TROUT FISHING IN NEW ZEALAND

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 21 February 1935, Page 9

TROUT FISHING IN NEW ZEALAND

(To the Editor) Sir, —I agree with Mr Sykes that the shags are largely responsible for the remarkable deterioration of sport in New Zealand rivers. I have been a trout fisherman for some 60 years, and have carried my rod with me to many parts of the world. I first visited New Zealand 31 years ago, and have been fishing both in the North and South Islands whenever I got the chance since arriving here ten years ago. In point of fact, it was largely the prospect of good fishing that brought me out here. The New Zealand fishing has deservedly gained world-wide repuation for its excellence, an such are the difficulties, the expense, and the restrictions in many cases elsewhere, that good fishing is a most valuable asset to any country or district, out to attract visitors and tourists, and to the keeping of people healthy minded and sane, though what is admitted to be a noble sport. We are likely to hear more and more as this country advances of nervous disorders due to the high pressure of living, to boredom due to too much leisure, and I maintain that few distractions are better than a day’s fishing beside some beautiful river or stream. There is, however, no doubt that New Zealand is rapidly losing its good reputation in this respect, and the reasons are not very difficult to see. As regards the shags, I have no hesitation in saying that at least ten times more fish are killed by them at present than are caught by line anglers, and probably the proportion is much larger. Only two weeks ago I was on the waters of the Upper Clarence, some 20 miles south of Lake Tennyson. The river itself, like so many more of its sort, is unfavourable for fly fishing. There remain a few large fish, the survivors of better daySj but these can only be taken on a minnow or bait of some sort. The river is much the same in this respect as the Pelorus, the Wairau, the Awatere, the Waiau, the Hurunui, and many others on the East Coast. It is in the smaller tributaries of these that trout are still to be found, and it was in these that I saw the shags hunting, and actually so full of fish, that in several cases they had to disgorge not one, but several trout, before they could fly. This occurred high up on what is known as Jolly’s Pass, and where the stream was quite small. The presence of shags and gulls is a sure indication of fish in any river or lake, and their absence in the main streams is as sure a sign to the contrary. Of the two. the shag being a diver, is very much the most destructive. As a matter of fact the gulls can only operate in shallow, open water, and I well remember watching a party of them hunting together, on the Opihi, their scheme being to dart down in succession upon a fish until it was tired out in its attempts to escape. However, the trouble as far as fishing is concerned in New Zealand, is much more deep seated and difficult to deal with. It would over extend this letter to go deeply into the matter, but I will indicate shortly what I believe to he among the main causes. Briefly, it is the settlement of man and deed that has done the mischief. The softness of the rocks from a. geological point of view, more particularly the huge glacial drifts and gravel beds covering the South Island, supplemented in the case of the North Island by the soft volcanic ash, pumice and pug deposits; the reckless and indiscriminate burning off of the forests that goes on ; and the destruction of the undergrowth on the hill tops and upper parts of the mountains by the deer,, has so exposed the ground surface to temperature variation, and weather and flood action, that cracks formed on the slopes during the dry spells allow the rain to penetrate deep into the soil, with the resultant slips due to hydrostatic pressure. Earth

tremors and quakes no doubt often complete the mischief, and the scars are visible to the eye all over the country. The Murchison and Karamaa districts are of course particularly shaken about due to the bad ’quake a few years ago, but in the former it is the unsupported rock faces that have suffered most. .Well, the effect of these slips, when washed down by the ever increasing floods, due to the absence of forest, and the draining of swamp land, has the result of constantly raising the river channel, and widening out the valleys into great barren shingle beds, miles wide in many instances, through which the river wanders in an ever changing course. 1 was particularly struck with this peculiarity to New cZaland in a tlnee months’ tour of the country I made on a bicycle in 1904. I have since seen the same thing happening elsewhere, particularly in Switzerland, hut never to anything like the same extent. It means that the gorges, so loved by fish, are filled in, in that there are no luscious green banks and backwaters where fish feed grows. The conditions are in fact fatal to trout, which only thrive under stable conditions of river channel such as are still seen in some of the smaller streams, and in such an exceptional stream as the Riwaka, which is spring fed from the Takaka limestone escarpment and not liable o bad floods. Only by reproducing such conditions will trout thrive, and that under the circumstances is almost an impossibility. In the meantime the destruction of shags and the restocking of streams will enable a few fish to survive, and give the fishermen the gleam of hope which is all he requires. It is a fact that every big river I passed between Nelson and Christchurch recently was muddy and low, and had been so more or less for months, due partly to local storms acting on the slips at the head waters, but more particularly to the muddy state of their channels. No fish can stand continuous muddy water, though an occasional flood is beneficial, and not only cleans out a river, but brings down ' much feed.—l am, etc., H. G. FOSTER-BARHAM. Nelson, 18th Feb.