The best ingredients … Cold Oak-Smoked Rutland Water Trout from Rutland Fly Fishing Adventures

 Rutland FlyFishing Adventures … Cold Oak-Smoked Rutland Water Trout.

1) Get Some Great Trout from Rutland Water
The first thing is to use great ingredients. Rutland Water produces the best grown-on trout you can get. The lake is stocked each year with up to 80,000 trout. Mostly rainbows with a smattering of native brown trout at a minimum pound and a half up to 3 pounds. When these stock fish have been in the water a few weeks and realise what a food-rich natural environment they have been moved to, they start the naturalise and get as wild as it's possible to get within this populated island. Did I say wild? They're bloody furious when you hook them!
Well, when these trout have been in the lake for a year or more, they become a perfect specimen. Bright chrome silver, powerful 'spade-like' fins with mother of pearl translucent 'ribs' running down to perfectly sharp edges, and their flesh after eating a myriad of protein-rich natural food such as buzzers, nymphs, fry and pink shrimps, becomes rich orangey/red. No need for artificial colouring in our fish!
A big overwintered Rutland Rainbow is the best, around 3-5 pounds in weight, as wild as you can get, firm flesh, and deep red in colour. It's also excellent fun catching it in the first place. I give fishing lessons from my lakeside lodge, see www.rutlandwaterflyfishing.co.uk 
 
2) Start the Curing Process
Prepare the brine solution. Dissolve as much salt as possible in a container add couple of 1 lb bags of brown sugar. The salt will take water away from the fish and start the curing process; the sugar gives a deeper colour and some extra taste, but not essential.

3) Fillet the fish, leaving the gill bone on (you’ll use this to hang it up with later). Try & leave as much flesh on as possible, you should be left with a ‘Tom & Jerry’ fish skeleton. You may have to trim the ribs off the fillet, some people pull out the tiny pin bones with a long nosed pliers. I don’t do this now, I’ll take them out before serving the finished fish. This is a time consuming business, so I tend to do fillets about 20 or 30 fish at a time. They’ll all freeze perfectly for months. You've got to do this in Winter, making sure that the fish doesn't 'cook' in the sun. Pre-Season, in dreary March is the best time to do it for me.

4) Submerge the fillets in the brine solution (another way would be cover the fillets in dry salt with a mix of brown sugar) and leave in about 3 to 4 hours, depending on the size of fish.

5) Take out of the brine and wash off the salt solution. Leave to dry overnight.

6) Smokin' !!!     Make a hook for each fillet. An old wire coat hanger cut and bent into ‘S’ shapes is perfect and easy to do. Bend the 'S' shapes at a 90 degree angle so that the fish hangs vertically next to the next one along . Hang the fillets in the smoke cabinet.

7) It’s important for the cabinet to be far enough away from the fire so that the smoke is cool as it percolates through your fish. I have 2 old filing cabinets, 1 on top of the other with a some piping taking the smoke on a ‘cooling’ journey before it gets to the fish.
8) Put a container full of wood dust or fine shavings, any hard wood is OK but Oak is traditionally the best. Careful you don’t use too large shavings or they will catch fire, the idea is to produce smoke, not flames. I have a gas burner under a wire mesh pan, and as soon as the oak dust is smoking well, he’ll turn off the gas. 1 pan full takes about 3 hours to smoke through, then fill it up & start again. It’s a labour of love as fires have to be lit last thing at night and first thing in the morning and all through the day. It’s been known for me the light the fire through the night also!


9) How long to smoke it? How do you like your fish? I initially liked it strongly smoked, a perfect antidote to the bland, tasteless mass produced product you get in the supermarkets, if you do also, leave it in for about 4 days. It's a bit of an 'art' this bit, you get a feel for it. Nowadays, I prefer a light smoking keeping the natural flavour of these perfect, grown on Rutland trout, so maybe a day and a half is enough. It depends on the size of your fish and the density of your smoke.
As you read this there are some lovely pink fleshed Rutland trout plus some rather large salmon from my expeditions to Scotland last year in the smoking cabinet. Plus I have a cheeky side or two of Zander.  I know it's a controversial subject, but the taste of Zander is fantastic, so I'm trying a lightly smoked version, watch this space.

