Rainbow Trout

Fall arrived a little early at the Dogwood. Galen Sampson's autumn menu is up and running. Here's what's making me hungry right now: A starter of radishes served open-face on a baguette with herbs, butter and red sea salt; Simmer Rock Farms beets and honeycrisp apples with honey-lime vinaigrette with toasted fennel seeds; escargot in roasted baby pumpkin with fennel and leeks; North Carolina rainbow trout with four-grain pilaf and a side...

Fall arrived a little early at the Dogwood. Galen Sampson's autumn menu is up and running. Here's what's making me hungry right now: A starter of radishes served open-face on a baguette with herbs, butter and red sea salt; Simmer Rock Farms beets and honeycrisp apples with honey-lime vinaigrette with toasted fennel seeds; escargot in roasted baby pumpkin with fennel and leeks; North Carolina rainbow trout with four-grain pilaf and a side...

Drought conditions in the Gunpowder Falls watershed have forced the postponement of scheduled trout stocking in the Gunpowder River below Loch Raven Dam, according to the Department of Natural Resources.The 1,800 brown and rainbow trout that were to have been stocked for the opening of the trout season there today have been dispersed instead among Little Gunpowder Falls, the Avalon section of the Patapsco River and Deer Creek.

Albert Powell raised a big, fat rainbow trout. Charlie Gougeon put that fish in the Little Gunpowder River. Chris Shaw reeled it in. His dad, Robert, enjoyed a nice trout dinner. How's that for chain of custody? It's not often in telling the story of a noteworthy catch - and I've passed along a bunch to you - that one can say with a great degree of certainty how a specific fish arrived at the end of a particular hook and then to a single plate. So, indulge me this one time. Because this is not only a story of how Shaw acquired his bragging rights, but also a story of the extraordinary work done by the biologists and field staff at the Maryland Fisheries Service.

About 1,500 rainbow trout found new -- and very temporary -- homes in four of the city's streams and ponds yesterday morning. The state Department of Natural Resources stocked Patterson Park and Gwynn Oak ponds, the Jones Falls and Herring Run with trout for anglers to catch and clean for dinner. "We want them out of here ASAP," said Bob Wall, recreational programmer for the city's Department of Recreation and Parks. Wall expects all the fish to be caught within two weeks; the four areas will be stocked again in late April.

There's something fishy going on in Dundalk, and Michael Francis is thrilled about it.Mr. Francis was the driving force behind yesterday's first stocking of Dundalk's Stansbury Pond with 500 rainbow trout. An avid angler, Mr. Francis lives two blocks from the man-made pond in Stansbury Park near Lynch Cove and fantasized about its prospects as a trout fishing hole during walks with his three children along the water's edge."I've always thought of this as being a nice place to fish trout," said Mr. Francis, who has lived in Stanbrook for 10 years.

Whether you actually fish in a stream up north or simply fish around the seafood case at the market, you'll be reminded of the great outdoors with this pan-fried trout recipe. Cooked over an open fire in a cast-iron skillet, trout is one of the great outdoor meals. You can mimic the flavor indoors by using smoky bacon fat. Then, in a further salute to summer, finish the dish with a fresh-corn-and-bacon-bits stuffing. Beverage pairing A crisp, light white wine enhances the fish. Try a Muscadet from France or a dry chenin blanc from California.

BLOOMINGTON -- The brown trout that DNR biologist Mike Dean has been rearing in net pens below Bloomington Dam never have been an official part of the Maryland stocking plan, but this fall, if all goes according to plan, some 15,000 of the browns will be released in Western Maryland.If they are released, they will represent a triumph for Dean and will be a feather in the cap of the DNR Freshwater Fisheries program, because rearing brown trout is not so easy as culturing rainbow trout.The major drawback, said Ken Pavol, regional fisheries director for Garrett and Allegany counties, is that browns take longer to raise than rainbows, which traditionally have been the base for Maryland's stocking program.

WHOOPIE CUSHIONS, hula hoops, lava lamps - novelties all. The state Department of Natural Resources is considering getting into the act by introducing a funky fish to its hatcheries to turn heads and reels. The golden trout, not to be confused with the High Sierra fish of the same name, is a rainbow trout, minus the rainbows. The golden was discovered in 1955, the same year the Brooklyn Dodgers won the World Series and Mighty Mouse got his own TV show. It was one fish, minding its own business in a sea of standard-issue rainbows at the Petersburg Hatchery in West Virginia.

My mother used cornmeal often when she cooked. She baked round loaves of corn bread as well as slim corn-bread sticks. She dusted egg-dipped eggplant strips and sliced okra with cornmeal before frying these vegetables. And, for the holidays, she always made corn bread dressing.I follow her Southern tradition and find countless uses for cornmeal in my kitchen. Recently, I bought fresh rainbow trout and coated the fillets with cornmeal and flour before pan-frying them. The fish with their crispy, golden cornmeal crust were so appealing that I've decided to serve them again, this time for company.

