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

maxirnum'density. It is possible also, as the contemporary report suggests, that, as numbers
increased, fewer of the larger fish remained in fresh-water after spawning.
The claim that thp river had become "fu1l of'fish-mostly small" bv 1893 suggests that
numbers increased after 18$5-6. Records of 34 excursions made by four anglers in the Hutt
in the eighteen-nineties show an average daily catch'oÍ. 2.9 fish of an aggregate \¡¡eight of
2.7tb. T\is result is poor, even by present-day standards for other waters which have been
considered. Records are available Jrom ote angler who ñshed the Hutt mainly with artificial
fly, but sometimes with minnow, between 1887 and 1916. For 38 days between 1887 and 1890,
he averaged 1.6 6sh. per day and the daily catch weighed 1.5 lb. For the periods 1890 to 1900,
19@ to 1910 and 1910 to 1916 respectively, the flgures fgr excursions and nurnbers and
weights pei day arc: 20 days, 1.6 fish, 1.7 1b]; 124 days, 0.5 fish, 11b.; and 55 days, 0.6 frsh,
weighiry 0.81b. These data afford no evidence that the trout were ever in great abundance
in the Hutt. They 'show a substantial reduction of the catch of the individual angler after
the turn of the century.
Fisheries bulletin (N.Z. Marine Dept.) no. 9 (1948)
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