Prospects Good Far Fishing Season

Manawatu Times, Volume 65, Issue 229, 27 September 1940, Page 2

Prospects Good Far Fishing Season

For the angling season which is to open on October 1 prospects in the Manawatu and adjacent districts are described as bright if present conditions continue, as everything at the moment is favourable. The rivers arc at summer level and in a good state for fishing right through the district. Fish seem to be in evidence in all the streams in the district and the rivers are all thought to be well stocked.

The best spawning season for years has been experienced locally, and it has | been remarkably prolific. Since the young fish were formed there have been 1 no big freshes in the rivers, so that the fry have been saved and the rivers now have prolific quantities of them. This was revealed in a recent inspection by officers of the Palmerston North branch of tho Wellington Acclimatisation Society of several streams in the district, but anglers, of course, will not receive the full benefit of the spawning for an other three years, when the fish will have developed. Anglers will face certain restrictions on their fishing this year, in view of fly-fishing only now being allowed in several small streams, some of them near Palmerston North. The streams affected include the Kahuterawa, Tiritea and Tokomaru. Minnow fishing is prohibited there, it being felt that fly-fishing is of a type better suited for these streams. However, the smaller local streams are usually fished with the fly, and as the larger rivers such as the Manawatu, part of the Oroua, and the Hangitikei, are still open for minnow fishing, the new regulations should not be found unduly irksome. Marked Fish. “The society would like every angler in the district to keep a diary,” said Mr. T. Andrews, ranger of the Palmerston North branch of the Wellington Acclimatisation Bociety, in speaking of the liberation of marked fish in local rivers. Not only would this be of value in checking the dispersal of marked fish; it would also provide considerable data of great value on fishing seasons for future generations. Some 4400 well-grown brown trout yearlings, from 4.J inches to legal size, reared in Palmerston North, were liberated in August, mainly in the Manawatu between the Gorge and Massey College, and in tributaries along this section. A further number were placed in the Tiritea and Kahutorawa Streams. Some of these fish will have attained legal size in the coming season and others may be landed as undersized. The marking was carried out by threading a fine piece of silver wire through the base of the front of the dorsal fin, and through a very small plain or pink bead. While the dispersal of marked fish can be checked, the proportion of them caught will give valuable information on such liberations. If satisfactory reports are made by anglers in the coming soasoh it is proposed to mark fish for two more years, with beads of different colours to indicate the year. Anglers who fish in the Manawatu should enter the following particulars of each day’s angling in their diaries: 1 Date, hours fished, stream and location, number and individual length, in inches, of all legal fish caught, number of undersized fish returned, number of marked fish of legal size taken, number of marked fish below legal size returned and the colour of the small bead on

lack marked fish. Another advantage if keeping diaries would be to provide lata on various fishing seasons often in lemand by anglers. Such diaries would >e treated as confidential.