THE TAUPO TROUT

Taupo Times, Volume I, Issue 8, 6 March 1952, Page 1

THE TAUPO TROUT

Enterprise in Fish Culture In view of the world-wide fame of the Taupo trout, the story of their introduction is of interest. Major Scannell, of the Armed Constabulary, was probably the first to attempt the acclimatisation of trout here and had a small hatchery on the west bank of the Waikato River above the original bridge, but his efforts appear to have been unsuccessful. In 1894 Mr G. Park, postmaster at Taupo, secured a few thousand brown trout ova from the Masterton hatchery which were hatched in a spring downstream from the present boatyards of Messrs J. T. Taylor & Sons. The fry were liberated in the Waikato River and the streams on the east side of the Lake, and in February, 1895, brown trout from five to eight inches in length were seen in the stream running into the river from the hatchery spring. In August, 1895, 100,000 ova from Masterton were hatched in boxes at the spring under the care of Mr Park and other enthusiasts. Some eighty thousand fry were reared and when the yolk-sac had disappeared they were liberated, some by Mr Joseph Crowther in every stream in the eastern shore of the Lake, and the remainder by Mr Dan Ferney and the Rev. H. J. Fletcher in the streams between Karangahape Cliff and Tokaanu. None were put in the streams between Karangahape and Taupo. Within two years fish were to be seen in every stream on the eastern shore. The history of the rainbow trout in Taupo waters began in 1903 when "fifty-day" fry from the Okoroire Hatchery were distributed in all the streams entering- the Lake. More fish from the same hatchery were liberated in the two following years. The late Captain T. Ryan, well known pioneer of the tourist launch and camping business at Taupo, estimated that in these three seasons about a quarter million young rainbows were placed in the Taupo streams, Before the third year's quota were planted trout grown from the first liberation were reported in every stream and it was apparent that the rainbows were thriving amazingly. Today it is as a rainbow trout fishery that the Taupo waters are so well known, the number of brown trout being taken being very small in comparison with the rainbows. The record weights of Taupo rainbows are of considerable interest. It seems certain that the brown trout reach weights up to or approaching thirty pounds. The largest rainbow taken legitimately, as far as the writer's enquiries have been able to elicit in the last thirty odd years, was caught in the Waikato River above Taupo Wharf by Mr Namotu Wiremu. It was taken on a spoon and weighed twenty-two and a-half pounds. The largest rainbow to be taken on the fly was caught in 1924 by Mr W. Branson, now residing at Tamamutu Street, Taupo. This fish was taken at the mouth of the Tongariro River, and when weighed by the writer on tested scales some four or five hours later at Taupo, went twenty-one pounds eleven ounces. In April, 1924 four Taupo residents, Messrs Thomas Rickit, William Rickit, Sid Blake and Fred Scott, took sixty-two fish on the fly one night at the mouth of the Waihaha Stream. These fish were weighed at Taupo the following morning by the writer, and aggregated 682 pounds in weight. The largest was twenty pounds, the smallest seven pounds, and the average weight eleven

pounds. The record catch for one day's fly-fishing in Taupo waters, as far as the writer's investigations show, was taken at Waihora in 1911, when the Hon. Percy Thellusson took 77 fish of a total weight of 772 pounds, yielding an average of a little over

ten pounds. It is related that on this occasion Mr * Thellusson fished throughout the day, his valet, equipped with waders, taking refreshments to him from time to time as he fished the stream mouth. Those were indeed, the good old days.