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Best Trout I Ever Ate...Not To Mention Weirdest Story
California Fishing
Mar 17, 2023 15:56:55   #
woodguru Loc: El Dorado Ca
 
When I was 16 or 17, we would go camping with a friend of my dad's he worked with, he had a son a year older than me that I hunted everything from doves, quail, pheasants, rabbits...everything. We could both outshoot our dads with anything that shot lead. Pheasant and Dove hunting we had to let them empty their guns and then we would get what they had missed, it was that bad.

So back to fishing, we were at Courtright or up above that at one of the highest elevation lakes up above Fresno and Dinky Creek. We had two boats we took up, we drove one truck and they drove the other. We had fished for a couple of hours with nothing on anything we had in our tackle boxes. I went to one of those stupid big chartreuse spoons that comes as a cheap set, and got an almost immediate hit and a nice fat fish. Dave went to one of the other ones like a red and white, and we started hammering the trout, nice solid fat 14 inchers.

This becomes part of the story, we were eating sunflower seeds and leaving a trail of shells in the water. One of those high mountain storms came up out of nowhere, starting with some of the most spectacular lightning and thunder I've ever seen, it was cracking and ripping the sky all around the lake hitting high trees. We made a dash for the shore as the rain started, we were terrified we were going to get struck by lightning. We went toward some rock outcroppings and there was a really nice sheltered deep indentation in a rock with an overhang.

Dave said he would gather up any dry wood he could find, and told me to go get a couple of fish to cook over the fire. It occurred to us that they were not going to be very good without salt, but I thought hey, we can rub salty sunflower seeds on them.

We were waiting for the fire to get going good and them to cook when we saw our dads running all out across the lake (little aluminum boats with small trolling motors)...we went down to the edge to wave at them. They were not happy with us at all...as we showed them the nice little sheltered spot and great fire we had going, and we had told them we were almost limited out when they had caught nothing, they starting cutting loose on us about looking for us and here we were holed up in a cave cooking fish. Dave asked if we should put on another couple of fish and his dad started lightening up and said sure, why not. He told Dave to go down and get a six pack out of their cooler, and we were able to start in on the first two fish a bit after that.

It turned out to be a really great thing, and the fish were the best I've ever had.

Reply
Mar 17, 2023 16:34:36   #
saw1 Loc: nor cal Windsor
 
woodguru wrote:
When I was 16 or 17, we would go camping with a friend of my dad's he worked with, he had a son a year older than me that I hunted everything from doves, quail, pheasants, rabbits...everything. We could both outshoot our dads with anything that shot lead. Pheasant and Dove hunting we had to let them empty their guns and then we would get what they had missed, it was that bad.

So back to fishing, we were at Courtright or up above that at one of the highest elevation lakes up above Fresno and Dinky Creek. We had two boats we took up, we drove one truck and they drove the other. We had fished for a couple of hours with nothing on anything we had in our tackle boxes. I went to one of those stupid big chartreuse spoons that comes as a cheap set, and got an almost immediate hit and a nice fat fish. Dave went to one of the other ones like a red and white, and we started hammering the trout, nice solid fat 14 inchers.

This becomes part of the story, we were eating sunflower seeds and leaving a trail of shells in the water. One of those high mountain storms came up out of nowhere, starting with some of the most spectacular lightning and thunder I've ever seen, it was cracking and ripping the sky all around the lake hitting high trees. We made a dash for the shore as the rain started, we were terrified we were going to get struck by lightning. We went toward some rock outcroppings and there was a really nice sheltered deep indentation in a rock with an overhang.

Dave said he would gather up any dry wood he could find, and told me to go get a couple of fish to cook over the fire. It occurred to us that they were not going to be very good without salt, but I thought hey, we can rub salty sunflower seeds on them.

We were waiting for the fire to get going good and them to cook when we saw our dads running all out across the lake (little aluminum boats with small trolling motors)...we went down to the edge to wave at them. They were not happy with us at all...as we showed them the nice little sheltered spot and great fire we had going, and we had told them we were almost limited out when they had caught nothing, they starting cutting loose on us about looking for us and here we were holed up in a cave cooking fish. Dave asked if we should put on another couple of fish and his dad started lightening up and said sure, why not. He told Dave to go down and get a six pack out of their cooler, and we were able to start in on the first two fish a bit after that.

