PROSPECTS GOOD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 70, 23 March 1940, Page 11

PROSPECTS GOOD.

EASTER FISHING. IMPROVED WEATHER. REPORT FROM LAKE AREAS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) ROTORUA, this day. During the past ten days of fine and mild summer weather there has been an improvement in the angling catches which previously, during the heavy winds and disturbed water conditions, had been poor.

Particularly in Lake Rotoiti anglers report good rises of fish. At the mouth of the Ngongotaha stream a local angler took a splendid specimen of a brown trout weighing nib and having all tho characteristics of a species of German brown trout, a few of which are said to have been liberated in the district some years ago. In distinction to the majority of brown trout taken from the lakes, the fish was clearly marked, the skin very clean and the flesh as pink as that of a sea-run trout.

lii many areas in the shallower parts of Lake Rotorua brown trout are becoming very numerous, and there arc grounds for the belief that they levy a very large toll upon the smaller fish, including those o£ their own kind. There is no question that trout food this season is exceptionally plentiful in all the lakes, and this is reflected in the generally goud condition of the trout being taken.

Night fishing at favourable spots has proved very effective on some occasions, and good bags are reported from several of the lakes. Tarawcra still continues to be very difficult, and comparatively few anglers have been fishing the lesser known lakes such as Rotoehu, Okareka and Rerewhakaitu. Okataina is still continuing to provide good sport, although the lack of wading water makes weather conditions a very important consideration on this lake.

At least one small run of fish through the Ohau channel has already been reported, while fly fishing in the neighbourhood of Wai-iti and Gisborne Point has been good. Sulphur Bay has also provided good sport, although it has not been greatly fished.

Reports from the Taupo area are to the cltect that the Delta fishing is very good, with the fish in first-class condition, but that the unfavourable winds have detrimentally affected the fishing at the township end of the lake. Trolling parties are enjoying fair to very good sport, and the western bays, although not very much fished, are carrying a good number of trout. It is reported, too, that the Taupo trout arc showing an increasing disposition to rise to the smelt which now appear to be established in this lake. For a number of years past the Department of Internal Affairs officers have been netting smelt in the Eotorua lakes and carrying them through to Taupo for liberation. This policy now appears to he bearing fruit, for increasingly large shoals of smelt are being reported in various parts of Lake Taupo, particularly in the western bays.