Upokororo, or Grayling
(Prototroctes oxyrhynchus)

This fish is also known as pokororo, paneroro, and kanae-kura. In the earlier years of European settlement it ascended the streams and rivers in considerable numbers, but during the past fifty years it has decreased very much in numbers, and but few are now seen. Otaki Waiapu, and other places report a few seen each season. In the former river they are seen above the junction of the Wai-o-tauru.

In 1870 Mr. Travers reported that this fish ascended the Maitai River, near Nelson, usually in the early part of October. In the same paper it is stated that in January, 1870, shoals of grayling ascended the Hutt River, Wellington district. (See Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, vol. 3, p. 135.) They were taken in the Waikohu River, inland of Gisborne, in the early "seventies"; and in 1879 Captain G. Mair reported both grayling and lampreys as fairly plentiful in the upper Whanganui, though the latter were taken by natives in the lower reaches only of the river. In 1914 Mr. C. Chitty contributed some interesting notes on the grayling to the Lyttelton Times. He stated that the grayling had completely disappeared from the Waikato River, but that from 1864, when first observed, to 1874 they were seen in shoals at the mouths of tributary streams and in quiet backwaters. They were wont to be very numerous about the mouth of the Karapiro Stream at Cambridge, and remained until near the autumn. They were shy, seeking deep water in daytime, but coming into the shallows towards evening. They then took the fly readily, and provided good sport; were strong fighters; the finest tackle and small trout-flies were required for them. Prior to the fighting against Europeans in the Waikato district the natives took them in nets in large quantities, the nets being many fathoms in length. Towards the end of summer grayling become very fat and full of spawn. These fish disappeared from the Waikato River about the time of a heavy flood in 1874. Mr. Chitty also recorded the coming of mullet up the Waikato River to Cambridge. Karaka Tarawhiti, of Huntly, also told me that mullet was one of the fish taken by natives in the river as far up as Rangiriri. European correspondents have told me that the grayling ascends rivers in order to spawn, but that it would not take bait. It was netted by natives, and sometimes taken in traps (hinaki).

page 213

Evidently the fly fisher does the more execution among grayling, but the late Mr. T. Roach, of Otaki, stated that, as a boy, he caught grayling in the Otaki River, using as bait a small reddish-coloured worm found under stones, &c.; this, he remarked, was the only bait they would take. The local natives had never heard of grayling having been taken with the hook, and they strongly disapproved of this new-fangled method—so much so, indeed, that they took Tame's hooks away from him, leaving him not only hookless but also pondering over the hapless fate of reformers of fishing methods.

In his Te Ika a Maui the Rev. R. Taylor writes: "The upokororo is a fish about 8 in. long, with scales; it is caught in the autumn. It bites at the hair of the legs, and is thus caught by the natives going into the water." I have gained no corroboration of this curious statement, and it seems withal a novel way of taking fish, though the actual manner of taking them is by no means clear, after all. Did the fisherman wade ashore towing the attached fish after him?

The natives of Waiapu gave tirango, kutikuti, and rehe as the names of three varieties of the grayling, or possibly names applied to it at different stages of its growth. The same natives gave the following account of how these fish were taken: In taking the upokororo a curious form of frame net was employed. The mouth of this net was fastened to an aka, or supplejack, bent and tied in the form of an oval, and a strong pole was lashed lengthwise across the net-mouth. (See fig. 84.) This net was set across a stream, with its mouth upstream. In some cases, when, owing to the width of a stream, the fish were likely to pass round the ends of the net, walls of stones were built out from either bank until the width of the net equalled the width of the opening between the walls. The net was then placed in position by inserting the ends of the pole amongst the loosely piled stones. A party then entered the stream some distance above the net and walked down-stream, splashing and beating the water with sticks, which caused the fish to fly down-stream and into the net. This method is termed tuki upokororo.

