Return to Grizzly Lake

Peter let me use his fly fishing pole and show me how to fly fish

A few weeks ago Peter and I took a float plane to Grizzly Lake to do surveys for aquatic invasive plants. So in remembering how fricken cold I was the last time I was determined to be more prepared. I brought so many layers my pack was extremely heavy and full, but I was more than prepared. In actuality it was a really great week with super nice weather. We spent two days paddling around Grizzly Lake. We went fishing at the end of the work days and I caught several graylings, we only kept two for dinner one of the nights. But they were really good.

The third day we were picked up by the plane and dropped off at Copper Lake, which is a much larger lake nearby. We spent two days paddling around this lake looking for invasives. We didn't find any so that is good. On the last night there we went fishing again and I caught a good sized trout. I filleted it all by myself (this was the first time I have filleted a fish) and it actually turned out pretty well.

Then we tried to cook it...Yeah that could have went better. So Peter had this little piece of aluminum foil. We wrapped the fish up with some butter and seasonings. Then Peter made this little woven wooden structure to hold the fish up over the fire. I asked him if maybe we should soak the wood for awhile to prevent it from burning, to which he replied "We could, but it is sort of delicate." That should have been my first clue this wasn't going to turn out well, but alas I just brushed it off. So we put the fish on this little structure and Peter had me help to bring it over the fire. At this point it is cooking well and thinks look good. Then the foil starts to break open, because the fish is expanding slightly with being cooked. One side of the fish is getting close to being done, but the thicker meaty part is still very raw so Peter tries to flip the fish. That works for a little bit, but then one of the sticks in the woven holder falls and so does the fish, into the fire. Don't worry! all is still good, the foil is still covering most of the fish and only a few chunks of ash got on it; those can be picked off. So Peter decides we just need larger sticks to hold up the fish and takes some thicker pieces of wood and drapes those over the fire. At this point the foil is just falling apart everywhere. So he tries to put the fish on the three sticks without the foil. Well that didn't really work, because one of the pieces was nearing being done and the top half of the fillet (a.k.a the good meaty part) fell into the fire. There was no saving that piece. At that point little flies where flying everywhere biting us and trying to get to the fish. Eventually I just took the rest of the fish off of the fire cut it up into little chunks and threw it in this little pan I had and cooked it the rest of the way. Peter felt really bad about losing some of the fish, but honestly I wasn't even mad. We still got to eat plenty of fish, it was delicious, and it also makes for a good story : )