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Individual taste in books varies as much as the favorite rod or fly. With that in mind, we hope to review books and videos from the ever-growing fly fishing world, and share them with you. Books will be the best of all worlds, new and old. Many of the old books are now available in reprint, and the wisdom contained is timely today. Others can be found in second-hand book stores, or by mail order dealers. As we find videos we feel are outstanding they will be included. Be assured, reviews are based on what we have actually read or viewed, and due to that fact, may not appear weekly.
THE AUSTRALIAN TROUT
The Australian Trout
It's Introduction and Acclimatisation in Victorian Waters
A few weeks ago one of our readers sent me a book from Australia and when I first received it I thought it was about fishing for trout down-under. However, when I began to read it I discovered that it was about the history of how trout came to find a home in Australia, and to some extent New Zealand.
When you realize that trout ova were shipped from England on sailing ships you get some idea of the dedication that it took to bring trout to the land down-under. The following is part of the description about how the eggs were shipped.
"The boxes in which the ova were packed were 'of one inch pine, 11¾ inches long, 8¾ inches wide and 5¼ inches deep, perforated with holes top, bottom and sides, to allow the water from the ice as it melts to flow into the boxes, and percolate through the moss and the ova inside.' A couple of handfuls of charcoal are spread over the bottom of the box, than a layer of broken ice, after this a bed or nest of wet moss is carefully made and well drenched with water, the ova are then very gently poured from a bottle which is kept full of water, the box is now filled up with moss, and pure water poured upon it, until it streams out from all the holes; another layer of finely pulverized ice is spread all over the top of the moss; the lid is then firmly screwed down."
The above shipment set sail on January 21st 1864 and arrived, 84 days later, on April 15th, 1864. When the ova finally arrived at the hatchery it was estimated that 35,000 salmon ova and 300 trout ova, which were packed in separate boxes, had survived the trip.
The book is filled with all of the details of the arduous task of bringing trout to Australia and New Zealand. If you are interested in the history of trout fishing in these islands I would highly recommend this book.
If you are interested in obtaining a copy of this book you can contact Richard by sending an email to kossy1@bigpond.com.