Look what I found!

On the end of my line about two hours ago.



21 3/4" long and 4.74 pounds. I'm a happy Franklin!

Yum!  How are you going to cook it? 

For this Franklin, it's a big fish.

I fileted and skinned the fish. Removed the lateral line and all other non clean meat bits. Fried in olive oil on what was the skin side only till it unstuck itself from the pan. Laid the fish out brown side down on a sheet pan. Salted a little, poured the pan drippings over. Sprinkled with bread crumbs, then the pancetta, then the parmesean and finally some black pepper. Under the broiler for a few and served with a little lime juice squeezed over. Yum!

Great catch and a nice meal.

Rod,

Brown trout are a sentimental favourite of mine. Montana has a nearly-endless variety of trout; rainbow trout are probably most-prevalent up here, and they are great - with good fighting insincts and delicious taste. We also have cut-throat trout (Montana's state fish) and brook trout (probably my all-time favourite trout), as well as a few other, less-encountered trout and char species.

Tas, I think you should cook trout on a stick. I've done that a bunch of times at various primitive camps in the mountains of Nevada/Utah. Nothing as fancy as ham stuffed. Food always tastes better when cooked over an open fire.

Some tips about cooking fish on a stick. At least the way I do it. There's probably a better way, and someone else probably does it exactly the same way I do, but no one schooled me and I made it up by trial and error.

Find green sticks that have a straight main stem and have two directly opposing branches. Cut the sticks to leave the opposing branches quite long and the main stem above the opposing branches even longer. Back at camp, whittle the sticks to their final shape.

Clean the fish by just gutting them and removing the gills and pectoral fins. To make the insertion of the stick easier, poke a small hole at the base of the body cavity just under the spine and two more small cuts just behind and above where the pectoral fins were.

I always leave the heads on, so you whittle the opposing branches so you can press them against the main stem while threading the stick through the fishes mouth. Then the main stem gets poked deeply into the hole you made at the base of the body cavity and the two opposing branches go through the holes behind where the pectoral fins were, all at the same time. A little tricky. All this holds the fish from spinning around on the stick. It also can open the body cavity up, so it might not work for your plans.

I always greased them up with what was at hand. Butter, bacon grease, etc. Salt and pepper and cooked them back/top side towards the fire for the lions share of the cooking time. Brook trout and little browns never tasted any better to me. I always threw the rainbows back unless they were damaged or huge for the water I was fishing. Not as nice of flesh. Kinda mushy.

Good fishing!

Interesting, Ron. In all my years of fishing Montana I've only caught two rainbows there. The first was on the Bitterroot, where we took a grand-slam (all four species) of Montana trout. The other was on the Ruby, fishing with the guys from Winston Rods.

Down in the more southern climes, around the Park, I've caught mostly cuts and browns, with a very occasional brookie. That would include the Yellowstone, Madison, & Firehole Rivers, and Quake Lake.

How do you like that #2 weight, Rod?

I tried one for awhile, but to me it felt like throwing kite string. I do have a couple of #3 weights that I like, though.