A FISHY BUSINESS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 21, 17 November 1939, Page 19

A FISHY BUSINESS

Handy Guide For Non-Anglers ( 5)

(Written for "The Listener" by

Irideus

columns with brown and rainbow trout, Atlantic and quinnat salmon, and the various species of New Zealand eels, but while these are the largest of our freshwater fishes they by no means. complete the catalogue. As the leader-writers of our daily newspapers would put it, there are other finny denizens of the watery deep. These (the finny denizens, not the leader-writers) we may quite properly term the Minor Fishes, and they comprise several tribes and species, both homegrown and imported. Among the minor introduced fishes, one of the best known is The Perch The perch is familiar to most people through the phrase "A rod, pole or perch." Piscatorially, however, the connection between rod and perch is not so apparent, since this fish breeds in the fishing season and is only fit to catch in the winter months when the Fishery Regulations forbid one to catch him. In any case, he is rarely caught unless one happens to be fishing solely for trout. Apart from this, New Zealand anglers do not generally approve of the perch at all, since he Eats Trout Eggs and is, therefore, a Villain of the Deepest Dye. Nature, on the other hand, has endowed the perch, for his protection, with a form of colouring not unlike the disruptive camouflage of a tank. In shape, too, he is rather like a tank, and carries a formidable armament of spikes on his dorsal fin. Tradition has it that these spikes are poisonous, which may explain why we have seen so many anglers foaming at the mouth when unhooking these fish. The Carp Like the perch and other fish whose skin is thicker than that of the average Waltonian, the carp is classed by most anglers as a "coarse" fish. Its principal claim to fame rests on its longevity, it being averred that the carp can live for over a century. We cannot personally vouch for this, but you have the statement for what it is worth. We might point out, however, that colour is lent to it by the old Latin tag, "Carpe diem "- "every carp has his day." As a food S O far, we have dealt in these

fish, the carp has been bred in Europe from the earliest times, Aristotle and Pliny wrote of him and he was much esteemed as a delicacy in the Middle Ages ("carp-a-pie," as the Norman dish was called). The Golden Carp Better known than the carp proper is the golden carp, or more simply, the goldfish, which belongs to the same family. In pre-slump days, the goldfish lived in the lap of luxury, usually in a glass bowl beneath the shelter of an axpidistra, and consumed untold quantities of ants’ eggs. Since the slimp, however, he has had to scratch some sort of living on his own and is now found chiefly in the warm waters of the thermal district. Since the slump, too, he has, like so many others, gone off the gold standard and is now definitely a greenback. The Grayling The grayling, or upokororo, is the most beautiful of the native fishes and the one which most closely resembles the trout. Its history, however, disproves the statement that "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever," since it is now found only in a few streams in the West Coast of the South Island. "Going a-grayling" was apparently as popular a pastime with the early settlers as it was with the Knights of the Round Table, with the result that the upokororo is now one of our rarest native fish. The Tench It is a great pity that there were no import restrictions in force to prevent the entry of the teach into New Zealand waters. A dweller in stagnant waters, the tench is a fish of mean appearance and degraded habits, which eats mud and tastes (according to those who have tried it) like boiled pin-cushions. Though rarely eaten, it will itself eat almost anything which doesn’t require too much exertion. According to the quaint fancy of other days, as related by Walton, the tench was called the "physician of fishes,’ curing the ills of other fish by rubbing his flanks against theirs. It is more probable, however, that he acted as an emetic. As every schoolboy knows, there are three kinds of tench, past, present and future. We have now dealt with all the sizeable fish in New Zealand waters, but there yet remain the -smallest of our fishes. These we will deal briefly with in the final instalment of our " Pocket Encyclopedia of New Zealand Fishes." (To be concluded)