Shore lunches are one high point of many exclusive guided fishing trips where the guide cooks up a lunch of fresh fish in a frying pan over an open fire using fish that the guest has just caught while on their special wilderness fishing experience. I respectfully suggest that you do not need to pay thousands of dollars for such an experience when it is available right here in our own backcountry.
The chance of catching fresh fish is made easier by the current extensive stocking program of the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC of catchable trout in local lakes, and the recent releases by Island Fishing Magazines -The Tide and Bite Guide, 2012 (with Solunar tables) and the Complimentary Issue -Vancouver Island 2012 Trout Fishing Guide – Lake Listings. Both of these publications are free and available at local sporting goods store outlets and I assume the tourist information centre.
This weekend of April 21-22 is looking like a good time to plan on a shore lunch as part of enjoying your early season lake fishing trips. The lakes guide lists hundreds of lakes on Vancouver Island and in particular many in the Comox Valley. Added to this is the information in the tide guide on page 27 where the Solunar Tables suggest that the morning and early afternoon will be good times to angle as the fish should be actively feeding.
Our current cool spring has retarded the hatch of mosquitoes, black flies and so forth making this weekend a good one for taking the family outdoors. As if this isn’t enough the long range weather forecast for the weekend predicts periods of sunshine.
Over the span of the last 50 years we have experienced shore lunches as part of being in the outdoors. As a result we have developed a few simple guidelines:
•Beyond a fire ring in specific locations, leave no evidence of your recent
lunch.
•All bottles, cans or other containers must be taken home. This includes candy
wrappers, cigarette butts and any other waste material.
•During periods when campfires are a problem we now use small portable
stoves.
•To save time in cooking we use thermos bottles of coffee or tea.
•To save on paper plates we use slices of bread to serve our trout lunch on.
•The new non-stick frying pans and cooking oil simplify the equipment list.
•It simplifies the preparation of the fish if you pres-season some flour at home
to role the fish in before frying.
Pictured with this article is an example of three nice pan-size trout that are about to supply a gourmet treat for three anglers that caught the fish for their shore lunch. We are currently experiencing a concentrated outbreak of “TVitis” brought on by the hockey play-offs. May I respectfully suggest that a good cure back to normal viewing would be to take a break and enjoy a shore lunch on one of our nearby lakes?
Where appropriate, the joys of a family outing with a simple campfire are a positive way of getting children interested in the outdoors. There are many simple activities that children can enjoy around the camp fire. A prudent planner might take along a few wieners or marshmallows just in case the fish didn’t bite. The shore fishing experience is greatly enhanced when a fish lunch is part of the day’s activities.
Last weekend I watched a Spey Rod casting event. In the morning it was cold and wet, but during the afternoon the sun came out and it was warm. If there is a message in this unusually cool spring it is to dress warmly and wear rain gear when appropriate. A campfire will supply some warmth, however I cannot overstate the importance of dressing warmly when in the outdoors. It is easy to take off a jacket when it gets too hot, but it is miserable to be cold and wet when you are supposed to be enjoying yourself.
As a result of this column I have just added a new experience to my job list. It is to fry oysters on the beach some day. It turns out this weekend has possibilities with low tides in the afternoon on both Saturday and Sunday.
Ralph Shaw is a master fly fisherman who was awarded the Order of Canada in 1984 for his conservation efforts. In 20 years of writing a column in the Comox Valley Record it has won several awards.