The Tuhoe folk told me that the grayling was formerly abundant in the lower parts of the Whakatane and Tauranga (Waimana) Rivers, though they did not seem to reach the headwaters thereof. They have disappeared since the "seventies". I myself saw one brought into one of the hotels at Opotiki as a curiosity, and that was in 1904. They were taken in the Bay of Plenty rivers by means of net, weir-traps, and the koumu, or trench excavated in the down-stream side of a sandspit, gravel-bank, or low-lying flat point. The trench was excavated a certain distance into the spit, but not through it, and page 214deep enough to contain a fair depth of water. The fish were then driven up-stream, while a number of persons stationed in the river on the up-stream side of the trench prevented them passing up, and so the alarmed fish would take refuge in the trench, whereupon the entrance to the same was blocked and the fish captured. The roe of the grayling is called the roro o Tangaroa by the Bay of Plenty natives.

Te Manihera Waititi, of Whanga-paraoa, gave an account of finding a shoal of grayling in a stream near Whanga-paraoa some years ago, and I am indebted to Hakaraia Pahewa, of Te Kaha, for a copy of his remarks. (See Appendix 7.) He writes as follows: Te Manihera explained to me the methods of taking the upokororo as practised in his district. This is one of our native fish that was formerly very numerous, but it has gradually disappeared and is seldom seen. It is now found only in the upper waters of the streams of Whanga-paraoa and Raukokore, in pools not approached by man or beast. For this fish is very shy and fears man; if startled it flees rapidly up-stream.

Te Manihera told me about a shoal of these fish taken in his district, at Wai-kokomuka. A man named Rimaha saw the fish as they were eating reporepo (a water-weed) at a rapid. The shoal was alarmed by his appearance, and fled. When the news reached the village a party went forth to seek and take the fish. On arriving at the place where the Mohau and Awa-kokomuka Streams join the Whanga-paraoa it was known that the fish had gone up the Mohau, and up that stream they were found. An umu (trench) was then excavated in a shingle-bank below a rapid, and a stone-wall barrier was constructed across the stream to form a guiding wing to the trench. All persons engaged in driving the fish carried a branch or bunch of kiokio fern to beat the water with, so as to drive the fishpage 215down to the trap. These branchlets or fern-fronds were formed into bundles, and such a bunch is called a raupoto. The director of the operations took his stand at the place where the stone barrier impinged upon the trench, with a raupoto in his hand. Should he observe that the trench trap was full of fish he would lower his raupoto and so prevent their escape. At the same time he would with his feet displace some of the stones of the pakau (barrier) and so allow a freer passage for the waters of the stream. He would then wait until the dammed-up water had flowed out of the trench where the fish were, so leaving them stranded, and then the fish would be collected. Such is one method of taking these fish, and it was the task of an expert to locate the fish in their haunts without alarming them. These fish feed on the reporepo (also called tuokura), found growing on stones and rock about cascades, and at such places where it grows the marks of the teeth of the fish are seen on the stones. This fish is of about the same size and appearance as the herring.

Another method of taking this fish was by means of a net used during the later stages of a flood. At such times it is found in the more placid reaches of a stream, where there is no pronounced current. It is taken when ascending the streams, and in much the same way as the inanga is; but the worst feature of the task is that the fish cannot be seen, owing to the waters being so discoloured by the fresh.

page 216

The reporepo, or tuokura, mentioned above is some form of water-plant, probably of moss-like appearance, that is seen adhering to stones. It may possibly be the same as kohuwai (Tyndaridea ano-mala)—at least, it must resemble it, to judge from descriptions given by natives.

It is not clearly explained above that the barrier of stones built across the stream served two purposes: it prevented the escape of the fish down-stream, and dammed the waters sufficiently to result in a depth of perhaps a foot in the excavated trench in the bank. The frightened fish entered this as a means of escape, only to find progress blocked at the end of the ditch. The man at the entrance of the trench prevented their return to the stream, and the breaking of the dam or barrier released the pent up-waters and drained the umu, or trench, of its water, thus leaving the fish stranded.

The Waiapu natives tell me that horsemen used to drive grayling down the river formerly, this procedure being practicable in the case of rivers having open courses with no cascades or falls. The driving would be to some place where an umu or net was awaiting the fish.