APRIL 28, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 

SEA AND RIVER FISHING 



Trout Fishing in New Zealand. 
GENERAL CorBIN, who is an ardent angler, spent 
several weeks last year in New Zealand to re- 
cuperate from the effects of the Philippine 
climate, and I found him fishing in the lakes of 
the Rotorua district and having the time of his 
life. He pronounced the sport with Rotorua 
rainbow trout the best he had found anywhere. 
Rotorua is in the center of the North Island 
of New Zealand, accessible by rail from Auck- 
land, and is the chief health and tourist resort 
of the colony. There are geysers, mud springs, 
baths, hot lakes and other manifestations of 
volcanic action to interest the tourist and health- 
seeker, and there is the greatest trout fishing in 
the world to entrance the sportsman. ‘The dis- 
trict is full of lakes and streams, and thé waters 
are full of fish. The largest bodies of water are 
Rotorua and Rotoiti, connected by a swift 
stream, and having an outlet over Okere Falls. 
Rotorua was stocked with brown trout twenty 
years ago, but the fish were taken in nets only 
and afforded no sport. Thirteen years ago the 
Acclimatization Society introduced the rainbow 
trout from California and Oregon, and until 
four years ago, nobody thought of catching the 
trout otherwise than by netting them. 
Mr. A. Iles, of Rotorua, was the pioneer 
fisherman. Undeterred by the derision of “old- 
timers,” he trolled in Rotorua Lake and caught 
big rainbow trout. Then he tried the fly in 
the connecting streams, and landed fish weigh- 
ing sixteen pounds. After that everybody went 
fishing, and it was found that the lakes were 
teeming with gamy trout, equal in size and 
fighting spirit to salmon. 
Conditions were peculiarly favorable to the 
growth of trout in the lakes. The only native 
fish was a small whitebait, from one to two 
inches in length, and there were thousands of 
tons of these in the waters, affording the very 
best of feed for trout. The rainbows waxed fat 
and saucy, and I am inclined to think that they 
resumed to some degree the characteristics of 
the steelhead salmon, which Dr. Jordan, the 
highest authority on fish, says they are, or were 
before they quit going to sea. Sixteen and 
seventeen-pound fish are quite common, and I 
have seen a twenty-pounder taken from Rotorua. 
The brown trout has not held his own with the 
rainbow, and is seldom found among the catches 
nowadays. 
Gen. Corbin and Capt. Slocum spent three 
days in a houseboat on Rotoiti, at the mouth of 
the river, and during that time caught seventy 
fish, averaging five and one-half pounds, The 
largest trout weighed nine and one-half pounds 
and put up a fight of half an hour against light 
salmon tackle. My own experience was as one 
of a party of four that spent a day on the lakes. 
Two fished with the fly and landed thirty fish. 
The others trolled and caught fifteen. The 
smallest fish weighed four and one-half pounds 
and the largest a little more than ten pounds. 
The registered lake catch for I904 was 15,262 
fish, weighing 58,802 pounds. That does not in- 
clude the catches of anglers who came in late 
and left by early trains, nor the fish taken by 
Maoris, who are averse to reporting their 
catches, and it is estimated by Mr. Iles that 50 
per cent. should be added to the figures. In ad- 
dition, 2,500 trout, weighing 11,250 pounds, were 
caught at Okere Falls. While the catch seems 
enormous, there is no danger of depleting the 
supply. It is even suggested by fishermen most 
familiar with conditions that it may be necessary 
to use the seine to prevent the waters from be- 
coming overstocked. A glance at the photo- 
graph of trout in Fairy Spring at spawning time 
will convey some faint notion of the fish popu- 
lation of Rotorua. 
¢ 
There are five streams flowing into the lake, 
and the water at the inlets is reserved for fly- 
fishing only. The streams are open to be fished 
with minnows in December, January, February 
and March. Open season on the lakes is from 
Nov. 1 to May 1. The records show that on 
Nov. 4 and 5, 1904, Messrs. Iles and Johnson, fly- 
fishing, landed 1o2 fish weighing 459 pounds, the 
heaviest turning the scale at twelve and one-half 
pounds. On Jan. 13, 1905, Messrs. Keenan and 
Clark took with the fly twenty-four fish weigh- 
ing 122 pounds. 
Fontinalis was put into the streams, but was 
washed out by freshets two or three years ago. 
In other New Zealand waters, however, Fonti- 
nalis, the speckled brook trout of the Eastern 
American States, has thriven wonderfully, and 
in February takes the fly with avidity. Fonti- 
nalis, the rainbow and the brown trout are very 
plentiful in Lake Taupo and attain astonishing 
size. Taupo is not so easy of access as the 
Rotorua waters, and is not fished much. Stream 
fishing is best in January, New Zealand’s mid- 
summer, and there is hardly a river in all the 
colony that does not afford sport beyond the 
dreams of the American or European angler. 
About three miles from Rotorua are two 
smaller lakes, one of turquoise blue and the 
other of emerald green—marvelous gems of the 
hills. They were stocked with rainbow fry in 
1902, and in one lake the fish have grown to 
about. four pounds and in the other to more 
than ten pounds. The lakes never have been 
fished. Capt. Slocum tried them, at my sug- 
gestion, but could not induce the fat trout to 
look at his lure. Whether the day was un- 
propitious or the fish lack fly-education is a 
question open to debate. Nobody but Capt. 
Slocum has wet a. line in the blue and green 
lakes, so far as I could ascertain, because the 
fishing in the larger lakes is so good and the 
catch so certain that fishermen will not walk 
three or four miles to try the experiment. 
ALLEN KELLY. 
Northern New England News. 
Boston, Mass., April 21.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: Some additional angling news from 
Maine has been received. Dr. A. R. Brown, of 
Boston, who is at Sebago Lake, reports fifty sal- 
mon taken there the past week, one weighing 14 
pounds. 
A 16-pound salmon was secured last week from 
the Bangor Pool by Mr. Otis Cowing, of Bangor. 
This fish was sent to Mr. W. Campbell Clark, the 
well know thread manufacturer, of Newark, N. J. 
Mr. Elbridge B. Harlow, of Brewer, has taken 
one that tipped the scales at 1734 pounds. 
The weirs are being set along the shores as far 
as Verona in the coves where the ice is gone, and 
as the smelt fishermen are securing a good num- 
ber of these fish, the salmon fishermen have great 
expectations of good fares. 
It has been a mystery to the writer why all the 
salmon should not be allowed to run up the 
stream to the pool for the benefit of the hook- 
and-line men. I suppose it is because the vested 
interests of the weir men outweigh the claims of 
the anglers with the powers that be. I believe 
every fish taken by sportsmen nets the State of 
Maine five times as much money as the same fish 
brings taken in the weirs. 
This is the season for predictions as to the date 
when the big lakes will be free of ice, and hun- 
dreds of fishermen are now collecting tackle and 
getting everything in readiness for their annual 
pilgrimage. In anticipation of early open water, 
the Boston & Maine Railroad has arranged to put 
on a train leaving Boston at to P. M., which will 
reach Rangeley at 7:30 the next morning, via 
Farmington, this service to commence May 6. 
This morning a laker was taken at Lake Pan- 
gus—which is connected with Lake Winnipisseo- 
gee—by Mr. Pierce, of Laconia, that weighed 27 
pounds. 
Mr. C. V. Stanley, who was in the launch when 
the fish struck, attempted to secure it in a landing 
net, but the fish was too large for the net, so the 

Tee RAINBOW TROUT IN FAIRY SPRING, 
ROTORUA, NEW ZEALAND, AT THE SPAWNING SEASON, 
