Salmon Country

by Jack Byrne

Salmon Country. William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, N.Z., 1980 in hardback. Size: 210mm x 135mm. 158pp total. Revised and updated in 1989.

Salmon Country is the first book to deal exclusively with salmon fishing in New Zealand – the practical where, when and how of the sport, its history, biology and economic significance.

Salmon Country Part I

For the reader whose prime objective is to catch a limit bag of big salmon. It covers weather and water conditions; the main salmon rivers and where to go; how to identify the most promising features of a typical reach of water; the techniques of spinning and fly fishing; selecting the deadliest gear; striking, playing, and landing the great fish; gutting and cooking it; and hints on clothing and safety.

Salmon Country Part II

Fills in the background: the salmon species and the quinnat life-cycle; introduction of salmon into New Zealand; research and management problems; threats to salmon fishing and some brighter prospects; notes on water safety. The many photographs demonstrate the size and beauty of this great quinnat and the bountiful catches being made in their rivers; the drawings help the reader to recognise promising holes when he sees them, and to perfect his catching technique. The author’s long years of salmon fishing and his verve and humour make it a delight to read.”

Note the earlier hardback edition has a larger foldout diagram “Reading the Water”(3 pages wide). In the later softcover edition, this has been reduced to 2 pages and printed directly to the inside front cover and facing page. 

Note the 1989 edition has been revised and expanded according to the publishers. The first edition has 174 pp and the 1989 edition 158 pp. The 1980 hardback edition has 16 extra pages of which 8 are colour plates. The colour plates are missing from the later edition. 

About the Author of Salmon Country

Jack Byrne, born in Nelson, was ten years old when his father gave him a nice little split-cane fly rod and the flies and other accessories to go with it. But the gift was accompanied by a stern warning: “If ever I catch you using worms or creepers or anything other than the dry fly, you can kiss all that gear goodbye!”

So by early training and later by preference, Jack Byme became a dedicated dry fly man — but not to the exclusion of other lines. As he tells us in this book, his objective is to catch fish, and if spinning is the most effective method in the circumstances, then he spins for them. And as spinning, in his words, is ‘by far the most productive method of taking quinnat salmon’, most of the nitty-gritty in this book concerns spinning. But, needless to say, the interests of the fly fishermen are not neglected.

Mr Byrne took degrees in Science and Arts before World War II, served in the Navy, and has since been an export consultant. For years he has been active in what he calls ‘fishing politics’. His other main sporting interest is identified in the title of his first book: Duck hunting in Australia and New Zealand.

You may also be interested in Salmon Fever by Ross Millichamp.