ROD AND LINE

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20422, 12 February 1938, Page 20 (Supplement)

ROD AND LINE

By “Irldeus”) ATLANTIC SALMON UNSUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENT APPARENTLY UNMIGRATORY CONTRASTED TROUT EVOLUTION Last week we looked briefly at the! history of the acclimatisation of Pacific i or quinnat salmon in New Zealand, 1 and it is appropriate tor us this week j to give some consideration to the' problems which arose when a similar i attempt was made to establish the, Atlantic salmon in this country i If the quinnat experiment is re-j garded as only a partial success, then' tfcat with Atlantic salmon must be re-i garded as almost a total failure King of Game Fish The Atlantic salmon has usually) been regarded by the majority of: anglers in Great Britain, Norway and; the Eastern Stales of America as the j king of game fish. Largest of the salmonidae, the capture of specimens of over 701 b and many of over 601 b . has been recorded in the past, the best, fish of recent years from a British river being one of 641 b, taken in the Tay. Scotland, in 1923.

The average weight of salmon varies' considerably with different localities.) It may be as low as 51b or as high as 15-201 b, but 20 and 30-pounders are 1 by no means uncommon on the more j famous riA’ers, such as the Scottish] Tay, Tweed. Spey, Dee. or on the Wye.! Coquet, or Eden on the other side o? - the border, while the best salmon j fishing of all is to be had in the swift j rivers of ScandinaA-ia. Experiments In Southland, It \A-as natural that such a large' sporting fish would early receive the, attention of the infant acclimatisation societies of New Zealand, but the earlier experiments all went awry. Consignments of ova AA-ere lost or perished in the long A r oyage out, or Avere planted and failed to come to maturity. Finally, after many exasperating experiences. ova were finally hatched and j liberated in certain streams of the Lake Te Anau system, principally the; Eglint.on. Here only of all the waters! in which the young salmon had been liberated did they establish themselves! to any extent. At first it seemed as if the Southland experiment was to be a success.) The fish multiplied and grew rapidly, into good Avell-favoured fish, averag-l ir.g for a season or two about 41b, with °ne or two really good specimens of ) from 101 bto 151 b. But the good start was not maintained. The fish grew no larger and the heavier sped- j mens of the early years became fewer with each successive -season. At the I moment the experiment is almost at a, standstill, though stripping of the fish’ and liberation of the fry, is still being carried out.

No Sea Life The reasons for the failure of the fish to reproduce here the habits! which characterise their species ini the northern hemisphere are not! known, to put it quite “bluntly, but It ; appears that their apparent failure to: adopt the regular sea-going habits of ' their progenitors is responsible for the ! smallness of the New Zealand fish. ! The British salmon after its birth spends the first year or so of its life in fresh water and thereafter des-j rends to the sea as a smolt, or im-! mature fish. After a year in the sea,in Avhi.-h it may put on five or six' pounds in weight, it may return to its | native river as a grilse. It may' then spawn or it may not, but all go- -' ing well when it returns to the sea the | second time it is only to re-ascend the t river as a fully matured fish. The) salmon puts or about 80 or 90 per cent ; of his weight Avhile in salt water, so that if New Zealand Atlantic salmon; do not visit the sea and spend some ; considerable part of their liA-es there , it is reasonable to assume that that is ' at ieast a contributory cause to their, lack of growth. It is knoxvn that' they do at least occasionally visit salt watei. since they have been caugnt J in the surf at the mouth of the Waiau! River, but what lias not yet been | established is that they spend any) time there. In the meantime, in viexv 1 oi ;he smallness of the fish there i 3 j strong presumptive evidence against it.) It has also bpen suggested, as an explanation of the apparently non-mlgra-I tory tendency of these salmon, that j they are descended from a landlocked species, evolved in North America, known as sebago salmon. Quotas of ov? were imported from the eastern United states in the early experiments! with the species here, and it is thought; by some that care AA-as not always j taken at. the other end to ensure that! the progeny of the sea-going salmon! AA-ere supplied. Concentration on Trout i

Though it. is not an opinion held by ! everyone, the AATiter believes that NeAv Zealand would haA-e been well advised to concentrate exclusively on ; the trout, without wasting time on' salmon, quinnat- or Atlantic, and ex-: periments of similar doubtful value.) The success of the trout A\-as early; established and, in the early days of ) acclimatisation in this country, the average Aveight of brown trout from 1 some of the southern rivers and lakes ! would haA-e done credit even to a sal- j mon river. The opinion is, indeed, held fairly AA-idely among anglers in the Old Country that as a fighting fish the salmon is not in the same street as the trout, and even the late Vis- ! count Grey, as great an angler as he Avas a diplomatist, preferred the 6ea- , trout to its larger relative, which he described as being too majestic in its , moA-ements. AROUND THE PROVINCE

19. The Mangapeehi Fifty-seven miles south of Hamilton on the main trunk line is Kopaki (also accessible by road> Avhich is the logical centre for any angler desiring to fish tlie Mangapeehi River, the subject of this week’s notes. i The Mangapeehi rises in the bush-' dad hills some miles above Kopaki and Hows generally in a south-wester-ly direction i-. join the Mokau River at \rapae. In its upper reaches, where it is most frequently fished by (Continue'] in previous column) >