Contact Energy's salmon smolt release programme is starting to pay off as anglers begin to catch some of the returning fish, Otago Fish and Game environmental officer Peter Wilson says.
In the past fortnight, at least three fish weighing about 2.7kg with clipped fins have been caught near the Roxburgh dam.
Mr Wilson said that because of the clipped fins and the size, they would have come from Contact Energy's release of 30,000 juvenile fish in 2010.
As part of the consent to operate the hydro dams on the Clutha River, Contact is required to release salmon smolt below the Roxburgh dam to boost the lower Clutha salmon fishery to 5000 returning salmon per year.
Mr Wilson said that before the dam was built in the early 1950s, the salmon run was estimated to be 50,000 returning fish per year, but that quickly dwindled to fewer than 1000 as the fish were cut off from their spawning grounds such as the Matukituki and Hunter rivers.
He said that in 2010, Contact released 30,000 salmon smolt, hatched in North Canterbury, which then swam out to sea, reached sexual maturity and returned to spawn in the Clutha using their natural homing instinct.
"That's an amazing natural characteristic of salmon."
He said 800,000 were released last year, 120,000 this year and, hopefully, 175,000 would be released next year.
Only about 1% of the fish survived, so creating a run of 5000 returning fish would take time, but he was looking forward to Contact meeting the target.
"Restoration of the salmon run to 5000 returning fish per annum would be a major boost to angling in Otago and a significant visitor attraction."
