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The Muster- Grant McMaster: Well Done Fish and Game! · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Grant Disaster McMaster Farms on the edge of Lake Wakatipa
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: at Closeburn Station and joins us once again thanks to
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Batman and the team at Arby Rura who are based
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: here in Gore. Disaster, good afternoon.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Good afternoon Andy, good afternoon everybody. On the edge of
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Kwikip that seems to be getting closer to the road.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Another 77 mils of rain last night or yesterday afternoon
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: and just bucketed down. So it tipped out 77 mils
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: this morning. And it actually, I had a cup of
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: tea the other day yesterday and it blew the milk
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: right out of it. So actually I don't even have
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: milk in my tea because we couldn't have got it in.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: So it just blew. And obviously after those blows, you
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: get the rain. But the forecasting was right on the money, Andy.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: we keep saying when it rains it's an event now,
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: it's not just 10 mils, 15 mils, we've got 20,
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: you know, 77 mils and it's we're still below what
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: we got last year which is not a bad thing
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: but the ponds are filled up again the water's pouring
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: off the hills and there's snow around all the mountains
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: so I just was over the hills this morning shifting
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: cattle around and and looking up at Coronet Peak, all
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: the ski runs have got snow on them. Admittedly, not
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: a feat, a lot of it, but it's a pretty
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: good covering, and it's about six degrees at the moment
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: with the sun trying to poke through.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Cam Nicholson keeps me informed on the weather in the
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Ida Valley where he's based their disaster, and they had
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: snow on the hills, so he said to put off
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: tailing for another day, apparently.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I'd say it's come through there all right. And,
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: of course, Cam, he's a proud rural fireman, so he'll be,
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: you know, he'll be lighting a fire somewhere today to
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: keep warm, no doubt, knowing Cam.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Gee, fires are happening here, there and everywhere at the moment.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: It's just, it's a buzzword that you don't want flying.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. But if we keep getting this rain and,
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: you know, they talk about the El Nino and whatever
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: it is. But, you know, it saves it, you know,
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: more wetter for the West Coast region and... It's certainly
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: proving that with that rain that came through yesterday. But
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: the winds were, yeah, they were as strong as we
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: get and haven't seen many trees down or anything. So
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: it must have just been, yeah, the way it was coming,
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: I guess. But, yeah, that rain has certainly made the water,
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: you know, the shot overs as black as anything. And
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: the creeks around here are up too. And there'll be
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: a few lambs that have had a bit of a wash,
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: but sort of well... That first cycle's just about finished now,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: so I don't think it's... I haven't had a look
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: around the back at this stage, but I'm going there
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: this afternoon just to see what awaits, but hopefully it's
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: not too bad.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: So far, lambing's been all right, albeit a bit wet?
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, you know, this 77mm of rain we got yesterday,
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: that's probably... We haven't had rain for a couple of
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: weeks since, you know, prior to that, so... It's been
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: quite a good spell of weather, and the grass has
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: been ticking away, as I said the other day, and
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: still it's looking pretty good. It's a great time of
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: the year, isn't it, in the spring before the bloody
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: thistles come up and that stuff, and you've got your
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: pasture all, you're on top of it. It always looks
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: pretty good. And over at Ayrtown, it's a bit warmer
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: there and a bit more advanced, and there's a lot
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: of new grass in those paddocks. it's really boring into it. So, yeah,
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: it's very pleasing.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Now, you want to comment today on Fish and Game.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Down here in Southland, a well-documented stoush last year with
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Southland Fish and Game and Feds went on. That was
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: a while ago. Now, time's moved on and a lot
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: of positive things coming out of Fish and Game, truth
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: be known. Dave McGregor and co there. You just want
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: to talk on Fish and Game, though, a couple of experiences.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so Fish and Game, you know, I've always been
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: aware of it and, you know, that there's been a
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: bit of a, that, um, there's been a bit of a, um,
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: anti-farmer come fishing game at times for various reasons that
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: I'm not all that familiar with, but, uh, you know,
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: they both, you know, it's sort of, they, we sort
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: of go hand in hand really, don't we? And it
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: should be, you know, it should be a pretty straightforward relationship, but,
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: you know, there's personalities come in and various political things
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: happen and, um, it's, uh, you know, it's been a
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: bit rocky, I'd be, it'd be fair to say, but,
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: We've got three lakes on the property at Closeburn, and
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: there's Lake Dispute, Moat Lake, and Lake Kirkpatrick. And Fish
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: and Game, a couple of years ago, someone suggested that
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: they perhaps come and put some more fish in the lake.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: So they arrived last week and organised that. So all
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: these fish, they come from over at Macrae's. Macrae's, that
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: were the miners. And so as part of Oceana's agreement
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: with mining over there, putting things back in the community
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: like they do, they set up a fish hatchery and
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: they raise 8,000 fish there. And those fish are then
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: distributed around ponds and fields and lakes within their target
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: catchment area. So they came up here, had a little
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: trailer on behind their vehicle with oxygen going through it,
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: and they were letting 1,200... They were doing three drops,
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: and they were dropping off about, in these three lakes,
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: about 1,200 fish. So what they do, they take these fish...
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: So they rear 8,000. 6,000 of them they put into
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: lakes and ponds for people. And the other 2,000, they
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: grow them out like tutus. So we've got these ones
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: are the ewe lambs. They keep them another six months.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: And those 2,000 other fish are then put into reservoirs
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: around Dunedin and some other towns that kids, made available
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: for kids to go and fish, which is, you know,
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: it's pretty, it's good, it's getting young people involved in
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: the fishing. But anyway, they come here and I said
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: to the guys doing it, I said, well, I've counted
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: a lot of sheep and you count a lot of
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: lambs at weaning time and I said, that's pretty hard going.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: I said, how do you count 200 fish out of
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: the back of this thing?
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Very carefully.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: They put the net in and they let them go
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: and that's what they were doing. So I said to him,
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: I used to see a lot of fish spawning in
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: the creeks here around May, June, but I haven't seen
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: as many of the last few years. They've actually got
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: a wand that they can put in the water and
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: they can get a tally of somehow they know it
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: picks up fish around the place, which sounds pretty bloody
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: technical to me, but He said, you know, they're always
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: liberating more fish. And I thought it was just quite
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: a good thing. An example, he said that the Hills
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: Golf Course, where I talk about, we lease that land
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: around from the hills. They're doing a big development there
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: and it's changed completely. And they asked, they were going
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: to put some ponds in for reservoirs and they asked
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: Fish and Game, could they have some fish there? and
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: they said, yeah, we can deliver some fish, but on
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: proviso that at least once a year it's opened up
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: for children in the district to come and fish there.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: So all in all, a pretty good story.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a really good story. Your landline's going in the background.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: You're a man in demand. We'd better leave it there, disaster.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, just a bit before we go, I said
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: to these guys from Fishing Game that... There was, when
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: I was growing up in Te Anau, when I was
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: in Asian society back then, they had the fish hatchery
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: out just before the gun. And when I was just
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: a little tacker, my father, he drove to the transport
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: and we bought a tank load of fish up and
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: dropped some off at the Staircase Creek and put the
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: rest into Lake Johnson. And I reckon that was about 1968.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: So that brought back really good memories.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Ah, great story there, Disaster, and good to hear some
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: positivity around Fish and Game. Always appreciate your time, mate.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: All right, I'll go out and see if I can
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: catch one.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Grant, Disaster, McMaster, brought to you weekly by the team
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: at RB Rural. Fish and Game, good news story there too.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: One thing, though, let's see if we can work on
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: this opening weekend duck shooting licence for next year, eh?
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: Catherine Wright's up next.