Salmon Dinner!!

Wow! I just logged into the blog and I am going to have to razz my hubby a bit about not having blogged anything for over a month now!! ;)

I wish I could say that Casey and I spent the last month vacationing in the Cayman Islands, relaxing on a white sandy beach with a drink in each of our hands, but that just wasn't the case. Not so is the life of a hunting and fishing guide's wife. Haha!

We have been busy for the last month, but I will let Casey fill you in on all of that. I am excited to post about the fact that Salmon Season is finally here!! I absolutely LOVE salmon time!! and sssshhhhhh, don't tell Casey, but I am pretty sure the fact that he was a salmon guide when we met and he supplied my college roomies and I with an endless supply of fresh beautiful fish to eat, has got to be one of the main reasons I chose him!!!

Anyhow, this year we have been excitedly awaiting the season that is now upon us. We both have been reading reports and chatting at least weekly with our guide friends who fish the ocean runs. All signs were pointing in the direction of a banner river run right from the get go. As it turns out the opener came and went with not much action to ride home about. Many of the river guides are fishing long, hot days and only producing one fish per rod on average. Casey has always targeted the second week of August as his "Go Time" date for booking clients and this year we have even pushed it back further. The fishing is certainly picking up now and becoming much more consistent. It can only get better from here on out.

Casey and his good friend and fellow fishing guide, Raith Heryford hit the water this week in search of schools of fish that might be holding in certain areas of the river. They had a few good days of fishing and Casey is now confident with the fact that he can provide his clients with the quality trip they deserve so we are looking forward to finally fishing with guests starting next week!

Nonetheless, my favorite part about these scouting missions is the fact that I get to keep all the fish that are caught! Usually clients are gifted Casey's catch, so my freezer only gets full if I beg to go out on a trip or two myself during the peak of the season, or if scouting missions are successful. I am so glad that this week's scouting trips were a success!!!

When Casey called the office to let me know that he was filleting fish, I was anxious to get to fix some up for dinner right away, so I asked him to keep a steak in the fridge and not freeze it. My stomach growled all day long waiting to get home and get to cooking! Then of course the clash of the crazy busy life we lived reared its ugly head! I was just about to walk through the door from soccer practices and gym time for myself, when Casey text me a reminder that we were needing to change trail cameras!!! I was heartbroken. I didn't want leftovers for dinner! I wanted that fresh salmon!!! My best friend, Jami was with me when I read the text and she knew I was disheartened. She had actually come by the house to get some of the fish to make herself for dinner and in her best friend fashion offered to cook the fish in trade for some of her own!!! That's why she is my best friend!! Win, win for me!!! We exchanged a couple cooking tips and recipes really quick, picked some from rosemary from my herb garden, dug out some lemons from my crisper and off she went to get to cooking!!!

It was late by the time we got back from checking trail cameras and I was so thankful for my best friend for  cooking my family's dinner! And an AMAZING dinner it was! I would highly recommend taking a trip out with Casey this season if you have time! You don't want to miss out on the opportunity to eat such an amazing delicacy!

Recipe is posted below!
Side Note - Jami and I are both Paleo and this recipe follows those guidelines for clean eating.

LEMON ROSEMARY SALMON

Casey leaves the skin on one side of the filet for easier cooking. A good tip, is to always make sure that the skin is cooked crispy so that the meat easily falls from it when ready to eat.

Prior to prepping the fish I throw about a quarter cup rosemary ( I would suggested dried, but fresh works too) and a couple tablespoons of sea salt into the food processor and blend it together.

1. Preheat the oven to a low broil setting.
2. Spread coconut oil in a baking dish where you will place the salmon.
3. Place the salmon in the dish and sprinkle with the rosemary salt blend you made from abve. Place more small chunks of coconut oil or drizzle, if its in a liquid state, on top of the salmon, then top with slices of lemon.
4. Broil on low for approximately 10-15 minutes or until the salmon is cooked to your liking. A thicker piece of fish may take closer to 15 minutes while a thin piece will take just around 10.

Basic Caveman Style Eating!! But so very good!

