With Rod and Line.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVI, Issue 10, 8 March 1911, Page 10

With Rod and Line.

THE COMING OF THE TROUT.

By

MAJOR BOYD-WILSON

11. IN my last article I endeavoured' to show the difficulties that lay in front of the early pisciculturists who introduced trout to the Antipodes, and! to point out how these difficulties were at length successfully overcome. The first trout to see the light in Australasia was hatched in Tasmania from the first successful shipment of ova which had been brought from England in the clipper ship Norfolk, on the 4th May, 1864, a date which should be memorable to the Antipodean angler. A start having been made, both the trout and salmon ova continued to hatch out in the breeding ponds of the Plenty, but I will confine my remarks to the former, as, unfortunately, the salmon have not been able to survive their migration to salt water. The second shipment of ova arrived atHobart on the 4th May, 1866; it was equally successful, and the ova hatched out in great numbers. Trout having been thus successfully established in Tasmania, it was oniy going a step further to bring them to New Zealand, and in .1867 the first consignment of trout ova arrived at the Canterbury breeding ponds, which had been constructed: the previous year; unfortunately. owing to a long voyage and stormy seas, these ova were almost all destroyed, and only three of them hatched out. In 1868. Mr Clifford, curator to the Otago Acclimatisation Society, visited Tasmania, and from the breeding ponds on the Plenty brought back with him 800 brown trout ova, which were placed in the pondis at Opoko, and the excellent result of 720 healthy young trout was the reward of his care. The hatching, however, proved to be the most successful part of the enterprise, for an attempt which was made to transfer the large majority of the fry to Lake Wakatipu turrfed out a sad failure, and all of them died on the way. The small remainder, seventy-five in number, had been turned into a mill race at Palmerston, and this small batch, the first of their species to be liberated in the virgin waters of Otago, seem to have proved themselves apt colonists, and to have nourished in their new home, for a trout was caught the following year which had attained a length of seven inches. Another consignment of ova was received from the Plenty in October, 1869, of 1,000 brown trout, which were phenomenal ly successful, as every ovum produced a young trout. These youngsters were distributed: in the water of Leith, the Shag River, the Lee stream, the Deep stream, and the Upper Taieri River, and they, together with the seventy-five liberated at Palmerston, may be said to be the pioneers and, to some extent, the forefathers of the brown trout of New Zealand. The feed in the virgin streams of Otago into which the early trout were turned seems to have been of a quality eminently suited to the tastes of these colonists from the North, for their growth was little short of abnormal, and two specimens taken in the Shag River in 1874 pulled down the scale at the respectable weights of 141bs and 16Mbs respectively. In 1868 the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society obtained from Tasmania, through the Otago Provincial Government, a fresh consignment of ova to replace those which had been so unfortunately destroyed the previous year, and of this lot a large proportion hatched out satisfactorily, so that the Society was able to distribute 433 young trout to be turned out in suitable streams in the province, and to receive in the ponds at Christchurch 112 fry for breeding purposes. In 1870 ova was for the first time taken from the breeding fish in the ponds and successfully hatched. These fry were sold to various colonists for stocking purposes, the prices being £2 u dozen, which seems now somewhat high. Other acclimatisation societies were quick to follow the example set by Otago, and Canterbury, and during the seventies vast numbers of ova and fry were distributed throughout New Zealand arid placed in suitable rivers and streams. All over the South Island and in the southern por-

tions of the North Island the brown trout flourished in their new homes, grew in size, and begot descendants to carry on the race; but in the northern portion of the North Island they did not do so well, and it was not until 1886 that the rainbow trout, which have proved such a complete success, were introduced from California. In that year the Government obtained a consignment from the Californian Acclimatisation Society of salmo irideus, and it was not long before it was found that their introduction into the Auckland Province was a boon to the fisherman, and supplied an extra attraction to the visitors to Rotorua and the Thermal Districts. The first angling season in New Zealand was inaugurated in 1874-75 by the water of Leith, in Otago, being thrown open for trout-fishing. It is recorded that during this first season the largest trout taken weighed 31bs., but 1 have, failed to find any record of the number of trout taken in that first season ; history is also silent concerning the doings in the following season, but in 1877-78 we find that a fortunate angler captured a trout weighing 12|lbs., and the same season saw the taking of a female fish of 101 bs. weight, which fell a victim to the allurements of an artificial minnow. By 1878 the Lee st ream, which had had 98 fry turned into it in 1869, had become fully stocked throughout its full length of twenty miles, and was noiv beginning to be recognised as an excellent trout stream, where the fisherman could rely fairly confidently on obtaining sport. • The acclimatisation of trout was now an accomplished fact in New Zealand, the rivers were rapidly becoming stocked, both by the efforts of the acclimatisation societies and also by the natural increase of the fish themselves, and the sport of angling for game fish was now added’, to the many attractions which the country could already boast. Wonderful as the success had been which attended the introduction of trout, it was the behaviour of the fish themselves in their new home that caused the most surprise. Coming to the virgin waters of New Zealand, they grew to proportions seldom, or never attained in their native countries, and in a few years’ time it became recognised that the average size of 'New Zealand trout was at least double that of the same fish in Europe. The reasons for this gratifying propensity to put on weight and size must be sought for in the great abundance of the food found in New Zealand rivers, which is admirably adapted to the needs of the trout and consists principally of flies, grasshoppers, beetles, cuddis worms, crayfish, fresh-water shrimps, bullheads, and inangas. To-day the merits of New Zealand as a trout-fishing country are widely known, and every season more and more anglers from Europe and America visit her shores in order to partake of the excellent sport which is provided for the fisherman in nearly every river and lake throughout the country; the introduction of trout has indeed been a notable triumph of acclimatisation. _ . Note. —I have to acknowledge the assistance 1 have received in compiling this and the previous sketch from Spackman’s “Trout in New Zealand” and Arthur’s “Brown Trout in Otago.” (Cone) tided.)