ANGLING

Southland Times, Issue 22490, 26 January 1935, Page 13

ANGLING

(By

“Matuku.”)

Last week-end the Southland streams were all high and unfishable. A few small fish were got in the upper reaches of the Dunsdale and Otapiri where the streams first fall. The main streams however were high and dirty and quite unfishable.

The present colder weather should put the remainder of streams in excellent order for the remainder of the season and cause the fish to be less sluggish. Also the sea fish should be running up from the tidal waters and improving the fishing further upstream. The Tourist Department of Tasmania are distributing an excellent booklet on their fishing attractions, and a copy was handed to me on the S.S. Monowai at Bluff recently. This booklet is excellently written with attractive photographs of fishing resorts and catches of fish and etc. It describes the various fishing resorts, rivers and lakes, the means and cost of access, the accommodation available and tariffs for same, and the sizes of fish available. There is no booklet published in New Zealand which gives corresponding information as to New Zealand conditions. It is quite apparent from this booklet that Tasmania is becoming a serious rival to New Zealand in its attractions to anglers. Dealing with the fishing near Launceston this booklet remarks that from September to December is the best time for the tidal water fishing where the heaviest fish are at this time of the year. The best bait is the whitebait or “tiddley” fished on a No. 4 or No. 6 hook on a single gut cast and used similarly to a wet fly. Probably this is a variation of the natural bait fishing as practiced in Southland and a whitebait or smelt on a single hook would no doubt be quite successful in Southland also.

A recent visitor to the Eglinton Valley suggests that Lake Marian in the Hollyford Valley, near the end of the road, should be stocked with American Brook Trout (Salmo fontinalis). This lake is fed from the glaciers of Mount Christina and must be very low in temperature, probably too low for Brown Trout. The Brook trout is a form of Arctic Char and according to report thrives in the Lakes in the American Rockies at an altitude of 7000 or 8000 feet. A track has now been cut into Lake Marian, and it would greatly add to the attractions of the Eglinton Valley if Brook trout fishing were available-there.

Reports from Otago and Canterbury are that the fishing to date has been poor owing to the dry weather and low streams. The Snow Rivers of Canterbury provide good dry fly fishing when

clear, but up to date they have been almost continuously discoloured. A fish ladder has been mstauea at the Waitaki Hydro to enable the Qurnnai Salmon to continue to run up the Waitaki. Anglers are • interested to see whether tne salmon will find their way up the ladder. It has been aesigneu in accordance with the best overseas advice aiK in consultation with Mi Hefford, Chief Inspector of Fisheries. The Hydro Dam is nemg stocxeu wiui rainbow trout and will no doubt provide good fishing in a year or two. On the question of iresh-water Research my attention has been drawn to a recent publication of the Conservation Department of the State ot New York entitled “A Biological Survey oi the Jenesee River System.” This report is most elaborate and shows that the Americans realize the necessity of research and are prepared to find the funds and do the tiling properly. The following points from the report are mentioned as being of general interest to local anglers and having a possible local application. A very large portion of the report deals with pollution problems which fortunately so far are a minor problem in New Zealand. The head waters of the system are in Pennsylvania and terminate in Lake Ontario; its area is about 2,400 square miles, not far from that of the Tay. Its waters have a stream length of about 3,000 miles, and include ponds and lakes covering about 172 square'miles. The survey occupied three months, from June 15th to September 15th, and the sum allocated for its conduct was 15,000 dollars (£3000). The staff consisted of fourteen scientists, including a chemist, a biologist, icthylogists, an artist, a botanist, and assistant specialists. Its object was “to determine the most practical methods of increasing fish production” in order that the millions of fish propagated in the hatcheries of the State, and allowed to applicants for stock, might be utilized to the best advantage.

