# Trout Fishing In America



## GanjaGuru (Dec 18, 2005)

No action lately here in the outdoor forum, hence this post.
Often, when I made the visit to my guerilla grow, I'd plan to spend the night.
Or at least set aside enough time to fish.
I like fishing, both catch and release and catch & eat.

Now, some people are _really_ into fishing.  Like you might see them standing in a stream during the rain in the winter what are they nuts?
I used to see a guy at one of my favorite area's.  He wore a "necklace" of these little clear containers, each with a different fly.  When he arrived he'd take out his jeweller's loupe and turn over rocks next to the stream to see what insects were around and take out a fly to match.
I don't fish like that.  To me, that's too much like work.

The only time I catch to eat is when I'm going to eat them in the next few hours.  I never take them home to eat them  Trout tastes best when they live until just minutes before they're cooked.

Fishing catch and release I'd use single barbless hooks and usually Power Bait.
If I was somewhere where I had easy acess to a worm or grub/cricket I'd try one of those.
Catching a fish I'd carefully remove the hook and let the fish go to catch another day.

Fishing to catch and eat I'd use treble hooks (3 barbed hooks in one). 
I'd keep this fish alive on a stringer until I had as much as I was gonna eat.
Then I'd leave them on the stringer in the water while I built a fire and got a bed of coals going.
Ther are lots of ways to cook trout and I've tried most of them.  Pan-fried (filleted or not) with all sorts of topping like butter, almonds, garlic, etc.
Or you can wrap the fish inb foil again with your choice of toppings

There's 2 other little-used ways:
I would put a flat-topped rock in the center of the fire, and when the coals were jammin' I'd put a bit of oil on the rock and slap the fish on the rock.
It would combination fry/bake.
And the lowest-tech way--slit the fish up the middle, remove guts, then get a green branch.  Lay the branch in the fish, then close the fish back around the stick with twine or a vine, then roast the fish just like a hot dog.

My favorite meal of all time....
I was with 2 long-time friends and we had spent all day fishing at Lake Cachuma in Santa Barbara County (San Marcos Pass).
It's a beautiful lake and the campground there is dotted with 500-year old oak tree's.
We spent most of the day put-puting around the lake in one of those rental motorboats.  Most of the fish we caught we released but if we caught an exceptional one, it would go on the stringer.  We came back into camp with an approx. 18" lake trout each, nice and fat.
It's a drive-in campground so we had cooking gear & a camp stove.
I sliced up some potatoes and chopped up some red & green bell peppers & onions for my world famous "confetti fries" while my friends cleaned and filleted the fish.
The fries were started and we enjoyed some Sierra Nevada ale and of course lots of quality ganja.
Then the cast-iron skillet was heated.  We used that morning's bacon grease with a few cloves of crushed garlic.
We dipped the fillets in ale then put them in a bag with flour and various spices (Mrs. Dash) and shook them up.
Then we slapped them bad boys down in the hot bacon grease.  At the same time I threw a handfull of the chopped red & green bell peppers & onions into the cooking fries.
Five minutes later dinner was ready.
And we enjoyed dinner while the sun set over the lake.
It was like that commercial--"guys, is doesn't get any better than this."

P.S. You don't have to camp at Lake Cachuma to enjoy confetti fries.  You can even fix them at home.
It's best to start with fresh potato's caiuse they're better than frozen.
Chop up a few bell pepper and an onion.  When the fries are a few minutes from being done, throw the peppers & onion in.
When you drain them you'll have little bits of crisp veggies mixed in with the fries.
Mmmmmmmm.


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## Themanwithnoname (Dec 18, 2005)

Nice too see a fellow fishermen on this forum...
My outdoor GRow spot for this season is going to be right by a small pond in the middle of the woods. Ive hardly ever seen people their and have never seen another fisher too. I think the reason is is that no one thinks theirs any fish in the pond and if their were they would just be little sunfish... But oh their wrong ive cought plenty of small mouth bass their...


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## Hick (Dec 18, 2005)

I'm fortunate to own my very own stretch of trout stream. I grew up digging my own worms from the garden and then drowning them shortly thereafter within a few hundred yards of the house. 
  I graduated to a flyrod, and catch'n-release at about 14. 
   Now it's my grandson that digs the worms and drowns them from our favorite rock at _"THE Hole"_. Brings back great memories, ganga'.


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## FrostyNugz420 (Dec 19, 2005)

Ganja that is a ******* tasty recipe for the "ale battered" trout.  i made it last night (although i had to use large mouth from the back pond)because it sounded too good.  Man was i pleased with the end result. i probably overdid it on the garlic but being Italian i just cant help myself!


