I have been led to believe that fishing in most parts of the Cariboo Chilcotin is still pretty good and that makes this little fly fisherman happy.
In some lakes, small char are available on a fly rod.
And, while they are not particularly good fighters like rainbow trout, they are pretty tasty.
A few years back I cooked a char for some company and they reminded me the other day how good it tasted.
You can poach a fish on top of the stove or in the oven and you can use broth or water as the poaching liquid.
There is a standard sort of recipe for poaching and you simply add in a couple of tablespoons of butter, one-third cup of chopped onion, chopped celery and chopped carrots.
Melt the butter, add in veggies and sweat them, then pour in four cups of water along with a half cup of white wine.
Put fish in pan, bring stock to a simmer for about eight minutes, depending upon size of the fish fillet.
You could also add some chicken broth, some dill, some lemon and peppercorns to the broth.
Here is a simple recipe for poaching the next char, salmon or rainbow trout.
• 4 char fillets about eight ounces each
• 1 cup of white wine
• 1 cup of water
• 1 onion sliced
• 1 tbsp parsley
• 2 tsp of dill
• one-half tsp of ground black pepper
• 1 lemon sliced
In a large saucepan combine white wine, water, onion, parsley, dill and pepper.
Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to a simmer for ten minutes.
Add the char fillets, cover and simmer for about eight minutes or until fish flakes easily.
Garnish with lemon.
There are quite a few recipes on cooking fish, but poaching is one method I believe you will find the results very satisfactory.
Remember if you are fishing in the Cariboo Chilcotin, please observe the regulations.
We want to keep fishing in our more than 5,000 lakes.
Enjoy all the Cariboo Chilcotin offers you this summer.
Fish and fishing is good for you.
Bye for now and Goood cooking.
Ken Wilson is a freelance columnist with the Tribune/Weekend Advisor.