AFTER SALMON IN THE SOUTH.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19205, 23 June 1924, Page 5

AFTER SALMON IN THE SOUTH.

By Malcolm Ross.

THE QUINNAT AS A SPORTING FISH. ACCLIMATISATION 01? THE SOCKEYE.

11. The question as to what extent tlvo quinTiat may be regarded.as a sporting Mi has been much debated. One hears afferent opinions. My own experience is limited, and I give it i'or what it is worth. In company with Mr L. 13. IScwton, of Ashburton, I fished in the lower reaches of the Ranaitata on my way to Tc-Anau for tho Atlantic salmon fishing. This vear the run of quinnat m the ( antcrburv rivers was late., and not so large as it 'was last year. The unusually dry summer and autumn may have Lad something to do with tho lateness of the run. We. already know that the runs here vary in numbers as they do en the Pacific Coast. There, is no doubt that the x\ew Zealand quinnat runs arc increasing yearly, and that they will continue to increase for some, years to corne. Mr D. Hope, who is in charge of the hatchery in the Acclimatisation" Gardens in Christchurch', tells me that the smelts were in ■tho Waimakariri last seuson literally in thousands, promising a very ran three years hence. Whatever may be said about the sporting qualities of the quinnat there can be no doubt that anglers in Canterlvury ■ display an extraordinary keenness in attempting to catch them. When my friend and I reached the Rangitata River, fishermen seemed to bo there in companies or at least platoons. There was not a single pool on tho Ashburton or Timaru side of the river that remained unfished. Anglers camo armed with the strangest assortment of implements of warfare. There were rods in extraordinary variety, from the stiff bamboo and tho stout but pliant grcenheart to the modem "Murdoch" and tho steel-centred, pplitcane fifteen footer —a triumph of modern manufacture. Tho reels varied with' the rods. The split-eancrs were armed with tho up-to-date "Perfect" and the silent "Silex," with a new contraption to stop the overrun. The grcenhearters had "Nottiiigh&vns" or more simple machinery, and the bearded Bambooers winches that miirht have been made in tho days of the delightful Scrope or even of the beloved l&aak. There was one tho noise of which carried across tho river with the clatter of a chaffcutter. Tackle was usually in harmony with the rod. One new hut disappointed, yet, hopeful, convert to the gentle art had a rod of thick bamboo which had been broken off near tho middle. The line ran through rings made from fencing wire, and the trace was of double-twisted picture-wire strong enougn to hold up one of Augustus John's pictures in tho Royal Academy. Two lumps of rough lead acted as sinkers, and the bait was the business end of a teaspoon, spirited, by some magic,, from the refreshment room at the railway station. The bond of sympathy that the gentle art induces drew us together on the bank, and enabled us to examine each other's tackle. While I was secretly amused at his?., he was openly amazed at mine—the fino trace, smooth, pliant "Corona" line, and most of all the backing of thin plaited silk that might easily be used in a sewing machine. I gave my brother beginner what advice I could. I may never meet him again on any mundane river, but I hope he will have many a foil creel, and that when wo fish the streams "that down Cocylus valley flow, where spectral fishes come and go," our. ghosts may land the ghosts of fish. ° When we arrived at the Kangitata, it was cloudv, with a 'fresh" caused by melting snow on tho inland alps, and no one was catching hsh. The fishermen on our side of the stream were returning disappointed—like raiders without a prisoner. The fish had either been lying sullen at the bottom of the pools or had moved on. Next morning we went early upstream til! we came to a likely pool into which we. began to cast o«r spoon baits. In the throat of the pool, about the fifth cast, I felt a dull tug, struck, and was at once fast in a heavy fish. After a momentary hesitation, very Tinlike the first swift rush of a Tainbow trout, he made a quick short run Gownstream, then ran hack, suddenly changed his mind and went off to the end of the pool with a strong rush that quickly took out 123 yards of the line, and made the reel scream. AH this looked like good sport to come. At the end of the pool he leaped right out of the water, and fell back with a great spiash—a eletin-riui fish, just up from the sea, m>r* with sides that gleamed in the yunlight like polished silver. Suddenly hope, which had risen high, fell to the lowest depths. Hie fish •was gone, and with him my spcon and trace'and 25 yards of line! Ai;er all my care thero had been an unnoticed flaw in tho line! In tho tail of the poo! tie fish gave one more great leap to get rid of the hook that was annoying mm, and Newton, hurrying down, began to cast in hopes of fouling the broken line,' and, perhaps, getting the fish after ■ all. Just as I was about to tie on another trace and spoon I heard a shout from my Companion and found that he had secured my lost tackle from which the fish had freed himself. We fished assiduously for '■lie vest of the day, and 1 succeeded in landing a 22-pounder which kept mo busy for about 12 minutes.

