preacher

Seriously proud of you Stella, now all you need is a tractor to storm parliment and bang some heads over the whitebait industry and you will become a household name P.

Sadly my wife Ruth still has my camera since we separated, but I have to say what an awesome experience it was visiting this aquarium. I got to the National Trout Center just before 1pm, bang on time for feeding. Seeing the Koaro, the bandeds and all the other fish was heaven Having seen all those beautiful fish I hope I get to take my little girl one day. Its definately worth a day out. P.

The bullies I suspect are commons. Love the trout hehe. Birchville supposably has Banded and Giant Kokopu though ive never seen any up there. P.

Well after weeks of earthworks that didnt seem to amount to much more than shift that boulder to the left.... um... no actually move it too the right. Mother nature seems to have decided to take a hand in it. Our recent big storm flooded the river and utterly destroyed their little dam, and most of their road down to the river. With the raised river level and their earthworks however the flow dynamics below the weir such that fish should, for now, be able to bypass the weir without too much difficulty. Fingers crossed we see a bit more life upstream now. P.

Well the fish have all vanished, but it may be that in doing the construction work they have made a viable fish pass and they've all gone upstream. Can't say for sure. The nearby stream has some amazing red fin bullies.

My ears are burning, someone must be talking about me. Hey Joff, nice to know theres another native buff here in the Hutt. Where abouts are you? Sounds like you had a fair bit of fun up Birchville Now. Did you actually see them in the stream below it, or in the dam itself? There are Common/Crans Bullies in the Dam, Koura and Trout and I am told Banded Kokopu. I suspect the Dam itself is way to high (about a 5 metre over hanging waterfall) for fish to get up successfully. I have seen baby trout and eels in the stream but never anything else sadly. Theres a few spots around the Hutt I know. The river is always good for fish, especially down Silverstream Weir. Theres a local stream with Koura (last visit I found a bunch of dead ones, not sure what the story is there, but there were still live ones too). A nice of spot in the river near my place in Totora Park for shrimp. Drop me a line and maybe we can get together sometime [email protected] P.

Just over a year ago the weir across the river got badly damaged during several days of heavy rain which caused the river to threaten it. Unfortunately this created a massive barrier to fish travelling upstream, especially over the white bait season, while the river level was low. Finally though it appears the Council has got off their backsides and started to do something about it. Looking across the river, a large wall has been built across it channelling the river away. The damage to the base of the weir is amazing The water poured over it in one huge waterfall, because of the overhang nothing could get up. Even the baby eels that tried to slip up along the edge got caught by the overhang. I really hope they sort it out. Looking across the lagoon they have created at the new entrance to the river, the base of the weir used to be alive with bullies and Inanga. Now... nothing. Not sure if they can get upstream along the temp. bypass. All I saw today was a single trout gliding around the lagoon. I will try and keep an eye on the place as they repair it.

Took the opportunity of the overcast weather on Sunday to do a stock take and clean up of the pond. Some Pre - shots. Not much changed since October. Except I cut down the dead tree as it kept shedding sticks and branches everytime a gale came through. My Big Momma, gosh she's grown. Shes about 9.5 - 10cm nose to tail and 1.5cm across at the shoulders Drained it, was amazed at the amount of sludge and mud at the bottom. Almost my entire hand deep. Cleaned out a lot of it and rearranged the stones around the edges again. I figure they are better there than buried in a pile of sludge. The bottom pond had become swamped with azolla so I chucked as much as I could out. I don't mind the Lemna as much. Final Tally (I say final, 3 hours after I drained the pond I was still finding Crays appearing out of nowhere and fish stuck in weeds) came too : 18+ Crayfish. (I'm sure I lost count and there was at least 1 still hiding in his little hole.) 5 Goldfish 6 Bullies (2 redfin, 4 Crans/Commons) 7 Inanga 1 Banded Kokopu. 6 Southern Bell frogs 1 shrimp. 2 Mussels No snails in the bottom pond, suspect they have been crayfish snacks Lots of Damselflies and even a Dragonfly around this year P.

Soooo jealous Beautiful fish though P.

Lol, with all these earthquakes about im beginning to wonder if they know something about Wellington we don't! Maybe its a case of so long and thanks for all the fish....

After all the heavy rain we've had up here in the Hutt Valley the last few days I went out a couple of nights ago to check on the pond to make sure it wasn't overflowing. The pond was very full, too murky and deep too see much so I turned around and discovered I was being stalked... by my big crayfish in the middle of the lawn. Naughty girl, back she went. Went out again tonight and there was another one! Just quietly strolling through the grass, didn't care a bit until I picked it up. Adventerous little buggers arent they. Good thing I found them before the local hedgehog did, though I imagine they would give it a nip or 2 on its nose for its trouble. The fish all seem to be doing ok at the moment. I have 4 bullies (2 crans and 2 red fins) in an outdoor tank waiting to go into the pond. The reds do love hiding... I also have some fry around 2cm long which appear to be galaxxid in the bottom garden tub. Certainly not bullies and they don't look like trout. Time will tell P.

Nice photo's, sounds like you had heaps of fun.

Being in the pond I rarely feed them at all. But occasionally I drop in some crumbled up COOKED Shredded chicken. They go mad, the Inanga rush about tearing chunks off, the Goldfish are like active vacuum cleaners, the Koura grab what they can and even the bullies dart out to take a bite. Its fun to watch the Inanga, they are like little sharks. Circling around then darting in, grabbing a mouthful, tearing a chunk off and darting away to gulp it down. P.

Assuming they hatched, the eggs are certainly gone from under mum. I imagine they are hiding in the rocks and mud. Having said that I haven't drained the pond since I saw her in berry and with them being so small it would be hard to spot them. Plus theres about 10 crays in there who wouldn't mind a tasty little snack. I keep popping out every other night for a looksie though

Lol, your all welcome anytime. Just drop me a line [email protected] Peter