The Dunedin Community Salmon Trust yesterday fished its first ''good-sized'' salmon out of the Leith from its new live trap.
In the month the trap had been in operation, it had caught 14 sea-run trout, which were weighed, tagged and released, but no salmon had been caught until yesterday.
Trust chairman Brett Bensemann said the salmon run had been later throughout the South Island this season because of the warm summer.
The 3-year-old fish caught yesterday was transported to the trust's hatchery at Sawyers Bay where it will be used to breed the next generation of salmon smolt to be introduced into Otago Harbour.
The fish captured in the trap were needed to provide variation in the gene pool, along with eggs brought in from around the South Island, he said.
The trap would be in the Leith for about two months.
Last year, the trust released 100,000 smolt and this year planned to release 95,000, with the first batch of 30,000 to be dropped into the harbour on May 25.
The trust received a resource consent for the trap from the Otago Regional Council with the ''blessing'' of the Dunedin City Council, Fish and Game and iwi, he said.
It had been designed to collapse to one side of the Leith if it flooded so it did not hinder the flow of water or debris.