TIGHT WITH A TWEXTY-FIVE POUNDEII.

Xext morning wo i«so at five o’clock, made a hurried breakfast, and, taking tl,o car, vent several miles up stream. Wo had heard of a pool from which one angler, in an afternoon and a morning's hsiung, had taken 13 ouinnat. Wo hoped to he first there, but found three ‘carloads of anglers before us, so. wc went still farther up-stream and commenced to fish in a long, swift-running pool. There were fishermen above and below us on both sides of the river, but fish were few and far between. It was not long, however, before I was fast in a fish which began to move somewhat dully about the pool without showing himself. After a few short, steady runs lie took it into his head to rush' olf down stream. Putting a heavy strain on the tackle, I got him to the top, and had a momentary glimpse of his hack, which showed me that he was a big fish. He then made a more determined rush down stream, tho swift current helping him. In this rim ho took out about 160 yards of line, and I had to follow quickly to keep a reasonable margin of safety on the reel. Gradually I recovered a good deal of tho line, and hold on grimly, but the fish had got into a very strong current, and, even when I had turned his head upstream, he used Ids weight in the swift water and kept below me. Newton followed quickly with tho gaff, but we had now got to a hank where there was little chauco of lauding the fish, and I had perforce to follow him down stream, keeping a heavy strain on the rod all the, time.. .Still lower down 1 had to steer him past tho danger zone of a big gorse hush that lay almost submerged in the river about 20 yards away from the bank. Tins safely accomplished, wc continued the fight downstream towards a place where the river branched. By this time tho fish, was beginning to tire, and I had recovered nearly all the line he had taken cut. But (here was danger ahead in the branching stream through which, if he took the farther run, 1 might not have been able to follow him. It was apparently a ease of now or never. We had come to the end of the bank and tho stream shallowed out on our side. Into the shallows I managed to guide him safely, and there Newton, who had been an interested, and, 1 imagine, somewhat amused spectator, gaffed him. The fish proved to be a fine female weighing 25ih. t-lhe had taken mo down the river for nearly half a mile, and the battle lasted for exactly 25 minutes. One could wish for no better sport. But this fish was hooked at the side of the mouth in a way that gave it live advantage, and the heavy water in which it had to be played was a handicap to tho angler.

