AFTER THE BIG FISH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 199, 23 August 1937, Page 6

AFTER THE BIG FISH.

NEW ZEALAND'S BEST.

(By J.C.)

Books on angling' in many waters, and especially in salt water, have been numerous in recent years. The latest out is "Fishing Round the World" (Duckworth, London), by Leander J. MeCormick, who has travelled widely and caught pretty well every kind of fish that swims. He narrates incidents of his quest for big fish in the waters of five continents and adjacent seas. He maintains that fishing is the world's most popular and agreeable method of obtaining food and distraction, but it is curious, he remarks, that one must be born a fisherman, and without this inner urge a love of fishing cannot be acquired. "The angler is nonplussed when" he discovers that his best friend, who adores shooting, has a dislike for fishing." The chapters of Mr. McCormick's book that will be of most interest to New Zealanders are those containing his narratives of encounters with those first-rate fighters, the swordfish and the nmko shark. In his first battle with a swordfis.li—a striped marlin off the Bay of Islands —he had a taste of the "colossal power" of a big iish, which provided an astonishing finale. After a thrilling run of three miles he dashed himself head first into the rocky wall of Piercy Island. There was a great flurry of foam and the line went slack. "The shock must have finished him, for in a minute or two we were quite near where he had disappeared, and on reeling in the line the fish came up, quite dead, with liis spear broken off." Mr. McCormick says this "amazing suicide" was his most spectacular experience among the swordfish. He was delighted with the mako shark's high-jumping capacity. Off Piercy Rock he struck a "world's record fish," judging by the pull—but it got away. The well-seasoned voyager has something to say about the excitement of fishing in rough water off the Bay of Islands. There were sometimes mountainous seas that seemed about to overwhelm the launch. He asked Wliite-Wickham, when in London, what he thought to be the height of the big waves in bad weather on that part of the New Zealand coast. His friend said he had seen them dashing against Piercy Rock to a height of sixty or eighty feet; lie considered sixty feet would be a moderate estimate. Sport With the Kahawai. The author did not have the op|>ortunrty to try our trout fishing; but lie heard there were immense fish in the New Zealand rivers. But he had great sport with the kahawai on the coast. "It jumped; it ran; it dived, jagged and plugged; it tried to fall on the line." It displayed all the tricks a fish could do in deep water. He makes this suggestion to those who troll for trout from launches, that they leave the Taupo trout and turn their attention to the kahawai on the East Coast, which exist in inexhaustible numbers and provide a better sport than the rainbows. Summing up the merits of fishing in various parts of the world, the author says the east New Zealand coast offers the most promising waters. "Not only are six of the seven recognised big game fish obtainable in New Zealand, but there, too, these fish run to greater size. There is no other well-known fishing ground which yields such a variety of the largest fish." He is well satisfied also with the organisation of the fishing facilities. "Excellent fishing boats arc obtainable, manned by expert boatmen with a thorough knowledge of the sport."