High Desert, High Life: Part 1
Wild Fish Wild Places 07.30.12
The four hour drive to Elko passed in jig-time due to the range and level of topics discussed, the musical interludes as dictated by our driver (Denis) and the cache of humorous stories shared by the Wild Fish Crew. This was my first trip to northeast Nevada and though I had been well schooled by the guys as to what to expect, nothing they had said had really prepared me for the exquisite, raw, elemental beauty of northern Nevada. In particular, I wasn’t prepared for the beauty of the scenery surrounding Wild Horse and South Fork Reservoirs, our destinations during this week-long fishing trip.
As our impressive rig rolled into Elko, there was a noticeable air of optimism about! My travelling companions have made this very same pilgrimage to this high desert country for the best part of 50 years in Rod’s case and 35 years for Denis. Grand Pa Tex and Grand Ma Bernie brought Denis to this very special place nearly every year since he was on eye-level terms with the butt ring of his first spinning rod!
I too was feeling the beneficial back-draught of their collective optimism having listened to my two companions’ stories of fabulous catches of those aerial gymnasts: rainbows; strike after strike from willing wipers; rod-bending action with feisty smallmouths and perhaps a chance to tease breathtakingly beautiful cuttbows with the fly! The mere prospect of such fish likely to put in an appearance during our time in this high desert country had me pumped like a Bouncy Castle at a kid’s party!
However, before we wet a line, we had a dinner invitation from Don Newman to attend. Don is Executive Director of the Elko Convention and Visitors Authority and he kindly invited the Wild Fish Team to sample the mouth-watering, Basque cuisine at the renowned 102 year old Star Hotel on Silver Street. Earlier on the road to Elko, Denis had been talking-up a local Basque favourite, the Picon Punch, a benign sounding cocktail as a must try local tipple. Like the naive, trusting soul that I am, I thought no more about it, preferring instead to keep the images of large rainbows and wipers swimming across my mind from those earlier stories, recounted in such detail by my Wild Fish buddies.
As soon as we entered the wonderfully atmospheric bar of the Star Hotel, I was transported back to far earlier times in cowboy country. My eyes panned around the bar’s rustic interior, taking in the collection of photos and memorabilia from a bygone era and replaying scenes where weary, weather-worn, sheep herders rested here during the long, cold nights of winter, swapping stories over steaming plates piled high with buttery mashed potatoes, generous helpings of garlic, rosemary, onions and bell peppers accompanying thick wedges of roast lamb or grilled slices of Nevada’s finest beef! I was now salivating just like my old Wheaten Lab Jasper used to do when sitting under the kitchen table with his nose on my lap, hoping for a share of my dinner! “There’s a good boy”, I said.
Natalie, our attentive and knowledgeable bartender, was asked for two Picon Punches. There was good-natured leg-pulling by the crew that this was going to be an experience I wouldn’t forget in a hurry! I watched as Natalie filled our glasses with ice, followed by measures of grenadine, Picon Amer, soda water, brandy and lastly I believe lemon juice. My eyes were already blurring at the prospect of this tongue-curling concoction!
Natalie reverentially placed the two Picon Punches on the counter in front of Denis and I. We toasted one and other. We then toasted Rod (camera guy), Greg (director) and Don (our new friend). Next up, we toasted “health, wealth and happiness”. Then, our fishing prospects, absent friends and family, our pets, the guy who invented braid, reliable outboard motors, correctly greased trailer hubs and many other interesting subjects and issues too numerous to recount here. Finally I said “Slainte!” (Irish for “health!”), raised the Picon Punch to my lips and took a good swig. A strangled whistle came from somewhere inside my mouth. “Wow! Jeeze! That’s something else” I said, amidst gasps for air. Most definitely an acquired taste!
Rod sympathetically handed me a bottle of Blue Moon!
The leg-pulling was mighty as Don led the way into the family-friendly dining room at the Star. I ordered beef, which was cooked to perfection, accompanied by a mountain of veg. To use the term “portion sizes at the Star Hotel are generous” would be an injustice to the word “generous”! To be accurate, the dinners are humungous! Fabulous food served by attentive staff, in a great atmosphere. What more could a hungry chap from Ireland need?
Our hosts Scott and Tricia looked after us royally and the Wild Fish Team had a really great evening with Don Newman.
That night at Elko’s Red Lion Hotel, I slept soundly in my bed – sated from the gorgeous dinner earlier at The Star and no doubt helped in no small way by my first and definitely last Picon Punch.
FISH AND FISHING. TWO WORDS HAVING A MYRIAD OF MEANINGS TO A MYRIAD OF PEOPLES. TO FISH FOR FOOD, FOR LIFE, FOR SURVIVAL; OR TO FISH FOR FUN, FOR SPORT, FOR MONEY.
When, almost 5,000 years ago in China, man first attached a hook and line to a bamboo rod to catch carp a little further from the river’s edge, little did he know that this creation would evolve into an industry which at the early part of this, the twenty-first century, is worth over $108 billion annually to the US economy in terms of sport fishing alone!
The variety of fish species is infinite. From cold water inhabitants such as members of the Salmonidae family, to warm water, tropical dwellers like the Cichlids. From the gigantic Tarpon of the Florida Keys to the gentler Arctic Charr spectacularly attired in their vivid courtship colors in the frigid rivers and streams of the arctic tundra. Take the celebrated Coelacanth, over three hundred million years old and still found today in the warm seas of the Indian Ocean around Madagascar, or the seemingly ubiquitous Golden Orfe, or the goldfish, which completes endless circuits in so many glass bowls in family homes in every corner of the world.
In this series, we will seek out great predatory fish. Fish that are much revered, fish that strike terror at the very mention of their name and fish that are the staple diet of many peoples subsisting along the shorelines and riverbanks of the great waters we will visit during our odyssey. Positioned at the very top of the food chain, these apex predators reign supreme in their own domain, be it mighty river, great lake or ocean.
Our quest will take us across cultures and continents to exotic locations of immense beauty and wealth as well as lands poleaxed by poverty. We will explore not just these wild and wonderful places, but the significance of our target species to the different groupings of peoples in terms of social, economic and cultural values.
Our travels in search of extraordinary predators will take us from the cold, unforgiving waters of the West of Ireland to the steaming jungle swamps of India. From the frozen, pristine wilderness of the Canadian subarctic to the sun-baked backwaters of Northern Australia. This will be a series of contrasts and comparisons where we will meet people who live to fish and people who fish to live.
