Trout (and Weka) for Dinner

It’s smoked trout for dinner and David’s in charge of preparing & cooking the lovely fish he caught when we were out tiki-touring Lake Brunner. It weighs in at just under 3lb which is a good sized fish after all the small brown trout we've seen on our travels.

We’re surprised at the bright colour of the flesh, it looks a little like salmon and must be because of the tannin stained water the fish lives in. David lightly seasons it with pepper and salt, I usually add some brown sugar too, but not this time. We want to only lightly smoke it tonight, try it less smoky and not so intense.

David sets the smoker up on a patch of sand, he doesn’t want to burn a patch into the grass (like he has done before today, and in fact, he once burnt a dark patch into the aggregated concrete beside our garage. He solved the problem after that by balancing the smoker on two long cinder blocks).

The dishes are filled with methylated spirits and a small handful of manuka (tea-tree) wood chips are sprinkled into the tray underneath the rack.

He then places the lid on the smoker, lights the meths and runs for it…..

….no don’t be silly Shellie, he lights the meths and sits the smoker over the flames. The flames burst out the side and it’s lucky the grass is damp and green otherwise we might have set the lake edge on fire. The beautiful smell of manuka smoke fills the air…..

….attracting guess who?  One very nosey weka who is pretty persistent no matter how many times we chase him away. He even thinks he might poke his beak through the holes around the base at one stage and when he sees the flames leaping out the other side he’s even more interested….

It’s then that we very nearly have Mr Weka (bush chicken) for dinner too! A flame bursts out the side just as he steps in. This looks worse than it is (and it’s blurred because I was about to give him the short shift) He’s actually standing behind the flame, although I’m not sure where his head went. It must have given him a fright because he didn’t come back for awhile.

Twenty minutes later the trout’s ready and I can report that it was very tasty indeed. Although I decided, I prefer it a little more smoked, like we used to have it.

David went on to catch another trout the next day which he released after taking a photo for me. This one was caught in the same area as the previous trout just a little closer in to shore amongst the drowned trees and rushes. They must like to hide in the area. Strangely enough while he was helping it recover, holding it upright in the water beside the boat, another trout of a similar size came right up to this one to check it out, or perhaps to help it out. When released they swam off together.

A Tourist in Takaka

Well, when in Takaka do as the tourists do. Go salmon fishing. Go salmon fishing because it probably the only chance of catching a fish at the moment.

OK, to be fair, it is winter and every person my beloved speaks to says there’s no fish out there until the spring; “the snapper haven’t arrived yet”. Well, no fish unless you go at least 5kms out into the bay & there’s no way he’s going out that far in our little rubber boat that contains a lot of hot air!

So it was off to Anatoki Salmon to catch dinner......and lunch......and  h'orderves........& dinner again....

This is a switched on operation, not only do they supply salmon around New Zealand to restaurants, supermarkets & Kiwi homes through on-line sales, they have an another feather in their business cap, a large pond stocked with salmon for tourists & locals who might like to try their hand at fishing and catch a fish for lunch or dinner. Something most people would never have a chance to do and it's free. Yeah right. Until you catch a fish that is.

We walked around the pond and the breeding pens first, each pen (covered with shade cloth to protect the fish from shags, kingfisher & the sun) holds tens of thousands of salmon. From the first pen with over 40,000 fry in it to the last one that has about 8,000 salmon ready to be harvested. It’s a 3 year cycle from hatching to dispatching.

At first, David wanted to “catch & release”, but unfortunately for him & the fish that wasn’t an option. “Just think of the fresh fish we can eat” I told him. He wasn’t impressed.

But with a bit of persuasion and the irresistible call of the rod,  I managed to get him to go fish. It was a no win situation for the poor fish. The bait on the end of the hook looked very similar to the fish pellets they are fed daily. Like lambs to the slaughter.

Two good sized fish were caught. They did say to come and get some real pellets ($2) if we had no luck after 15 minutes. "C'mon guys you're talking to a real fisherman here", no pellets necessary- the first landed within 5 minutes, the second about 10 minutes later.

For someone who didn't want to catch and keep a fish he looked pretty pleased with himself!

We (the royal we) would have liked to have continued fishing but at $21 kilo per fish caught (average 1.5 kilo each) we couldn’t be greedy.

Another guy joined us in the fishing contest, he had pellets, & he caught one within a few minutes. It was his lunch hour so we gave him the benefit of the doubt. He was a meter reader(electricity) and told us this was the first time he had done this. Yeah right…..

We carted our catch to the preparation station to have it expertly filleted and then sliced, diced & smoked to our specifications while we waited. And while we waited we spent some more; coffee, salmon bites & ciabatta. Talk about coals to Newcastle! But hey, you only live once.

We’ll be eating salmon for the next few days; sashimi-ed, fresh fillet & smoked with two different flavours.

YUM…... and you know what? We’ll be passing by this way on our way back over the “hill” and we might just have to take a slight detour….