I’ve blogged at Gary Yamamoto’s Inside Line since 2008, which as far as I know makes it one of the longest continuously-running blogs in the fish-o-sphere. It has been a critical part of my development as a writer, giving me a place to experiment with form and to take on topics that no website or magazine would publish. At times, the content has courted controversy and criticism but I have always been supported by Heidi Roth and Ron Colby at Yamamoto. They’ve backed my efforts to expand the breadth of fishing writing a bit and they’ve never balked when I wrote about something that wasn’t pure fish talk – it could be food, scenery, family stories, anything that I thought was even tangentially-related to the sport and they were down with it.

I thought about that in the context of a breakfast that I ate circa the summer of 1983 or 1984. I was attending Camp Fish near Walker, Minnesota, an all-fishing summer camp affiliated with In-Fisherman magazine (circle of life – I now write for In-Fish).

Our group canoed and fished a series of lakes on one overnight excursion, portaging all of our crap between the fisheries, most of which had largemouths, pike, walleye and panfish. We camped on the shores of a non-connected lake which we were told had stocked rainbow trout. I woke up early that next morning, but only a few others were ready to go, so several of us set out lines for trout and we were quickly rewarded with strikes and catches. We beached them, cleaned them, and when it was time for breakfast those of us who’d put in the extra effort got trout and eggs cooked in a cast iron pan, rather than the Spam and eggs that everyone else got. With nothing more than salt and pepper, I recall it being absolutely delicious.

In fact, I can still taste that trout if I think back. I can’t remember what bait we used to tempt them, what sort of terminal tackle we employed, or what else we caught on that specific journey, but I recall that breakfast distinctly.

It supports the thesis of this website (and of my entire blogging career) that while the fishing itself is a critical part of every trip, it’s not the only thing that matters, nor is it necessarily the most important element. On our 2016 trip to Africa, we were thrilled to catch big tigerfish on the Zambezi, but the three weeks on the continent would’ve been a 10 out of 10 even without fishing. On my trip to the Mato Grosso region of Brazil in 2019, I still recall a visit to an indigenous village without electricity – a waning phenomenon, to be sure – as much as the trophy payara whose visage adorns my office wall today. The fact that I have the cojones to write all of that in a public space and have people read it is largely thanks to Ron and Heidi, who bought into the idea early on and encouraged it at every step.

In the spirit of all of that coming full circle is the fact that Heidi has a food blog of her own, Food n' Whine. Just as my blog at Yamamoto’s website is a look into how fishing reflects and has taken over my life, hers uses food and cooking as a window into her soul. It doesn’t hurt that she’s a world-class photographer and the food porn could make anyone drool. I’ll admit to being partial to her Asian-themed recipes, because that’s where I think her heart is most attached and most exposed, but apropos of this particular blog, I’ll share with you a trout-related recipe she’s blogged about. Click on her site for the full story, but if you have access to some trout you may want to get fed first:

Trout in a pan ready to be cooked, with lemon, herbed parsnip and carrot hash

Pan-Fried Brook Trout with Herbed Parsnip and Carrot Hash

Adapted from The Lost Kitchen Cookbook
Serves 4

Ingredients

Fish -

4 small trout (around 1 pound each - cleaned)
2 lemons, cut into 4 slices each, ends reserved for juice)
1 bunch of fresh thyme
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

Parsnip Hash -

1 1/2 pounds parsnips
1/2 lb carrots
2 tablespoons olive oil
6 large shallots, sliced
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
Salt and pepper
6 sprigs fresh dill, snipped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chive

For the Parsnip Hash

Dice the parsnips and carrots (I like to leave the skin on) into 1/2-inch pieces and blanch until just al dente; start testing for tenderness after 10 minutes. To blanch: bring a large pot of water to a boil, salt with a fistful of kosher salt. Add parsnips and carrots. Stop the cooking by transferring the vegetables with a spider to an ice bath. Drain and refrigerate until just cool.
Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a 10-inch cast-iron pan over low heat. Add the shallots and cook, stirring occasionally, until deeply caramelized, about 20 minutes.
Raise the heat to medium and add the remaining tablespoon olive oil, the butter and thyme. Stir to melt the butter. Add the parsnips and carrots and stir to coat. Season with 1 teaspoon salt and a couple twists of pepper and continue cooking until the parsnips begin to brown, stirring occasionally to keep them from burning, 6 to 8 minutes.
Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed. Remove from the heat and stir in the dill and chives.

For the Fish -

Preheat the oven to 425F.
Salt and pepper the trout inside and out and stuff each with 2 lemon slices and some thyme.
Heat a large ovenproof skillet, preferably cast iron, over high heat and pour in the olive oil. Add the fish and cook until the skin turns golden, about 4 minutes. Flip the fish and cook for 1 minute on the stovetop before transferring he pan to the oven. After a minute in the oven, put 1 tablespoon butter on top of each trout, then continue roasting until the fish is just cooked through, 12 to 15 minutes. Serve drizzled with a bit of the pan juices alongside the parsnip hash.