Trout season in full swing
Southland is world renowned for its brown trout fishery. The attractiveness of our region is not only due to the potential size of these fish in certain reaches, but the abundance and availability of catchable trout for the everyday angler.
Early in the season is a great time to get amongst as trout have recovered from spawning and typically are in beautiful condition for the table.
There is plenty of access to some great fishing spots right out your back door, however, it’s a good time to remind anglers of the understandable sensitivity and concern around M. bovis, and any risk that anglers may inadvertently spread it.
Fortunately, M. bovis is a relatively weak bacteria without a cell wall, which means it struggles to survive outside of the body.
Consequently, the chances of spreading it by walking through the paddock of a farm that has infected stock and transferring any bacteria onto another property, where it would need to be ingested by another cow before any bacteria die, is extremely remote.
However, the consequences of transmission of the infection are potentially devastating for farmers and we certainly don’t want to have anglers accused of complacency. Anglers should take sensible precautions, clean boots between farms if you’re visiting more than one property and recognise the understandable concern of dairy and beef farmers.
Microwave trout
It’s a funny thing that anglers spend most of their time pursuing the largest fish and not rating smaller specimens worthy of mention.
However, if only they’d take a little time, less than five minutes actually, to try eating one of these smaller fish their attitudes may change forever! It’s true that smaller trout generally have better eating qualities, therefore consider keeping the next trout of around a pound that you catch. Clean the fish as soon as you can and keep it cool.
Fish flesh deteriorates rather quickly, especially in warm weather, so if you intend to keep a trout or two for the table carry a ‘chilli-bin’ in your vehicle with ice packs.
You’ll often hear anglers complain that a certain trout tasted muddy. In this case it’s likely the fish wasn’t gutted quickly and kept cool, but rather sun-bathed on the bank while the angler chased other trout.
Once you’ve successfully returned home, behead the fish, pat dry with a paper towel, rub liberally with butter inside, and season with fresh-ground black pepper, slices of lemon and salt.
Place in a microwave proof dish, cover and cook on a medium power setting for about two minutes, turn and cook for a further minute or so. It is most important that the microwave is on a reduced power setting, otherwise the tail section of the trout will literally blow up!
Let stand for a further two minutes as it will continue to cook.
If cooked properly the skin should lift off the flesh, and the flesh should lift off the bones leaving the skeleton intact.
If not quite cooked enough the flesh will be hard to remove from the skeleton and cooked too much the bones will come off the vertebrae.
Served with lettuce, bacon, poached eggs and hollandaise sauce on fresh toast you have a great post-fishing brunch that the family will love, or simply on toast with lashings of butter and lemon and you’ll be back out fishing on Sunday too!
Please contact the office with any questions or for further advice on any of the above (03) 215 9117.