Tougher fishing on Manganuiateao

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 7, Issue 337, 29 May 1990, Page 1

Tougher fishing on Manganuiateao

A creel survey was carried out on the Manganuiateao River over a 15 day period during Christmas/New Year by Raetihi Conservation officer John Heaphy and Harry Brown. In 1978-79 during the designed to duplicate same period, a similar those results artd note survey was done. This any changes to the summers' survey was fishing over the

preceding eleven years. Of concern was the apparent reduced catch rate of trout and the apparent reduction in numbers of rainhow trout being caught by the angler. All anglers were surveyed and questioned on

the river each day between Makakahi and Geraghty's Bridge.This latest survey covered the whole range of skills from first time angler through to a professional guide. Due to bad weather and river conditions

during this survey, only an average of 7.62 anglers fished the river on any one day which is well below the anticipated angler pressure. The species catch composition since rainbow trout were last Turnpage 2

Tougher Manganuiateao fishing

Frompagel rainbow numbers enreleased in 1979 has hanced in this fishery steadily changed from and as such, 1000 rainbeing rainbow trout bow fingerlings will be dominant to being tagged and liberated presently brown trout during this 1990 windominant. As rainbow ter.These fish should trout are easier to catch, start returning to the they make a higher angler from 1991 oncontribution to the an- wards. gler's catch for their Mr Heaphy compopulation size than do mented that these finbrown trout, particu- gerlings come from a larly for the spoon an- river resident stock of gler. trout from the Ruakitwi The survey suggested River and it is hoped that the total takeable that they will remain in rainbow trout popula- the river and not mition in the Man- grate out as other rainganuiateao bow stocks are likely River could well be as to do. In their home low as 30%. The river, these Ruakitwi Waimarino Ward of the trout are often over Central North Island 4.5kg (lOlbs) in Wildlife Conservancy weight. Council are keen to see The catch rate, or the takeable trout per hour

fished, has dropped from 0.51 in 1978/79 down to 0.27 in 1989/90. Part of this can be attributed to unfavorable river conditions during the survey and also a now brown trout dominant fishery. Effectively this catch rate suggests that the average angler caught one takeable fish for every four hours fished. However, at the experi-enced-angler end of the

scale, one angler's catch rate was almost 1.5 takeable fish per hour. Of interest was the fact that over half (54% of the total takeable trout caught were released back into the river. This popular activity certainly assists a small fishery such as the Manganuiateao River which couldn't sustain heavy angler pressure or large num-

bers of trout being taken, as occurs in the Taupo fishery for example. Contrary to popular belief, the average length and weight has remained relatively consistent since 1947 and the fish are not getting smaller. During 1989/90 the trout averaged 473mm long and 1.46kg (3.21bs) in weight.