TroutFest begins this long weekend - but one of the region's fish farmers is already celebrating.
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Dean Williams, owner of Deano's Spring Water Smoked Trout, was awarded a gold medal at the Sydney Royal Fine Food Show for his rainbow trout fillets last month.
"It's awesome!" Mr Williams said. "I was pretty close to getting grand champion."
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He received the medal in the smoking section on September 16, outdoing smoked salmon and whole trout entries. Three years ago, he received bronze and silver at the show.
The public will be able to try Mr Williams' award-winning produce at the TroutFest markets at the Bowling Club on Saturday.
On Sunday, Mr Williams will also run tours of his 10-acre fish farm at his property, 'Ardrossan', 643 Black Mountain Road. Tours at 10am and 2pm.
He will take visitors round his eight ponds, where he produces 1500 fish (mainly rainbow trout, brown trout, and Atlantic salmon) a year, then to the shed where he processes and smokes them. "From pond to plate, I call it!" Mr Williams said.
He also supplies yabbies to celebrity chef Kylie Kwong, and runs fat lambs - "or trying to at the moment, with this drought!".
Mr Williams has run his fish farm for 20 years - 13 as a hobby while he was a shearer, and full-time for the last seven years.
He became interested in fish while working on prawn boats out of Gladstone, Maxwell, and Mackay as a teenager. When he returned to his family farm, he set up his ponds.
Mr Williams sells his produce from a little shop at his farm. Visitors will soon be able to stay at a caravan park there; he has already set up toilets, showers, and facilities for BBQs and parties.
For more information, visit https://www.deanossmokedtrout.com.au/.