10) Unhook the fillets, trim off any excess bits, fins and the gill bones and leave to rest. It’s a bit too bitter a taste to use straight away, and develops nicely with time.

11) Coats each fillet with a bit of good olive oil, cuts some fillets into individual portions (I use them as a breakfast special 'Barnsdale Breakfast' delicacy at my 4 star Lakeside B&B on the water's edge here at Rutland Water), see www.thelodgebarnsdale.co.uk) seal in plastic bags and put in the deep freeze till you need some.  
12) Eat it!   Pluck the pin bones out. Thinly slice the trout. Drizzles some lemon, a drip of good virgin olive oil. A good grind of freshly crushed black pepper.........    mmmmmm..... perfik! cheers everyone, Rob.

 
 
 

 
 

Rob’s recipes

 

Barnsdale Breakfast

Slice some Oak smoked Rutland Trout, pull out any bones, put on a cold plate and drizzle lightly with extra virgin olive oil.

Cut some small squares and strips of the trout and out in a pan with a chunk of butter and white pepper and a pinch of salt.

Put the pan on a low heat till the butter melts and the trout infuses into the liquid.

Add a couple of free-range eggs, your own are the best, the orange colour of ‘real’ eggs makes it a visual feast. Stir and stir, till it’s nearly cooked.

Add a teaspoon and a bit of crème fraiche, stir it in and add a bit more butter. This will make it so soft and velvety.

Toast 2 slices of Hambleton Bakery bread, any will do it’s all good, and leave to go crispy before lightly buttering it.

Arrange the toast on a plate, pour on the scrambled eggs and lay on the slices of smoked trout. Add a squeeze of lemon and a turn of fresh ground black pepper, serve with griddled tomato, and mushroom, garnish with a bright green sprig of parsley. …eh, be honest!!!! yum ☺

Home smoked trout on crackers/blinis/toast with the perfect dip

Make a creamy dip with crème fraiche, seafood sauce, extra virgin olive oil, cracked black pepper, a good squeeze of lemon and a hefty dash of horseradish sauce (this is a brilliant dip). Mix up and dollop on the cracker. Place some thinly sliced (not too thinly!) oak smoked Rutland trout. Add a tiny drizzle of the olive oil, squeeze of lemon and a turn of fresh milled black pepper, garnish with sprig of parsley…mmmm delicious, with some sharp, cold, sauvignon blanc.

 

 

Mexico Beach and Tarpon holiday

http://youtu.be/QGkDamgJK_Y?list=UUTmgoRbaVAiq1lt7Ay18tSg
 

Tarpon Fishing in Mexico Feb 2015

Tarpon Fishing, the game

Report by R.Waddington.

Like many people suffering from winter ‘cabin fever’ I yearn for a sunny break during this dour time of year. This February my better half and I had the chance and some spare time to do it.

On my fishing ‘bucket list’ is the dream of sight fishing for tarpon among the mangroves, so, taking advice from friend and RWFF member Frank Daley, (see the Big Puddle June edition) a little island off the gulf of Mexico was chosen. This was a holiday you understand, not a fishing holiday….as such :)

Anyway the new 9’ 10 weight rod came with us and I found myself with 3 or 4 days of fishing for baby tarpon. 

What a steep learning curve it turned out to be! The giant tarpon of 100 pounds or so migrate to this area in the Summer, but baby tarpon are to be found here all year round and are as spooky and tricky a fish as you could ever imagine.

Just like here on Rutland, some days are good, some days not so good.

Day 1 in cloudy rainy conditions we sped across the ocean towards the mangroves an hours run at around 30 knots. The guide and I saw many pods of baby tarpon often up to 15 or more milling around looking for food in the shallow water, around 1-2 feet deep. These guys can spot a fish which to me looked like a stick on the bottom. Just like Rutland, it takes a while to get your eye in. Maybe after 20 years fishing here I will be able to spot them as well as the guides, maybe!

