Christine Pritt (left) and Lesley Hosking with a rat they trapped. Hinemaiaia River. Photo / Lesley Hosking
Christine Pritt (left) and Lesley Hosking with a rat they trapped. Hinemaiaia River. Photo / Lesley Hosking
What better news for Conservation Week than a confirmed sighting of whio (blue duck) on the Hinemaiaia River, Lake Taupō.
Their aim is to bring back the birds and after two years of trapping vermin on the true left bank in the upper reaches of their favourite trout stream, this is great news for Taupō Fishing Club members Christine Pritt and Lesley Hosking.
Starting on a small scale with eight traps, the pair stepped up their efforts when Didymo Dave Cade became busy with other conservation projects after 10 years trapping the Hinemaiaia and catching his 1000th rat in 2019. Now every Monday the fisherwomen check 41 traps in the upper reaches of the Hinemaiaia River.
The traps are targeted at the seven predators of birds: stoats, weasels, ferrets, cats, rats, mice and hedgehogs. Lesley says it takes them two hours to check and re-bait the traps.
Didymo Dave Cade beside the trap boxes that house Victor or T-Rex vermin traps. Photo / Lesley Hosking
The vermin are baited with end-of-line New Zealand-made Pic's Peanut Butter, which sent Christine and Lesley a 20kg supply after they complained the Predator Free NZ online shop was continually out of stock.
"It's a great conservation effort from Pic's. We top up other Taupō Fishing Club members when they run out," said Christine.
She said the Taupō Fishing Club originally became involved in vermin trapping because anglers were sick of rats chewing newly caught trout that were laid out on the riverbank while the angler continued fishing.
They mainly catch rats, have only ever caught two stoats, and do catch a few weasels and mice.
"We have quite a few 'no bodies', where another vermin have eaten the body. We know because of the counter in the gas traps.
"Last week we caught a possum in the DOC 200 [trap]. We had a lot of trouble getting it out. But the worst thing to catch is a hedgehog, they blow up and are disgusting to get out," said Christine.
Fishing two or three days each week, Lesley and Christine say they fish Flaxy Lakes, the Tongariro River and the river delta, the Waimarino River mouth, and in summer they boat fish on Lake Taupō.
Last week a pair of whio (blue duck) were spotted on the Hinemaiaia River. Photo / Lesley Hosking
The women giggle over how they cut their old bras in half and hang half a bra in a tree above their trap, to mark the spot.
"But the fishing guides didn't like it and the bras went missing. So we used a ladder to put them higher up the tree.
"One day Shirley [Fraser, Taupō Fishing Club president] got asked by a guide if the bras were there to mark the good fishing pools? Shirley replied that it was to indicate the places where it was women-only fishing and the guide just walked off!"
All the hard work has been worth it, and the pair report the North Island robin has returned to the Hinemaiaia Stream, a resurgence in fantails, tomtits, kererū and bellbird. The week before last they saw a single whio, with other anglers confirming the sighting of a whio pair on the river last week.
"It is so satisfying, if you sit there quietly then the birds will come over. The North Island robin is so friendly, they will fly as close as one metre away," said Christine.
The pair say the hard part about trapping is working out whether you are doing well or not.
"Some days we get none, does that mean we are doing well? And then we get heaps, is that because our trapping is not working?"
The latest conservation effort by Taupō Fishing Club is an urban trapping project where each member who rejoins gets a Victor trap to be used inside a wooden trap box. There are 50 members and each person will be able to carry out trapping at home.
