FOOD FOR THE ANGLER.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2839, 5 March 1888, Page 2

FOOD FOR THE ANGLER.

A Visit to the Masterton Fif£ . r ; Ponds. i $ ■ i , • Angling. ; V With our admirable streams for it,.. and with the strides that acelimatisa«! tion lias made in Now Zealand, tlio' ■ lf gentle art of angling is every season adding to its ranks of devotees, is every season becoming more attractive, as one of the out-door sports which couples with its skilful pastime somo • substantial benefit in the shape of providing a luxurious addition to the ! : delicacies of the table. ; Acclimatisation, We had not, however, in commenc- - ing this artiole, the intention of solely descanting upon the delights and glor- 1 iea which charm the many enthusiastic followers of Isaac Walton, it was rather the subject of fish.rearing, of 1 tisation, which we desired to deal wit® 1 and which had it not also ardent fol- > lowers, wielders of the rod in New ■ Zealand would indeed have a sorry time of it. With this introduction, we may say, in short, that the subject of our article

V I is" The Masterton Fiali Pond " and • although most, people in the district ! ] [now well the establishment undor ! description, thore may perhaps, bo something in our account now to them; j ftrjk to others, there may be infonnai tßof considerable interest, j The Masterton Hatchery ranks high anion" New Zealand institutions of I its kind, and, probably at the prosont .1 time, it has as large for lavgor) stock i of healthy and valuable young fish us | any of them. In speaking of its prosI perity, a word ofpraisemust be givon to ! the author of it, that most devoted Managing Director, Mr W. H. . Beethara, who is ever ready to give time and trouble, at any personal sacrifice, to the mterests®of the Wai- ; rarapa Acclimatisation Society. Acj climatisation, it might be mentioned, ! is almost entirely dependent upon the j people at large, and upon those who individually take an interest in it. Its revenue is derived solely from shooting and fishing licenses and from contributions by a grateful public. The only help tile Government gives is that it buys the ova or fish and imports it, reaches the Society here with•'jjSt cost and the burden of its maintenance and development then falls upon them. Will future visitors to the Masterton Fish Ponds when they sejftsfore them the box "contributidr thankfullv received"' think of this, and will they be generously influenced accordingly ? We hope so. It is not expected that a person will contribute every time he visits the grounds; far from it; but were everyone to even supplement the funds by however slight a donation once a season, lie could do something in practical advocation of a good work, and could then have the satisfaction, when inspecting the wonderful results, of feeling that lie, too, had done his share towards their attainment.

The Masterton Aquarium. The ponds and grounds, though situated m Chapel-street, and quite in the populated part of Masterton, are not without native and cultivated beauty. In the first category may be placed a splendid natural spring, which, bubbling up from the gravel on the hillside, supplies the whole of the -pools and races with an abundant ffttpitoof beautiful soft water. The too, have been made picturesque by the rearing of a number of lovely acquatic plants including that rarity in New Zealand, the English Water Lily, and in the largest pond there is a small island fringed with willows, and overgrown with evergreens. The Hatching House. Upon entering the premises, which are open to the public from 1 to 0 p.m. every day, the hatching house is the first object of attention. This contains the usual boxes and other paraphernalia for hatching the ova, and can accomodate upwards of 100,000 at a time, and with very slight internal additions the capacity could be increased to serve for 200,000 or more. As the spawning season does not commence for about a mo-ith, we of course found the house now emptor.

gfr Feeding the Fish, Onuue occasion of our visit, Mr L, F. Ayson, the curator, upon learning «" ,t it wfis with the object of publishnotes cf what we saw aud heard, y courteously showed us round the place, and gave us every information on a variety of points on which to him we must have appeared densely ignorant. Mr Ayson, it may be mentioned, seems to be a most ardent worker in what to him is evidently a lahor of love, and the fish on their part by their fine healthy state, apparently quite repay his attention and care. They seem to recognise him by sight, and the rush to the surface of a pond whenever he approaches it, ■is very general. The food the fish get is meat such as sheep's plucks, lights, heart, and liver minced and v prepared to suit the class of the recipient. The large ones are fed once a day, and the small ones—the " Jry"— three or four times, the food being thrown to them in the various ponds. In England a sort of vegetableiigd animal compound got up like iwg biscuit is very often used for fish, but here meat is found the cheapest and most convenient. The Fish Themselves,

uPond No A 1 :-This is the largest $11(1 on the ground, and has in it the ■largest fish, there being about fifty five-years-old brown trout weighing from 41bs up to Bor Olbs. They are being kept for breeding purposes, and are known as" spawners." The average number of ova obtained from one of these per ssason.is about a thousand to every pound the fish may

weigh Pond No. A 2 contains sixty Loch Leven trout, three years old, and turning the scale at from two to four pounds. These are more shapely and a better table trout than the brown trout. They make superior sport fish too. These also are spawners. Pond No. A 3 has in it sixty three-year-oldAmericau Brook Trout whose aVferagfieight is three pounds, There fish araby far the prettiest fish in the .aquarium, being beautifully marked. They come from Mr Johnston's Troutdale Fish Farm, Opawa, Christchurch. Pond No. A 5, is also populated by American Brook Trout, there being

