Shore Lunch, The Angler’s Gourmet

By Bill Schneider, 9-22-07

	Caption: Shore lunch at Oliver Lake, Saskatchewan. BELOW: The traditional shore lunch, deep fried over flames. BOTTOM: Shore lunch pressure-cooked in foil. Photos by Bill Schneider.

Many people haven’t even heard of shore lunch, but if somebody started a restaurant and served it, I suspect he or she might be quite successful.

In early September, I spent a week at an angler’s paradise called Oliver Lake Wilderness Lodge. During my stay, I not only had great fishing but I was reminded how really great shore lunch can be.

And I am not talking about the little boxes of breading for fish you buy at the supermarket. I’m talking about the real deal. Most Canadian and Alaskan fishing lodges include a daily shore lunch in the package, and I suspect most first-timers have no clue what it is. Fortunately, for us, our guide at Oliver Lake, Mike Pundyk, was as skilled at cooking shore lunch as he was at finding fish.

Many guides do the same traditional shore lunch every day--deep fry fresh fish and potatoes and heat up a “side,” a can of beans, chili or corn, to go with it, but Mike liked to mix it up. But before I go into his innovations, let’s be traditional. Here’s the step-by-step plan for the basic shore lunch.

• Sometime during late morning, you keep one fish big enough to feed three people, but not too big. You don’t want leftovers, nor do you want to take the big fish out of any fishery.

• Guides know the good lunching spots just like they know the good fishing spots, so about noon the guide pulls into one of these spots for a feast.

• First, the guide quickly fillets the fish. Every fishing guide I’ve used had filleting down to an art form, giving you nothing but fresh fish, no bones.

• If you want to make yourself useful, gather wood for the fire. Otherwise, it’s best to stay out of the way. Most guides have a routine and don’t like to be interrupted, so instead of trying to help, organize your gear for the afternoon fishing or take a short hike.

• For the traditional lunch, guides carry a fold-up grill and deep, long-handled frying pan, along with long tongs and long-handled spatula (to avoid the fire and hot cooking oil).

• After cutting the fish up into small chucks or strips, the guide shakes it up in a plastic bag of seasoned breading and sets it aside. Guides or lodges often have their own special recipes for the breading, and one of these probably ended as the recipe for the product you find at the grocery stores.

• The guide then cuts up the potatoes, again in small pieces or strips and sets them aside and gets the fire going.

• After cleaning the pan (Mike used a handful of lichens, but most guides use paper towels), the guide pours a liter of cooking oil (usually canola oil) and waits until it gets hot before dumping in the potatoes.

• A opened can of beans or corn then goes on the grill to cook right in the can.

• Ten minutes later, using the long-handled spatula, the guide fishes out the “Canada Fries” and sets them aside on paper towels to drain.

• Now, the main course, the fish, goes into the same oil.  (The health conscious among us might think olive oil would be better, but it doesn’t get hot enough for deep frying.)

When the fish is done (your guide will know exactly when that is, of course), the long tongs are used to take out the fish and viola, it’s lunchtime, and a gourmet meal no less, outdoor style. This might not sound too fancy or low-calorie, but does it matter? After all, we’re fishing, right? You could also call it the world’s finest fish-and-chips meal.

At Oliver Lake, Mike taught me a few shore lunch tricks that I’ll be trying at home (on the BBQ grill, of course, because neighbors frown on me using a campfire in my backyard) or when camping. Instead of deep-frying everything every day, Mike used the foil and pressure cooker technique to cook fish and spuds, but always with the same can of beans or chili on the grill to go with it.

He would tightly seal the fish and spuds in foil envelopes and cook them over the fire for about ten or fifteen minutes, using double layer on the bottom to keep the envelope air tight. That’s the same way I cook fish when backpacking, and the result is the same--the best fish meal you’ll ever have and perhaps a little healthier, too, not that it matters that much on a fishing trip.

Before sealing up the envelopes, Mike flavored the fish with various tasty treats such as black bean sauce, dijon mustard with cream cheese and salsa (with grated cheese added later), all so deadly delicious we had to resist licking off the foil after the last shred of fish disappeared.

At this point, after lunch, comes the one downside of shore lunch. Even hardcore anglers like me must fight off the urge to take a nap instead of getting back in the boat. At Oliver Lake, napping would’ve been so easy, with six-inches of lichen coating the landscape like a down comforter. I resisted, though, barely.

So, there you go. If you can’t afford the time and money for a fly-in fishing trip in the north country to have your shore lunch and you probably can’t find a restaurant that serves it, you can at least enjoy it next time you go fishing or car camping at a nearby lake or stream. Bon Appétit!

Footnote: For a chronology of my articles on fishing the north country of Saskatchewan, click here.