TROUT-FISHING IN NEW ZEALAND 



By C. E. LUCAS 



NO survey of the angling capabilities of the world would 

 be complete without a notice, however succinct, of the 

 remarkable results following upon the introduction of 

 British brook trout into New Zealand. No species of the 

 genus Salmo is indigenous to that island; indeed, in the 

 whole southern hemisphere the only freshwater repre- 

 sentative of the family Salmonidte is a small smelt {Retropinna Richard- 

 sonii) inhabiting certain lakes in New Zealand; consequently the enterprise 

 of those who attempted to acclimatize Atlantic salmon and British trout 

 in the rivers of the Southern Pacific was an arduous and doubtful experi- 

 ment. Thus far, the importation of salmon ova into the waters of Tasmiania 

 and New Zealand has failed to succeed in establishing the king of fresh- 

 water fishes therein; but his absence is amply atoned for by the readiness 

 with which the common trout and the rainbow trout have taken to these 

 distant quarters, and the prodigious size to which they grow there may 

 well excite the envy of stay-at-home anglers. 



These trout have assumed, not only the weight of true salmon, but 

 also their appearance and, to some extent, in Tasmanian waters, at 

 least, their migratory habit. The red spots, so characteristic of British 

 brook trout, disappear after the yearling stage, and the fish become as 

 silvery as salmon, marked also with the x-shaped black spots which 

 distinguish that species. In Tasmania these trout desert the rivers in 

 summer, repairing to the sea, where they are taken of large size in 

 nets, those that escape returning to the rivers to spawn in autumn. It 

 remains to be ascertained by protracted and accurate observation 

 whether we have in this phenomenon an epitome and reflection of the 

 salmonoid history in the northern hemisphere during tertiary and post- 

 tertiary times. 



The following particulars have been prepared from notes kindly supplied 

 to the editor by Mr C. E. Lucas, of Warnham Court, Horsham, and may 

 serve as a fair sample of the sport to be had in New Zealand. One is apt to 

 suspect that trout of the fine weight attained by the fish killed by Mr Lucas 

 and his friends are of the kind which can only be tempted by spinning 

 baits or worm; but it will be seen from Mr Lucas's notes that the artificial 

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