Food

It’s Wednesday. Time for the Monday Roundup…

May 31, 2006, by 8 comments

Wednesday is an odd day to post what amounts to the Monday Roundup, but those of us who are in tune with nature’s rhythms know that when the words appear (or the backlog of weird news stuff builds up), it’s time to throw it all up on the Internet to see what sticks.

First, the local news. The Upper Sac flows have spiked a bit due to the warmer weather, but they still hover in the mid-2000s, which prompts me to wonder about some of my better high water spots. Wayne Eng – who wonders less and fishes more – mentioned seeing a few mayflies (the somewhat underappreciated Pink Albert hatch). The flows aren’t great, but the river’s close by. And you never know what you might run into:

Rainbow to Fly Fish by

Of course, beauty is as much a part of the fly fishing experience as the fish (which are often beautiful too), but the ability to root me in the moment might be fly fishing’s biggest contribution to my hold on sanity (a tenuous one at best). While I’m fishing, life recedes, and I learn to enjoy what I’ve got because the hatch is only going to last an hour, and tomorrow it may not happen at all. In simplest terms, one day you’re Tommy – Lord of the Stoneflies and Slayer of Trout – and the next you’re scooping bird shit and moldy leaves out of the rain gutter with your hands. The lesson? Enjoy it while you can.

Feeding Time…

Ian Rutter continues the Great Underground Slaw Dog controversy that’s consumed the entire fly fishing world by posing a critical socio-culinary question: “An important question that I’d really like to find out, perhaps in my retirement, is what are the socio-geo-political boundaries of the slaw dog? I know they have them in western NC, and southwest VA, but I’m not sure how far north, south, east, and west they can be found with regularity. Slaw is offered as an add on at local Sonic drive-ins, although slaw isn’t offered at all locations. I had a slaw dog in Damascus, VA once at an ice cream and burger joint. How far does this go?”

Food helps define any fly fishing outing, whether it’s because you ate something regional and unique, or simply because you pounded junk food every day and somehow lived to tell about it. From the Amiratti’s Burrito to the Tennessee Slaw Dog (and points in between, like Sully’s bell-bottom-era Cinnamon Jerky Roll), we all seem to have a fly fishing food fixation. Here at the Underground, we want to plumb the depths of your culinary depravity. Slip us an e-mail or just post a comment with your story. Free angioplasty to the best one.

Today’s Underground Entertainment

We’ve got exciting, happy news about how global warming could create a psychotic, hyper-toxic strain of Poison Ivy (my arms are itching already), and a Moldy Chum link to a story about the fabled Skwala, the once-secret stonefly hatch whose noteriety attracts anglers and angers locals who used to have it to themselves. This writer debunks the belief that these things are hatching everywhere. They’re not.

There’s also a link to The Art of Fly Fishing, a Danish site selling some really interesting mayfly posters. It’s worth a peek. As for me, I’m trying to get some work done so I can sneak out to the river with a clear conscience. See you on the water, Tom Chandler.

Mayfly poster for fly fishers

The Monday Roundup: Rain. More rain…

May 22, 2006, by 4 comments

It’s raining, so this must be Monday. Cooler temperatures actually dropped Upper Sac flows a little over the weekend, but you knew the runoff would hit the river as soon as the ground was saturated, and with the river now spiking towards 9,000 cfs, I’m guessing it’s happened.

That’s OK – we’re not the only fly fishing destination trying to keep our heads above a tidal wave of largely trout-free water. A quick check on the very useful Fly Fishing Yellowstone blog (now a link in the sidebar) shows that even the rivers whose names drop very, very loudly are seeing unruly flows to the point that you’re better off fishing the grassy banks than the river itself. (What flies do you use to catch grass trout? The night crawler version of the San Juan worm??)

Still, all is not lost in the Golden State as illustrated by Alert Underground Reader Jim Troyer, who has been fly fishing the SoCal surf before going to work. We quote:

“As for fishing, I’ve been pounding the water before work (grey light sessions). When the tide is right, I’ve been finding some good long troughs and holes where our finned friends hang out. I had three Corbina on the other day but lost two because of knot failure, and the third took a run and popped off. This is the fly I’ve been using, it’s called a “Razzler” and I tie a version similar but much thinner (the Nicole Richie version).” [Jim Troyer photo]

Jim Troyer Razzler fly

We applaud Jim’s fishing ethic, and as a reward for making the Underground’s Monday wrapup, we’re sending him two pieces of monofilament line so he can practice his knots, and a slaw dog because he missed the big Slawdog Cookout here on the Upper Sac (and Jim, we’re sending them media mail, so we can safely say the Slaw Dog will be reaching “maturity” when it arrives).

