BROOK TROUT, SALMON TROUT AND WHITEBAIT.

Evening Star, Issue 3418, 4 February 1874, Page 3

BROOK TROUT, SALMON TROUT AND WHITEBAIT.

(Bruce Herald Correspondent at Palmerston) Mr W. A. Young tells me that he has often taken a bushel of whitebait at a time at the dam. Fine flounders are also caught up to this spot (the mill stream). We next repaired to the trout ponds above the mills, and furnished with a light trout net having the correct fittings, Mr Young dragged the pond. The first attempt was net successful, but the second produced a fine specimen of a female fish, measuring 2ft 4in in length, and girthing about 16in behind the shoulders. This fish was beautifully speckled with shiny, silvery scales and reddish specks; and as it lay gasping in its captor’s hands, it brought to my mind a thousand happy memories of fishing adventures in the backwoods of New Brunswick in “ auld lang syne.” The weight of this fine fish would be about 91b. At the head of this race Mr Young had constructed a pond, where he had confined two fine males of from 31b to 41b weight; these fish were lifted out in a scoop net for my inspection. They had a more decided red speckle, and were stronger, shorter-headed, squarer-shouldeved fish than the females. This, to my mind, is ocular demonstration of the practical certainty of the success of Mr Young’s enterprise. Despite shags, eels and barracouta, the fish arrive at maturity; and what, after all, have they had to contend with in the New Zealand waters ? There are no otters, nor pike, nor bass, nor a tithe of the eels which are found in the Canadian lakes, rivers and streams ; there are no loons, nor cranes, nor musk rats, nor beavers always on the alert for the beautiful trout; in fact, the rivers are here almost entirely free from the most destructive antagonists which are to be found to the early experience of the trout family. Mr Young has nearly destroyed the shag tribe, and has been ably assisted by MiAy™ ea in the work of the destruction of the hawk, which has contributed greatly to the known success of the last gentleman in the acclimatisation of pheasants, which now form one of the most pleasing features of the hill scenery of Bokatap, Mr Young has also a few salmon trout, two of which I was shown in pickle. These fish are exactly similar in their general appearance with those of the Canadian waters, with the exception that the lateral line has a more distinct black spot in the full grown fish. The specimens which were shewn me were not full grown, and had a bluish black blotchy mark along the lateral line. The rest of their characteristics are the same, except that the fish changes its general color of flesh and tint, according to the bottom of the lake, river, or stream in which it is found—in lakes—l speak of those which have rivers flowing through them, We visited the little fish I mentioned on a former visit, and found them most lively and growing nicely, I was informed once that our trout became so enervated by our Otago waters that they would not rise to the fly; this, however, is a fallacy, as it was by no means an uninteresting sight on the visit to see the little fellows dart at the midge which floated on the surface of the water. Absurdities in relation to the habits of trout in our waters arise without doubt from want of proper information about them, and the character of the element which they inhabit. There is one thing certain, however, that a few years will disclose the sure success of the process adopted by Mr Young in the propogation of the trout and saltoon tribe in New Zealand, when our nothern and southern nvers will teem with fish.