It turned out to be a really great thing, and the fish were the best I've ever had.
When I was 16 or 17, we would go camping with a fr... (show quote)


What a great story. I could see ALL that happening just as you told it.

I'm not a big fan of the taste of fish as everyone on here knows.
HOWEVER, My best friend from the Air Force and I were on a deer hunt in South Dakota the first year we came home from overseas. Would have been bout the fall of '73 or '74. It was his home state and we backpacked bout 8 miles up into the hills for about a week.
We didn't take much food but we did take a 10 pound bag of potatoes and a big cast iron skillet.
It was our intentions to kill a small deer and eat it during the week and then kill a bigger one and pack it out.
YEAH RIGHT ! We never even SAW a deer that week.
We were just about starving to death, livin on squirrels. Well, we found a small creek that was just FULL of small Trout bout 6 inches long.
We started chasin fish around and catchin them by hand under the rocks and bank where they would hide.
All we did was gut them and then we stuck them on sticks and roasted them like weenies over the fire.
I've never tasted ANY fish that I liked better. They were delicious.
Course, we probly would have eaten SNAKE if we would had come across any of them either.
OH to be young and naïve (stupid) !
Our packs weighed bout 75 pounds apiece and we both were carrying our deer rifles, a .22 and both had our pistols on our belts.
BROTHER, what were we thinkin !

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Mar 18, 2023 09:57:09   #
Papa Jack Loc: Indianapolis
 
Nice story thanks for sharing

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Mar 18, 2023 13:03:31   #
woodguru Loc: El Dorado Ca
 
Papa Jack wrote:
Nice story thanks for sharing


Thanks, it brought back memories telling it...makes me think I need to get in touch with Dave, he lives in Winters by Berryessa, he might be up for some fishing.

Reply
Mar 18, 2023 13:12:43   #
woodguru Loc: El Dorado Ca
 
saw1 wrote:
What a great story. I could see ALL that happening just as you told it.

I'm not a big fan of the taste of fish as everyone on here knows.
HOWEVER, My best friend from the Air Force and I were on a deer hunt in South Dakota the first year we came home from overseas. Would have been bout the fall of '73 or '74. It was his home state and we backpacked bout 8 miles up into the hills for about a week.
We didn't take much food but we did take a 10 pound bag of potatoes and a big cast iron skillet.
It was our intentions to kill a small deer and eat it during the week and then kill a bigger one and pack it out.
YEAH RIGHT ! We never even SAW a deer that week.
We were just about starving to death, livin on squirrels. Well, we found a small creek that was just FULL of small Trout bout 6 inches long.
We started chasin fish around and catchin them by hand under the rocks and bank where they would hide.
All we did was gut them and then we stuck them on sticks and roasted them like weenies over the fire.
I've never tasted ANY fish that I liked better. They were delicious.
Course, we probly would have eaten SNAKE if we would had come across any of them either.
OH to be young and naïve (stupid) !
Our packs weighed bout 75 pounds apiece and we both were carrying our deer rifles, a .22 and both had our pistols on our belts.
BROTHER, what were we thinkin !
What a great story. I could see ALL that happening... (show quote)


You guys were studs carrying a cast iron skillet on top of everything else. We did the eat a deer thing while we were gold dredging, had potatoes and big cast iron pot we kept venison stew meat going in. I used Lipton's onion soup mix as part of the seasoning, I swear we could eat two pounds each at dinner. We'd empty the pot and start a new batch for the next day.

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Mar 18, 2023 13:24:07   #
Smokey2 Loc: San Diego
 
Three great stories in one thread, gotta love this stuff....

Reply
Mar 18, 2023 17:52:30   #
BeachDrummer Loc: Eastern NC
 
Great stories fellas. Living off the land is really satisfying and takes us back to our roots

Reply
 
 
Mar 18, 2023 20:36:42   #
saw1 Loc: nor cal Windsor
 
woodguru wrote:
You guys were studs carrying a cast iron skillet on top of everything else. We did the eat a deer thing while we were gold dredging, had potatoes and big cast iron pot we kept venison stew meat going in. I used Lipton's onion soup mix as part of the seasoning, I swear we could eat two pounds each at dinner. We'd empty the pot and start a new batch for the next day.


Yeah, that was kinda our plan. Wish it woulda turned out like that.

