Bluegill by Boat

“I have decided I am calling the canoe The Aluminum Monster”- Me

“Except when she is good to you…then you should call her Sweet D!”- My brother

I had been searching for a used canoe for quite a while. Every time I found one happened to correlate with the time of month when I was short on cash…each boat was sold just before pay day. Finally it happened, I found a used aluminum canoe for $180 in my home town just one day after pay day. I was on it like white on rice! I had been pretty busy with work, so I had my brother check it out as he lives closer to where we grew up. Justin checked it out, bought it for me and stored it for a few weeks in his backyard until I could come by and get it.

We have already got way more than our money’s worth out of it! Andrew and I have landed bass and bluegill like crazy and my girl, dog, and I have spent some great time paddling the local creek.

 Bluegill are small but tasty pan fish!

Andrew with his first bass...14.5 inches!

Whole Bluegill sautéed over onion and garlic butter

I hope to take it out on the lake or down one of our local rivers for a wild pig hunt in late Summer or early Fall.

I will keep you posted.

In the meantime… keep the old ways alive!

End Of the Season Turkey Hunt

"It's fun going hunting with them because they actually know what they're doing!"- Jesse (Alex's girlfriend)

"Well, at least we pretend to!"- Me

My grandfather taught my dad how to hunt, he taught my older brother, and they both taught me. Over the past few months I have had the honor of sharing what I know with my hunting buddies Andrew and Nick. They both took the hunter's safety course and got their licenses quite recently. Over the years my brother and I have hounded our good buddy Alex to get his license. The other day, inspired by one of the rabbit hunting posts where I mentioned Andrew's completion of the course, Alex got certified as well. I was overjoyed when he sent me an image of his hunters safety certificate!

Two weeks ago, Alex and his girlfriend Jesse had a few free days and made it out our way. Lucky for Alex, their visit overlapped with a very productive wild turkey season! A few days before, my brother Justin had called to let me know he had taken a sizable bird and was once again hooked on turkey hunting (see our wild turkey and Eurasian dove post). I invited him along for the weekend hunt as well and soon we were stalking the brush, fields, and forest of our local gobbler spot. Jesse came along for the first evening where we scouted the area finding ample turkey scratches, fresh scat, feathers, and finally two birds that my brother spied with the naked eye over 500 yards away! The next day became a hunt to remember...and I could not tell the story better than our good friend, and brother from another mother, Alex. So in his words, the turkey hunt went like this...

"Just about the only good thing about waking up at four in the morning is knowing you are about to embark on a great adventure. My good friends Kevin and Justin, two brothers who have been hunting with their father since they were kids, took me on my first turkey hunt a few weeks back. The night before, Justin made three wild turkey pot pies from a turkey he shot a week before. 

Kevin brewed his famous and much needed coffee which provided us with the energy necessary to at least get us through to the point of delirium. We piled all our gear into the van and drove to our turkey spot. We geared up and sallied forth down the path where Justin spotted a group of turkeys from 500 yards away the day before. We walked as quietly as possible making sure each step didn't crush a leaf or snap a twig. About five minutes in, a Tom reared its wild and distinct mating call from less than 100 yards away. We were all smiles as we stepped off the path. Justin set up a blind for us, set up the decoy, and Kevin masterfully used a wooden turkey call to “play hard to get” with the Tom.

After several calls, his gobble kept getting more distant and we decided to set up somewhere else. This Tom was also playing hard to get. The next spot was the same story, only this time we started to eat our wild turkey pot pies which was a real life saver.

About five hours after we first arrived, and at our third spot, without a blind but concealed in the edge of the woods, Kevin's calls were starting to attract a Tom who was eager to display his courting techniques. With each call, he came closer and called louder. I had been laying on my stomach because I found this to be the most comfortable position to stay motionless for such a long time, and eventually I started to fall asleep. Then Kevin tapped my leg, and when I looked up about twenty feet in front of me on top of a ten foot high berm, there was the turkey checking out where the “Hen” was calling from. My view of him was between two brushy little trees that were very close together. Still every time Kevin called out, the turkey called back enthusiastically. After trying to decide when would be a good time to shoot, I heard Justin whisper “shoot it Alex.” I shimmied over a few inches to get the turkey halfway between the two trees, drew the bead up to just below his head and pulled the trigger. 

