The Art of Fly Fishing and Wild Venison Stew
In this episode of our series on wild food and fly fishing, we embark on an adventure to learn the art of catching fish with flies. Our guide takes us through the process of setting up our rods, selecting the right flies, and casting into the river. With patience and persistence, we wait for a bite, hoping that all our hard work will pay off.
As we sit by the river, waiting for a catch, our guide shares stories about the importance of fly fishing in America's wilderness. He explains how this technique opens up a cast, which can lead to a tight or loose one, depending on the fisherman's skill level. A tight cast allows for more precise presentations, while a loose cast can result in a wider spread of flies. Our guide also notes that fishing all day without catching anything is not uncommon, and if we're going to spend time outdoors, it's best to learn something new like this.
As we continue our journey, we take a break to prepare a meal inspired by the wild ingredients we've gathered from the farmer's market. We make classic German-style venison stew using the deer shot by our guide earlier in the day. The recipe includes beautiful red cabbage, mountain huckleberries, hedgehog mushrooms, and buckwheat spätzle. Our host explains that these products are sourced locally within a 100-mile radius, making every meal a celebration of the region's bounty.
Our guide is not only an expert angler but also a skilled cook, as evident from his perfectly prepared venison stew. He shares tips on how to prepare meals ahead of time to ensure they heat up quickly and easily, allowing us to enjoy restaurant-quality food in the wilderness. As we sit down to enjoy our meal, our host expresses gratitude for this experience, which has taught him the value of patience and respect for nature.
As we continue our journey along the river, we come across a stunning bighorn sheep with immense horns that seem to touch the sky. Our guide shares his fascination with these creatures, noting their impressive horn-to-body ratio. The thrill of spotting wildlife is exhilarating, and we can't help but feel a sense of awe as we stand by the river's edge.
The Steelhead: A Fish of a Thousand Casts
Our guide explains that catching a steelhead is considered a fisherman's holy grail, requiring an incredible 1,000 casts to land just one. This feat requires unwavering dedication and a deep understanding of the fish's behavior. We take turns casting our lines into the river, hoping against hope that we'll catch a glimpse of these elusive creatures.
The Reward of Wild Fishing
After hours of waiting and casting, our guide catches a beautiful fish, and we're thrilled to see the result of our hard work. This experience has taught us the importance of managing our impact on the environment. Our guide emphasizes that respecting wild fish is crucial, as they are an integral part of America's wilderness.
Back in the Day: A Different Era
Our host recalls a time when the river was abundant with fish, and it was considered acceptable to take them all. This perspective serves as a reminder of the importance of responsible management practices to preserve our natural resources.
The Joy of Fishing
As we conclude our fishing adventure, our guide encourages us to appreciate the joy of fishing. He notes that sticking with this technique requires patience, hope, and prayer, but those who persevere are rewarded with experiences like ours. We leave the river feeling invigorated, grateful for the opportunity to learn from our guide, and already planning our next fishing trip.
Truffles: A culinary secret
As we wrap up our day in the wilderness, our host shares a surprising fact about truffles – there are pheromone-like compounds in some varieties that can stimulate human desire. He confesses that he's experimented with adding these ingredients to his cooking, and it makes all the difference.
A Celebration of Wild Food
Our final meal is inspired by the wild flavors we've discovered on our journey. Waffles, made with love and care, are a perfect representation of making dreams come true. The addition of hallucinogenic mushrooms in the risotto takes our culinary experience to new heights.
