ANGLING.

Otago Witness, Issue 1847, 15 April 1887, Page 27

ANGLING.

[Readers are invited to contribute items of local fishing news for insertion in this column. For insertion in the ensuing issue they should reach Dunedin by Monday night's mail.'] BY JOCK SCOTT. To be a perfect fisherman you require more excellences than are usuctlty to he found in such a small space as is allotted to a man's carcass. — Parker Gilmore. SALMON OVA. (Feom Oub Home Cobbespondent.) Sixteen boxes of Howietoun salmon ova have been sent out by the Doric in unusually fine condition. It is hoped from the special care taken in packing them thab they will arrive at the end of the voyage' in as good a state as they were sent out. The consignment amounted to about 330,000 eggs, which is the largest shipment that has ever been sent to any of the Australasian colonies before. In the" shipments sent last year by the lonic and 'the Kaikoura the insulating case which Was employed was rather large for handling'; consequently, io the Doric four smaller cases, each holding f oub of the Howietoun boxes, have blen used, and it is thought with advantage. The shipments by the Kaikoura and the Doric altogether, amounted- to 490,000 ova and some 30,000 salmo fontinalis. •. By the Tongariro this week there are being .sent 100,000 Rhine ova from the Bavarian fiihery, and about 150,000 Scotch salmon ova, the remnant of those taken from the North British fisheries. There are also going out 25,000 brook trout ova from the Bavarian Fishery, 25,000 Alpine char ova, and 25,000 Carpiorie trout ova — the- rarest of the salmo fanix, whose habitat is' only in the Lago diGarda. The introduction of the lake trout into New Zealand will not „ only be a great curiosity but a great boon to ..epicures,. The particular species ' in question is called ' Tridta Carpions, .and enjoys a Tiigh reA" putation amongst lake trout for exquisite delicacy of flavour. - It has the additional recommendation of being a large fish that affords good sport. There ase/also 50,000 ova of the Loch Leven trout, which under the advantages to be found in the New Zealand lakes will probably develop. into the finest trout in- the world. , Some experiments have been brought to a conclusion at Howietoun which may have an important value to New Zealand. Sir James Maitland and his scientific expert Dr Day have been experimenting for the past five years tipon the possibility of -breeding a land-locked salmon. They are now sure Of success, and feel confident that the salmo salar can be introduced into the lakes of New Zealand. It is not considered possible to naturalise this variety in any part of Australia, unless it be the cold lakes in certain parts of Gippsland, but it is thought it will thrive to perfection in waters like Lake Wakatipu, where it will enjoy the pure snow-water which seems so necessary for its existence. A book which will be. of e&ecial interest to New ZJealandeys fetce" History of Howietoun,"

