SALMON NETTING AT HIGHBANK

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27583, 14 February 1955, Page 10

SALMON NETTING AT HIGHBANK

Seventy Caught In Tailrace Quinnat salmon will be available for the public of Christchurch today because of the midnight efforts of 18 men in the Highbank ; power station’s tailrace on Friday. The men, hired by the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society, worked from 10 p.m. until 1 a.m. on Saturday, and with their handnets took about 70 fine, fat > fish. The salmon will be sold through a local market. Netting in the tailrace will continue 1 at fortnightly intervals until the run ends, probably some time in April. ' Salmon caught in netting operations would otherwise be lost. Anglers are not permitted to operate in we tail*i race, or the stream running from it. The fish, taken into the blocked stream by their blind rush against the force of water, cannot fulfil their purpose and spawn. The flow of water through the power station was shut off at 10 p.m. on Friday, but before then the netters had to make their preparations for the night’s work. A 40-yard net was set across the mouth of the tail-race channel. One of the society’s rangers (Mr V. Henderson) waded out through the wai<-high water with a light cotton rope tied to his belt. The first attempt to cross the channel failed because Mr Henderson could not force his way through the rush of water. A second attempt, made a little further upstream, had the net fixed within a few minutes. As the water began to recede in the channel another 40-yard net was taken by a gang of men to the grid guarding the mouth of the tailrace proper. Two men on each end of the net worked downstream, driving the salmon before them. More men with handnets stood in a narrows and scooped up the fish as they streaked away from the advancing long net. Within five minutes 20 salmon were ranged on the bank. : The First Fish One man, a novice to the art of netting, drew the first fish of the night. He was leaning with his net in the water when mere was suddenly a flurry of foam under his feet. He jerked the net out of the water and carried to the bank a fine 251 b salmon. When the downstream section of the race had been cleared of fish the men moved up towards the power station with their dragging net. This year the grid was more effective in preventing the salmon from entering the main tailrace and very few fish were recovered from this section. Trout were also caught in this part, but they were gently freed from the mesh and put back into the water. Trout feed well in the tailrace on pieces of fish cut up by the turbine blades. Several of the men working m the tailrace claimed the trout they saw were bigger than any they had ever found before. One brown trout caught measured 21 Jin long and 20in in girth. At 1 a.m. work for the netters ended. The sluice gates of the power station were opened and with alarming rapidity the speed and level of the water in the race began to rise. In a fortnight the station will close down for another three hours or so for maintenance on the generator. Then the netmen will have another opportunity to provide salmon for Canterbury