Welcome to Week LVI of 'Fishing Parkland Shorelines'. Like most of us I am a novice fisherman, loving to fish, but far from an expert. In the following weeks I'll attempt to give those anglers who love to fish but just don't have access to a boat, a look at some of the options in the Yorkton area where you can fish from shore, and hopefully catch some fish.
So even as an avid fisherman you sometimes do other things, including a weekend at a games convention rather than fishing.
But after arriving home Sunday eve, I still got up relatively early Monday to slave over a hot stove creating a fish dish to share here this week.
It is actually a dish I have been wanting to make for a while, a fish head soup.
So last week my son and I hit the newer Togo Bridge for an evening of walleye jigging. It wasn't an 'on-fire' night, but we managed enough walleye and perch to make the soup possible.
Oh, and I better note Adam did pull in a 50-centimetre walleye just before we headed home. A nice fish that is back in Lake of the Prairie somewhere still.
So the first step to the soup was keeping the heads at filleting time. Since we peel our walleye and perch, chopping off the heads was almost part of the cleaning process anyway.
I was pretty thorough in washing the heads before freezing them, and then again after thawing them for the soup.
The heads, along with a couple of perch fillets were used to make the stock. So a quick boil, turning down the heat to let it simmer, and then straining off the stock was the first step of the soup.
In this case I stripped the perch off the bones to toss into the soup later, and then set the heads aside.
I wanted to make this soup about subtle flavors and to use something different as its base.
At the heart of the soup I used quinoa, beluga lentils (soaked overnight), and a can of red kidney beans. The trio were a nice protein mix and visually very different from each other.
For aromatics I started with sliced carrots and leeks, sweated in some butter. Celery is the usual third member of the triumvirate, but in this soup I opted for cubed celery root.
With the soup bubbling away it was time to add a few spices, salt, lemon pepper, ground corriander, ground caraway, oyster sauce and the first few shakes of green chili sauce.
I let that simmer away until the clock struck twelve and it was serving time.
I set out a bowl and retrieved one of the walleye heads and laid it in the centre. I wanted a dramatic presentation.
The soup was ladled around the head.
At this point I wanted to add some late flavoring to the soup, and add just a bit of colour at serving.
I used a dash or two more of the green chili sauce. You can really adjust the heat to suit whoever you are serving too.
Next came a shake of curry. This addition was about adding a layer to the aroma.
A sprinkle of dill, a really nice flavour addition that was really subtle, and nice.
Some dried parsley for a green colour (you could easily opt for chopped chives here), and then finally a squeeze of orange. Again adjust for personal taste.
Serve and enjoy.
This soup turned out heartier than I had expected with the beans and quinoa which really expanded in the cooking process.
The pre-serving additions added a lot of flavour elements, each noticeable, without taking over the soup.
And the fish head, well that was just a cool element for presentation.
And now for something new for this space, although it will become a reoccurring theme, and that is a look at fishing a bit farther afield than the local Yorkton area.
All right, a lot farther afield.
Through contacts made thanks to filling this space for the last year, or so, I have been corresponding with other avid fishermen around the world, some in some truly interesting places. They have been good enough to share a bit about the country and fishing, and I will be passing it along here.
The world tour, of sorts, starts in Montenegro, thanks to Miodrag Bulatovic- Maki, who was gracious enough to help even with English not being his first language. I have purposely left his responses as sent to give his actual words greater weight here.
My first question for Maki was pretty straight forward; where in the world is Montenegro, because honestly I was not sure.
"Montenegro is one of the ex-Yugoslavian countries, placed on Balkans between sea and high black mountains. It's very small country, with great potential for different types tourism," he wrote in response. It's possible to in same day enjoy on sea side and afternoon spend on some of many Eco villages in mountains, or beautiful rivers or lakes."
Maki said Montenegro has some breathtaking rivers with fish to catch.
"Most famous in the world and our largest brand in Montenegro is Tara river with deepest canyon in Europe and second deepest (after Colorado canyon). Beauty of that place will leave every person breathless," he said. "Beside Tara river we have many other gin clear rivers great for fly and spin fishing rivers Lim, Zeta Moraca, Mrtvica, Plasnica, Ljucha, Zlorechica.
"Best Lakes for fishing are Biograd lake, Black lake, Plav lake, Captain's lake."
Maki added his country has a jewel of a park to visit as well.
"We have many national parks, one of the most famous is national park Gora, one of the three last virgin forests in Europe and seven lakes is something what places this national park on the list must see of every guest on the Balkan countries."
With the many natural rivers and lakes, Maki said fishing is popular in Montenegro.
"Fishing is very popular here. Fly fishing is increasing rapidly in the last few years. We have great fly only catch and release zones on almost every river.
"Fish species most dominant here are brown trout, grayling and huchen (hucho-hucho) but we also have some endemic species. Strun (salno dentex), marble trout (marmoratha), mud trout, and soft mouth trout."
Maki said the native fish are starting to draw fishing tourists.
"Fishing tourism is great potential of our country. Beauty of rivers and only wild fish and put us on the top of the list for high experienced fishermen's from all around world. Also good geographic position of our country is great advance for us," he said.
Maki himself, is of course, an avid fisherman.
"Fly fishing is for me first love and way of living, organizing fishing trips, guiding and fly tying is my only source of income. By my opinion it will be business of future for many people in our country," he said.
"My favorite river is Mrtvica, one of the wildest rivers in Europe with many fish species (grayling, brown trout, marble trout, Strun (salmo dentex). Fishing on this river is very difficult and challenge for every high-experienced fly fisherman.
"Every day spend in fishing for me is good day, and every year I have between 200-250 days."
Maybe if I can manage to win that lottery I'll join Maki on the Mrtvica one day, I mean as fishermen we all dream of such trips don't we?
