Houseplant Posted October 8 Report Share Posted October 8 Just back from my annual pilgrimage to Lake Rotoiti in Rotorua, New Zealand. An 800km round trip. The lake is fairly large with a length of 15km and a maximum depth of 100m. It contains rainbow and brown trout. The fish are a mixture of stocked and naturally bred fish and are generally in good condition with a high average size. Fly and lure fishing are allowed which makes it sound like easy fishing, but like all lake-dwelling trout, they can be fickle and hard to catch. I caught a total of four rainbows over three days. Not a huge number of fish, but they were a good size. Softbaits fished very slowly was the winning technique for me, but we also caught fish on flies fished on spinning gear and traditional spinners. I caught a tagged fish which was a first for me. These fish are fantastic eating. They primarily live on freshwater crayfish and baitfish rather than insects and have flesh that is similar in taste and appearance to farmed salmon, bright pink/red and quite fatty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dainty duck Posted October 8 Report Share Posted October 8 Nice fish , even the stockfish are full finned and good condition . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houseplant Posted October 8 Author Report Share Posted October 8 1 hour ago, dainty duck said: Nice fish , even the stockfish are full finned and good condition . Thanks, the fish are good quality. I should have qualified the "stocked" statement. It's not quite like a put and take fishery in the UK. They are stocked infrequently and left to naturalise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dainty duck Posted October 8 Report Share Posted October 8 6 hours ago, Houseplant said: Thanks, the fish are good quality. I should have qualified the "stocked" statement. It's not quite like a put and take fishery in the UK. They are stocked infrequently and left to naturalise. well it seems to be working ok , I would be thinking about cold smoking some of those beauties . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houseplant Posted October 8 Author Report Share Posted October 8 1 hour ago, dainty duck said: well it seems to be working ok , I would be thinking about cold smoking some of those beauties . Yes, we did a mixture of hot and cold smoking, plus some fried in butter and even a little raw. After 12 years of eating sea fish, I'd got to the point where I didn't really like trout, but these fish have turned it around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave at kelton Posted October 9 Report Share Posted October 9 Brings back memories of my NZ trip, being out on Rotorua and fishin* one of the tributaries with a guide. Fabulous! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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