The End of an Adventure
As we conclude this episode of our series, we take a moment to appreciate the memories we've created in the wilderness. From the thrill of catching fish with flies to savoring wild venison stew, every moment has been a celebration of nature and the art of cooking. We thank our guide for sharing his expertise and hospitality, knowing that this experience will stay with us forever.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enHey it's a seal.Don't eat my crabs,bitch.Growing up ina coastal community,in New England,I felt a very strongconnection withthe water my whole life.Now that Ilive in Oregon,I have the opportunity toexperience a whole newwater ecosystemfrom the rivers,to the waterfalls,and the coast.I wanna meet the peoplethat harvest from andlive in harmony withall the waters thatOregon has to offer.I made it tothe Oregon Coast.Vast beautiful views,huge swells,and a dangerous,rocky inter-tidal zone.We're about to meet upwith James Jungwirth, whomakes a living foragingfrom this coastal area.My wife and I moved outhere to Oregon in 1989,and I was alreadyan avid seaweed eater.Course when wemoved out here,I wanted to get to knowall the seaweeds, and soI started harvesting,and drying, and feedingmy family with them.We started sellingseaweed to our friendsand, at the localbarter fair.We were looking fora niche a way to supportourselves coming outhere, and we found it.Are there any seaweedsthat you can't eat orare they all edible?There's not reallya toxic seaweed.If they taste goodthey're okay.The thing to remember isthat the seaweeds grow onrocks.If you find them washedup on the beach,that's likethe compost pile.The garden is rocky areasthat are exposed atlow tide.Eating seaweed is like,one of the bestthings you can do forcardiovascular health,for cancer prevention,man I could justgo on and on.Wow, this is beautiful.This is one ofthe most complexecosystems anywhere.That's why we harvesteach plant in a way thatallows each plant tocontinue to grow, andreproduce so that itmaintains the integrityof the ecosystem forall the other thingsthat live here.Oh, we got a Heronout there.Looking forsomething to eat.He's like us.Yup.So if you see over here,this is Nori.It's fairly tender,just to eat rightoff the rocks.Oh, yeah.It tastes like thiswhole place.If you couldimagine that.So I see a nice patch ofbladderwrack over here.When you harvestthis one,you just harvestthe tips.Cuz the rest of it isa little bit tough.I could eat this all day.It's much better cooked.How could it getbetter than this?So let's see whatwe can find out inthe water here.Oh, it's cold!Ha.It's so cold!Mm.I thought it wasgonna be liketropical from the way youwere talking about it.This is Oregon.That look fresh?Yeah.So this is a Bull kelp.We're lucky to beable to find it.Nice one washedup like this.It's actually likeprobably the richestsource of potassium ofany natural food inthe whole world.Well, do you wannaget some mussels?Yeah.We might as well.Sometimes theycan be poisonous.Because there's differentkinds of bacterialballoons in the ocean.The Oregon Departmentof Agriculture hasgot a hotline anda website.You can check with them.They're safe now.They're safe?I checked.All right.Perfect.I saw some reallynice gooseparticles over here.They're actually inthe crab family, right?They're a Crustacean,correct.Yeah. Whoa.Check these out.They're big ones, huh?Holy Shit.So the trick with theseis you want to cut them,really close to the basecuz you want to get asmuch of the neckas possible.That's the part you e,eat.Wow, that's a big one.What are these supposedto taste like?They taste like,like lobster orcrab only wish theycould taste like.Oh, my God.I'm so excited.Look at that.I didn't think it couldget any bigger butwe weren't tryinghard enough.This is great.We got some proteins,some vegetables.We'll have a feast.All from right here.Just a little walkon the ocean.Hm.Yeah.It's a lot better thangoing tothe grocery store.You're just going to cookthem whole like that?Right.I just put a little bitof water onthe bottom that way,they just steam and theydoesn't take very long.And it smellslike the ocean.Is it almost done?The shellfishare pretty much done.You can see how they,their shells are openedup on the mussels.The bladderwrack's stilla little bit chewy, butit's okay, everythingelse is tender.Should we put some likespecimens out on ourblock that we found?Sure.Is it clean enough?Looks clean to me.Good man.Oo, these look so good.Pacific blue mussels,right?That's right.Mm, oh man,this is a good mussel.Fresh.Doesn't get anyfresher than this.Cheers.Could be nice ina stir fry, huh?It really would,chopped up.Oh, you could use theselike noodles, right?They're al dente.Bladderwrack?Mm.I think this ismight be my favorite ofthe three, it's likeI love the texture andit's super mild.And then wehave the nori,now the nori's gota meaty taste,cause you can taste allthe protein in there.I agree, it really does.How do you do that?So okay,you got to open it up,oop, do you see that?The skin isn't any good,it's too tough.So you just peelthat down, andpull that neckout of there.That's rich, huh?Wow, yeah.It's definitelya crustacean.No doubt it.This is inthe crab family.Like, it tasteslike