Silverstream Weir, Upper Hutt last weekend

[preacher]

I have been down to the local Weir each night over last weekend and been amazed at the sight of a river alive with fish. The water was filled with baby kokopu/Inanga swimming about. Eels of varying sizes from tiny shoelaces to monsters the size of your arm. Bullies, shrimp...

The best part of the weekend was the second night. I was scanning the water when I heard a flapping behind me, where the Weir comes down and meets a concrete step it forms a small channel along its length. There in the turbulant water was a big grey shape, I wasn't sure if it was a trout or something else. When I walked up to it it swam back n forth along the channel before settling into a small hole. A beautiful 30cm? Kokopu, my guess an adult Banded from its colouration (bearing in mind thats by torchlight). It certainly looks like the one on the freshwater fish societies website. It had suffered a small bite to its back and was trying to swim up the Weir. I was amazed it allowed me to not only touch it, but it just sat there as I picked it up and put it into my net for a closer look. After I took it up the top of the Weir and released it back into the river. My one regret is I didn't have my camera with me

P.

[Stella]

WOW

How awesome!!

I am hoping to go spotlighting tonight. Just need to Get Out.

A banded is unlikely to get to 30cm, more like 25cm. A giant can get to 30cm+ but the markings should be pretty obvious.

The trick with picking kokopu and trout is to look for the dorsal fin: in kokopu it is at the back of the body, in trout is dead centre. Sometimes it can be hard to tell when looking at fish in streams if they are trout or kokopu. The first adult shortjaw kokopu I saw was a fluke with that technique: a pool full of trout and one that looked a little different...

Could you describe the bite with more detail?

It is amazing the injuries they can recover from and how fast!

It may have been unwell (letting you touch it etc) but sometimes you get ones like that. Kokopu tend not to flap about when caught, but some do.

Thanks for sharing. You sounds absolutely awe-struck!

[preacher]

Well bear in mind it was dark, I didn't have a ruler and was looking at this beautiful fish with eyes the size of dinner plates

I can't be sure on the length of the kokopu but it wasn't no titch thats for sure, I held it in both hands and it still overlapped. My 2 hands together are roughly 20cm. It was definately a Kokopu, the first 2 fish I caught in the river well over a year ago were 2 10cm trout. I quickly learned they weren't the Inanga I thought they were, doh!

As for the bite, it was about a 1cm square chunk taken out of its back just up from the dorsal fin. Nicely pink raw. It was definately a chunk taken out rather than a scrape, but im hardly the expert. Im guessing it may have been exhausted from flapping about trying to get up the wier, which is why it didn't put up much of a fight. When I put it in the river above the weir it just sat there near the bottom while I looked at it. It didnt even bother to swim away, though it was gone later when I looked for it again.

P.

[Stella]

a bit like this then?

(tis a banded)

MrEd here also caught a banded with his bare hands at Lake Papaitonga. Apparently they can be 'tickled' like trout. Or sometimes you are just lucky

Interesting, I had a fish with a similar injury. Was a small giant kokopu, post whitebait, maybe 7cm long. It was like the skin has been ripped off, again about 1cm, and showing just raw pink flesh underneath. It didn't seem very active, it was caught very easily (not by me, by PeteS) and I took it home just incase I could do something to save it. It looked like troutfood otherwise.

Would you believe the wound was COMPLETELY GONE within a week? It was like a drawstring tightened around it and it just sealed over. A tiny dent, just a little bit darker than the skin, remained visible. It was 1mm wide at the maximum, the rest of the area looked like normal skin as if nothing had happened.

Sadly that fish died recently, but he had got a lot bigger since he was caught. No idea why he died. It seems he was so slow when caught because, well, that was the sort of fish he was! A kind of retiring personality.... (I wouldn't have taken him from the wild if it wasn't for his injury)

Kokopu get scraped easily, mine often have shredded skin and tooth-marks when they fight, but it NEVER goes deep, certainly nowhere near the flesh. Not even through the markings, which are quite deep. And the scrapes are always gone within 24 hours.

You will find the same kokopu in the same pool night after night. I was at Nga Manu spotlighting with a friend and we saw two kokopu in two hollows under a bridge. They didn't like the lights but wouldn't leave. The next night we saw the same two in the same two hollows, and a third between them. A month later she visited again and was adamant she saw the same two kokopu! (they were distinctive sizes).

Maybe you will have another chance when you have your camera along?

[preacher]

Well I am on evenings at the hospital all week so I will definately try back there. Its wet out tonight but it should be a bit better later on in the week.

Did you get my email with the photos attatched Stella? I sent it last Friday like you asked.

P.

[Snorkel]

Nice post Preacher. Very interesting.