RangerDanger
New Member
Thre is a beautiful lake about 30 miles inland from Santa Barbara CA.--Lake Cachuma (maybe spelling it wrong). Originally a small lake, sometime it the past they dammed up the valley and made a huge lake which is used as a reseviour.
All along one side there are campgrounds. Very pretty area: flat, studded with huge oak trees, over looking the lake.
Even though there is a seperate area for RV's, some people insist on driving their cab-over campers and 5th wheelers into the nice area, where people are camped in tents, and run their blue-smoke belching generators all the fucking time.
Luckily, there is a camping area built on a small island, accessed by a foot bridge.
I ventured there let's see sometime in the mid-80's, with my 2 favorite camping buds T-boy and R-dog.
We arrived Fri. nite, made camp and spent most of Sat. on the lake on a rented boat fishing.
It was a beautiful summer day. We had explored the different coves & inlets of the lake. We saw herds of deer, and 2 bears shoreside and eagles soaring. We also took a mid-day break to drive over to Solvang for lunch and pastries. And as luck would have it, we each caught a nice fat 15"--18" lake trout.
Back at camp we prepared dinner, keeping the trout alive until just before cooking them.
Gutted & filleted, we first dipped them in beer, then put them in a bag with flour and spices, shook them up , then plopped them down in a greased cast-iron skillet. Along side the trout we had fries going. A few minutes before everything was ready I threw a handfull of chopped onions & red & green bell peppers in with the potatoes to make my world-famous confetti fries and we sparked up a few fat ones. Then dinner was served with lemon juice on the side and oh man did it taste GOOD. Every bite was pure delight.
And when dinner was over, full and happy we sat on the camp table next to the campfire and watched the sun set over the lake, finishing off a 6-pack or more of Oranjeboom (Dutch beer) and of course a few more fatties.
Good friends, good weed, good beer and good food. It was like that 80's beer commercial--"Guys, it doesn't get any better than this".
P.S. My 2nd favorite meal also took place at Lake Cachuma.
We fished for hours with no luck. It looked like it was going to be canned chili for dinner. Then I had an idea.
When I was little I used to go crawdad "fishing" with my family. It's soooo easy to catch crawdads. We chose a shallow part of the lake, tied a piece of a hot dog onto a fishing line with a weight, tossed into the water, waited 5 minutes, then slowly reeled it in.
Crawdads would locate the submerged piece of hot dog and latch onto it with their claws. They didn't want to let go. We would pull in our lines until the crawdads were right at waters edge, then give the line a sharp tug and the crawdads would be on dry land at which time we'd go over and pick them up by their backs, out of reach of their claws.
Apparently no one had ever thought of crawdad fishing there, and after 30 minutes we had a dozen large crawdads, which of course are fresh-water lobsters.
Back at camp, smoking a few hootrons we got 2 pots of water going. We cooked up some rice and just before it was ready we dropped the crawdads into another pot of boiling water.
Then we dug in--meaty crawdad tails & claws served on a bed of rice with butter, washed down with beer.
P.P.S.
The island was full of boy scouts that time so we were camped in the main campground area. While we were getting ready to cook, a cab-over camper pulled in to the space next to us, even though there were a lot of other spaces available.
The first thing these people did was to take out a generator. We didn't want them next to us, so we started acting drunk and saying "Oh boy I hope they have their daughters with them whoo-hoo", staggering around. Sure enough, they packed up their shit and re-located several hundred yards away.
All along one side there are campgrounds. Very pretty area: flat, studded with huge oak trees, over looking the lake.
Even though there is a seperate area for RV's, some people insist on driving their cab-over campers and 5th wheelers into the nice area, where people are camped in tents, and run their blue-smoke belching generators all the fucking time.
Luckily, there is a camping area built on a small island, accessed by a foot bridge.
I ventured there let's see sometime in the mid-80's, with my 2 favorite camping buds T-boy and R-dog.
We arrived Fri. nite, made camp and spent most of Sat. on the lake on a rented boat fishing.
It was a beautiful summer day. We had explored the different coves & inlets of the lake. We saw herds of deer, and 2 bears shoreside and eagles soaring. We also took a mid-day break to drive over to Solvang for lunch and pastries. And as luck would have it, we each caught a nice fat 15"--18" lake trout.
Back at camp we prepared dinner, keeping the trout alive until just before cooking them.
Gutted & filleted, we first dipped them in beer, then put them in a bag with flour and spices, shook them up , then plopped them down in a greased cast-iron skillet. Along side the trout we had fries going. A few minutes before everything was ready I threw a handfull of chopped onions & red & green bell peppers in with the potatoes to make my world-famous confetti fries and we sparked up a few fat ones. Then dinner was served with lemon juice on the side and oh man did it taste GOOD. Every bite was pure delight.
And when dinner was over, full and happy we sat on the camp table next to the campfire and watched the sun set over the lake, finishing off a 6-pack or more of Oranjeboom (Dutch beer) and of course a few more fatties.
Good friends, good weed, good beer and good food. It was like that 80's beer commercial--"Guys, it doesn't get any better than this".
P.S. My 2nd favorite meal also took place at Lake Cachuma.
We fished for hours with no luck. It looked like it was going to be canned chili for dinner. Then I had an idea.
When I was little I used to go crawdad "fishing" with my family. It's soooo easy to catch crawdads. We chose a shallow part of the lake, tied a piece of a hot dog onto a fishing line with a weight, tossed into the water, waited 5 minutes, then slowly reeled it in.
Crawdads would locate the submerged piece of hot dog and latch onto it with their claws. They didn't want to let go. We would pull in our lines until the crawdads were right at waters edge, then give the line a sharp tug and the crawdads would be on dry land at which time we'd go over and pick them up by their backs, out of reach of their claws.
Apparently no one had ever thought of crawdad fishing there, and after 30 minutes we had a dozen large crawdads, which of course are fresh-water lobsters.
Back at camp, smoking a few hootrons we got 2 pots of water going. We cooked up some rice and just before it was ready we dropped the crawdads into another pot of boiling water.
Then we dug in--meaty crawdad tails & claws served on a bed of rice with butter, washed down with beer.
P.P.S.
The island was full of boy scouts that time so we were camped in the main campground area. While we were getting ready to cook, a cab-over camper pulled in to the space next to us, even though there were a lot of other spaces available.
The first thing these people did was to take out a generator. We didn't want them next to us, so we started acting drunk and saying "Oh boy I hope they have their daughters with them whoo-hoo", staggering around. Sure enough, they packed up their shit and re-located several hundred yards away.
