Kaitime Takes Close Look at Trout Breeding, Cooking 'n Eating

Top-rating Maori Television show Kaitime has turned its cameras on trout – and the people who breed them by the thousand to re-stock the country’s lakes.

The show’s crew spent a day with staff from Fish & Game’s Eastern Region last Thursday (9 June) – touring their hatchery to see how fish are selected for a breeding programme that sees 80,000 thousand fish liberated in Rotorua lakes every year.

The Kaitime crew filmed at the hatchery as plump females ready to spawn – caught in Fish & Game’s special fish traps – were milked for their eggs and fertilised with milt (sperm) from jacks, the male trout.

The crew also visited Lake Tarawera where local fishing identity ‘Bugs’ (aka John Wilson) had caught a prime trout for the chef from Tarawera Landing cafe to cook on the show.

Fish & Game officer Mark Sherburn told Pete that fish are trapped as they make their way up the streams to spawn. Their approach is that “big fish have big babies,” and the most “ripe” hens in the best condition are selected for their eggs to be stripped out.

Once the fish are anaesthetised so they can be handled easily, a small air pump is used to “inflate the female and squeeze the eggs out of her.” They’re then fertilised with milt from the male fish.

Inside the hatchery, Mark Sherburn told Pete as the camera rolled, that pure stream water is added to the mixture of eggs and milt for the best fertilisation. These eggs are then transferred to an incubator tray in the hatchery.

Some people say brown trout and rainbows taste different, Mark says, but in his opinion fish in the best condition of either species taste the best.

Kaitime director and presenter, chef and keen hunter Pete Peeti says the show is all about meeting people in particular areas, sampling the various types of kai and sharing cooking tips.

Kai is prepared and cooked on the spot and shared with special guests who feature in every show.

He says he’s grateful to Fish & Game for the insights into just how much work goes into keeping the lakes stocked with well bred fish to keep anglers happy and the frying pan hot.

Pete is a keen trout fisherman himself, who has fished the Ohau Channel near Rotorua most of his life. In a reversal of what normally happens, he got his father interested in trout fishing.

His interest in cooking goes back to school days when he began cooking cakes and biscuits. He became a dessert chef initially, and has worked as a chef at some of Rotorua’s leading hotels before moving into television work ten years ago.

Pete’s switch from chef to television has given him an enviable job – travelling Aotearoa hunting, fishing, diving and gathering the great foods our country has to offer.

The demand for recipes was so overwhelming that Pete and his associates produced their own cookbook and won ‘Best Celebrity Food Cookbook in NZ’ and were selected as a contender for the 2009 Gourmand International World Cookbook Award.

Kaitime’s now notched up well over 200 episodes which are filmed well in advance of screening. The show on trout and the work of Fish & Game is expected to go to air in December.