Whether you actually fish in a stream up north or simply fish around the seafood case at the market, you'll be reminded of the great outdoors with this pan-fried trout recipe. Cooked over an open fire in a cast-iron skillet, trout is one of the great outdoor meals. You can mimic the flavor indoors by using smoky bacon fat. Then, in a further salute to summer, finish the dish with a fresh-corn-and-bacon-bits stuffing. Beverage pairing A crisp, light white wine enhances the fish. Try a Muscadet from France or a dry chenin blanc from California.

Part 2 of a three-part series on Georgetown. GEORGETOWN - True, this famously upscale quarter of Washington is unabashedly commercial, a bastion of designer shops, trendy eateries and urbane bars and clubs. Yet not far from the madding crowds exists a less hurried, less congested and more quietly textured version of the capital's oldest neighborhood. Call it the softer side of Georgetown. To access this world of quaint shops, cozy cafes and other sites tucked off the main drags of Wisconsin Avenue and M Street, simply head south straight toward the water.

When 13-year-old Lara DeJacma was vacationing in Florida recently, she found a great postcard to send to a friend back in Annapolis. Well, it wasn't exactly a postcard. It was a flip-flop -- a cheap rubber thong sandal with an address label and space for a short message as well as 62 cents worth of postage. As the vacation season draws to a close and stock is taken of all the far-flung salutations that arrived by mail this summer, it's clear that there are many more ways to deliver a wish-you-were-here message than on a flat postcard.

THEAUX LeGARDEUR wrecked his car, quit his job, and found happiness on a trout stream. That's good news for anglers who consider the Gunpowder their home water. LeGardeur is the new owner of the Monkton shop formerly known as "On the Fly." Now it's called "Backwater Angler." With fiancee Sarah Hoffman, LeGardeur has cleaned and painted the rooms, installed an 1860s general store counter, and added paintings and prints of anglers and fish. And in their spare time, they're planning a May 19 wedding.

WHOOPIE CUSHIONS, hula hoops, lava lamps - novelties all. The state Department of Natural Resources is considering getting into the act by introducing a funky fish to its hatcheries to turn heads and reels. The golden trout, not to be confused with the High Sierra fish of the same name, is a rainbow trout, minus the rainbows. The golden was discovered in 1955, the same year the Brooklyn Dodgers won the World Series and Mighty Mouse got his own TV show. It was one fish, minding its own business in a sea of standard-issue rainbows at the Petersburg Hatchery in West Virginia.

About 1,500 rainbow trout found new -- and very temporary -- homes in four of the city's streams and ponds yesterday morning. The state Department of Natural Resources stocked Patterson Park and Gwynn Oak ponds, the Jones Falls and Herring Run with trout for anglers to catch and clean for dinner. "We want them out of here ASAP," said Bob Wall, recreational programmer for the city's Department of Recreation and Parks. Wall expects all the fish to be caught within two weeks; the four areas will be stocked again in late April.

The last weekend in March should be declared a state holiday. It's a time when nearly every freshwater fisherman in Maryland treks to his favorite trout stream, dons ridiculous-looking clothing, and frequently catches nothing more than a bad cold.March 26 was opening day of trout season in Harford County.More than 2,000 county anglers pitted their fishing skills against 4,800 rainbow trout recently stocked in the waters of Deer Creek and Little Gunpowder River. When opening day arrived, the water was ice cold, murky and well above normal level -- less than optimal conditions.

On a day declared Code Red by the National Weather Service, a rusty brown wood thrush sang its song in the cool cover of trees in the Sweathouse Branch of Gunpowder Falls State Park, unaware that it was unhealthful to be outside."

"Everybody loves the stocking truck," hollers Jonathan Folk over the growl of the engine as we bounce down a West Virginia dirt road, a few miles southwest of the papermill town of Luke, Md. A glance in the huge side mirror shows a string of cars tagging behind like sea gulls after a trawler. Drivers and passengers know their reward for eating some dust will be first crack at what is sloshing around in the truck's bins. Trout -- brown and cutthroat -- will be released soon at several stops along an 8-mile stretch of the North Branch of the Potomac River.

My mother used cornmeal often when she cooked. She baked round loaves of corn bread as well as slim corn-bread sticks. She dusted egg-dipped eggplant strips and sliced okra with cornmeal before frying these vegetables. And, for the holidays, she always made corn bread dressing.I follow her Southern tradition and find countless uses for cornmeal in my kitchen. Recently, I bought fresh rainbow trout and coated the fillets with cornmeal and flour before pan-frying them. The fish with their crispy, golden cornmeal crust were so appealing that I've decided to serve them again, this time for company.