ANGLING NOTES.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13342, 6 February 1909, