ANGLING NOTES.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 31, 15 October 1920, Page 5

ANGLING NOTES.

(By "Creel.")

Jj AWAY TO THE WEST. ' ere's an open i*oad, 'neath a beautiful sky, ?ay to the west where fishes lie, K, ^es of silver and amber gold, i ||re as a gem of wealth untold. (Gff,; Lay to west then, I must hie, rfiere the tfreath of God is ever nigh, nd the Elixir of Life is in the air, p o j. n(j the hush of the day, an Angel's prayer. ({j *... ishes of silver, you lure me on, 1 : o worship God, where grief ig gone, RAEprp,; oi sore a'nd weary, and fain would rest, ^l,i God's good land, away to the west. rothers, anglers and secretaries. — In"a information welcomed. Ve%(flJ|u onditions and rivers continue very jfactory for Southland anglers, aligh there is nothing to chronicle in tile of exceptional fish or bags, still, the ■age fisherman with fly or minnow haa no difficulty in creeling some nice fish. he following further information haa le to hand with reference to "deeds le" on the opening iay. Mr J. Hen■son secured 30 good conditioned fish the Otapiri, mostly on the Blue Dun d Irish March Brown Fly. On the eti at Dipton, M&ssrs R. Sinclair, 21 i (lieaviest 41bs) ; R. McKay, 30 fish ; Taylor, 22 fish, J. McBean, 22 fish (26 unds weight), all on the fly, were some the bags recorded. During the last lek three local anglers fishing the tidal itei's at Otatara with the minnow >eled eight fish, the heaviest being 3^1bs, ^ in good condition. A brother angler " ikes complaint about being put off a tain stretch of water on the Makerawa 1 as he points out, it is a very mean itude for any farmer to take np, as tiie irage fisherman does little or no harm fishing a river, as most of the timeg Jis on the banks of the stream or in water Further, many a fisherman iues stock for our farmer friends, dozINffi'' of anglers have assisted a sheep that j become "cast," and even to the iter'a knowledge, rescued sheep from 'g 'e river itself. One instanee of thanks turned to two anglers for services rend'/MM in rescuing a horse that had become oogged." The owner gave the fishermen (^pmhsion to put a camp on his property, nd also supplied fencing wire, etc., and good piece of ground to cultivate spuds," etc., etc. That one "little mch of Natqre t'hat makes the wnole JilfcrT8 kin," et? JCB OPENING DAY. i«For the opening day of the season on K&'riday last the streams were a little high ut clear and in splendid condition for 0[ pshing. Fair weather prevailed ; the lorning was rather cold, but, as the day rore on, conditions improved and good atches were recorded. The Wyndham i inglers' Society held an all-day handicap (J ompetition, and at night eight fisheri 1 len weighed in. Angling is a sport r,euiring a great amount of skill and un[jjjllnited patience. The layman often pic..ures the fisherman on the banks of a itream for hours waiting for a rise ; so it ra^er remarkable to note the num-ber young anglers participating in this first ibjjvompetition of the season. The weigh-in *|°k P^ace in Gray's sample room, and a {jij(;|ble, about 20 feet long, covered with j p ai! P®ckled beauties was a sight worth see- ] h iSl Following is the result of the , ;ij.:ompetition

™ ^le handicaps C. King was first (be. ng only 2oz behind scratch man) ; G. ngne, second ; and J. Macpherson 3rd. ' i ^ ^le exception of Messrg Crighton «> 1 ■