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A longshot? Better than a “stay at home” shot…

May 19, 2006, by 4 comments

It rained lightly last night, and river flows have actually exceeded the 6,000 cfs mark. With most local options looking grim, I’m staging an afternoon jailbreak and heading into the hills to what might best be described as “Longshot Lake.” This is little more than an opportunity to waste $3.21-a-gallon gasoline, but a long shot is better than no shot at all.

Our Montana correspondent Sully reports that his local river (the Clark Fork) is doing a passable imitation of the Amazon, and a recent viewing of the Gallatin revealed a river of slurry. It’s tough times all over.

The Slaw Dog story continues to break, and to those who wrote about the possibility of multiple versions of the cabbaged tube steak, I believe that yes – the Eastern and Western species are subtly different. I believe the Western species is the slightly larger slawusdoggus jeffersonius, with the Eastern species best described as slawusdoggus phillipssixtysixus. Look for more scientific discussion of this important topic in the days to come.

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The ugly truth about snow…

May 18, 2006, by No comments yet

The hot weather in the Upper Sacramento River Canyon is melting snow and driving flows ever higher – the river’s nudging an amazing 6,000 cfs (historical data suggest 1500 cfs is average), and the upward trend continues.

Despite the fact the Upper Sac’s currently best suited for use by whitewater enthusiasts with a death wish, I’ve noticed I still check the river whenever I drive by. Call it the power of possibility.

In a stunning illustration of the phrase “Resistance is Futile,” Chris Raine dragged his drift boat to Lake Siskiyou. There, he found himself perched atop a body of chocolate milk, the South Fork booming like the Rolling Stones in an undersized concert hall.

What this means is that I’m stuck running yet another slaw dog picture – this one from the big Underground Slaw Dog Festival of Tuesday night. Most of the participants enjoyed the mighty slaw dog for the first time, and reaction was overwhelmingly positive (the initial reaction anyway; no word on residual effects).

Western Slaw dog
The Western Slaw Dog; bigger body and more olive in the slaw than the Eastern species…

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The Slaw Dog Resurrection on Tuesday evening…

May 13, 2006, by 6 comments

Due to overwhelming demand (and several thinly veiled threats from Dave Edmondson), Tuesday evening will find me hosting a Tennessee Slaw Dog cookout at the Trout Underground World Headquarters.
The Tennessee slaw dog

For those who can’t make it but wish to simultaneously participate in this homage to Eastern Tennessee gas station food, the equipment list for the original slaw dog is as follows:

  1. Thin, pink hot dog (boiled)

  2. White hot dog bun

  3. Bright yellow mustard from a bright yellow plastic squeeze bottle

  4. Chopped white onions

  5. Canned chili (no beans)

  6. Creamy, sweet cole slaw chopped fine

Though the original gas station dog was boiled, we’re going to grill a higher-quality (girthier) dog. Otherwise, we’re going to stay true to the original ingredients (if I learned anything watching those sci-fi movies about giant radioactive ants, it’s that playing god often has dire consequences). Whether this results in an authentic slaw dog remains to be seen, but since I may be the only person in attendance equipped to judge, I’m pretty sure we’re going to hit it out of the park.

Of course, some will see this as simply a chance to eat bad food and wash it down with good beer. Others (people of vision like myself) see it in larger, more universal terms; it’s a way to emphasize the essential humanity of all god’s children, and to do this, we’re going to connect the two widely divergent cultures of Eastern Tennessee and mountainous Northern California with a junk-food bridge.

Unlike other fly fishing sites – which provide little beyond information about catching fish – the Trout Underground has embarked on a far loftier mission: We’re bringing humanity together – one bad meal at a time. See you Tuesday, TC.

ALERT! The Slaw Dog deconstructed…

May 8, 2006, by 11 comments

The river’s apparently blown by last night’s rain (running 3.5 feet in Townsend where it normally runs 2 feet – and stop me when all this sounds too familiar…). I took the opportunity to drive to the local Phillips 66 gas station – home of the fabled, much-anticipated, Tennessee Slaw Dog.

The Tennessee Slaw Dog
Even in full repose, the slaw dog does not give up its secrets easily…
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I think it says a lot for a region when you can buy an artery killing lunch delicacy at 10:20 in the morning, and the helpful woman behind the counter pointed out that she’d build a hot dog with any of the fixin’s, but that the slaw dog was most accurately represented by the traditional mustard/onions/chili/slaw combo. I ordered one (strictly for journalistic purposes), and dived in.

Cross Section of the Slaw dog
For perhaps the first time ever, the delicate nature of this culinary masterpiece is revealed to the fly fishing world…

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