High-Country Fishing Date May Be Changed

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31081, 9 June 1966, Page 18

High-Country Fishing Date May Be Changed

The high-country waters fishing season would open on Saturday, October 29, this year if the Marine Department agreed to a request from the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society, said a fish committee report presented to the society’s council last evening.

The department had been requested to modify the North Canterbury regulations so the opening date for highcountry fishing would be the same as in the South Canterbury, Waitaki and Ashburton

societies’ areas. This conformed to a previous decision of the society that the opening be on the nearest Saturday to November 1.

The fish committee report said the Selwyn fish trap was in operation at Chamberlain’s Ford and large numbers of trout were passing through and were being counted and sexed. As many as possible were being tagged.

From May 22 to May 29 fish passing through numbered 1741, of which 854 were males and 887 females. Of these, 226 males and 197 females were tagged. To June 5, 2777 fish passed through the trap, 1296 males and 1481 females.

In spite of recent rains which brought the Seiwyn down to a point above Boyles Ford, the river was not yet running through, but freshes in that part of the river had brought down large numbers of small trout, and salvage operations had been necessary.

A barrier had been erected to prevent spawning fish running up into shallow water, and it might be necessary to transfer spawning fish upstream to permanent waters. The fish committee chairman (Mr G. Ferris) said 7000 fish bad been salvaged and placed in the Rakaia lagoon. A remit requesting that the duck-shooting season open on the Saturday nearest May 1 should be sent to the South Island council, the council decided. Dr. D. McK. Dickson said that last year the shooting season opened on May 1, and this year on May 6, which meant the loss of a week’s shooting.