joff_nz Posted February 6, 2012 Report Share Posted February 6, 2012 Hi all, new here, been browsing for a while but signed up to get some info about where to go looking in or near upper Hutt for some good fish. While I would love to set up a tank, unfortunately I don't have the space to do it justice so am satisfied with just looking for now. I've made a couple of trips up to a dam in birchville and have seen 3 distinct variety of fish at least as well as koura. One there is plenty of, around 10 cm long and hang out in the shallows where there is a light current. Light brown and thin. another which I have only seen a couple. Stays very still sitting on the bottom where there is a sandy bottom with leaf litter and such. It is a kind of diamond shape, wider at the head end and tapers to a point, dark brown around 12-15cm long and maybe 2cm wide at the wieest point. And a third type which I have seen only in deeper parts which is around 25 cm long and 4ish cm thick. Spotted on the top with less marks on the bottom and when you shine a torch through it has a bit of a pinkness to it. Just hung out in the same place in a slow moving, deep part of the stream. Wasn't to bothered about me coming up close. I'd love to hear some suggestions of places to check out, you can pm me if you don't want them to be in the public eye? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted February 6, 2012 Report Share Posted February 6, 2012 preacher is your natives man in the Hutt! The thin 10cm ones could be inanga or smelt (if native). The tapered ones that sit on the bottom are probably bullies, maybe torrentfish. The pinkish spotted one... if native *might* be shortjaw kokopu, or perhaps non-native trout, but they are skittish. If you want a copy of my book on keeping native fish :happy1: try to get in touch before the end of Feb. Am packing up my house and going on the road for the rest of the year, which will probably slow orders down a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joff_nz Posted February 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2012 Thanks Stella, I have been reading a LOT of your posts over the last few months and love your work. A friend of mine who works at lower Hutt library was ordering me the book from a wairarapa library, but somebody had checked it out and obviously it was too good to take back! I'm very interested in getting one but budget doesn't allow it at this exact moment due to new baby upcoming. I've been keeping an eye on preachers posts too and hoped he would answer here, he seems to have a very good finger on the local options. I *think* the ones we saw a lot of were inanga but will try to get some pics. Took some nets on our second journey but we had a bigger group of people and might have made them a bit nervous because they were all too fast and we caught nothing other than a couple koura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted February 6, 2012 Report Share Posted February 6, 2012 LOL that is funny! With most natives the trick is to put the net in front of them and use another net or a stick to nudge them into the net. (or in blueether's case, just wait for the fish to swim in!). Inanga and smelt however zoom around in the midwater, so the trick there is to put the net horizontally UNDER them and lift it up, they don't seem to see it that way. Photos side-on are best for identifying things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueether Posted February 6, 2012 Report Share Posted February 6, 2012 Hi and welcome Good to see another body that is into our natives. Oh Stella, I have also found a fool-proof way to catch torrent fish. Only downside is you almost always get your arm wet all the way up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey Posted February 6, 2012 Report Share Posted February 6, 2012 Hi, and welcome to the Native house Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
preacher Posted February 7, 2012 Report Share Posted February 7, 2012 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joff_nz Posted February 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2012 Hey preacher! We saw plenty of fish and a small koura in the stream itself, with particular spots being rather busy. In the dam we found a big koura, as well as some small fish which I thought were inanga by my very minimal Id skills, and we saw a couple of eels in the stream as well. The third variation in my post above may well have been small trout. Keen to see some shrimp as I haven't yet come across any, and had planned to check out the weir. Have the scaping they have been doing there had any negative effects? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
preacher Posted February 7, 2012 Report Share Posted February 7, 2012 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joff_nz Posted March 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2012 Went for another journey up here, just myself and one other this time meaning we were much quieter and had a very good catch! Managed to catch one of each of the variations i mentioned above, and pics which should be enough to identify each type. Learnt a lot about photographing the fish so you will the pictures are pretty average. Biggest lesson was a deep red bucket isn't the best option, the takeaway dishes seen in other posts here will be what I take next time. Pics: SN202800 by joff_nz, on Flickr Didnt manage to catch ^this^ chap, but one of his friends: SN202802 by joff_nz, on Flickr SN202792 by joff_nz, on Flickr Nosy dog checking out our catch SN202789 by joff_nz, on Flickr SN202788 by joff_nz, on Flickr And this chap which looks to be the same type as the larger one above but much smaller, about 10cm SN202785 by joff_nz, on Flickr SN202781 by joff_nz, on Flickr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mazonic Posted March 17, 2012 Report Share Posted March 17, 2012 the first one is a type of bully! the Rest are TROUT!!!! :an!gry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joff_nz Posted March 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2012 I thought as much, there were plenty of the trout at different points up the steam, and there were 5 or 6 bullies in one place Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
preacher Posted April 7, 2012 Report Share Posted April 7, 2012 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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