Lake Wallace Smoked Rainbow Trout
Went with Beard for a day trip to Lake Wallace in the Blue Mountains. It was a rainy day but fortunately not too windy.
Fishing
I started spinning with a Celta lure in the brown trout pattern.
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The first rainbow trout took my lure very deep
down its mouth (and I left my pliers in the car) so decided to keep
it.
The next came on the following cast, and shortly after I caught
a third, smaller one which was let go. After 15 minutes of action,
the wind changed direction and not much else happened that afternoon.
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I also had a good chat with an arborist who was locking one of the gates. He, along with other volunteers, were planting trees along the lake shore.
Beard casting near the dam wall.
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Blue Mountains Bushfire Damage
On the way back, took photos of the bushfire damage from 2019 near Bell.
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Smoked Rainbow Trout
It was only the next day, while preparing the fish, that I noticed both were tagged (sometimes, I’m not very observant). These were reported to the Department of Primary Industries Tagging Program. One was 30cm and the other 31cm.
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Dried the fish and covered them with salt, including the cavity. On the bottom of a foil-lined wok I added: 1/2 cup rice, 5 tablespoons of tea and 6 bay leaves.
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The fish was hot smoked for 30 minutes, turning it over once as it was a very windy day and it wasn’t cooking evenly. Don’t use your good wok as it will be ruined. We have an old one dedicated to this.
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Very tasty!
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Postscript
27/8/2020 Doing the right thing had its rewards. Fisheries sent me a couple of custom lures in return for reporting the tagged fish.
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