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## FrostyNugz420 (Dec 19, 2005)

Btw did you deepfry or pan fry the confetti fries?


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## GanjaGuru (Dec 19, 2005)

FrostyNugz420 said:
			
		

> Btw did you deepfry or pan fry the confetti fries?


 
Deep fat fry.


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## skunk (Dec 20, 2005)

hmm large mouth my favorite nugz. too cold here to catch large mouth though so i had to trout fish the other day in 20 degree weather in a lake that gov. stocks in its only about 200 yards long and maybe 80 yard wide but they ussually stock it with about 500 plds . of trout every thurs. or friday it depends on if theres enough people there to pay for it or not . when i went the other day i didnt bring in anything but a slight cold . well i came close i got cold after about 3 hours or so and the fish were still in there big holding basket so i looked around to see if anyone was looking and castted on the top of basket at the opening and as soon as it hit the water my bober was gone i jerked knowing you dont jerk when trout fishing you just real them in anyways i was excited and jerked . guess what went flying up in the air and what went flying at me . well if you havent guessed it the 1 pound rainbow trout went flying straight up in the air and my bober and hook went flying at me almost got me in head lol but i think every fisherman knows what im talking about . anyways i was tempted to cast right back in it again but as i was looking around the lake seemed like all eyes were on me since noone else was catching fish either . i just packed it up and left .but anyway that recipe sounds good ganga the next time i catch a fish i will be honered to let you be my house ***** lol.and hill billy that is the best way to do it . when i goto the mountains about 2 hours aways in wv. i bring worms with me and find the boulder rocks that are about 5 to 15 feet high and stand on then just drop my worm in water and work it underneath where they like to hide and wiggle it back and forth. as i can recall the very last time i went we were leaving as we were driving down the rode orange cought my eye i had my uncle stopped the truck i jumped out ran to the water and it was a gold trout hiding behind a rock . so i crept up behind it and grabbed it raising it up in the air  as soon as he was up he flipped .went up in air about 2 foot and landed in my arms dam thing was slick as baby oil . but anyway it was about a 2pounder and that was our dinner . first time i ate a gold trout or as a matter of fact 1st time eating 1 too . it wasnt bad . but it isnt as good as brown trout which is much smaller species .


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## GanjaGuru (Dec 21, 2005)

I camped, fished and hiked when I was growing up.
I kinda got out of it for about 15 years, but then I found a nice area in the mountains outside of L.A. to explore.
The first backpack hike we made, we didn't really have any idea of where we were gonna end up.  We had sleeping bags, cook gear & enough food, booze, and pot to last 2 nights on the trail.
Nowadays I realize we could have found out by buying a hiking guide or getting free maps from the Forest Service, but it never occured to us.
So with 2nd hand/borrowed equip., we set out on our adventure.
We started at the place we had been to before, the natural water slide, but instead of returning the same way, we continued on downstream.
We hiked a small distance and found a 1-story-high waterfall with a kind pond at the bottom of it and hung out there for hours, drinking beer and smoking pot and watching these 2 guys cranked up on coke who kept on climbing to the top of the falls and then "riding" it over into the pond that was barely up to their balls deep.   We camped out on a little sand bar next to the stream the first night.
The next night we continued and low and behold found a small dirt fire road that led out of the canyon so we didn't have to backtrack.
But we had another day to spend in the canyon.
We hiked around and found Spider Cave where there was a bend in the stream and a deep pool.
We're standing around and my friend Rick says "Hey look a trout".
It had never occured to me that there were fish in the stream, so we had to fishing gear.
We tried to chase the trout downstream to shallower water but he wasn't going for it.  Then I noticed him hiding right next to the shore.  I snuck up on him and flipped him completely out of the water with a stick.
He was a nice fat 14-inch 'bow.
Now problem #2--we had no way to cook him.
Most of out food was canned, and we had no oil to fry him in, no foil to bake him in.
But we had a cooking pot and a bottle of blackberry brandy.
So we put the cleaned semi-scaled trout in the pot full of our blackberry brandy and poached that sucker.
Oh boy was it good.  The meat was red and sweet.
The only problem now was that we only had 1/2 of the blackberry brandy remaining, and we had planned on getting drunk that night.
We finished off what was left in the bottle and then Rick said "hey let's drink the brandy we poached the trout in!"
Let me warn you: DON"T DO THIS!!!
Holy crap it tasted awful.  And it had fish scales in it.