7-17-13

Today I guided Rich and Dennis for pigs. We hit the ground running this morning and worked our way up to the top of the ranch. Within an hour or so we spotted a large group of pigs across the canyon and as we were trying to put a game plan together something spooked them and they took off like a bat out of hell. Off we went in hot pursuit but as we searched we just couldn't turn them up again so we went in search of some others. As we headed further into the ranch we rounded a corner and there stood a group of 7-8 pigs! The guys excited the ranger and it was game on, however, after several shots fired we had nothing to show for ourselves and the guys were pretty bummed out at their shooting or lack there of. We continued to search the hills for our quarry and as we made our way back towards the truck we snuck down the hill to check one last reservoir. As luck would have it there was a large herd of pigs wallowing around the pond. We went into sneak mode keeping the wind in our favor and closed the gap to around 50 yards. After looking over the group of unsuspecting pigs we picked out a couple of good sized meat pigs and the guys each got ready to shoot. As the intended targets turned broadside I gave it the 1,2, 3 count and almost simoultaniously the shots rang out and both pigs dropped in their tracks! As Dennis's pig hit the ground it began to roll down towards the pond, and then stood up and started to swim towards the middle of the lake. It made it about 15 yards from the bank before expireing and then sinking like a rock! I have seen this only one other time but can assure you that when it happens there is no time to get to the pig and the only option is to strip down and go diving! Fortunately I had my trusty apprentice Gavino with me today and he drew the short straw, so he stripped down and dove in to start the search. As he got further and further away from the bank the deeper the water got and before long he was diving to the botton in 12-15 feet of water in search of the pig. After a half hour or so Gavino located the pig and swam it back to the bank, but not before I could snap a picture of him for the blog!! All in all it was a great day afield and the guys ended up with a couple nice sized meat pigs as well as a story that they can tell for years!!!

Casey

7-10-13

As some of you may or may not know a large portion of what I do here for the Colusa Indian Community is land management and preservation, it's not all hunting and fishing!!

Two years ago the tribe purchased 330 acres South of Colusa, of which 250 acres are wetlands and 50 acres of upland habitat. The current state of the property at the time of purchase wasn't exactly ideal, as the lack of management had allowed the wetland to become over grown by the undesirable plant species and was not producing the high quality feed that the wintering migratory game birds need!

Last spring and summer I took it upon myself to see what proper water management would do for the property and was able to drown out quite a few of the undesirable plant species while increaseing seed production of watergrass and smart weed. The end result was excellent and the seed production banner, lots of feed for the waterfowl and an increase in the seed bank for future years. All in all I felt as if it was a huge step in the right direction.

Following the end of the season last January I applied for a permit through the local NRCS office and was granted an early water release on  the largest wetland unit (185 acres). While this would mean no seed production for this year it would allow me to dry up the wetland so that I could get in there and try to eradicate the ever growing cattail population that was choking out the wetland. I had several ideas that I thought would work, the first being an over water burn. I got the blessing from the local air quality office and set out to try and burn the standing catails, so that I could minimize the ammount of vegatation that would have to be dealt with when the wetland dried up. I tried to burn 3 or 4 different days but the fire just wouldn't carry so I scratched that idea and came up with a new one. When the wetland was dry enough to get equipment on I took our 8520 John Deere tractor and our 20' Rears rice chopper down there and began the long task of mowing up all of the cattail stands. This took about 10 days and several thousand dollars in diesel fuel, as the catails were super thick and the mowing was very slow going, as I had to stop every couple hours and blow out the radiator on the tractor so it did not over heat. Once I had the catails all on the ground I talked with air quality and got the permission to start burning. The burning was to be done in a 4-5 day time line as I could only burn so many acres a day, but the fire hit the ground and before long we had them all burnt and ready to start ground work. The first step was to go in and chisel all of the areas where the cattail stands were growing so that I could expose the roots to the elements, drying them out and killing the tubers. This also broke up the ground and allowed for a deep disking to further expose the roots as well as chop them up with the hopes of killing them. For this task I pulled out the Case 385 and the 17 foot Tatu stubble disc. We disced the catail stands in 2 different directions and then let them dry for a week before repeating the same process. In all we chiseled once (2 different directions) and then disced 3 times in several different directions. Through all of the excess heat and North wind we had this spring and summer it looks as if all the work has been effective and I am not seeing much in the way of cattails sprouting currently. My final step is to finish disc the areas that were treated prior and then pull a ring roller across the entire area to further smash the clods and make a nice seed bed for new growth.

I will complete the final dirt work next week and then fertilize all of the willow trees and spend a week transplanting round stem tules back into the wetland prior to starting the water. My hopes are to wipe out 75% or more of the cattails making the remainder of them easyer to treat in the following years. While the wetland doesn't look like much of a wetland right now I am confident that my timing is right and we should have a nice stand of water grass prior to the fall migration! Regardless this is something that had to be done and will improve the wetland in the long run. Next spring and summer will be spent working on the remaining 2 wetland units to try and eradicate the undesirable plant species in them.

Casey