and Young (who whipped the Wyndham), all the competitors fished the Mimihau. NEW ZEALAND'S SEA TROUT. WHAT ARE THEY? FARIO OR TRUTTA? I have been requested to contribute another "fish" article, and gladly comply, in the hope that it may create, in the minds of those anglers who read yous paper, a greater interest in the subject of, not only our acclimatised fish, but also their ciilture. It must not be forgotten that the sport which the present day angler enjoys, was rendered possible solely through the patient and untiring efforts of those pioneers who formed the first ac-c 1 i ma t i s at'i o n societies of New Zealand. This work is still carried on by their successors, with the result that there are now f,ew rivers, and streami which do not contain numerous representatives of the salmon family, and one is justified in asserting that there is no country in the world which offers such cheap sport to the angler as New Zealander does. And yet poaching is rampant here. Anglers, waka up ! Before making any attempt to answer the query raised by this article's heading, it will be neeesssary to first quote some statistics. In the Southland ncclimatisation district, the Waiau, including its tributaries, is the most westerly river where Brown trout fry (S. Fario) have been liberated — the total output therein from the year 1885 to 1920 being 516,200. As far back as 1869 Fario fry were liberated in the Waiau, but I cannot quote exact numbers, as the records from that year up to 1884 are imperfect as to locality. In 1895, the waters running into George SoUnd and Preservation Inlet, received 6,000 and 1,000 young fry respectively. Of the lakes, T,e Anau, 1889-92, 60,000 fry ; Hauroto, 1892-3, 6,000 ; and Georgs, 1894-9, 65,000 ; Stewart Island (apparently Lord's Riv«r) 1895-1909, 66,000. This gives us a total of only 720,000 ! brown trout distributed over a faijly wide area, and yet I am informed that all the waters, west of the Waiau, are teeming with trout, which shows that some of them must have been stocked by migratory fish. Now, in the Homeland, brown trout (Fario) are looked on as migratory, to the extent of frequenting brackish waters only, not the sea. That is left to the sea trout (S. Trutta) which have been classed as a separate species from Fario. The Southland Acclimatisation Society procured their first consignment of brown trout ova, from the Tasmanian Society in 1868, and a second lot in 1870. Accompanying the latter were 154 ova I (S. Trutta). These hatclied out well, the fry being retained for breeding pufposes, yielding in September 1874, 1,100 ova, the fry raised therefrom being suBsequently put into the Oreti and Makarewa. The Otago Society also procured 150 sea trout ova from Tasmania in 1870, and the fry raised therefrom were liberated in the Shag River. These are the only instanc.es of liberation of "known" sea trout in New Zealand, and I mention the fact to show that our N.Z. variety, numerous as they are, could not possibly be their descendants. What then are they? Seeking for further information, and referring to the most recent authority (The Migrations of Fish, by Meek, director Marine Laboratory, Cullercoats, published 1916, available from Athenaeum), I found that a section of the authorities held the extreme view that there is only one species of salomidae, with many varieties. Others admit the distinction of the salmon (Salmo Salar), and combine sea trout (S. Trutta), I and brown trout (S. Fario), as forming one [ species. The author hofds that apart from long study of the subject, and differences in the natural home of these fish, a prescmtment of their diatribution lends | support to the view that the three are distinct. He further states that "during tl^e Miocene period of the earth's existence the salmon family was divided into two groups, one confined to the North Atlantic, the other to the Noi'thern Mediterranean — -that the latter were changed into trout, and further divided into £tV, and brown trout (Fario). Both of these were originally confined to the Caspian region, and spread, after the Glacial Epvoch, to the localities they now frequent. The absence of the trout from the eastern region of America ie

satisfactorily explained by this hypothesis. In the museum there are specimens of our brown trout (presumably river fish, from their colouration) and an English sea trout. I can see no striking difference between them structurally. -H. C. Pennell ^(Badminton Library) says that the only reliable test between brown and sea trout, lies with the vomerine teeth — brown trout two rows, sea trout one row, but the latter's teeth alternate from side to side. (The vomer is the bone which runa along the central portion of the roof of the mouth). Let us now sum up the position. We fhid csi r rivera and streams to be stocked with brown trout — the same old variety of "S. Fario" that exists in the Homeland, and from whence Tasmania's supply was obtained. Living in the ocean that bounds our shores are a variety of trout possessing the same habits and qualities as the sea trout of the northern hemisphere. Having shown that the number of known sea trout turned into our waters were too few to have raised such a numerous family as our sea trout are known to be, then the answer to the question, as head. of this article, resolves itself into this : — Either there has been evolved out of our brown (river) trout, a sea trout, akin to S. Trutta, or the supposed brown trout ova imported to N.Z. was not true to type. The best method of solving the problem would be to send Home some specimens of "sea" trout, for indentification, as waa done with the supposed grilse from the Waiau. The verdict would prove of interest to all lovers of fish culture.

jf(f(|ame N0 pish Weight Hdcp. sis 4- ^ 20 151b lOoz ser 20 151b 8oz 50 per o^nt. ^•'Strang 25 151b 3oz 5 "[«'■ Bogue 21 I4ib 40 " Cri€!iton 19 lUb 10 " >• Caldwell 11 gib 6oz 20 " , - Macpb«rson 13 81b 4oz 100 " L Young 5 51b 4oz 2S "