Add:
How Spider Cave got it's name:
The cave had been carved out of the canyon wall by the stream.  It extended about 20 feet deep and had a soft sand floor.
Ideal for camping you'd think.
So did we.
We were wrong.
We built a rock ring in the cave and gathered kindling and wood and set it up so when it got dark all we'd have to do is toss in a match.
We did, and within 5 seconds (as soon as the smoke reached the roof of the cave) thousands of spiders came out of every crack in the roof where they lived and dropped down on us.
We literally had like a hundred spiders of us.
Screaming and hopping and ripping off our clothes we ran and jumped into the stream and submerged ourselves.
A bit later we built another fire OUTSIDE of the cave, retrived our sleeping bags from the cave and spent a restless night.  It felt like we had spiders still crawling all over us, you know what I mean.
We didn't let that deter us.  We spent 1/2 the next day exploring the area, finding another waterfall (3 story's tall)  with a trout-filled pond at the bottom before hiking out.  I had to hitchhike back to where I had parked, no biggie.
And we returned for the next 20 years.

Coming soon: The Legend Of The Tujunga Phantom.


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## skunk (Dec 21, 2005)

spiders yuck. i think i wouldve went back with some kerosene and really smoked them out for good.


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## FrostyNugz420 (Dec 22, 2005)

Is it almost story-time?


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## GanjaGuru (Dec 24, 2005)

Probably my favorite thing about camping is telling scary ghost stories around the campfire to a bunch of kids.  When I was on camping trips as a boy my older cousins/uncle's told us kids stories about ghosts and monsters, etc.  Then during the night one of them would sneak off and make moaning noises, etc., to scare us good.
I keep the tradition alive.
Here's The Legend Of The Tujunga Phantom and how I scared the crap out of a bunch of boy scouts--

Over a hundred years ago, before the mountains around L.A. became the Angeles Nat'l Forest, anyone who wanted to live there could.
The is an area called Big Tujunga Canyon, very beautiful and rugged.
It was one of the hideouts of famed SoCal bandito Turbacio Vasquez.
And there was also a religious cult that lived there.  They occupied a large meadow/flat area (now a campground) about 1/2 mile above the stream
No one seemed to know much about the cult.  They were rarely seen.  Every few weeks a pack mule train would show up in the foothills and a few people from the cult would buy supplies (paying with raw gold which they may have panned from the Tujunga River) and then headed back up into the mountains.
A  few hunters and miners who tried their luck there were chased away by the cult, which was led by a tall (some say 7' tall) man with piercing eyes and a long white beard.  Mostly people avoided them.

Round about 1900 the gov't declared the entire area a National Forest.  A few people had filed claims and were able to stay.  The rest (including the cult)were told to leave.
Most of the people in the cult moved (some say to Hollywood, which at that time was just scrubland).  But the cult leader (and a few followers) refused to leave.  He claimed God had given him that land.
At first getting rid of him was not a priorority for officials, but after a few years the leader, now alone, started robbing cabins and hikers/campers.
A small group of Forest Rangers went up there to talk to the man,  They couldn't find him but they posted notices at the site where he lived.  It was simple: leave voluntarily or be moved forcibly.
He didn't go and the raids on people continued.
So finally a posse was formed.  They weren't going to kill or jail him or anything, they just wanted him to get the **** out.
The cult leader had the advantage of knowing the area like the palm of his hand.  The posse searched for days.
Finally they found him--sort of.
They found his decapitated body.  His head was missing; they never found it.
And, the legend goes, to this day his headless body roams the canyon at night, searching for his head.

Now, remember the L.A. riot about 12 years ago?  Right after the riot, the City Of L.A. hired inner-city youths to work in the forest, mainly maintaining trails, to keep them out of trouble I guess.
They worked in  that area for a few weeks.
Several months later, I came across a hole dug into the hard ground in a bushy area on the edge of the campground, and scattered around that area were a lot of locked mail bags, cut open with a knife.
What I figured was that the people the city hired, or at least some of them, had robbed a mail truck during the riot and stashed the mail sacks up there, burying them, then went back awhile later to retrieve them.
The hole they dug was about the size of a grave--about 6' x 3' by 4' deep.
Seeing the hole, and knowing boy scouts camp in the campground in the summer gave me and my camping buddies an idea.
So over the next few trips we piled a bunch of rocks around the "grave".

Now, that summer I'm camped down by the stream when about 20 boys scouts (ages about 14) and several troop leaders come hiking by, headed for the campground.  While they were filling up their canteens at the stream, I tell the the Legend Of The Tujunga Phantom, except I added--
I told them that the cults leaders body had been buried up there (which might be true, I don't know), and told them that the body kept getting out of the grave to search for it's head.
They give me looks like "yeah sure."
"Hey" I said, "if you don't believe me, I'll show you the grave."
So I walk up to the campground with them.  I mention that the last time he got out they reburied him and piled rocks on top of the grave so he couldn't get out.
Heh heh.
We get to the "grave" and see the rocks around the edges of the hole.
"Oh my God" I said "he got out."
They started looking freaked out, and one of them said "Mister, are you a Christian?"
"Of course" I answered (I'm not).
"Well, do you swear to God that you're telling the truth?"
Solemnly I said "I swear to God."
Heh heh.

