SALMON ESTABLISHED.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 May 1922, Page 3

SALMON ESTABLISHED.

RAPID SPREAD IN SOUTH. Advices from the South Island go to show that the Government’s efforts to stock the New Zealand, rivers with salmon have proved highly successful, and latest reports to hand state that the salmon are spreading rapidly in. the waters of the South Island. Mr. L. F. Ayson, chief inspector of fisheries recently exhibited a photograph of a fine catch of eleven salmon, secured by three anglers in one day in the Rangitata River. The largest fish weighed 281 b., and there were others in the creel weighing 251 b. and 221 b. The run this year, said Mr. Ayson, seemed to have been equal to that of last season, when an exceptionally largenumber came up, although it was not up to the run of 1917, when they seemed to talce the bait freely. The salmon during the last two years have been in better condition, and this Mr. Ayson considers may have something to do with the fish not taking the bait so freely. The catches of satenon by anglers up to last season, the inspector of fisheries explained, were principally confined to the Waitaki and Rangitata Rivers., with an occasional fish taken in the Rakaia. This season there have been a number caught in the Rakaia. Waimxkariri, and Hurunui. As showing the fine condition the fish are in, Mr. Ayson stated that he had received word from the Acclimatisation Society’s hatchery at Christchurch to the effect that that officer had been asked to mount one caught at the mouth of the Rakaia, which sealed 30Ih. This went to show how rapidly the salmon were spreading. Large numbers of mature fish were showing up as far north as Waiau.