FISHES PHENOMENAL AND ECONOMICAL. 



been thoroughly acclimatised in the rivers, lakes, and estuaries, more especially of 

 Tasmania and Victoria. In the first-named Colony, the trout introduced have tended 

 to grow to prodigious size, taking on all the characters of the English breed which is 

 now known to be only a variety, but was formerly regarded as a distinct species and 

 distinguished by the title of Salmo ferox, or the Great Lake Trout. An example 

 referable to this racial variation was taken in the Huon river by the late 

 Sir Robert Hamilton, formerly governor of Tasmania, which weighed no less than 

 twenty-nine and a half pounds, while fish weighing twenty pounds and upwards 

 are of common occurrence. Some of the large inland lakes of Tasmania, and 

 notably the Great Lake, are famous for the size and abundance of the Trout 

 they produce. The following, epitomised from a report which appeared recently 

 in the columns of the "Field," will convey some idea of the sport that Tasmania 

 can place at the disposal of the enthusiastic angler. These larger fish, it is 

 scarcely necessary to say, will not rise to the fly, but may be successfully laid siege 

 to with a variety of real or artificial spinning baits. 



The magnificent bag referred to below and reported in the " Field " was made by 

 three anglers who camped for a few days at the Great Lake, a sheet of water no less 

 than 100 miles in circumference. The total number of fish taken was only 82. These, 

 however, weighed collectively 759 Ibs., yielding an average of 9J Ibs. per fish, though, 

 as a matter of fact, they varied in weight from 2J up to as much as 20 Ibs. It is 

 also recorded in this account that a fish had, a short while previously, been found 

 dead on the shore of this lake which possessed an estimated weight of no less than 

 35 Ibs. That such a phenomenal specimen may have actually been seen is by no 

 means incredible. There is a remarkably large race of the ordinary brown trout 

 indigenous to certain lakes in the Orkney Islands, and it has on that account been 

 denominated Salmo fario var. orcadensis. As heavy a weight as 36 Ibs. has been 

 authentically recorded of one colossal individual belonging to these veritable Tritons 

 of their tribe. 



A second typical species of the British Salmonidse has been permanently 

 established in both Victorian and Tasmanian waters. This is Salmo trutta, or the 

 so-called Salmon-trout, Sea-trout, or Sewin of the English, Scottish and Welsh fish 

 markets. It is an essentially migratory form, going down to the sea and returning to 

 the rivers to spawn. Its finer varieties very closely resemble the true salmon in 

 shape and aspect, but it is a relatively smaller fish, rarely exceeding ten or twelve 

 pounds in weight. 