From all I could gather the quinnat is not usually so lively a fighter as tho Atlantic salmon. It is also against him as a sporting fish that he docs not readily take tho fly, though I believe if one found tho river clear and fished deep with a heavy salmon fly he would catch quinnat. Tho difficulty with these glacier rivers is that any melting of the snows on the alps brings down innumerable minute particles of disintegrated rock and nuul which make the water so cloudy that often the fish cannot see a salmon fly when they could see a three-inch glittering silver spoon or Devon. Used to big sea-run trout. Canterbury fishermen —at all events those who fish in the big rivers—seem to he mainly bait and artificial minnow anglers, so perhaps the .fly has not been given a fair chance with the quinnat. There is also live fact that many catch the fish for sale, and an angler who is getting about a pound sterling for his fish will generally use heavy tackle to make sure of landing him. There is one other point against the quinnat as a sporting fish. The nm comes late in the season, varies considerably, and, often, is a short one. i’he Atlantic salmon, on the other hand, begin to ran in tho early spring, and the run continues until late autumn. The spring fishing, which apparently you do not get. with the quinnat, is the best of live fishing with the Atlantic variety. Indeed a . battle, with one good “springer” is worth half a dozen of the lamer 'fights with tho late autumn fish. Nevertheless, from the sporting point of view, the quinnat is not altogether to be despised. It is possible that in suitable water you might tempt him with a fly, fished deep, and there is always the chance of catching a 40 or even a 00-pounder. And, so long as there are big iish to he caught, you will always find anglers ready to catch them. And, after all, we must not forget that the quinnat was introduced, not as a sporting fish, hut for food. THE SOCKEYE. When I was on the Kangitata anglers were catching small salmon which they took to he soekeye (0. Nerka). 1 did not catch any of these small fish, and did not see them caught, hut descriptions given by those who did catch them suggest that they were sockeyc. Up to one year there is not much difference in appearance between tho quinnat and the soekeye, but the small fish tliat were being caught in tho Kaneitata were not yearlings. They were of weights ranging between, three and 10 pounds, and they had the bluish-green hack and the silvery sides characteristic of the soekeye. Ova of sockeyc were introduced by the Government, and the fry liberated in tributaries of the Waitaki and the small streams running into Lake Chau. The process of intensive stocking adopted in regard to quinnat was, however, not applied to soekeye. and most of those liberated in the ‘()hau streams chose to become land-locked and ran back from tho lake into tho head waters to spawn. In the lake they did nob find as much food as they could have obtained in tho sea, and consequently did not grow to the usual size. Possibly some are now running to and from the sea, and Mr Ayson tells me that fish, identified as sockeye, have been caught below tho hatchery at Hakataramea. If it is the case that they are now running in the Canterbury rivers we may expect eventually to see a largo increase in their numbers, for they are a very prolific species."" In North America they are regarded as next in importance to'the quinnat as a food fish, and the soekeye fishery of the Fraser River system was formerly the world’s greatest salmon fishery. Of late years it has deteriorated because, owing to a blockage in the channel and excessive fishing in which Canada and America were competing, a sufficient number of fish were unable to get up to the spawningbeds of the Fraser River basin. Until the problem is dealt with internationally tho fishery will not recover.

The importance of the introduction of these fish into New Zealand waters cannot very well be over-estimated, because if they are successfully acclimatised, in ■ a few' years we may ‘exoect very large runs in' our rivers, and there will be a profitable market for them in New Zealand and Australia, and perhaps even farther ■ridel. Some‘figures from the American statistics *re illuminating. Every fourth' year, as with the quinnat, there are big runs of sockeyo. In the Fraser River, from 1910 to 1512' inclusive, the runs produced respectively 584,869, 189,769 and 307,Via cases of salmon, while in 1913 the fishery produced no less than 2,401,4b8 cases. Then, owing to the causes mentioned, this great fishery began to decline, until in' 1921 the total pack Was only 142,598 cases. The figures minted are for both Canadian and American waters. With proper control it would be easy to get bade to a yearly pack that would he worth thirty million dollars a year. The moral, as far as New Zealand is concerned, is obvious. In connection with the runs of salmon a point that is of special interest to anglers is how quickly the fish run up the rivers. The quinnat seems to be a slowniiniing fish. In America his ran is usually four or live miles a day. Apparently it is about the same rate in New Zealand. At the mouth of the Rangitat, when there is a run on, the fish can be seen coming in through : the breakers. Numbers remain for a time in ’the pools of the lower roaches. They are caught in pools only a few miles from tho sea, and, often, 'such fish* have lost their sea silver and have changed to a dull olive or a coppery colour, indicating that they have remained for some days in those lower pools. PROBLEMS FOR EXPERTS. American authorities sav that many fish take two months to reach their spawning grounds, and that then it lakes from two to six weeks, or even longer, before they are ready to roawn. In the American rivers there is * spring run in months corresponding to April, May, and Juno here, and an autumn* run corresponding to tho New Zealand run in February, March and April. One does not hear of the spring run in New Zealand. Is there such a run? Mr Edgar Stead states that ho has caught a third species of Pacific salmon—a humpback—in a Canterbury river. From inquiries made in Wellington I gather that humpback ova was not imported. All the ova for stocking New Zealand rivers was obtained by experienced men used to handling thousands of quinnat, and it is most unlikely that they would take the ova from a humpback in mistake for a quinnat. All doubts as to whether the sockeye and humpback are being caught in Canterbury rivers could bo settled, however, by sending specimens to tho Marine Department for examination by an expert. If necessary they could be frozen and forwarded for the opinion of the experts in the United States. Since tho foregoing was written I have received a. letter from Mr D. Hope, in which ho expresses the opinion, though not definitely,' that the smaller fish caught in the Waimakariri aro immature quinnat.

The first, article of this series appeared on June 14.