Big ‘trout’ is a salmon

Press, 27 April 1984, Page 2

Big ‘trout’ is a salmon

Yesterday’s report about a 9kg (201 b “brown trout” caught at Lake Sumner on Easter Saturday, has turned out to be another fishy story. A salmon expert in the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Mr Ron Dougherty, is convinced the fish is a salmon. After seeing the picture of the fish, Mr Dougherty, who is a technical officer on salmon research, decided to visit the taxidermist and inspect the fish for himself. “It is a quinnat salmon, almost in its spawning colours. A salmon always has a black or charcoal lining to the mouth, whereas a trout has a white mouth,” he said. Mr Dougherty said he had probably handled 20,000 salmon and “a fair few” trout and knew the difference. The man who caught the fish, Mr Denis Frampton, said a number of fishermen at the Lake Katrine settlement thought it was a salmon when they first saw it because of its size, but then said it was a trout. “Everyone from the lake down to Rangiora thought it was a trout. My work-mates have tried to console me, saying it was a pretty big salmon anyway, but that does not help because I have caught bigger salmon,” Mr Frampton said. “I am not so worried about the record; it is having the experts prove you wrong that is embarrassing. That is the price of fame, I guess.” One of the owners of the Fox and O’Quist sports store, Mr Bill O’Quist, said he saw the fish briefly on Monday night then again on Tuesday. After checking with his “bible” on fish species, “New Zealand Freshwater Fishes,” by R. M. McDowall, he was convinced it was a trout. “The characteristics that stood out were the fish’s prominent turned-up jaw, seemingly short-based anal fin, and the all-over brown colour.” Mr O’Quist is a committee member of the New Zealand Salmon Anglers’ Association, but he said that that did not make him an expert and he was sure Mr Dougherty knew salmon better than he did. “I have asked lots of fishermen how they distinguish between trout and salmon, but no-one really knows. Most say they can tell by looking,” said Mr O’Quist. If anyone wanted to improve their fish knowledge they could visit the Glenarriffe hatchery on the Upper Rakaia River, which would be open to the public this week-end, said Mr Dougherty. Mr Frampton has decided not to have his fish mounted after all. He joked that he might take it and head into the hills for a month until all the publicity had died down.