N.Z. MARINE DEPARTMENT-FISHERIE,S BULLETIN No. .į

stations in the country in a year. An idea of the size of the stream in relation
to other tributaries of Lake Taupo can be gathered from the fact that the discharge
of Taupo is about 5,000 cubic feet per second.
In the season of. 19454, 13 anglers took 2,063 trout at Lake Taupo. If half
these fish were females of an average weight of 41¿1b. and a productivity of 650
eggs per lb. of their weight, they rvould have contained about 3,000,000 eggs.
This quantity would be nearly a third of the maximum ever taken in a year from
that district for hatchery purposes and about a sixth of the maximum for eggs of
all qpecies handled in all the hatcheries of the country. The catch of those 13
anglers was only a fraction of the total catch of anglers at Taupo.
Of the two important rainborv fisheries, that of Lake Taupo, some 238 scluare
rniles in area and fed by the Tongariro ancl numerous other tributaries, is the more
extensive. The connected r'vaters of Lakes Rotorua and Rotoiti comprise onl1, 46
square miles, but the relatively high proportion of shallow water they offer suggests
tl.rat, area for area, they should be r-nore productive than most inland rvaters of this
countrv. Some indication of the extent of their tributaries is given by the recorded
clischarge of 500 cubic feet per seconcl at the outlet of the lor.'er lake--al¡out a tenth
of Taupo's outflow..
Rotorua rose quickly to prominence as all angling centre in the early vears of
this century. A local resident, the late Mr. Arthur Iles, who endeavoured to record
all captures over the first feur seasons n-rade tl-re foilowing records available.
Eventually the fishery became so important that adequate recording became more
than a spare-time job, and Mr. Iles recommendecl the proper authorities to continue
thé work. Although this was not clone, the records are valuable as far as they go.
Recorded captures in the iseason 1n34 amour-rted to 13 tons 13 cwt.
r9u-5 ,, ,, 27 ,, 5
1905-6
1906-7
,, 38 ,'
,, 50 ,,
18 ,,
u"mrto,.' (1904j i,' n'.or,r.*o"ru".1onlr7åt.,'r.Ït "0".i; I-'0" ,..or.l.,t catch or
the first season says that another thircl coulcl safely be adclecl for unrecorclecl frsh
not brought in and weig-hed. Donne (1927), who was an ofñcer of the Depaltment
which had charge of the fishery for many years, publishecl the same figures for the
first three seasons and sa¡'5 that to them 25 per cent. coulcl be added for unrecorded
captures. If the lower figure of a quarter is accepteci as a rough measttre of
unrecorded captures, the total weight of fish taken in the first four seasons may be
put at 162 tons. In the season 71Ð7-8 the catch r,voulcl have been 70 plus a quarter
87 tons. Recorcls o1 2,256 trout taken in that season show an average rveight
-say
oÍ 2.41b. Mr. Iles's tecords sl-iow a very steep rise as f¿r as they go.
There is no reason to believe that 1907-8 represents a peak year. On the contrary,
saies of licences continuecl to increase very lapiclly until the outl¡reak of the Great
War in 1914. Before that time it rvas founcl necessary to resort to netting the lakes
ancl to excluding spawners from tributafies to help keep tl-re stock within reasonable
ntrmbers. In eight years between 1910 and1920 netting r'vas carriecl out in Rotorua
or Rotoiti and more than 250,000 trout, weighing altout 276 tons, were destroyecl
before it was felt that angling intensity had increased suffrciently to control the stock.
Fisheries bulletin (N.Z. Marine Dept.) no. 9 (1948)
.87