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Learning a Polish fishing technique

For a flyfisher little compares to plying dry fly to stream. A moment where a fish breaks the surface, hook is set and a flash of silver proceeds your line going taut. Most of us are on the river for that experience.

However, there is a great deal of time when no bugs skitter across the water. The fish are, as any seasoned angler will tell you, always feeding. It’s just most of the time that is done below the surface.

You can enjoy a good book when there is no hatch. Or, you can employ a wet fly technique of which there are many. The current method we are attempting is “Czech Nymphing.”

“… The fly line is hanging under the tip of the rod and its end often does not even touch the water. “

–Blue Quill Angler

The origin of this style of fishing varies, but we kind of like the story about a Polish fisherman who stunned the 1989 World Flyfishing Championship with a very different style of fishing and unique hand tied flies.The beaten Czech team came back in subsequent years and “owned” the technique by basically being better marketers than the Poles.

This week we attended a ‘how-to’ clinic on the Crooked River. Organized by Sunriver Anglers the morning’s lesson was guided by Mary Ann Dozer an accomplished Euro Nympher, fishing guide and a master casting instructor. We had a blast!

Many fish were hooked. A dozen were actually ‘caught,’ and our education in short line nymphing has started. Along with how to manage line, rod and flies, we also got great pointers on casting, as well as how to read the water.

The Crooked’s boulder strewn bottom is readable from the surface. As water roils around or flows over structures in the river you can get an idea of sub-surface formation. With that information you can find the best place to toss (cast) your rig.

This river has long been a favorite place to park our van and fish the tail waters of Bowman dam. The river is known for its Redband Trout population (a subspecies of Rainbow trout). There are a fair number of fish in this river, though most are smaller sized. That said, it’s a much friendlier wade than the Lower Deschutes. Which was particularly true on this day.

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Hot Cast Iron Steak

I’ve noticed that food or more to the point, the cooking of a meal is wrapped in a story. Taste and smell inevitably evoke memories, and this is that kind of recipe post. Please bear with us on this.

Twenty years ago we spent summers exploring all parts of the Pacific Northwest in a 1982 Westie with a pack of border collies. During one of these jaunts, I discovered a 10-inch lodge cast iron skillet in a secondhand store and added it to the camping kit. There it stayed until getting pushed to the back of a cupboard. All but forgotten.

In retirement we found a local butcher shop and discovered beef doesn’t have to be buried in a sauce, ground up, or cooked for hours to be edible. Yes, it was a bit more per pound, but we’re not eating 24 ounce t-bones.

The initial method I thought to employ was fire … coals to be more precise. This proved less than ideal. With some research it became clear that steak needs to be seared on a hot griddle, and by hot, I mean five hundred degrees fahrenheit. This ‘research’ also pointed out how hot the cast iron skillet had become in culinary circles, the holy grail of steak cookware.

A cast iron skillet is critical.  You really should own one. You can find designer models for hundreds of dollars, or you can pick up the classic Lodge brand for about forty bucks. I had that five dollar thrift store find sitting under a dutch oven in my kitchen. Sorry, I don’t think you can even find them at Goodwill anymore. Amazon has Lodge but so will your local sporting goods or Ace Hardware.

Cooking a great steak will require something more than just a cast iron surface. There is the steak itself and here you need to spend a bit more. Fred Meyer’s shrink wrapped family pack may seem like a bargain, it’s not. Regardless of what method you employ, it’ll hit the plate tasting like the material it was sitting on.

Find a meat market, talk to the butcher and ask for a rib eye about an inch and a half thick in the 10 to 12 ounce range (for two people). This is not the time to look for lean. Rather, you need to have lots of whitish flakes running through the meat.

  1. Next, grab a pack of fresh thyme, some garlic, two or three shallots and a couple of handfuls of mushrooms. A red wine would be nice something in the Pinot Noir or Cabernet family.
  2. Unwrap that piece of beef set it on a plate and sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper. It is all right that it sits on the counter while you complete the prep.
  3. De-stem and slice the mushrooms, about ¼ inch thick and transfer to a bowl. Peel the shallot and slice it about half that thick. Mince up three cloves of garlic. Drop the garlic and shallot into another small bowl, and cut a two tablespoon cube of butter on top then add a half dozen springs of fresh thyme.
  4. A surface read thermometer is handy, but you can do this by eye if you’re careful and have a good range hood fan. Set an empty skillet on the burner, turned to high. After about 30 seconds, pour in two or three tablespoons of olive oil. Just enough to coat the bottom of the pan. When the oil starts to shimmer, set the steak on its surface, reduce the heat slightly and start a five minute timer.  With a surface read thermometer you are looking for a temp of about 470.
  5. After 5 minutes, add the bowl of shallots, garlic, butter and thyme to the pan, turn the steak and restart the timer. You might turn the heat down a bit here as well. You can also use a spoon to baste the steak with the herb/butter juices you’ve just created.
  6. At the end of the second 5 minutes, turn the burner to low, pull out the thyme sprigs, move the steak to a plate and cover it with foil. Add the mushrooms to the pan, and if necessary another tablespoon of butter. At this point you can deglaze the pan with a nice red wine and a dash or two of Worcestershire Sauce. Continue to sauté the mushrooms until cooked.
  7. Uncover the steak and pour the juices over the mushrooms to add to the sauce and turn off the stove. Move the steak to a cutting board and cutting across the grain make ¼ inch slices. Divide the mushrooms between two plates and spread the slices over the mushrooms and enjoy.

