OPIHI IS NOW SALMON RIVER.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 65, 18 March 1931, Page 3

OPIHI IS NOW SALMON RIVER.

REPORTS RECEIVED OF FISHING CONDITIONS.

A correspondent writes:—“ Nowadays fishing in South Canterbury may be taken to mean ‘ quinnating ’ in one way or another, for at the moment most of us are out to catch a salmon, and the trout waters are almost neglected. However, that is all to the for those who prefer trout fishing; they have the streams to themselves and are having a pretty fair time.” A Clearing River.

On Monday afternoon the Rangitata was clearing from the recent fresh, was clearing from the recent fresh. On the day before the fresh came down, a party of anglers landed a total catch of a dozen salmon averaging seventeen pounds, from two pools below the traffic bridge at Arundel.

Further down river, a lucky angler landed a brace weighing twenty-nine and thirty-one pounds each, within an hour, on a lure known as a “ Rakaia Spinner.” Elsewhere two twenty-five pounders -were secured from a wellknown stretch of water near Peel Forest. The first fish-was brought ashore in eight minutes, the next in eleven minutes, which seems rather * swift work; but with a strong rod and line, and a wire trace, it is a matter of “ pull devil, pull baker,” so they say. In a case contrasting with these forceful methods, an angler who was using one of these five-foot split-cane switches termed “ bait-casting rods,” hooked an estimated thirty-pounder in the “ Poplars Pool ” at Arundel. When armed only with one of these frail weapons,' the landing of even an. “ estimated ” thirty-pounder is naturally a lengthy process. The Opihi.

Apparently the famous Opihi may now be classed as a salmon river, and the trout-fishers of those parts are accordingly not pleased. Here are the latest findings: “Two days before the fresh came down the Rangitata, there were hundreds of salmon in the Opihi lagoon. At ebb-tide they would drop back to the mouth of the river (so says our informant). I saw more quinnat here than I ever saw in the Rangitata. A good many were caught. I had three myself, and they weighed near twentypounds each. We were reckoning on a bit of real good* sport, but then the fresh in the Rangitata sent all the Rangitata people over here, scores of them, until the banks became too crowded. You might still get a fish, but often when you thought you had a take, it was just some other fellow’s bait which had fouled your line. “It is the largest run of quinnat which has ever entered the Opihi, and it is to be hoped that the salmon trap which has been set in place, away up the stream by the Acclimatisation Society, will check the upward progress of a considerable number or—so say the experts—the famous Opihi fishing must certainly be spoiled.” There are those who advocate .the spearing or shooting of quinnat wherever they may be found in the Opihi; and more than possibly they may be right.