Wild Brown

04/23/2009

Work was fairly hectic today, so I was a bit frazzled when I got home.  I’ve got a huge final project due for my stats class next week, so I didn’t feel like making the time commitment required to go chase wild turkey in Idaho again.  Burned out, with no time to hunt… What better cure than to stand in a scenic river canyon, and angle for a spell?

I drove up Logan canyon, and decided to fish the river just above third dam.  The water level was way up from just a few days ago with spring run-off, so I had to cross the bridge and enter the river from the camp ground side.  The fast-moving and murky water made me think that my prospects for hooking up fairly were slim.  However, the river splits, and the slower section lazily rolls by the camp ground.  The water in this section is much clearer, which always seems to make the trout here that much harder to catch.

I waded out into the shallow, calm area just by the trail head for the Nature Trail, and noticed that there were a few trout rising, which is typical for this section of the river.  It seems that there is always some sort of midge hatch going, so I tied on the smallest mosquito pattern that the fly shop had to offer, with an even smaller nymph dropper.  Unfortunately, the bugs floating down this section of river always seem smaller than what the fly shop has in stock, so I keep telling myself that I’ll buy some smaller hooks and tie my own… Someday.

I have no idea what time I stepped in the water, but I imagine it was around 7 pm.  I spent the next hour being toyed with by the small brown trout who were happily rising around me.  They never even took a second look at my dry fly, but I suspect that I missed several strikes on the nymph.  Shortly after my watch chimed 8 o’clock, my dry fly disappeared beneath the water.  Tight line!  After a brief fight, with several attempts to lose me in the weeds, I landed a 10.5 inch wild brown in the net.  One look at this beautiful little fish, and I decided to take her home for dinner.  I fumbled in my vest pocket for the stringer, only to realize that I tossed it in the trunk.  It clearly never crawled into my vest by itself, so project time!

Dinner: Wild German brown trout, pan fried in my favorite cast iron skillet with olive oil, some left-over chopped yellow peppers, chives, fresh-squeezed lemon juice and Chardonnay.  Seasoned w/ Old Bay.

Beav Stew

04/18/2009

I finally cooked the beaver I trapped last month, and it was fantastic!  Well, it was *way* better than I expected at least.  I followed the beef stew recipe that I usually make, but tossed in half of a beaver carcass instead of cubed stew beef.  Other than the shape of the meat (or rather, the bones), I really couldn’t tell the difference.  Even the color and texture of the meat was similar to stewed beef, very tender and a tad stringy.

This was a very pleasant surprise since, in my mind, I kept imagining that it would taste like the musky rodent smelled when I skinned it.  In fact, I have been delaying the consumption of this animal because every time I saw it in the freezer, I would smell the castor and oil sacs, which I of course removed.

In retrospect, I probably should have just lightly seasoned the meat and thrown it on the grill or in the oven.  This would have given me a better idea as to the properties of the meat in it’s natural state, which is what I have traditionally done with my other “first tastes.”  But beaver, like jack rabbits and many other mammals, can carry tularemia, so I felt the need to “cook the crap out of it.”

Regarding the method in which I took this beaver, I trapped it on the dam with a 330 conibear trap, which is large and extremely deadly.  This trap dispatched the animal much quicker and cleaner than my 12 gauge typically does when hunting upland game (though not nearly as exciting).  And even the quick suffering and death inflicted by my 12 gauge is much less severe than the pitiful life and death of your typical feed-lot beef, pork, or chicken.

Why take a beaver at all?  For meat and fur of course!  The bits of fur that don’t make it into a nice Russian hat will be used as dubbing for tying flies, which is pretty much what happens to all the game that I take these days.

It turns out that due to school and work pressures, I didn’t have time to take another beaver from this area, but don’t think for a minute that I plan to trap out the entire creek.  That would truly be a tragedy because this is prime rocky mountain trout habitat, and I absolutely love fishing the beaver ponds in this area.  I love the mountains! <sigh>

Make your own:
Ingredients:

• 1 cup carrots, sliced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 4 large potatoes, cubed
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon parsley
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• Half of a beaver.  You probably need to remove the legs to get it to fit in the pot.  Substitute 3 pounds of cubed stew beef if you can’t locate a tasty beaver.
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1-2 onions, sliced
• 1/4 cup red wine
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Directions:

• Dice the celery, slice the carrots, cube the potatoes, and toss them into the slow-cooker. Sprinkle with a teaspoon of salt, the parsley, and a tablespoon of ground black pepper (more pepper suits me personally), and toss to mix in the spices.
• Put the meat in a plastic bag with enough flour to coat it, and add a half teaspoon of salt.  Shake it until the meat is nicely coated.
• Brown the meat in a skillet with some olive oil, and put it in the slow-cooker once the outside is evenly browned.
• Add the butter to the skillet, slice the onions, sauté until slightly caramelized, and move them to the slow-cooker.
• Boil 2 cups of water, and add the onion soup mix.  Stir until the mix is completely dissolved, and add to the slow-cooker.
• Pour some red wine into the skillet, and stir to loosen the delicious browned bits from the bottom.  Pour into the slow cooker.  Add a healthy extra dose of red wine.
• Cover and cook on high for 30 minutes.  Reduce to low heat, and cook for another 6 hours or so, or until the meat is tender enough for your discriminating taste.
• 15 minutes prior to serving, mix up a little bit of flour and hot water, and stir it into the stew to thicken it up a bit.  Around 2 tablespoons of flour to a quarter cup of water should do.

Beav, it’s what’s for dinner!