The idea is to sneak up on them, without the engine, gently punting along the mangroves trying to spot them and if you see some, to cast gently around 3 feet in front of them (knowing which way they are headed is an art in itself) so watch for a while to get fell of their direction. Then leave the fly to sink for a few seconds then strip it back. Watch all the time as you see a curious tarpon spot your fly and start to follow it. Nerve shattering stuff. It’s almost like a one on one hunt, you and the tarpon.

Just when you think it’s ignored the fly, there’s an almighty tug, which sends shockwaves through your body as something the speed of lightning attacks your fly, seemingly from nowhere.

You must set the hook immediately, no that’s not good enough, you have to set the hook as soon as you see the fly disappear as to wait for the pull is often too late. Strip strike with the line, not the rod and point the rod at the fish till it’s firmly hooked. Then the thing goes ballistic. To land 1 of these beautiful silver fish in 5 or 6 takes is a good score and I managed just 3 landed on this first day.

Many fish were lost on the strike and often I had to resort to a ‘catapult cast’ to get the fly through some insanely dense foliage, with a gap of maybe 2 feet in front of the boat.

What I didn’t realise was that this was a good day compared to what came next.

Day 2 and 3 were a disaster, 2 blank days. Apparently the water was colder than normal which made the fish less aggressive to take the fly, so these days were spent searching for schools of  juveniles seemingly few and far between, fruitlessly casting at shadows which were spooked as soon as you saw them in the shallow water and bright, sweltering sunshine.

A few snook were spotted right under the mangroves requiring a low side cast to get inside this dense vegetation. A few hooked but none in the boat. What to do, call it a day and admit defeat? Or have just one more day?

I think if you know me, the answer was obvious, in for a penny…!

And what a day it was! With a low tide many of the areas we fished previously were almost dry land so we concentrated on the deeper channels of around 3-4 feet deep, as luck would have it so did the tarpon and we spotted fish continuously the whole time. I was casting at fish most of the day with frantic instructions from the guide… 12 o’clock, cast! 9 o’clock long cast!, 1 o’clock short cast! I’m sure I lost a few pounds in the sweltering heat covering fish after fish after fish.

Hooking these things is a different story! In the cold water they often just ignored the fly and if they took it they’d let go in a split second. I was just too slow, my excuse is that often took at the end of a long strip and I had to come back a few inches in order to exert any pressure on the strip strike. Well that fraction of a second gave these remarkable fish time to spit the hook. Next time, I’ll practice more using shorter strips leaving space to continue the strip to set the hook.

Then, when I got it right the damned things would jumps and shake their heads so violently that the hook would come flying back at me. Frustration set in and looking back at the guide questioning him ‘What did I do wrong’

‘Nossing wrong Rob, that ees thee game senor, that’s tarpon feeshing’ came the reply in a heavy Mexican accent which could have come straight out of the Viva Zapata western.

On 2 occasions I set the hook just as a ‘big baby’ of around 30 pounds set off the other way and got smashed on 40 pound line, incredible power these fish have. Another time a fish far bigger than we saw all fortnight, over 40 pounds, snapped the line like cotton as it swallowed the fly and sliced the line on its gills.

Then at last I got it right and landed this marvellous fish after a really tough fight.

I have to go back, the trip ended on a high, I have caught the tarpon bug and there’s some unsettled business with that 40 pounder, or maybe I’ll go in the summer sometime, after the really big boys!

Anyone interest in a trip out there, please let me know.

Autumn Breaks. October 2014

Autumn Breaks

The trout have been taking fry patterns for some weeks now, however, only occasionally. Sometimes they have been aggressively feeding on fry and corixa but with the unseasonably high temps, I get the feeing that they are more often sluggish in their eating habits. Some great fish have been caught though mainly from over the weedbeds.

The fish we are catching are great
specimens and give great sport in
the clear, shallow margins.
The tactics require a stealthy approach to ensure they aren't spooked and a delicately cast Mylar Fry of Deerhair fry will usually elicit a response.

