QUINNAT SALMON

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21413, 10 February 1933, Page 17

QUINNAT SALMON

SOUTHERN RANGER'S VIEWS "A MENACE TO TROUT" A report on the prevalence of quinnat salmon in (he Opihi River, and on their detrimental effect on trout,-fishing, has been submitted to a meeting of the South Canterbury Acclimatisation Society by Iho ranger, Mr. F. W. Pellett. "Quinnat salmon," the report stated, "like the German owl, are a, menace, the former to trout lifn and the latter to bird life." Quinnat salmon wpre essentially a salt-water fish. They spent most of their life in salt water, and consequently they dirl not afford the angler the same amount of sport as do trout. There was not the same amount, of skill in angling salmon when hooked as there was in trout.

Salmon and trout were identical in their spawning habits, and needed shallow running water and gravel beds wherein to deposit ova. There was a difference of nine weeks between the spawning of salmon and that of trout. Both fish spawned on the same beds. Salmon were a voracious fish, and would domineer trout. The same remark applied to the parr fish of salmon; they also would tight parr trout for an existence. In the matter of food fossiling, said Mr. Pellett, salmon parr would outstrip trout parr, as rainbow parr fight off brown trout parr when it came to procuring food An both quinnat and rainbow fish were near allies in nature, and both species were a gormondising fish, it, could easily be understood that either of these species existent in any river must depreciate the well-being of brown trout for these reasons alone.