The brook trout, (S. fontinalis) which was originally far more plentiful than it is at present, is less tolerant of high water temperature than either brown trout or rainbow trout and, with the cutting of the forests which formerly covered the region, has considerably declined. The removal of the trees and their shade has increased the summer temperatures of the water directly by removing the shade and indirectly by warming up the soil over which the water runs. The brook trout have accordingly become confined to the head waters fed by cold springs or to areas where cold springs rise directly in the river bed itself and so provide areas of cooled water in which fish can take refuge in hot weather. Next, partly side by side with the brook trout but mainly in waters rather too warm for the latter, comes the brown trout whose importation has made it possible to provide trout fishing over - many miles of streams in which the native will not live.

Thirdly comes the rainbow trout which stands a higher temperature but has been found to tend to move down stream in search of larger waters at an early age. Experience is believed to show that for rainbow trout either lakes or large rivers are essential, otherwise they will go down and disappear. When they remain in the lakes they push up stream in spring for many miles in order to spawn. Unless larger and deeper waters to provide resting places for them are available it is considered inadvisable to use them for stocking. In the present state of knowledge it is not possible to determine at all accurately the number of fish to be planted in a stream in order to utilize. its capacity to the fullest. A beginning, however, has been made by estimating the areas to be dealt with, classing them as richest, rich average, poor or very poor in food according to the nature of the bottom; giving five classes:— 1. Sand or hardpan without vegetation containing little food. 2.- Coarse to fine gravel, little better. 3. Mud or silt bottom with much organic debris which is regarded as providing the average amount. 4. Flat rocks and rubble containing ephemeriaae, stone flies, caddis, crayfish and other forms in abundance. 5. With a margin of water cress or a bottom containing much water moss, Fontinalis Antipyretics. On this bottom the richest kind of food is found.

Another important factor was found to be the presence or absence of pools, which obviously produced more food than the more rapid intervals between them, the exact nature of which has not been determined.

In estimating the results to be . expected from stocking with trout it is considered that 95 per cent, of advanced fry turned out and 50 per cent fingerlings were lost before they reached takeable size.

Experiments were made to ascertain the weight of fish carried in a unit area under different conditions, the lowest average found being a weight of trout population of about 751bs an acre and the highest 3001bs. An intermediate value of 1871 b has been assumed as an average. Further light upon these experiments will be interesting. Formulae have been devised, subject of course to subsequent revision if necessary, which set' out the number of fish of different ages to be placed in the different areas classified according to their productiveness in food for instance.

A provisional stocking table for trout streams has been drawn up based on nine different qualities of water giving the quantity of fish which can be stocked, the number of 3 inch fingerlings which it is assumed can be placed in a mile of water for every foot of its width together with valuation of the stocking value of smaller and larger fish between one and six inches. The relative values adopted for stocking of the different sizes of young trout from one to six inches are reckoned to be as follows:—

Length lin. 2in. 3in. 4in. sin. 6in. Number 1200 700 100 75 63 60

That is to say that 60 trout of six inches are provisionally considered equal in stocking value to 1,200 of one inch. This is of course, a general statement. The actual relative value of fry in relation to larger fish will depend considerably on the character of the water to be stocked. For instance, a length of alternating shallows and pools into which the shallows afford harbourage for the fry would give the fry a better chance than they would have in an equal length consisting entirely of deep water. As a practical result the Genesee system will be stocked x—■ me xirst time in its history with numbers and species of young fish procisionally calculated as suitable to the different areas into which they are to be turned. Those interested in any area will know precisely what stock it is considered fit to receive. As time goes on experience will probably show that modifications are desirable; improvements in the procedure will suggest themselves; some need for modification in the basic fomulae, too, will probably be indicated, but at any rate a sound foundation has been laid for work in the future.

In the history of human error there is no more curious phenomenon than the mannner in which, in the past, fish of all sorts and kinds have been dumped in all sorts of numbers into all sorts of water, with little or no consideration as to how far they are fitted to the use to which they were being put, or as to their effect upon the existing stocks.