TROUT-FISHING IN TARANAKI

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 41, 10 August 1911, Page 3

TROUT-FISHING IN TARANAKI

ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETY'S ALMS.

There are indications that North Tarjmaki will very shortly be able to assume her rightful place amongst the angling districts of the Dominion. New Plymouth and its environs should be the happy hunting ground of the followers of Izaak Walton just as nature intended them to be. .Streams abound. Excellent fishing streams they are. Rapid, clear, and dashing and splashing round about and over abundant boulders, possessing many a deep pool beneath the shade of overhanging native trees, easily accessible by Tail or road, the trout streams of North Tarauaki are the ideal for the aHgler. Active iiahßather. The catches may not; always be large, but the real sport, the man who looks for the enjoyment of landing a sportive rainbow trout, will toll you that the North Taranaki trout has a tremendous amount of "devil" in him. This is peculiarly the case with the rainbow trout I in the YVaiwakaiho river. There's something in the Waiwakaiho that pre-emi-nently suits the rainbow trout. Those long, deep rapids, and the many deep, dark pools must be his delight. . The rainbow grows to a great size there, and four, six, eight and ten pound fish count the creel of the skilful angler. "I'd like to be a trout," said one enthusiastic naturalist, "because I'd love to lie lazily at the bottom of some placid stream, and wait for my food to come to me." The Waiwakaiho rainbow is not lazy. As a Well-known angler remarked the other day, "You can never be sure that you hare a rainbow safe from the Waiwahaiko until he's in your bag and the bag closed." The pity of it is that this knowledge is not more widely diffused, and that the fish themselves are not too plentiful in all the streams, Probably the methods of the Taranaki Acclimatisation Society in the past have had something to do with this. The expensive system of purchasing young fry and liberating them in the streams lias been followed, with only moderately successful results. The stocking of the streams has not been at all commensurate with the amount expended. Nor, for that matter, has the revenue of the Society been on a too liberal scale, for licenses have not been issued to a great many persons after all, certainly not to all the persons who have i enjoyed many a good "take" of trout from the streams, by mctheds more or less reprehensible. The poacher is a j very busy individual in this district.

WHAT IS BEING DONE? The society is now launching out anew, and on progressive lines. It is hoped that in the next few years our streams will be the pride of the Dominion, arid the envy of many. The excellent fishing then to be obtained must have the effect of attracting anglers from all parts, and, combined with the modern hostelry to be erected on Mount Egmont, should secure to us a goodly share of the tourist traffic and its accompanying cash. To do this, of course, the Society must have the support of the townspeople, who are going to benefit by the influx of holiday silver. And how is the Society going to attract that support, to show that it is deserved, and that money paid in honorary members' fees of five shillings will be spent in the development of our resources? Easily answered. A VISIT TO THE HATCHERIES.

Accompany us now to the hatcheries recently established on the Frankley road, on Mr. W. F. McAllum's property, generally known as "the old tannery."

And, having seen through our eyes what is being done there, and perhaps having become interested, pay a visit yourself on some Thursday afternoon, or at any other time, and watch the work of the curator. His occupation is of entrancing interest, and there 13 little wonder that, he is so wrapped up in it, or that the president of the Society, Mr. J. E. Wilson, at whose invitation a Daily News reporter was there, should have made it an all-absorbing bobby. He was accompanied by Mr. E. Whittle, a member of the Acclimatisation Society's Council for many years past, and an angler of over twenty years' continuous experience. The Society has indeed been fortunate in having Mr." McAllum to deal with and this property ou which to establish its hatcheries and rearing-ponds undtr the supervision of an expert. There is a never-failing stream, already dammed back in order to supply the. flume with the continuous flow of water required. The ova and the young fish must have constantly running water. Then minutes' still water in a tank holding thousands and thousands of trout fry, and there would be a heavy mortality. But we are ahead of our story. Just to the left of the building which covers in the old tan-pits is the old drying shed. This is where the hatching of the trout ova is going on, and thither we wended our way. Within were numbers of long, narrow box-like structures, lidded, and with streams of water running from them.

The first of these, the curator told us, were the egg-boxes. Here, below two or three inches of water, were some 00,000 brown trout ova from the Hakateramea hatcheries. These eggs looked like so many almost transparent peas, all alike, and all disclosing, upon minute examination, a little dark speck, or eye. These were "eyed ora," the eyes denoting that they had been impregnated, and were fertile. The bad eggs were easily detected, as they became opaque, and these the.curator carefully removed each day. Turning ourselves about, we saw another long box of similar dimensions, but the bottom of this one was covered with fine pebbles, and the pebbles seemed to be covered with so many little brown bees, and, like the bees, they were ever in motion. These were the brown trout in the aveling stage, ten days after hatching in the boxes that we had just left. They carried with them a '''sac," this "sac" giving them an awkward appearance, but from this they are nurtured until they are old enough to feed, which is generally when they are about twenty days old. Their first food is of junket, and afterwards bullock's liver is fed to them. The fish do not open their months at all for the first ten days, the curator explained. In an adjoining tray were to be seen eggs that were just commencing to "hatch out." The newly-born ova were of a pink, jelly-like substance, scarcely discernible except upon close inspection. What was the idea of the gravel in the bottom of the rearing boxes? Oh, that was just to get the conditions as like'to nature as possible, and because the fish could like on the pebbles more comfortably than on an even surface, the interstices suiting their protruding ''sacs." Another row of rearing-boxes contained 80,000 rainbow trout, fry, which had been hatched out here, and which Beemed to be doing very well, the curator reporting that there was 110 mortality worth mentioning. These would be put into deeper tanks. "0,000 in each, for three or four weeks, and then placed in large tanks outside, to be transferred in due season to the rivers and streams in the district under the Society's control.

Tt is proposed lo construct largo ponds outside in which to hold tin? young trout te the yearling stage lieiorc liberating them. The party then followed the line of boxed-in ftumiog t« tlie source of

[ water supply, and the curater showed) i his ingenious method of regulating tliel S inflow. It would be possible fropi here j I to draw water for a great number of holding ponds, and the height of the flume above the bed of the valley will allow the water to fall some distance into the tanks, this tending to keep the fish active. A settling tank will be con-, structed in the water-race, with a view' of depositing the small particles heli ia suspension in the water, this being fatal to hatching purposes. .At present the 1 water is admitted to the egg-boxes and reaming tanks through filter-bags, which have to be washed and changed several times a day. Every morning each of the troughs, or boxes, or tanks, is emptied, I and a fresh supply given, besides which, as already pointed out, the water is always running through, the young fish absorbing the oxygen from it.

WILL THE I'EOPLE ASSIST? Tiiis is the work that the Society is doing, with a view of. thoroughly stocking our streams with brown and rainbow trout. The curator, who is a man with long years of experience in the Masterton hatcheries, is keenly interested in his work. The property is eminently suitable for it, and for the breeding and rearing of pheasants, which it is hoped to undertake at no remote date, and in which the curator is well versed. It is a work which the public, it is hoped, will recognise to be of inconsiderable value in attracting visitors to our district, and in which they will give assistance. The curator will be very pleased to show any visitors what is being done, and he is fully competent to explain it from end to end in such an interesting and practical manner as to make the visitor, if he is at all interested in pisiculture, or in nature study of any kind, keen on a second visit. The Society is to be commended on this forward move } which will place it amongst those in the forefront "in acclimatisation work. If enthusiasm on the part of the president and the curator are of any value at all the prospects of this Society must assume a very rosy hue.