a crab, butlike, more intense.Very sweet.Very sweet.So why don't more peopleget down with these?They look kinda strange.You know,most people think oh,that can't be food.It is like the ocean.Delicious.Today, we'regoing crabbing inNewtart's Bay.This morning when I wokeup, I had no idea we weregonna be like righton the bay andit was absolutelybeautiful.The boat I'm going on,like doesn'thave a captain.Doesn't have anyexperienced covers on it,soI'm basically in chargeof my own destiny here.I thought I was goingon a real boat.Fishermen.Good morning.I'm Zach.I'm Gabby.Gabby, all right.Nice to meet you.Got the boat allready for ya.You've beencrabbing before?No.All right.So this is the crabmeasure, males only.Five andthree quarters or larger.As you see right there,it's justa little bit shy.Okay.So it's notgoing to be a keeper.I got you set upwith a couple rings.Put it in the water,it'll lay flat onthe bay floor.And when we check it,it kind of trapsthem all up andcollects theminto the basket.I got the boat all setup and ready for you.All right.So we can go ahead andmeet on down atthe boat launch.I'm gonna backthe boat down in,pull it to the end ofdock, and I'll be rightback down to fire itup and get you going.Okay, awesome.All right.This is someyellow trout.Oh, yellow trout.Delicacy for crabs.Sure enough.What you're gonna do isyou're gonna set theseand you're gonna waitabout 10, 20 minutes max.And then you're justgonna pull them.The trap right here.You're gonna wannalet it soak forabout 45 minutes.Got these littletrap doors on it,every side that kindof let's them in.I hope you don't planon getting any crab.There ain'tnone out there.What's like the bestplace around hereto find crabs?South, along the road,about 20 to 40 yardsoff the rocks.It's the deepestspot in the bay.45 minutes,let it simmer.All right, over nearthis jetty is wherethe elusive redcrab lurks.The seal is over here,that's always a good signcuz those fat bastardslove to eat crabs.I grew up on boats.At one point I did takea boat safety course.I don't remember a damnthing from that.Oh, good.This one has gotchicken on it.Crab's favorite.I love boating where youcan leave yourself onshore I just go, just getthe fuck out, perfect.This is where I feelat peace, for sure.Please, please,please be crabs.Oh, no, shit,we didn't get anything.Boring.Maybe I should dropmy crab pots whereother people havedropped their crab pots.That's a realfisherman mindset.Come on crabbies!All we need is one crab.But I'd like to get 10 or15.That'd be better.Come on little crabbers,come to momma.What the hell?We just got some babies.Not legal size.Hey, it's a seal!Throw me my crab, bitch!That's pathetic.They all might be,and they're all gone.What happened there?I really hope this onehas some crabs in it.It feels heavy.Oh, my God!Whoa!I don't believe it.I got crabs!Whoo-hoo!Oh, my gosh.Come here, crabbies.All right.Let's get ridof the little ones.Wow.We have a couple ofkeepers here.Look at that.Doesn't even fitin the measuring.I will name you Bob.Oh.This is Johnny,he's a rock crabby,he's super feisty.Poor guy,I'm gonna eat you.Wow, this place is great.Throw those suckers in.Okay, soyou want to tandem it?And watch splash.So how long has thisshack been around?You know,it's hard to say.The current owners ownedit about 20 years.Our summer timeactivities include likea full RV park.Everybody bringstheir own boats.It's likemargarita-ville.Are crab people crazy?They can be.What you find isa thousand differentphilosophies withcrabbing.One year,if we don't do too hot,everybody comes outof the woodwork with,you know-They're theories.Scientific facts of whywe're not getting crab,you know.What makes Newtart Bay sospecial?Well, we don't have a lotof rivers feeding in, soit keeps the saltcontent high.And we're a smaller bay.You guys haveit good here.Yeah, you know inour own littlepocket off the coast.What's going on here?They're getting red.Is that a good sign?Absolutely.Oh, they look so good.I love me some crab.Do I need to geta cool water?We're going to get themcooling off becausethey're boilingon the inside.You ever had crabbutter before?No?The insides.We'll just leaveit at that.Okay.All right.Just take your fingernow, andtug at the side of it.Yep.Pull it down.Now we're gonna takethe shell and just pry.Absolutely.Mm.And just set the crabover to the side.This right here isthe crab butter.Cheers.Absolutely.Oh man, that's good.Crabilicious.All the guts, downthe center right here,just wash right out.And I got somethingspecial right here,I got you a crab heart.There it is right there.Mm, crab heart.Right of passage.I feel at one withthe crab now.Whoo.All right, grab a claw.That's definitelythe most prime meat.Do I just eat this?Yeah, absolutely.Oh, yeah.Mm.It's delicate butrich at the same time.Yeah.It's hard to explainbutIt is.Absolutely.Want totry some red rock?Yeah.The redrocks are a lot harder.You definitely needcrackers with them.Yeah.Don't even try toget these goingwithout oh, ooh,I just did empress cut.Yeah.PerfectMm.It's really good.I have to say,I like dungeness a lotbetter, but that actuallylived up to peoplesaying it's sweeter.The texture.A little bit different.Is not as delicate.Is not as delicate.No.But the taste is