Notes from Kingfisher Lodge

It’s hard to believe that the summer is almost over! We’ve had a very interesting season this year including the return of several hatch bugs. The Bighorn suprised us all with a spectacular hatch of yellow sallys and PMD’s.  As much as we may have missed these bugs, the fish seemed to have missed them even more. Every riffle seemed to come to life with explosive rises and purposeful feeding.  After 2 weeks of PMD’s and Sallys in mid July, we’ve experienced some hopper fishing as well as tan and black caddis. We are just starting to see the beging of some tricos and are hopeful of another year of good trico fishing. Thanks to all for a great summer so far!

It’s another late spring early summer of high water. We have seen the river go from 2500 cfs in early May to 10,000 cfs in late June. Fishing has remained good throughout with the typical worm, scud, and sowbug combinations. As of the last couple of days the water temperature has really warmed up and the fish are starting to show it. More fish are moving into the fast shallow runs and starting to spread out throughout the river. We are also starting to see some caddis and a few PMD’s, but there is not a lot of surface activity.

  I’m back for the second season here at the King Fisher and as excited  as ever! I spent the winter in South Florida, Cooking fish fresh from the deep and exploring the Cuban side of American cuisine adding that touch to the modern South-Western dishes that go so well with our Montana cowboy attitude here at the lodge. 

  Unfortunately, Heidi has moved on to other opportunities and she is no longer with us so being busy starting the season my hours have been amplified some, but no worries that’s what I’m here for. Keeping the ovens up and the burners burning with the bread proofing  I promise to keep your appetite filled with great, art-full plates of food as you personal culinary “Guide” at home here at the lodge! 

Slow Cooked Lamb Shank

Another fishing year is upon us, and what better way to kick it off with some big rainbows and good dry fly fishing. The Horn is going to produce some fabulous dry fly fishing this spring anytime the dreaded “W” (wind) decides to cooperate. For those of you who have been to the river you know we never say it’s name we call it the “W”. Speaking it’s name can curse the day! The midges and BWO’s should keep our fish looking up for dries though the rest of April and most of May. We hope to see you in the 2010 season. If not, keep checking in on the fishing report for some good fish pics.

P.S Thanks Roger, Steve, Goldie BucK Bow, Rob, Mac, Tim, Mike, Dave, Herb, and John. It’s always great to kick off the season with such a fun group.

First of all we would like to thank everyone for making the 2009 season a great one. It ’s hard to believe another season has come and gone, but the recent snow and falling leaves tells us it’s time to den up for the winter. As for the river, it looks like we will continue to have flows around 2500cfs throughout the winter. This is a great winter flow for the river and should do wonders for the spawning browns. I will continue to do updates on the river through the winter so be sure to check in for current river news.

We had a great time making lunch and working with Pate Choux pastry. I demonstrated the versatility of the pastry how it is made with  milk and with water, showing the results from the two. We also made chocolate mousse and sampled home brewed beer and wines paired to the food.

Here I’m showing the Opha fish to the class. Opha or “Moon Fish” is a fish similar to Hamachi or Yellow tail, it can grow up to 200 pounds and is great for grilling, searing and sashimi. We used it for our summer roll. It was chili rubbed, seared rare and wrapped with jicama, water cress, red peppers and an avocado aioli.

Big Horn Bison Sopapilla

Fresh wild hops grow near by and the make excellent wild apple cider beer!

That’s what we call it when there’s an opportunity to fish the famed hopper. Who wouldn’t want to watch big trout eat a big dry fly. It doen’t get much better than that. We’ve had several weeks of great hopper fishing, and as long as we get some windy afternoons and evenings, the hopper fishing should hold out for weeks to come. Besides the hoppers there are some black caddis in the late afternoon through the evening hours.

We would like to thank our last several groups at the lodge for once again visiting us! Fred, Tom, Ned, and Mike, it’s always a pleasure (thanks for the lesson in horseshoes Tom!). Rick Aboud and crew, it was great to have you back at the lodge! Charlie James and company, thank you once again for coming to see us. Gordon and John, Clint always looks forward to both of you in his boat (see you next year).  Last but not least, Libeu and crew, thank you for all the great trips and wonderful memories!

Sun Rise At the Lodge

This is a great representation of the peace we have here!  I have the opportunity to catch one of these from time to time.

  Unfortunately I did not have a camera, but we caught a glimpse of the northern lights a night or two ago as well.

Keep your eyes open and see it all!

Homemade Mortadella!

After it was cure smoked.

Finished Product.

I’ve been doing some new dishes that keep the tongue tingling. This was made from the pig that we roasted in the ground.

  I have been working with some nice cherries and seeping them in a star anise port wine. Then I put them together as a tart.

Cherry’s and Port with stat anise ice cream

Chocolate Mille-Feuille

Avocado, Black Walnut and Danish Blue Salad

Wild Boar BLT

And then of course we had Cash’s birthday and I made the cake.

Chocolate Ice Cream Cake

For those of you that would like to see pics or get recipes for some of the food that you had while staying here. you may contact me at  kwgchef@yahoo.com.

This is definitely an odd one, but it will sure eat good. Carl got this 29 inch walleye (9 pounds) with a client right before the water started to come down. What would such a critter eat you ask. Obviously, a San Juan worm or, as I like to call them, “garden hackle”. 

On another note, the river is finally down to 4000cfs, which is where they are going to leave it for the foreseeable future. The fishing remains good with a lot more top water activity starting (PMD’s, black caddis, and Hoppers). At these flows fishing should be excellent through the rest of the summer.

After a month of water flows 10000cfs or more, the river is finally on it’s way down. The local rumor mill says the flows are supposed to be down to 7000cfs by next Tuesday 7/14. It will be interesting to see how the drop effects the fishing. Right now we are seeing some PMD’s, caddis, and yellow sallies. We are hoping that the fish will get a little more interested in some top water feeding with some lower flows. Last week we had a guest at the lodge that described fishing the Horn in high water the best, “We’re catching plenty of fish, having a lot of fun. Best of all it’s like fishing a completely different river at these flows”. I thought that was a great description of the river and the fishing. Another comment on the fishing I thought rang true came from Keri after fishing with her and the kids yesterday, “fishing is kind of stupid right now!”. I replied with yes it is. It’s always fun when you can go down any river with a 6 year old and let him catch fish all on his own.