by Sir J/Ramsay-Gibson-MSitk^rfiSfftf^THr volume is of some~3oo pages in extent, and is famished with nearly 200 woodcuts and othefr ' illustrations. It gives a fall description of the Howiotoun fisheries, hatching houses, and ponds ;. of the erperiments which hare • been carried on there fromlß73 up to the present time, and of the fish cultural worn: and the results obtained. The author states that the Howietoan fishery ;ha& , just been completed, after 10 years- of continuous constructive work, and he deemed it advisable to publish an account of the way in which, the work has been carried out and of the results obtained. His obtect in so doing has been to prove that the culwre of the salmonida can "be made a commercial success if set about in a businesslike manner. With regard to the cultivation of salmon in New Zealand, I may mention that it is Sir Dillon Bell's opinion that the acclimatisation of this fish in New Zealand would be equivalent to a gift of a million sterling to the colony. SCALES. Pike and a few other species feed less freely in hot summer weather than when the temperature is more moderate. Many fishes, however, do not feed at all during' the winter months. Fresh water fishes endure hunger better than marine fishes in the temperate zones. Goldfishes, carps ells subsist for months without food and without losing health or flesh apparently. The strawberry bass, barfish, grass bass, calico bass and other marine varieties survive but a few day when deprived of food. A similar difference is observed in the temperature, nearly all marine fishes being sensitive to change of climate. The fresh water fishes of the temperate zones endure the change much better, and, as an extreme instance, it is known that the carp may survive being frozen in a solid block of ice and yet thrives in the southern portions of the temperate zone. Cod liver oil is prepared from the liver of some of the Gadoids (codfishes) of the Northern Hemisphere, and^of the sharks.' Isinglass is made from the swim-bladder of sturgeons, croakers and thread-fins, and shagreen from the skin of sharks and rays. Gunther remarks that the flesh of some fishes is at times, or constantly, poisonous, but rarely to such an extent as to cause death. Poey enumerates 72 different kinds from Cuba that have occasionally or frequently produced symptoms of poisoning. Most of them acquire their poisonous properties from food such as poisonous medusae, corals, or decomposing substances. Frequently the fishes are found to be edible if the head and intestines be removed immediately after capture. In- the West Indies it has been ascertained that all fishes living snd feeding on certain coral banks are poisonous. In other fishes the. poisonous properties are developed at certain seasons of the year only, especially the season of propagation; as the barbel, pike and burbot whose roe causes violent ditarhoeas when eaten during the season of spawning. Hybernation is common among many fishes of the temperate zones. Between the tropics a great number of varieties survive long drouths by passing the dry season in a perfectly torpid state imbedded in the hardened mud, Protoperus (not classed among true fishes) and others prepare for themselves a cavity large enough to hold them and coated on the inside with a layer of hardened mucus, which prevents their being absolutely dried up. Gunther appears to credit the statement that in India fishes survive in this condition for more than one season and that ponds, known to have been dry for several years, and to the depth of many feet have swarmed with fishes as soon as enough water accumulates to release them from their hardened bed. The theory that fishes suffer but little pain when captured be the hook seems to be confirmed by the fact that a Greenland shark will go on feeding with a harpoon or knife thrust into his head, provided the nerve centre is not wounded. A sea perch or pike will live after a portion of its tail has been cut off, and a carp after half his snout has been cut away. Some fishes are known to grow rapidly (in the course of from one to three years) and regularly to a certain size, growth being definitely arrested after the standard has been reached. Such fishes may be called " full grown" in the sense in which the term is applied to warm-blooded vertebrates — the sticklebacks, most of tne carps and many of the herrings are examples 6f this regular growth. But in the majority of fishes the rate of growth is extremely irregular, and it is hard to know when growth is actually and definitely arrested. All seems to depend upon the amount of food and the more or less favourable circumstances uncer which the individual grows up. Fishes which rapidly grow to a definite size are shortlived, while those which steadily and slowly increase in size attain to a great age. Marine fishes are more prone to enter voluntarily brackish water than are fresh water fishes to seek the ocean. The annual pilgrimages of the sea trout, salmon, shad and others are the exceptions, not the rule. HOW TO CATCH A SLEEPING SALMON. Considering the enormous amount of active exertion a salmon undergoes, and also how eminently conducive is sleep to the wellbeing of the muscular system, it is safer to admit than to reject the proposition tnat salmon have their intervals of repose, and, consequently, are in utter ignorance of their own existence. . . . Sometimes on excursions for the collection of useful angling information, I have noticed these fish in full view and distinctly to be seen in a perfectly rigid state, when no shuffling of the body or arms will attract their notice, so long as the movement was made without staking the ground. But, momentarily, with the slightest provocation, such as stamping the foot on the bank, the would dart off, sometimes returning, and then to be seen moving their tails and fins as well as showing other signs that they were not in a state of torpidity: . . . Not long ago, in company with Mr Heathcote, I was fishing imcler a bridge spanning the river Earn,

*ImWffiStely-b^qw^ J tfie^^ way thoroughfare, and a.short cast doarn the water, ' we' marked "down ~k ' fish of about 201b in' weight, still as a statue. After waving a handkerchief from the bridge, and actually dangling it, fixed' to'our fiy-line, just over the surface of the water in front of the catch to ho effect, he agreed to ray observation that' the fish was fast asleep. On this occasion I had no. Britannia with me, but another pattern, somewhat similar, having a dirty orange; body and a brown mallard wing, served onr purpose equally well. 1 . With this fly attached to the line," rather heavily weighted, on account of our being so much over thVfish,' and'in order to make it sink there we waited f and watched. ' Everything favoured our investigations, the Vater being bright as gin and not a breath of air stirrine: its surface. t Determined to see what effect the afternoon" train would have, we tied the rod on the' parapet and made for the bank , on 'hearing the train approach. The experiment failed in one respect, but succeeded in another ; for ' the moment the carriages reached the bridge and startled tbe fish, it seized the fly and started up stream, breaking away before we could help ourselves. According to well established precedent, it seems certain, then, that the best way to treat sleeping fish is to place a suitable fly before their nose and awaken them by some subsidiary means, keeping" well out of sight, j — George M. Kelson, in Land and Water.