Message to anglers – wait a year or more for these young trout to grow fat – then give chase.

Fish & Game officers have carried out their first release for the year (Tues Feb 14), dropping 1,500 young fish into two of Rotorua region’s best loved angling lakes.

The first 1000 seven month-old fish were released into Lake Tarawera, before a curious crowd of mainly children and one or two tourists. Another 500 were then freed into Lake Rotoiti at Ruato Bay.

Fish & Game Officer Lloyd Gledhill says the summer releases started some years ago amid some skepticism, as releases were historically carried out in spring and autumn.

The summer programme has proved successful, he says, in two ways: “fish survive grow big and get caught by anglers – and that’s our ultimate goal. Or they survive and grow big and swim up rivers and into the hatchery’s fish traps - to be used as breeding stock.”

He says they win either way, but ideally they want most to be caught by anglers. In the meantime, anglers are reaping the rewards from earlier re-stocking - catching their share of fully grown fish; two trophy size trout were caught in Lake Tarawera last week.

ENDS

BUDGET 2012:
Parliament Debate Live - Video Of Budget 2011
Keith Ng Interactive Graphic: How the Budget Breaks Down
BUDGET 2012 - FULL COVERAGE: Reports / Analysis - Press Kit - Reaction (from everybody) - Previews (from everybody) - Pre-Budget Announcements

Gordon Campbell: On the Budget’s Spreadsheet Victories

It wasn’t as if expectations were sky high, exactly. Chances are, it was always more likely that we’d be seeing Bigfoot rampage through the Beehive lock-up than catch a glimpse of a credible growth agenda from this government. More >>

Sludge Budget Report - Short The Dollar! MEMO: To international bankers FROM: C.D. Sludge Please short the dollar! It'll be good for both you and us. And you know you want to. Greexit, Eurogeddon... watch out... flight to quality and all that. Follow your instincts. The NZ Debt Management Office has been so surprised at the unprecedentedly low interest rates that it can borrow at that it has already entirely pre-funded the 2013 fiscal deficit - all $8 billion of it! More >>

Pattrick Smellie Comment: Doddling along the best we can hope forCriticising Budgets for lacking vision or imagination is like shooting fish in a barrel, but even so, this year's Budget again feels like a missed opportunity. Perhaps it's the intrusion of real world needs that means the government couldn't make better political use of the $558.8 million it expects to gather in its first partial asset sale. More >>