50 



NET-FISHING IN THE DERWENT. 



By Morton Allport, RL.S., F.Z.S. 



During tlie months of November, December, and January, 

 when the freshets caused by the winter's rains having subsided, 

 and the tidal waters get low and brackish, shoals of fish com- 

 mence running up from Storm Bay and the open coast into the 

 estuary of the River Derwent, for the purpose of depositing 

 spawn in the shallow landlocked bays, which abound from 

 Eosny and Macquarie Point upwards. 



Of such fish, the most valuable are Flounders and Soles; the 

 other being Bream, Mullet, Mackerel, Native Salmon, Kiugfish, 

 and a few species of comparatively minor importance. 



No exact season can be fixed for the spawning of any of these 

 fish, the time of the deposition of the ova varying in different 

 years from causes of which naturalists are at present ignorant ; 

 and even in the same summer, m.any weeks often elapse 

 between the deposition of the first and last spawn of each 

 particular species. The parent fish having deposited the 

 spawn, remain in the river, safe from the attack of their 

 more formidable marine enemies, till their strength is recruited, 

 and return to the sea with the first floods of winter. 



The development of the spawn and subsequent progress of 

 the fry are not so well ascertained as the habits of the parent 

 fish ; but the probability is, that the fry — like those of most 

 summer spawning fish — are very rapidly hatched, and increase 

 their weight quickly at first, as otherwise they could never 

 hold their own against the attacks of the innumerable enemies 

 to which they are subjected in their early helpless stages. The 

 fry of several species remain through the winter in the com- 

 parative security afforded by the sheltered waters of the river, 

 leaving for sea at the end of the following autumn, and 

 becoming marketable in the ensuing spring — two years after 

 they are hatched. 



Forty years ago, the bays near Hobart Town swarmed with 

 fish during the summer months, and flounders and soles could 

 be caught in any quantity on all the beaches at Sandy Bay. 

 Vast shoals of Bream, Mullet, and Native Salmon, made their 

 way up to the junction of the fresh and salt water at Herds- 

 man's Cove, in the Jordan, and above New Norfolk in the 

 Derwent, at both which places angling was for several years 

 afterwards successfully carried on. 



In the summer months, between the years 1840 and 1850, 