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Not Always a Highway

Sometimes when you start out for the day there is a destination in mind. Other times you don’t know where you’re going, and once in a while it changes mid journey.

Last week we had just that kind of day. It started with a trip to get sunrise images at Fort Rock, maybe grab photos of raptors, and hike up around the rim. It was a frosty morning, a bit too cold for a long walk, although we did pick up some great shots.

Generally speaking, we don’t like to return on the same route we came. With more of the morning to take advantage of, we pulled the maps and plotted a loop home that looked interesting. It took us over ground we’ve not yet explored … via forest service roads.

Bouncing around on small forest service roads is an adventure. Often not much more than a couple of ruts in the high desert duff, winding through the sage and pine that nearly always presents you with spectacular views. 

Central Oregon forests and high desert lands are typically crisscrossed by a web of dirt roads. Probably because it’s pretty easy to cut a road in this country.

Even when there’s not a road mapped, a simple two track exists on the ground. This means you really need to keep a close eye to the USFS road markers, those flat metal posts at most junctions with numbers on them. 

Standard kit in our car are BLM and USFS district maps to aid the GPS.  The forest service roads are numbered at junctions, unless some stoop has used it for target practice.  Main routes (arterials) get assigned two digit designations. Secondary or collector roads are a four digit number, and local, short access roads, have three digits.

Arterials can be paved, are often graded and usually travelable. But when you start down the four digit routes it gets a bit more dicey. Few of these dirt tracks are maintained with any regularity. Here you need to navigate with some caution as you can run into rough patches, downed trees and worse.

We unexpectedly came upon a controlled burn in the Cabin Lake area. Drive through it? Nope. We took a sharp right on a 2-track lane, turning east, away from the choking smoke.

To the east of Fort Rock is a lava flow formation called the Devils Garden (scheduled for a separate day’s exploration).  We start with USFS 18, skirting the western edge of that rocky structure, then turn on to 2431 and bump along the seam where forest meets high desert.

Our travels took a few different types of ‘4 digit’ roads that slalomed through second growth Ponderosa pine, offering frequent vistas out onto the Christmas Valley hay fields. 

Eventually we wound up on the southern rim of Hole-in-the-Ground, a unique, if unimaginatively named geological feature.

We ended the day’s expedition on a state route headed East to La Pine and used the highway speeds to shake a bit of the dust from the Subaru. 

 

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Bolognese With a Twist

How do you make a healthy bolognese sauce? Use lean ground turkey.

This recipe is quick and easy, We consider it a healthy twist on the traditional bolognese sauce, which features beef, pork, pancetta and butter.

Classic bolognese can take hours to prepare and can be quite heavy tasting. This recipe is lighter, but still comforting. Despite using a leaner meat, the results are a thick, rich sauce which is healthy and delicious. Fewer calories, less fat and great flavor…tastes like a winner to me.

In our household we pair the sauce with fresh zucchini noodles. The recipe is large enough to freeze portions for future quick, last minute meals.  So good!

One trick we use to create a more intense flavor is to use tomato paste. We make ours from Freeze Dried Tomato Powder. And boy, is it packed with tomato flavor. It is a great item to keep in your kitchen pantry. It can add that extra oomph to any recipe your might add it to.

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Quick Turkey Bolognese sauce

Lean bolognese is made with ground turkey instead of beef, and the result is just as delicious. Plus, finely chopped mushrooms are incorporated into the sauce for a earthy flavor. This is served over pasta, zucchini noodles or polenta, then sprinkled with parmesan cheese.
Course: Main Course
Servings: 12

Ingredients

  • 1 Tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 large onion chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 tablespoon italian seasoning
  • 1 lb lean ground turkey
  • 1 cup mushrooms finely chopped
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 28 oz tomatoes crushed
  • 1 ½ tablespoon tomato paste
  • ½ cup fresh basil chopped

Instructions

  • Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes.  Stir in garlic and itallian seasoning. Cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add turkey, mushrooms and salt. Cook, crumbling the turkey with a wooden spoon. Stir until the turkey is no longer pink and the mushrooms are cooked, about 10 minutes.
  • Increase heat to medium high. Stir in tomatoes, tomato paste, basil, and cook. Stir occasionally, until thickened, about 5 minutes.
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Fossils, rocks and turkeys

Being retired we find time to embrace certain concepts or more like Rules to Live By. They help us focus on what’s really important and among them are:

    • Fun will be had by all
    • Live life like my dog 
    • Housework never supersedes fun

However, today we plan to use the Never Go Back The Same Way We Came rule. After a wonderful morning and lunch at Spring Basin Wilderness, we continue our exploration of the area.

We head along a scenic drive to explore the prehistoric past of Oregon and stop at the Clarno Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds. It is located 18 miles west of the town of Fossil, Oregon.

The Palisades are the most prominent landform and are ancient mudflows.

The trailhead is located along Highway 218. The Trail of Fossils (¼ mile loop) is the only trail in the park where visitors can easily see fossils in the rocks. Large boulders strewn below the Palisades contain dozens of visible plant fossils. We glimpse fossilized plants along the cliff walls as well … when suddenly we hear a strange “gobble” sound. I kid you not! We grab the binoculars and sure enough it’s a flock of wild turkeys. What a perfect end to a perfect day.

Sure, we get home late. But luckily we’ve put into practice our Always have dinner ready and waiting after a long day on the road rule.  On the menu, Minestrone Soup with toasted baguette. Yeah … these are rules we can live by.