JkbWorld

Alder Smoked Tuna

I was rooting around in the freezer in the garage and stumbled upon a vacuum-sealed package of albacore tuna bellies that I set aside for smoking last summer.  You may remember that I smoked some tuna bellies up not long ago.  This is the other package that I had from those same tuna.  Tuna steaks or fillets come from the “top” of the tuna from about the mid-section of the tuna on up.  The belly portion below the mid-section is kind of oily, and perfect for smoking.  Here are a few pics of the tuna fresh from the ocean.

In an attempt to improve upon near-perfection, I slightly modified the preparation.  First, we packed the tuna bellies in sea salt and let it sit in the sea salt for about 20 to 30 minutes.  I heard or read somewhere that the salt draws the moisture out of the surface layer and somehow “seals in” the moisture in the interior of the fish, leaving it tender and juicy inside.  After the salting stage, we rinsed the sea salt from the tuna and patted the bellies dry, letting them sit for about 30 minutes to air dry some more, before loading them onto the smoking racks and loading them into the Little Chief Smoker!

One pan of Alder chips for about 3 hours, then flip and toss in another pan of chips for another hour (long enough to get some cold beer) and then you’ve got a tasty tuna treat!  Darker beer seems to go a little better, so Newcastle was the one this time–I didn’t want so dark that Paula wouldn’t drink any.  Anyway, try not to drool on your keyboard!

Super Bowl Sunday Native Winter Steelhead

James and I hit the river early this morning to see if we could score a Gameday Winter Steelhead before the Super Bowl.  As you can see by the picture, we managed to get into the end zone for a score!  We got this picture seconds after getting the fish near the bank, and seconds before popping out the jig.  You can even see the water still dripping off this native winter steelhead buck!

James Fishing the Seam

I had my rod rigged up with my starters (some salmon eggs for a while, followed by another jig), but the ticket today was when I went to the bench and put our old pal, the pink worm, into the game!  My float danced down a nice little seam between some fast and slow water, and suddenly, the bruiser took my float down like a blitzing linebacker!!  It was strong as an offensive lineman, too, as for the first two minutes the fish was on, my reel was screaming like a packed stadium as he was taking line and heading downstream!  Imagine Chris Berman’s “He… Could… Go… All… The.. Way…”

Then, once he got out there, he did some high flying theatrics, getting completely out of the water twice!!  But after a short battle, I was able to get his head turned and pulled in for the score!  Touchdown!

(more…)

Jeff at Bonnie Lure Park

Early this morning, I met up with my MotoSport pal, James, for some Winter Steelhead Practice out on the Clackamas River, and then over to Eagle Creek.  (if we caught something, we wouldn’t have called it practice)  James hadn’t been out steelheading in quite a while, but after a few minutes, he picked up right where he left off!    Tossed all kinds of gear, bait, colors, scents, but couldn’t get a steelhead to even look.  Got to break in our 2010 fishing licenses somehow!

This pic is Bonnie Lure State Park up by Estacada.  A lot of people like to fish Eagle Creek for steelhead (and also Coho Salmon, when in season), but personally, my favorite is to wade across this stretch and fish either the Clackamas River or Eagle Creek from the island.  However, today, when the Estacada river gauge is at 13.7′, this stretch is just a little too high for my hip boots!

James took this picture, and if I had thought about it, I should have snapped his pic and posted it up here, too.  Next time!

Steelhead University has some great maps and descriptions of the Clackamas River, so check those out, too!

Jeff with last steelhead of 2009

With 2009 drawing to a close, and still no steel on his 2009 tag, there were mere hours left for Jeff to get a steelhead.  After getting inspiration from another ifisher’s mega-hen caught yesterday, Jeff hit the banks of the river in the pouring rain at sunrise for one last chance at winter chrome glory in 2009.  Obviously from the pic above, we pulled it off.  Read on:

(more…)