better.Absolutely.In a way.I mean it's hardto say better orworse like,it's just different.Okay, now that Ieat the dungeness,I like the dungenessbetter.And I eat the other one,andthen I like thatone better.I like it all.It's so good.Oh, man.High five.Good job.Good job to you.It's pre-dawn inthe Oregon winter andI'm headed intothe mountains to learnthe art of fly fishing inthe freezing cold watersof the Deschutes River.Really interestingterrain out here.Like being on the moon.I've heard fly fishing islike the most difficultform of anglingout there,especially when it comesto Steelhead trout.Luckily, I have someexpert anglers with me,two local chefs whocall even a bad day onthe river, way betterthan a good day at work.These fish face a lotof challenges, soevery one is special, andthey're allbasically unicorns.You know, it's not likeyou're fishing witha piece of bait, this isalmost like a cat toy.Let's do this one.All right.I hope,I don't have to pee.It's part ofthe adventure.It's cool to peein the waiters?Peeing in yourwaiters is cool.Call me Miles Davis.Casting a two-handedrod forSteelhead is the pinnacleof the sport.Oh, it's chilly.The principle of speycasting is you're usinga long line, so you'llsee how thick it is.And I'm going toplace the line righton the water.We're gonna usethat water tension.You're gonna ripthe line off the water,and you makea forward cast.All right.So we flop it down.Yeah, the flop.Now, tear.Very close.It's gonna take you time,it took me a year tolearn how to this.Okay.If you're out, you know,doing all that,it opens up the cast.Whereas, if you arekeeping it really tight.You're gonna keepa much tighter cast.Tear.Yup.And the thing withfishing like this is youcan fish all day andnot catch a fish.So if you're going tospend all that time outhere, you might aswell have fun learningsomething like this,that's super technical.Holy moley,you just made a catch.Is that good?That just happened, yeah.Really?What exactly are wemaking today?I went hunting andshot a deer sowe've got classic Germanstyle venison stew.You know, we went tothe farmer's market,got some beautifulred cabbage,braised that up withmountain huckleberries.We've got hedgehogmushrooms,buckwheat spatzle,buckwheat a hugecrop out here.Mm.Soit's not unreasonableto say that allthese products are fromwithin a 100 or so miles.The majority of the prepwe do ahead of time,I just bring foodout in bags.And that way anythinglike a stew,heats up reallyquickly andeasily, so we can eata meal like you'd getin a restaurant out hereon the river in no time.Cheers.Cheers.Mm.That's the bomb.I'm standing next to theman who not only huntedthis deer, butcooked it for me.It's reallya good feeling.Check it out.Bighorn sheep.Oh, my God.Those are so cool.Huge horns,like the horn to bodyratio is like intense.I never get sickof these things.Here we go,pickin up speed.I fuckin loverowing rivers man.I grew up in New Jersey.And you grow up readingFly Fishing Magazine, andall these fancypublications.And you see thesegorgeous picturesof places like this,people fishing.And it was always sofar out of reach for me.I said, shit, wellsomeday if I ever make itout west, I'm gonna buy adrift boat, and I'm gonnafish the way I'vealways dreamed to fish.That's sort of howwe ended up here.It's one of my favoriteplaces on Earth.Heron.Oh, wow!Big heron.Wow.Every single castyou have to believe,and you have to hope, andyou have to pray thatyou're gonna see a fish.And those who stick withit are rewarded, butthey call a Steelhead afish of a thousand casts.You cast 1,000 times,you don't see a fish.We fished 40 hoursin five days.And then ourlast days each,we both caught a fish.Yeah.And it was worth it.This really is theyoungest part of America.And we still have a lotto lose out here which iswhy the managementsreally important.Back in the day it wasbasically like, wow,this river'sfull of fish.Let's take them all.You know,if we do hook a wild fishwe wanna bring it in asquickly as possible.And keep it underthe water the whole time,these guys.You know, hoisting thesefish up, and like,look what I got, youknow, that's great forFacebook, but it'sterrible for the fish.You feel prettyconfident?As confident as I can.Oh, you're gettinga little loosey goosey.Yep.Oh.All the rope,and the elbow.Almost.I'm casting, like a tenyear old or worse.God, I hate to say it,butI don't think I'm goingto catch a fish today.Partially, becauseI don't think Ideserve to catch a fish.I respect peoplethat do this,because it takesa lot of patience.Whoa, that looked good.Did that feel right?Yeah.Right.You've crushed it there,with the casting.Really?Yeah.You really actually, didpick it up pretty quick.I was impressed.I never felt like Idid it right, though.Neither did I.Neither did you?No.And that's okay, too.I would have never cometo do this on my own,so thank you somuch for taking me.This is likereally special.I'll never forget it.There are pheromonelike compounds in sometruffles.It just makes you horny.Oh, what?Oh my God.So good.Waffles are all aboutmaking your dreams cometrue, right infront of your eyes.That's perfect andyou're perfect justthe way you are.They're really wrappingthis up in style.Yeah.I put hallucinogenicmushrooms in the risotto.\n"
