Grilling Trout Without a Woodfire?

Last year I pan-fried a trout. A flame spreader is pretty easy. Start with a steel can lid about 4 inches in diameter, or you could use titanium foil. Drill holes in it that are quarter-inch, and drill a lot of them just inside the circumference. Drill a few just inside that, and then drill none at the center. If your stove has a larger flame pattern, then you might increase the size of the lid to be 5 inches. In any case, it forces most of the flame to the outside and not to the center.

–B.G.–

Thanks Bob, that's very close to what I was thinking. If I can spread the flame just a little more, I thinking roasting on a skewer by hand could work.

sorry..missread the title

Pan Fry that badboy

We grew up cooking bass and trout on small stick next to a fire. It works great. Stick goes in the fishes mouth.
You know its ready when the skin starts to separate from the meat. You can stuff the fish with herbs if you have some. Fresh Rosemary is my favorite but Wild onion is very prevlent here and taste great..

^^^

"but so many of the places I fish for trout do not allow woodfires. "

Generally, if you can't have a fire, you can't use any wood stove either.

I've steamed them in a pot using some rocks just covered with water, wrapping the fish in foil. Soon after trying that I got a small frypan for backpacking. A lot less mess and bother that way. Half a paper towel does the job cleaning it if you have nonstick.

Garlic and olive oil for me.

I tried the flame spreader once. It didn't work all that well.

I had caught a ~11 brook trout and had him for supper. I poked a forked stick through his mouth and spread his ribs near the tail section. Using an rusty can lid as a spreader I cooked his tail, then slowly moved to the front. Took about 20-25min. It works better over a fire when you can have a few fish over the fire.

I now have a small frying pan about 6" in diameter with a cut down handle and weighs about 6oz. I add a squirt of oil and some salt, frying them in two pieces. Takes less than 10min for two fish. If I don't bother bringing the fry pan, I just cut them into 1" steaks and poach them with some spanish rice.

The bones are a pain. Often, I will walk into the woods a hundred yards or so and bury them rather deeply (8-12".) Otherwise critters may come to see what you are about for supper ('Coons, fox, coyote, bear, etc,) then wash my pot/pan and hands/face. I am guessing that mice and floor dwellers dig the bones up and eat them eventually…

I cook them in a small pan over a Caldera cone, using alcohol, wood, or esbit. Cooking them over a canister stove works well also.

If you are going to grill it over a canister stove, you should try doing it this way so that all of the meat is evenly exposed to the flame: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ruUN0dy-Sg

^^^

Read the opening post?

Best way is to use a Jetboil Fry Pan with a Jetboil canister stove. Yet another reason why the Jetboil system rocks.

An alternative is to use foil, with the trout plus fat [oil, bacon], and seasonings. Not grilling but easy and very tasty, especially with scallions and mint.

How about a few lava rocks over the flame spreader? They are pretty light and airy — at least some of them.