Thread: Last word on Kai Iwi Lakes, Northland

Fish & Game have said it better than I can in their magazine.

As a kid about 40 years ago, we used to go over to the lakes with the Acclimatisation Society scientist to do the yearly trout survey that set the quota for the trout stocking. We used to set out a fixed length of gill nets in designated locations for a fixed time period (a couple of hours). The number of trout caught, their age (fin clipping) weight and growth profile (based on the growth rings on a bone in their head) were all recorded. This was trended against historical data and with the recreational catch records, the restocking numbers were set.

Gut content was also examined. One of the main food sources was fresh water crayfish.

It used to be one of the best fisheries in the country for average poundage of fish caught. Would be a shame to see it lost.

Result of green extremism. Very sad.

Next minnit we will have to pay to restore the lack to its "natural" state. Wonder what will happen to Taupo before the greed rears its head again.

My guess is there will be a population explosion of Mosquito fish (gambusia affinus) in the absents of there only effective predator.
The Mosquito fish will effectively take over the lake, competing and starving the native species that reside within.

I see huge schools of native dwarf inanga while fishing at the lakes, they seem to sustain themselves quite well, even in the presence of rainbow trout.

Very sad and without out doubt a under hand policy to remove an introduced fish ( trout ) from a lake.
Once again something our fore fathers introduced as sport for the general population to enjoy , DOC and the Greens just re-write the mandate and label it as a pest. Fuckers.

Once again political fundamentalism winns over common sense, It was the first place I went trout fishing by myself as a lad. Oh well I hope the Council ejoys it's lake full of gambusia and camps full of drunken louts with speed boats.

Unfortunately we will see more and more of these ideological based decisions from Councils and DOC. Central Government policy directives influence these "management plan" decisions and when you have the legacy of a person like the former DOC Minister Sage who installed her personal narrow minded agenda, dictating DOC policy this is the result.
These ideological based decisions often ignore history and past research and are often based on assumptions derived from little or no quantifiable data. Reading the background to this it is clear that they have little idea of the impact of removing the trout, but you can rest assured if the impact is detrimental no one for council or DOC will be held accountable. The most likely out come is that the negative finds will be suppressed.

I can only agree with the posts above. It's particularly galling since we have no other decent trout fishery in the whole region and with Auckland to the south, it will be a long drive to catch a decent trout.