BAG LIMIT FOR TROUT

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27088, 10 July 1953, Page 6

BAG LIMIT FOR TROUT

REDUCTION TO EIGHT RECOMMENDED If the Marine Department approves a recommendation of the council of the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society, the limit bag for acclimatised fish for the coming season will be 18 fish a day, of which number not more than 10 may be salmon and not more than eight trout.

The size limits recommended are the same as those for last year—l2 inches for any trout or salmon taken from any high-country waters, 10 inches for trout or salmon taken elsewhere, and six inches for perch. These recommendations were carried at a meeting of the council.

The limit bags last year were 10 for trout and 10 salmon, except in the case of high-country waters, where the limit was eight trout and 10 salmon. A suggestion from the annual meeting that the bag limit for trout be eight everywhere in the society’s district, was recommended for approval by the fish committee. It was strenuously opposed by Mr R. B. Soanes. In the past there had been much talk about the scientific investigation of fish populations, he said. The report of a senior fisheries officer of the Marine Department in a bulletin said that two-thirds pf fish in streams such as the Horokiwi died each year through natural causes. “Then we turn round with a recommendation like this and fly in the face of his expert opinion,’’ said Mr Soanes.’ It had been suggested that the bag limit in low-country waters should be brought into line with that for the high country. That was a very fatuous statement, he said. The size limit of fish was reduced last year to give the anglers a chance to take more fish, but if the recommendation was carried they would get less fish. Dr. D. McK. Dickson said the committee recommended that it be passed, only in so far as it related to trout.

The council approved the fish committee’s recommendation.