Well done to some of my guests, some complete beginners who have now experienced some mighty Rutland trout action! Look at the tail on this fish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What with the Lexus Competition in late August, European Masters, Rudder competitions, the Sierra Pairs, the English National Final and then Anglian Water/Airflo in September, poor old Rutland water has had  a ‘right old kicking’. It’s great for the water to be busy (we need AW to be profitable so Rutland stays as a successful fly only fishery) but the fishing hasn’t really recovered since. Practice days seem, to me, to be a very strange phenomenon. One chap practising for the nationals brought in an 8 pound brown trout only to give it away after weighing it, it’s not going to be caught the next day is it?

 With the prospect of all boats being block booked for 5 days during the AW/Airflo match your editor decided to have a short Autumn break to recharge the batteries after a hectic season.

A trip to Hampshire was planned, more specifically, Stockbridge, the hub of chalkstream fishing and featuring a ‘hole in the road’ where huge, tame rainbow and brown trout can be seen eating the tourist’s offerings of scotch eggs and sandwich crumbs (Perhaps a ‘scotch egg fly’ may work here!)  I suspect that if you were to cast a fly over them, you may end up in the local police station!

I fished a tiny chalk stream, the upper Dever in Hampshire. Using an 8’ 3wt rod, 3lb fluorocarbon and size 18 dries, it was certainly a different kettle of fish to what we’re used to on Rutland. With uncanny October temperatures and wall to wall sun, those wild brownies were spooky to say the least. The Dever here, is about 10 feet wide, 1 foot deep and gin clear. There were great numbers of fish; brown trout, a few stocked rainbows and grayling but as soon as you crept up to them, they were gone!

Your editor resorted to creeping on his stomach (not a pretty sight!) sneaking up on individual fish and dropping the fly, without any fly line out of the rod in front of a wary trout.

Quite pleased with a half dozen beautiful wild brown trout, all released, it brought to mind a few thoughts on fishing Rutland this season.

 Perfectly formed wild brown trout from the little River Dever a perfect Hampshire chalkstream

With the current clarity of the water, which is as clear as the finest of chalk streams, how many trout do we scare off which we didn’t know were there?  Possibly many more than we think. Wading into the water before casting a short line first  must be a mistake at the moment. The boats must drive fish away also with their rattling engines and vibrating rowlocks and it’s often worth stopping the engine 100 yards from where we wish to fish and rowing or in the shallows ‘poleing’ up to your chosen place.

Certainly recently, the trout seem to be individual fish in their own territory, waiting for prey or swimming alone looking for food along the ‘trout highways’ (holes in the weedbeds). So it appears, that when 1 fish has been caught or hooked or has gone for the fly, you may as well forget that fish and search for another. Different fishing from what we’re used to- casting and re-casting to pods of fish in the same area. Plus the abundance of luxurious weedbeds, until very recently,  makes it almost like fishing on a chalk stream.

Well, almost, as when you get it right and you fool one of these cracking grown-on trout, then 3 pound fluorocarbon is not the leader to be attached to. I had comments from the Hampshire fishing tackle shops such as , “don’t they fight!”  Well, er……..   come to Rutland guys! Our fish fight like tigers, and as much pleasure catching those beautiful and perfectly conditioned wild fish gave, it’s not in the same league as one of our 4 pound silver rainbows pulling your string like a demented bonefish!

We are lucky to have some of the UK’s most demanding yet ultimately rewarding fly fishing on our doorstep.

 Here’s Rutland visitor, Angus finding out how hard our trout fight!

Just back from a 2 day break to the Upper Tweed near Peebles. Tuesday was a wash out with high water, and leaves on every cast. But Monday saw me catch my biggest ever salmon to date, a 22 pound whopper on a cascade tube . Not the freshest fish ever, but a great fight and a lovely big salmon! It was fish of the month on the whole of Tweed in October.

 

Rob is a well known Rutland guide and qualified  trout and spey casting coach and Orvis endorsed guide. With many years experience fly fishing, learning his craft initially in North Wales and then on the Yorkshire rivers; Wharfe, Aire and Nidd. He now fishes on Rutland most days and has fly fished throughout the UK and Ireland, Russia, Cuba, Kenya and Canada among others.

 

 

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The Big Puddle February Issue

 

 

 

 

Edited by Rob Waddington First issue Feb 2014