It went from a beaming smile as she landed the fish, to a wrinkled look of revulsion as Fish & Game officers gutted it for her, and then she pursed her lips at the thought of eating it for dinner — all within 60 seconds.
"It was disgusting watching it get gutted. But it hasn’t put me off eating it. It’s going to be yummy."
The 9-year-old was one of about 60 children who had a go at fishing for the first time, at Dunedin’s Southern Reservoir as part of Fish & Game’s annual Take a Kid Fishing days yesterday and on Saturday.
Fish & Game officer Steve Dixon said the number of participants was limited to 50 each day this year because Dunedin was still under Alert Level 2 restrictions.
"Hopefully, we’ll be at Alert Level 1 for next weekend’s event [September 25 and 26]. Then we can sign some more people in."
He said there were about 800 rainbow trout in the reservoir, which were raised at the Otago Fish & Game hatchery at Macraes.
On average, they weighed about 1.4kg, he said.
"Normally, only about 20% get caught, and then everyone’s allowed to come up and fish here when the season opens on October 1 — as long as you’ve got a licence, of course."
