I caught a few small trout in a creek a while back and was able to cook them within minutes of catching them. A friend told me to look for a blue thin film that covers a fresh caught trout when it’s pan fried quickly. Ever experience that? He told me he thinks the French cooks even have a word for it
John, thank you for sharing that it is an honorable thing to do to eat the occasional brookie. Years ago, when VT allowed anglers to keep 12! they were being overfished. Fortunately VT F&W dropped creel limits to 6. But then the new age fly fishermen came in and began preaching that we should catch and release all fish. Which given the put and take practice of stocking fish on streams that cannot support brookies through the warm summer months seems to be silly to me. If I have a 50 fish day on brookies, why should I be persecuted for taking 3 or 4 home and honor their majesty by preparing them with the kind of respect and love you describe? I am perplexed.
Welp, I am perplexed too. I don't see any reason not to take a few fish in put and take waters, especially when I buy a license that supports, say stocking Sterling Pond by chairlift and ATV. Or here we have Tumbledown Pond that is stocked by a chopper. It's another thing when you are fishing ponds, streams and creeks that have self-sustaining populations of brook trout and salmon--there are quite a few in Maine. But they still have daily limits, not catch and release only. I reserve the right to harvest there too. Frankly, I fish mostly for food. I wouldn't be out there catching 50 fish too often, I'd be more likely to catch 8, keep 1 and then go out on a hike with the dog. I appreciate that some want to fish all day and put all the fish back if they think they can save the world, or just feel good about themselves. They don't get to judge what I do. And if they try I have strong logical and researched opinions I'll take on any C&R evangelist with.
I have no problems with taking fish in put and take waters. That seems to be the source of the aforementioned brookie. I do have a problem with taking fish from wild trout waters in certain locations. Out east a lot of our trout streams have fish populations of less than 1,000 fish per mile, and these streams may see 50 fishermen per week or more on every single mile. Take a fish a day per angler and you've wiped out the stream in a season.
There are actually two reasons for releasing a fish on a put and take stream. Almost every wild brown trout in the US originates from a put and take fish, as does every wild Rainbow east of the Continental Divide and every wild brookie west of it. The fact that a given block of water may not sustain fish all year long doesn't matter if there are connected waterways. Those fish travel a very long distance, in a very short period of time. But that's just me. The other reason is because it keeps some yahoo off a wild trout stream for another day by giving him another fish to catch.
Loved this one, John! Thanks to a son-in-law, I had my first taste of the season of trout last weekend. I’d pretty much given up fishing the last few summers but both the sweet taste of trout and today’s reading are the nudge I needed…..going to rig the line and give it a go when I’m upta camp next week!
I caught a few small trout in a creek a while back and was able to cook them within minutes of catching them. A friend told me to look for a blue thin film that covers a fresh caught trout when it’s pan fried quickly. Ever experience that? He told me he thinks the French cooks even have a word for it
Yea! Truite au Bleu. Soak dressed trout in seasoned water with a bit of good vinegar right before coooking. The scales/skin will turn (more) blue.
Incroyable! Thanks John! So cool that you know that
John, thank you for sharing that it is an honorable thing to do to eat the occasional brookie. Years ago, when VT allowed anglers to keep 12! they were being overfished. Fortunately VT F&W dropped creel limits to 6. But then the new age fly fishermen came in and began preaching that we should catch and release all fish. Which given the put and take practice of stocking fish on streams that cannot support brookies through the warm summer months seems to be silly to me. If I have a 50 fish day on brookies, why should I be persecuted for taking 3 or 4 home and honor their majesty by preparing them with the kind of respect and love you describe? I am perplexed.
Welp, I am perplexed too. I don't see any reason not to take a few fish in put and take waters, especially when I buy a license that supports, say stocking Sterling Pond by chairlift and ATV. Or here we have Tumbledown Pond that is stocked by a chopper. It's another thing when you are fishing ponds, streams and creeks that have self-sustaining populations of brook trout and salmon--there are quite a few in Maine. But they still have daily limits, not catch and release only. I reserve the right to harvest there too. Frankly, I fish mostly for food. I wouldn't be out there catching 50 fish too often, I'd be more likely to catch 8, keep 1 and then go out on a hike with the dog. I appreciate that some want to fish all day and put all the fish back if they think they can save the world, or just feel good about themselves. They don't get to judge what I do. And if they try I have strong logical and researched opinions I'll take on any C&R evangelist with.
I have no problems with taking fish in put and take waters. That seems to be the source of the aforementioned brookie. I do have a problem with taking fish from wild trout waters in certain locations. Out east a lot of our trout streams have fish populations of less than 1,000 fish per mile, and these streams may see 50 fishermen per week or more on every single mile. Take a fish a day per angler and you've wiped out the stream in a season.
There are actually two reasons for releasing a fish on a put and take stream. Almost every wild brown trout in the US originates from a put and take fish, as does every wild Rainbow east of the Continental Divide and every wild brookie west of it. The fact that a given block of water may not sustain fish all year long doesn't matter if there are connected waterways. Those fish travel a very long distance, in a very short period of time. But that's just me. The other reason is because it keeps some yahoo off a wild trout stream for another day by giving him another fish to catch.
Loved this one, John! Thanks to a son-in-law, I had my first taste of the season of trout last weekend. I’d pretty much given up fishing the last few summers but both the sweet taste of trout and today’s reading are the nudge I needed…..going to rig the line and give it a go when I’m upta camp next week!
Catching your own will make it taste even sweeter. Tight lines!
Here in Saskatchewan, our fisheries department stocks rainbow, brook, tiger, brown and splake, mostly in our northern lakes.
But if you want “cold” water, come up in February and jig through a hole in the ice for rainbow. 😂
Looks like my kind of meal. I'll be learning the warm water fishing as the trout streams are a bit of a drive. Still excited to get out a little bit.