GO FISHING IN YOUR OWN BACKYARD

New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 305, 27 April 1945, Page 16

GO FISHING IN YOUR OWN BACKYARD

(Written for "The Listener" by

J. D.

McDonald

M.A., M.Sc.).

N 1069 the Abbey of Bartonfarne had three fish ponds, but the Abbey of Whitby had twenty. This is strictly true. It is so entered in the Doomsday Book, which records, separately and with the greatest care, the hundreds of fish ponds scattered over England. And right solidly were they taxed-for so

valuable a possession was too good an investment to escape ‘the Royal cupidity. The possession of fish ponds definitely indicated liquid assets. The same picture presents itself in China, taxes and all, twenty centuries earlier. And the pattern is repeated in ancient Rome, where the lampreys. destined for the royal tables, lolled in alabastar fish ponds -between meals of, no doubt reluctant, slaves. :

A properly managed fish pond is an excellent investment as an adjunct to normal farming and it may be that there ate possibilities in it for partly disabled servicemen as a means of livelihood or as a supplement to their pensions. At this point it will be objected- that the number of ponds in New Zealand is limited. So they are. But what we need to have in mind are artificial fishponds which can be constructed by anyone in his spare time without any special machinery. Granted the possibility, no New Zealander needs to be told of the virtues of fish as a food. The toothsome smell of frying fish much too infrequently salutes the nose in this country. Its food value, too, is exceptionally high, much better than meat, and into the bargain fish normally contains larger quantities of vitamins and trace minerals than does flesh food. Yet it is usually in short supply in New Zealand, expensive and none too fresh when we get it.. The fact must be faced that owing to the steep drop of the continental shelf round New Zealand the shallow water round our coastline is limited and therefore New Zealand waters do not teem with fish-quite the contrary in fact. Therefore it seems that we shall have to turn to the fresh water. Apart from whitebait and trout what do we eat from our streanis? The best fish we have is the eel. He is.a much better proposition than the trout for whose sake Acclimatisation Societies seek to exterminate him. The Maoris were wiser than we are. Note the number of names of places with "tuna" in them. The muddy taste so often complained of is absent from the "silver belly" living in a good environment. Smoked eel is definitely well worth eating and jellied eels are a cockney luxury, so if Anguilla vulgaris is to be despised and rejected in New Zealand why not export him? First Build Your Pond. This article does not seek, however, to ram the eel down anyone’s throat, The world is full of edible fresh-water fish. The important thing is first to build your pond and then to stock it properly, Many farms in New. Zealand can show heavily gullied slopes and marshy areas that normally are not much use. These make excellent ponds. An earth dam is erected at the lowest point and consolidated by puddling, the pond bed is treated in the same way and then it is permitted to fill naturally, but ample provision must be made for emptying the ponds in the event of trouble; a pipe in the dam is a good idea. An acre is a convenient pond area for a start. The depth, of course, will be determined by the slope of the land. Some people plant fish food in the pond, others don’t bother, but before the fish are introduced it is advisable to "top-dress" with about 4cwt. of a manure containing phosphorus and. potash to stimulate the growth of the tiny organisms that feed (continued on next page)

. (comf@pued from previous page) the fisht Pou need have no fear of mosquitoes, your fish will wax fat on their larvae. Stocking should consist of the introduction of two species of edible fish only-one to live on the fish feed and another to prey on the first. The balance between the two will be strictly kept by nature. Neither will breed beyond its food supply. In America, bream and bass are usually the chosen pair, but the Fisheries Department in New Zealand probably could make a better choice to fit our conditions. £1 a Week Per Acre. Let us suppose you have built your pofid and stocked it and are resolved to repeat the top-dressing as required. Now you have nothing to do but wait for dividends... The fertiliser doesn’t worry the fish in the least. They thrive on it. From time to time after the second year you net what you think fit, using a wide mesh net so that the smaller fish escape-till next time. From your acre you could reasonably expect a re- . turn of about a pound per week at present fish ‘prices, provided’ that your fresh water fish could find a market. If not you’d probably have to eat it

yourself. The prospect isn’t so grim as all that however. Arid besides there are are more ways of cooking fish than by frying — boiled with parsley sauce, soused, en casserole, baked, steamed or as a pie it. is very palatable. Smoked and salted fish, too, are worth considering. Now, a return of approximately £50 per acre is good farming in any man’s country. It’s better than most field crops and almost in the market garden class. But when there’s no labour involved it certainly does look rather a fishy proposition and one tends to look for the nigger in the fish-pile. There isn’t any. Artificial fish ponds are spreading like a rash all over the U.S.A. There is no real reason why fresh water fish should not be saleable in .New Zealand. Granted that the high iodine content so valuable in sea food, is missing, nevertheless fresh water fish probably represent the best source of readily available vitamins and minerals in our diet. And besides all this, once you had your own fish pond you might like to go fishing-some time. P.S.-Fish ponds in New Zealand are NOT taxed-yet. (Suggested = Farmers’ i a9 No, 1938, UsS. Department bé-