The bird stumbled off, leaving my sight and before I knew if the shot was good, Justin sprinted up the berm... “C'mon Alex, I got him here!” I ran up and saw Justin had tackled the bird down and proceeded to dispatch it with his bare hands. After working as hard as we did, being immaculately careful for as long as we were, the reward was much better than I expected. I thank Kevin and Justin dearly for one of the best adventures of my life." - Alex Izzarelli

You are most welcome buddy! Thanks for sharing the good food!

Until next time,

Keep the old ways alive!

Spring Turkey and Eurasian Dove

Wild Turkey Enchiladas

 

“I’ve become a little obsessed with turkey hunting lately”- Justin

It has been over a month since my last post. School has been very busy and in addition to classes I have been presenting my research at professional conferences, conducting artifact analysis with my colleagues and working on drafting up some new papers for peer-reviewed journals. The bottom line is I have had less time for foraging…but that being said, we still got out for some fishing and hunting.

Eurasian collard doves are an invasive species. They were originally introduced to the Southeastern United States in the mid 1980’s and have subsequently spread to nearly every state. In fact, after giving a presentation on the antiquity of bird hunting to the Avian Ecology Department I spoke with a lead bird expert on campus who informed me that Eurasian doves had spread across our country faster than most any other bird! So what does this mean for us?

Well, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has realized the potential threat this species may pose on our native Mourning Dove and has made it policy that Eurasian doves can be taken year round, no bag limit, and can be taken even with pellet rifles…and my brother Justin just got a new pellet gun!

Over Easter Sunday as the ham cooked away in the oven, my brother and I spent a few minutes here and there stepping out back into the orchard looking for birds. The conditions were perfect. It was overcast all day, like an extended morning; great weather for bird hunting!

When we were kids Justin had showed me how to cup my hands and blow into them to create a mourning dove call. In fact he used to call these birds into the orchard with great skill. I searched the internet recently and found an audio clip of Eurasian dove calls and adapted our hand calling trick to this new and distinct pattern. Sure enough within a few minutes I had brought in three birds! I missed a shot but Justin got a nice Eurasian dove that afternoon! We are now hooked!

 

We also called in a hen wild turkey, but only Tom’s are in season during the spring. Though a few gobblers called incessantly from a distance, we had to hang up the box call and sit down for Easter brunch before we could entice them into range.

Justin headed out a bit later that week with his good buddy Eric and after sighting in their pellet rifles at 30 yards they located a nice Tom. Justin closed the gap to precisely 30 yards, used a pair of shooting sticks to steady his aim and made a perfect clean shot. The Turkey dropped instantly and we now have an abundance of high quality meat and feathers to fletch our homemade arrows!

 Success!

 

 Justin cleaned the bird with his homemade knife!

 

Even the bones were boiled for soup stock

Well, got to run! More artifacts to be analyzed…but we plan on another hunt-and-gather this weekend…I will keep you posted! Keep the old ways alive!

How to Fillet Your Fish

 

I taught Andrew and Nick how to clean a trout a few weeks back, and I wish we had taken photos to share with you here (next time). But after spearing some fish at the ocean with Alex, Justin, and Chris I decided to do a post on how to efficiently fillet a fish.

 

 

 

 

This method works great for many large fish (if it’s smaller, just gut it, scale it and cook it whole). I fillet rockfish, lingcod, and freshwater species like catfish and bass.

Step 1- Place the fish on a board or flat rock and make and incision with a sharp blade right down to the backbone at an angle (as shown) in the soft tissue just behind the head and hard gill plate.

