Well, we didn’t exactly rough it when it came to eating on our fly-in trip to Sesaganaga Lake.  Our first dinner was BBQ ribs, chipotle shrimp, fresh walleye and garlic bread.  Not too shabby.

Well, I’ve been back for over a week, but been on the road, so have not had a chace to write.  My trip to Sesaganaga Lake in Ontario was absolutely fantastic.  After a bit of a rough start (see picture above) we got there safe and sound in our Twin Beech and hit the water. 

Had a great five days of fishing and the food was fantastic, so you’ll be hearing about that for the next week or two.  :-)  I can confidently say this isn’t the last time the walleyes on Sesaganaga Lake will need to hide from me.  I’ll be back for sure!

Great day on the water last weekend.  Ended up with these three fish as well as several smaller northerns and a couple small walleyes.  The two walleyes came on a Northland Yellow Perch spinner trolling at about 1.3 mph over the top of some weeds.  I’ve really found that the holographic spinners really out produce the solid colors.  Hammered silver and gold still work well, but the holographic have really become my spinner of choice.  The northern was on a 4+ inch redtail behind a live bait rig.  Fun times! 

What a great meal.  On July 2nd at the lake, I spent the day cooking (and a little fishing, but more on that in a later post).  The meal I prepared was smoked salmon and chicken with baby red grilled potatoes, corn on the cob and a fresh salad with greens from my CSA Bluebird Gardens.

The Chicken
The night before smoking, I created a brine for the chicken.  I cook to taste, so sorry, no precise measurements, but I used about 1 ½ gallons of water and added salt, fresh cracked pepper, bay leaves, red pepper flakes, garlic powder and cumin.  I brought that to a simmer for about 15 minutes to incorporate the flavors, and then removed it from the heat and poured the brine into a cooler.  From there I dumped in a bunch of ice to cool it and added the chicken and left it for the night.

The next morning I removed the chicken from the brine, let it drain and seasoned both the skin and under the skin with a simple mix of salt, pepper and garlic salt and put it on the smoker for about 1 hour and 30 minutes.  The last set was moving it to the rotisserie to crisp up the skin and finish cooking the chicken.

The Salmon
The salmon also needed attention the night before smoking.  I created a rub that contained 2 cups of salt, 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of brown sugar and a couple tablespoons of pepper.  I completely covered each salmon fillet with the rub, stacked them skin side to skin side and fillet to fillet and wrapped it tightly in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil.  The reason for doing this is to remove all of the excess moisture in the salmon for the smoking process.

The next morning I removed the salmon fillets from the fridge and rinsed each fillet under water to remove all of the rub.  The last step before going to the smoker was to let the salmon sit on a baking sheet down in the cool basement with a fan blowing on it for about an hour until a skin formed on the top of the fillet.  This helps the smoke stick to the fillet.

Once that was done, it was off to the smoker as you can see in the picture.  They stayed on for a little over 2 hours at about 180-200 degrees.

Potatoes
This was a simple but delicious side.  I simply cut the reds in half and tossed them in olive oil and fresh herbs from the garden including dill, chive, parsley and basil.   I let them sit for a bit for the flavors to combine and put them straight on to the Holland Grill.  I love doing potatoes on the Holland, they cook perfectly every time.

Three grills were put to work for this meal, but it was a fantastic way to spend a day at the lake.  Mixed with the perfect weather and a cold drink, it was a blast.  I’m already planning my next grilled meal.