Now, I had asked permission of the Troop leaders if it was ok to tell the scouts the legend and got their ok, back when I first met them.
The next day I go back up and the Troop leaders said "That must have been some ghost story you told them; they were up all night."

P.S. starting the next year, people I met camping up there told me the Legend, which included the part I made up.
The Boy Scouts I scared are now adults, prob, with kids of their own, and I hope they have continued the tradition.


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## GanjaGuru (Jan 7, 2006)

I posted earlier about catching a fish without fishing gear of any type (flipping it out of the stream with a stick).
But that's not the only time I caught a fish with no gear.

Me and TB were camping at McGee Creek in the Eastern Sierra in N. Calif. about 20 miles above Bishop and close by the most amazingly pretty lake--Convict Lake--I've ever been to.
Anyway, our campsite was just a few dozen yards from McGee Creek.  I had achieved nirvana 2 days previous.  There was a little island in the creek, and that's where I pitched my hammock.  I had my fishing gear for this, and I tossed my line into the water and leaned the pole against a tree.  I got into the hammock with a joint & a beer with my walkman playing The Eagles.
Fishing, blazing a doob, sipping a beer, listening to tasty tunes, relaxing in a hammock on a late summer day.
Ahhhhh.

McGee Creek has a sizable population of wild trout ('bows, German Browns, cutthroat and on rare occasions a Golden.  But they also stock it, since it feeds into very popular Lake Crowley.
So one morning I'm up while TB is still in his tent.  I notice a small tanker truck drive up about 100 feet away and a guy gets out, grabs a long-handled net, and scoops up like about 30 fish from the tanker.  He walks a few steps to the stream and lowers the net into the water.  The fish swim out and he goes back to the truck, and continues up the road to do more stocking.
So I walk over to where he has put the fish and I see a fat German Brown there next to the shore.  I guess it was still dazed or something, anyway I just reached in the water, grabbed it and that was that.
As I walked into our campsite, TB was just getting out of his tent.  He sees the fish in my hand.
Then he looks over and sees our fishing gear right where we had left it the day before when we were done.
"What'd someone give you a fish?"
"Nope, just reached in and grabbed this bad boy."
I didn't tell him about the stocker truck or the fact that the fish was probably dazed.
He never did figure out exactly how I did it.


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## skunk (Jan 7, 2006)

you jack ass lol. tell you what you hit the tunes on the spot the eagles i almost forgot about them been along time . i think ill go out and get there cd now that you mentioned it sounds like good music to get high with them and pink floyd . sounds like youve had some really good times i wouldve liked to have joined you you sound a little like my brother he will go hunting with me but if it is below 30 and i try to get his ass up in the morning he ask me if im nuts . but im 1 of them types that does go out and hunt and trout fish in the cold because that is when season is in here .


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## skunk (Jan 7, 2006)

ps last part of this reply is based on your opening post when you called trout fishermen nuts for fishing in the wintertime in the rain we do it here in the ice and snow . but we also have paylakes where we dont have to wade also have the mountains 2 hours away where we can wade but i will pass on that if i can get bye with it .


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## GanjaGuru (Jan 8, 2006)

I like to fish and have often backpacked 12 miles r/t to do so.

But honestly, fishing in the winter in the rain?
Understandable if you're hungry and it's catch fish or don't eat.
But as much as I like to fish, when it's cold and wet outside I'd rather be warm and dry inside.


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## skunk (Jan 8, 2006)

i think thats true of anyone that has any sense who wouldnt rather do it in a warm enviroment ? but here we have no choice trout that are stocked in the mts. in the winter . and as for the paylakes around here they dont start stocking till oct. when we get our first freeze and ends in march. trout is a delicasy here we can not buy it in stores . so we have to wait till fall . i dont go freeze my butt off on a everyday basis just to fish for trout just whenever i get in the mood . i only been once so far this year and plan to go 1 or 2 more times before winter is up . now i can dive 5 hours away to the top of my state and fish in lake erie and catch of species of fish in winter but as for where im located trout is the only fish we can fish for in winter .


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## GanjaGuru (Jan 8, 2006)

Okay, I never considered people who might not be able to catch trout at will (in season).

But I know people who live within a 15-minute drive of the local river which has lots of trout year-round.
And occasionally I'll see 'em out in the river in waders in rain in close to freezing temps.


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