Reply
Mar 18, 2023 23:27:36   #
Billycrap2 Loc: Mason county,W(BY GOD) Virginia, 🇺🇸🦅
 
saw1 wrote:
What a great story. I could see ALL that happening just as you told it.

I'm not a big fan of the taste of fish as everyone on here knows.
HOWEVER, My best friend from the Air Force and I were on a deer hunt in South Dakota the first year we came home from overseas. Would have been bout the fall of '73 or '74. It was his home state and we backpacked bout 8 miles up into the hills for about a week.
We didn't take much food but we did take a 10 pound bag of potatoes and a big cast iron skillet.
It was our intentions to kill a small deer and eat it during the week and then kill a bigger one and pack it out.
YEAH RIGHT ! We never even SAW a deer that week.
We were just about starving to death, livin on squirrels. Well, we found a small creek that was just FULL of small Trout bout 6 inches long.
We started chasin fish around and catchin them by hand under the rocks and bank where they would hide.
All we did was gut them and then we stuck them on sticks and roasted them like weenies over the fire.
I've never tasted ANY fish that I liked better. They were delicious.
Course, we probly would have eaten SNAKE if we would had come across any of them either.
OH to be young and naïve (stupid) !
Our packs weighed bout 75 pounds apiece and we both were carrying our deer rifles, a .22 and both had our pistols on our belts.
BROTHER, what were we thinkin !
What a great story. I could see ALL that happening... (show quote)


Now I call that living the lifestyle of good old days Yahoo 👍🏽👍🏽🎣🎣🎣🐟🐟🐠🐠🐋🐋🇺🇸🇺🇸🦅🦅

Reply
Mar 19, 2023 02:14:35   #
saw1 Loc: nor cal Windsor
 
woodguru wrote:
You guys were studs carrying a cast iron skillet on top of everything else. We did the eat a deer thing while we were gold dredging, had potatoes and big cast iron pot we kept venison stew meat going in. I used Lipton's onion soup mix as part of the seasoning, I swear we could eat two pounds each at dinner. We'd empty the pot and start a new batch for the next day.


Lol, I just remembered, We also carried a coleman lantern and Army down sleeping bags. They weren't light back then. I still have 2 of them. I mean really. How dumb were we?
Course I was only bout 19 or 20 at the time.
We found this old partial cabin that the stone chimney was partially collapsed and we rebuilt that and stayed on the half of the room that had a roof over it. Cooked in the fireplace over an open fire. LOL. What times we had.

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Mar 19, 2023 11:44:42   #
Mauwehu Loc: Norwalk Ct
 
saw1 wrote:
What a great story. I could see ALL that happening just as you told it.

I'm not a big fan of the taste of fish as everyone on here knows.
HOWEVER, My best friend from the Air Force and I were on a deer hunt in South Dakota the first year we came home from overseas. Would have been bout the fall of '73 or '74. It was his home state and we backpacked bout 8 miles up into the hills for about a week.
We didn't take much food but we did take a 10 pound bag of potatoes and a big cast iron skillet.
It was our intentions to kill a small deer and eat it during the week and then kill a bigger one and pack it out.
YEAH RIGHT ! We never even SAW a deer that week.
We were just about starving to death, livin on squirrels. Well, we found a small creek that was just FULL of small Trout bout 6 inches long.
We started chasin fish around and catchin them by hand under the rocks and bank where they would hide.
All we did was gut them and then we stuck them on sticks and roasted them like weenies over the fire.
I've never tasted ANY fish that I liked better. They were delicious.
Course, we probly would have eaten SNAKE if we would had come across any of them either.
OH to be young and naïve (stupid) !
Our packs weighed bout 75 pounds apiece and we both were carrying our deer rifles, a .22 and both had our pistols on our belts.
BROTHER, what were we thinkin !
What a great story. I could see ALL that happening... (show quote)


Well Saw that’s what it took to get you here. Prophetic trip. You’d be smart to take all of that on a hike today- minus the 75 pound pack of course.

Reply
 
 
Mar 19, 2023 15:44:44   #
saw1 Loc: nor cal Windsor
 
Mauwehu wrote:
Well Saw that’s what it took to get you here. Prophetic trip. You’d be smart to take all of that on a hike today- minus the 75 pound pack of course.


LOL, I bet you could pack the equivalent of ALL that stuff and more with only half that much weight, if that, today.

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