The Panoko

This fish is also called panokonoko, parikou, papane, and a number of other names, for which see list ante. It is called parakoi at Waikato. Natives sometimes include it under the generic term of kokopu. The Rev. R. Taylor tells us in Te Ika a Maui that the papanoko is a scaleless fish about 5 in. long, rather rare and much prized, its roe being nearly as large as the fish itself, and gives pariri as the name of the male of the species. Williams's Maori Dictionary gives "Pariri, a small fresh-water fish." Panoko is a fish-name at Tikopia Island.

The following notes on the panoko were contributed by a correspondent in the Otaki district: "The panokonoko is a scaly fish with very small scales; it is 6 in. to 8 in. long, having a fairly big head, page 225thick body tapering quickly to the tail, and it looks like an overgrown toitoi (the 'bullyhead' of settlers' nomenclature). These fish are slow-moving unless frightened, and, like the toitoi, live on the bottom and move forward in a jerky way a few inches at a time. They are found about here in deep, still waters at the mouths of the smaller streams, above the salt water: the Waikawa, Waitohu, Rangiuru, and Waimea are such streams as they prefer. I have caught then when eel-fishing, and they will take any bait used for eels, but will not bite after dark. They like a sandy bottom, and I have never seen them where there was much soft mud, as in a swamp or lagoon. There were plenty of toitoi in the Kenepuru Stream at Porirua, but I never saw the panoko there. The Natives take this fish in hinaki set with the mouth upstream, and with a round, funnel-shaped net, called a kupenga hinaki, fixed at the mouth as a lead-in. Metara told me that in some cases a weir with 20 ft. wings would be constructed for taking them. This fish is very good eating. These weirs were of the single V form. To the two stakes at the narrow down-stream opening were lashed two horizontal poles, the lower one being on the bed of the stream. To these the wide mouth of the funnel-shaped kupenga hinaki was attached, its small lower end being inserted in the entrance of the hinaki or trap attached to it. This trap was not secured in any other way, but swayed freely in the flowing waters. Such weirs for taking the panoko were constructed at times when eels were not migrating, or at places where no eel-weirs existed; otherwise the fish were taken in traps together with eels. These fish have but few bones compared with the ordinary kokopu."

Captain G. Mair has stated that natives of the upper Whanganui apply the term te ika huna a Tane-mahuta (the hidden fish of Tane-mahuta) to the panokonoko, and that, for superstitious reasons, these fish are, or were, always cooked at some place outside the village, otherwise no more of such fish would ever enter the traps.

The panoko is taken up to about 7 in. or 8 in. in length, and Europeans sometimes take them with hook and line, which the Maori never did.