead, sea run browns, tarpon and bone fish. It works! Give it a try.

0 Categories : Tutorial, Video

Dec
31

Tips to Immediately Improve Your Fly Casting

by Matt Berry

Eyes forward – Quarterbacks, pitchers and golfers don’t watch their backswing. You shouldn’t be watching your backcast. Keep your eyes forward and watch the spot where you want your fly to land.

Limp wrist = limp cast – Nothing takes the power out of your cast like bending your wrist. Keep it stiff to get longer more accurate casts.

Fools rush in – Hesitate at the top of your cast. You have to wait for the line to load.

Be the fly danny – Different weights and sizes of flies call for different casting methods. Casting big, heavy flies requires a longer hesitation at the top of your cast. Very heavy flies like weighted streamers, requires a pause that is felt by the jerk of the fly, then go forward. Lightweight flies can be cast with less hesitation. Cast the fly you have on.

Whose line is it anyway – Line management is key. Keep some extra line off your reel at your feet. When lifting your line off the water, hold the line firmly in your non-casting hand. Casting a short distance with long line is poor practice in most instances. If you want to shorten your cast, strip the line in before casting. Lets say on one cast you land on the bank. Strip line in before casting again. Casting the same length line again will just catch the bank again. When trying to lengthen your cast, strip line off your reel before you begin casting. Stripping line off your reel a foot at a time while false casting, wastes time and energy.

Two lovers in the moonlight cast one shadow – You should limit your false casts to one too. One false cast is plenty to get your fly the distance needed. It also means your fly is in the water more, and that is where the fish live.

Snap to it – Start slowly lifting your line off the water, then speed up with a snap to the top of your cast. Make the stop at 10 to 12 o’clock very firm. After a hesitation, bring the rod forward.

0 Categories : Tutorial

Dec
15

10 Fly Fishing Terms You Need To Know

by Matt Berry

1. rod – Yea, its not called a pole. Don’t call it a pole. A dead give away you need some help.

2. guide – Not only is this a guy that usually can get you into loads of fish, it is the shiny metal loops that hold your line to your rod. Every rod has between 8 and 10 guides. You should run your line through them prior to tying on your fly. If you do it the other way, this list isn’t going to help you. Stop reading now and go golfing.

3. ferrule – These are the joints where the pieces of a rod are put together. A quick tip on ferrules: when putting your rod together, place the guides (described above) at a 90 degree angle to each other. Don’t make the connection between the pieces to tight yet. Then when you have them at a 90, twist them straight and at the same time make them tight. What does this do? Well, it will drastically reduce the amount of times your rod comes apart, and reduce the amount of times you nearly go swimming for a piece of your rod.

4. butt – This is the end of the rod near the reel. And some rods have some very nice ones at that, including fighting butts that are longer than normal and even have a bit of padding to rest on your hip for fighting the lunkers.

5. reel – Most reels are more like “man jewelry”. They look cool and are expensive. For trout, you don’t need an expensive reel just to hold your line. Most fish you fight you can just strip your line by hand. On the fish you need to reel in, most reels will work, even the less expensive ones.

6. reel seat – The reel connects to the rod at the reel seat using a type of slide and washer that tightens with a threaded twist. Make sure your reel is not on backwards. The line should come off the reel on the bottom, not the top.

7. backing – Your last hope at getting a tough and fast fish to the net, is the backing. This ties to the reel and the fly line. It does not float and is not really all that technical. It is fancy kite string coming in 20 and 30 pound strength made of dacron. Usually you will have about 100 yards of backing on a reel.

8. line – Your fly line makes casting your fly possible. Usually brightly colored, it is easy to see on the water. For most types of fly fishing you will use a floating line. Each line has specific characteristics. Most fly lines you will use will be a weight forward. This makes casting easy. Each line is designed by a weight system. This weight system is used with rods also. You match a line weight with a rod weight. 6 weight lines go with a 6 weight rods, and so forth. Lines are 90 to 100 feet long.

9. leader – A leader consists of clear plastic material that attaches to your fly line on one end and the fly on the other. The leader will be tapered, being thick at the butt section that connects to the fly line, and thin at the fly. This allows the leader to be strong. It also makes it difficult for fish to see.

10. tippet – This is used to add length to your leader. Over the course of a day you will have to change flies to match what the fish are eating. You will lose flies in trees and fish. This will eventually make your leader too short for fishing. Tippet is then tied to the leader to add length . It is also used to keep the leader tapered down to a small size to hide it from the fish. Both tippets and leaders come in different lengths and diameters based on strength, for example, 3x diameter tippet is usually 8 pound strength.

0 Categories : Tutorial