FISHING NOTES.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20086, 15 November 1930, Page 7

FISHING NOTES.

QUINNAT salmon in LAKE COLERIDGE. (.EXCLUSIVE TO the FEIBS.j [By Black Gnat.] mm 5 ? w,ittßn b ? a fishertheoretical knowledl- I C? n 8 eon.iderablo urday. UtUf.A'.;' 1 , 1 ft W ear every Satqaobtlons and «.1 nßw# 01 care of th« l 1 d 1 "Blsok Quit," recelT. Edltor of Tl » Prbss, will receive prompt .ttention each week. r T'rr^ 6 Qftorts have been made to estabinnrtft * n salmon in Lake Coleridge, i *y having been liberated there a ou two years ago, it seems that, unxnv ted and without any assistance ?. D^ e ®' *' lQ Q u »nnat salmon has established itself therp T* „:u . „ ' Wl 'J be remembered that last season two or three quinnat were taken in Lake Pearson and one or two were reported to have been S Ur + e I Coleridge. _ This season at least ten have been taken, one fortunate angler at Coleridge securing four salmon out of a bag of five fish. The » L OI J a , ve ran « ed from 3i to 531b, , beautifully proportioned fish, a brilliant silvery blue in colour. In tact they are much prettier fish than sea-run quinnat and, instead of the sheen going off goon after death as it does }n lake rainbow, the fish retain their colouring, & * In fighting qualities tlie landlocked variety is reported to excel the sea-run, and taken with a small spoon-bait on light tackle they give a wonderful display of fierce rushes. Another point in their favour is that, instead of having the despised "sawdust" taste of the sea-run fish, they are quite good oating. This is not surprising for no reasonable man would exj>ect a flsh to be worth eating when ripe with spawn. One female fish taken had well developed spawn in it and would presumably have spawned next winter. These quinnat must have come down the Harper as fry and developed in the lake. Local men remember having seen large numbers of fingerlings in the Harper above the lake in the last few years and were at a Joss to establish their identity. They were satisfied that the fish were not brown or rainbow trout and presumed that they were some of the liberated Atlantic fry. Several anglers, well qualified to express an opinion, are satisfied that the fish captured are quinnat and not Atlantic salmon. sS £ There is nothing new in the establish* ment in fresh vmtef ot the salmon which is normally « sea fipli rvming into the rivers to spawn or, if one prefers it, a fresh-water fish going to the sea to grow. The interesting point is that the establishment of quinnat salmon in Lake Kanieri, in Weijtland, and in Lake Golpridge, and of eockeyp salmon in Lake Ohau, was never intended. In the case of Lakes Kanieri and Ohau the fry were liberated in the rivers below the lakes as fry and worked Bp into the lakes and were content to remain there and run up the lake tributaries to spawn, whereas normally they might have been expected to have made their downward niigfation as smolts to the aea. Apparently the fry batched in the lake tributaries have made the downward migration at thß smolt stage to the lakes and have regarded the Jake as their sea. Iu neither Ohau nor Kanieri do the voluntarily "landlocked" fish grow to much over In Te Anau the Atlantic salmon, which often exceed 81b in weight, appear to be descended froip fish liberated in the UpukOroro river, which flows into the lake. * =iLake Coleridge how contains brown and rainbow trout and quinnat salmon, and it remains to be seen whether or not the Atlantic nalmon liberated thcr* will inaka a showing in face of the competition that they must inevitably m®et with from the larger fish. These salmo salar were liberated almost exactly two years ago, but it is unlikely that the survivors, of them will yet have attained the limit size. By scale reading Mr H- M- Godby ascertained that two fish taken about 12 years back had fiv the end of the second winter attained the lengths of (our inches and lfijl inches) rpgpf<;i}v*jv. These, however, were brown trout, and whether salmo fario and salmo salar grow at anything like the same pace in the same water remains to be determined. I« anv case it is improbable that as great a growth can now be expected in view of the larger stock that Coleridge appears to be supporting, * • # It is now generally forgotten that from 1875 onwards several attempts were made to acclimatise the American white-fish in Coleridge, Although masiy thousands were liberated nothing more seems to have been heard of tli«m- While yag' l ® reports of a 6trange fi|jh having been seen circulated for some time nft<sr. no upecimen mms ever to have been caught. This is, however, a deen water fish which migrates in season tp the shallower waters to sijawn, Considering that it is pnly in tlie last three or four years that much fishing hag been done at Coleridge, and that only in the marginal waters, it is possible that the white-fish Still exists there. As it some? times attains a weight of 401b and is supposed to be one of the finest eating of all fresli-water ftshee, it is to be hoped that even at this late date some news of it will come to hand. * * In view of the fact that the quinnat have already found their way into two Canterbury lakes, there is every . reason to believe that they will get into Lake Sumner, through which. the Hurunui Hows, nave bpen rilfl' nlng well Jn the fturunui in the last few year*, and the access to this lake should prove less troublesome for salmon than that to Lake Pearson. The Hurunui oan provide excellent trout fishing from the lake down and particularly ftne bags have been taken this seapon down at the mouth.

Sf « The following passage is tnlsen from the report of the California State Fisheries CoßWission for 1877 : "The palmo readily adapts itself to a life ip fresh water an(J reproduces its kind where there ia no opportunity to go to the ocean. When clams were constructed . . the young of the salmon that had spawned the year previous to the erection of these dams retrained in the reservoirs and grew to weight frequently as much as 101b; these reproduced until the reservoirs have become stocked. As the Supply of iish increased the quantities of food Inserted, ho that the Sfthrton now pot average more than 21b," * « The increase in the amount of good spawning wst«r caused by ths diver* s{on of the Harper and the approach' in? diversion of the Acheron will probably permit a similar deeline in size to take place at Coleridge. With the limited amount of suitable spawning grourid available before, the natural increase was sufficiently checked to ensure a sufficiency af food for those fish that did reach maturity