Step 2- Angle the blade now parallel to the spine and saw through the rib bones found in the first 1/3 of the fish all the while keeping your blade slightly bumping the spine so you retain the most meat possible in the fillet. NOTE- stop cutting near the tail but before you cut through the skin (keep the fillet connected to the fish).

 

Step 3- Flip the fillet, still attached to the skin, and slice parallel to the skin all along the fillet effectively removing skin from meat. By keeping the skin attached to the carcass it gives you a good grip and makes the process far quicker.

 

 

Step 4- use your index finger to identify where the rib bones are located along the lateral line of the fillet. You will feel them poking out where you cut them free from the carcass. Then make an incision through the fillet alone the upper side of the fillet’s lateral line, above the ribs (as shown).

Step 5- Make a second incision perpendicular to the length of the fillet effectively severing the belly meat from the rest of the fillet.

Step 6- Give your boneless fillet a rinse and cut it into one inch cubes. Mix up a simple batter of flour, salt, paprika, and beer. Dip the cubes in the batter, fry them until golden brown, and get ready for the best fish tacos around!

I hope that helps.

Keep the old ways alive!

Getting Out for Mountain Trout

 

“Damn! This flatbread is awesome!”- Andrew, after eating the Manzanita-smoked wild goat Gyros we made.

On a whim Andrew, Nick, and I headed out to a high altitude lake in pursuit of cold water wild trout.

The first night we made some feral goat sausage gyros with homemade flatbread. Delicious was an understatement!

 
The next morning we finished the goat sausage with potatoes, bacon, and eggs. 
 

 

Then we scouted around with my .303 British in search of wild boar. No such luck as we had suspected…far too high elevation.

We also cut a nice oak burl which we will later carve into a bowl.

 

Once Nick arrived we switched our focus to fishing and within two casts I had landed a nice 13 inch trout.

Nick had not been fishing in nearly a decade, yet after a few pointers he was casting like a champ again and ended up landing his first fish (a 14 inch trout) within the first hour!

A few more bass and trout chased our lures and bait but we caught no more that day (though Nick kept casting until the trout hit the pan…after landing his first trout he was as hooked as the fish).

 

As much as we all agreed we would take a photo of the incredibly delicious fish sautéing in Nicks cast iron skillet over Manzanita coals, we forgot every time! I think we were just too excited about eating them!

The next day I landed a little bass but released him back and Nick caught yet another sizable trout.

Both nights we ate like champions and the goat chili was a great breakfast too!

By the time we packed up camp to make our way back to civilization we all made a pact to return to this amazing location in the future…especially since I now have a canoe…but that’s another story.

Keep the old ways alive!

Hunting Feral Goat and Foraging for Greens

“You know, we’re probably the only guys in the whole state walking into a Trader Joes after doing what we just did…actually, we’re probably the only guys in the country!” – My brother Justin after the successful goat hunt.

 

I got the lowdown on a population of feral goats on some local public land. According to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, feral goats are extremely distructive to local ecosystems (just look at what they’ve done in New Zealand and Hawaii) so they are open year round to take by hunters.

I headed out for a bit of rabbit hunting with my brother and enjoyed every minute. We saw a few hares and drew a bead a few times, but no shots were fired. After a time we passed an area with ample sign of beaver activity and headed into the dense forest switching out rabbit loads for buckshot.

Following trails through dense understory and lush patches of stinging nettle I finally found what I was looking for. A young white goat stood and hi-tailed it out of a wooded patch on my right. He paused just long enough in a small window through the trees for me to make a successful shot.

I retained the heart, liver and kidneys and though I could hear my friends in Mongolia telling me to waste nothing, I did make the decision to leave the guts…next time they will be cleaned and eaten Mongol style.

My brother and I got together some ingredients and ate the liver the first night.

 

The second evening I used foraged mustard leaves for my go-to staple saag.

 

 
 

 

Justin took a leg home and made a nice curry as well.

With much of the rest of the meat I made sausage, chili, and some other exquisite meals…but that’s another story.

The bones and hide will be used in the coming weeks.

Keep the old ways alive!