. /one hundred and fifty of sieni. They Jke eighteen months old, and average of a pound. Pond No. A 6 contains three native grayling. These are full-grown and weigh about lib each. These fish seetned to be very shy and darted about singly with great rapidity. The curator informed us that there was little at present known of their habits and that he was studying them. It Is"also intended to breed from these fish, which are commonly known as the Upokoroi'o. : Pond No. A 7 is occupied by some more English Brown Trout—loo two-year-ol»and they average about two pounds each. In Pond No. A 8 there are thirty Scotch Burn Trout, three- '' year-old ones. These average l|lbs and are a most valuable fish for mountain streams. They are also rather scarce in Now Zealand, and we only!

know of two other lots being in the Colony, ono in Otago iiud the other in Canterbury, H'liroo hundred more Loch Leven trout disport themselves in Pond No A,9. Thoy are eighteon months old mid avorago about 10 inches long. With pond No A.lO. we come to the first lot of salmon, viz., fifty, eighteen months old, Tay salmon. These seomed very healthy fish, but confinement and no annual resource to the sea have certainly restricted their growth, for they only averaged about 10 inches in length, • It is intended to breed fresh water salmon from tlicso fish, experiments in this' direction having proved a success at Home.

Pond No A.12. is distinguished by being devoted to some particularly aristocratic fish, viz,, 300 Loch Leven trout, which having been hatched from imported ova issued by Sir Jas Maitland's hatchery, at Stirling, are an undeniably pure strain of this class of trout. They are nine months • old fish.

In pond No A.lB. we came to fifteen hundred' additional American brook trout, this time little beggars about four inches long—" fry" the curator called them. They are being kept to increase the number of breeding fish at the hatchery,

We now come to the last of the ponds situated in front of the hatching house (No A. 14), and it also is reserved for fish—l4oo six months old Loch Leven trout—which are to be added to the stock of " spawners" as they are called.

At the rear of the ova house thore are only a few ponds, The first, No El., contains from three to four hundred Loch Leven trout, six months old, awaiting distribution in some of the rivers. No 8.8., the next pond, has in it eight gold fish. These breed rapidly and-are very hardy, so next season there will be considerably more of them. Pond No B.C. is tenanted by a few Rhine salmon, a fish very similar to the English salmon. In Pond No 8.9., we come to the last of the American brook trout, some which are nine months old, and arc from imported ova from the Solway Fishery, in Dumfrieshire. There are 150 of these.

The last two ponds visited Nos 8.7., and 8.8., together contained eighty Lake Geneva trout, nine months old. The curator seemed to pride himself on these, and with reason, as besides being the only trout of the kind which have come to the colony, they seem to be particularly fine lish, and had outgrown any other trout of their age, which we saw in the establishment. They are said to be a splendid fish both for sport and for the table, and since they have been in Masterton, a number of them have been by request sent to th? Otago Acclimatisation Societv. I

Summary. The total number of ponds in the ground is 28, but, as will be seen by the omission of some of the numbers, a few of them are unoccupied, The aggregate number of fish, including a quantity of different lands of trout in four or five races awaiting distribution and which have not before been mentioned, must be My 6,000. Issue and distribution. Although the Society reserves the right of charging for the fish it issues and especially with regard to those liberated in wliat may be termed private streams, decision on this point is practically, left to the President's discretion, and he is allowed to use a wise and generous discrimination in responding to applications for supplies. In concluding this article we feel that we cannot do better than recommend those of our readers who have not done so to pay a visit to the Masterton Fish Ponds; and those who have been there already we enjoin to go again. The fish are always objects of interest, and their development makes ever something new. Perhaps it may be the spawning season; perhaps as was the case a week or two back, it may be a delicate fish requires at the hands ot the caretaker nursing and surgery. Be it as it may, there are always things which will repay the visitor for his going, and afford subjects of observation, instruction, and even in the gambols of the piscine population, of amusement.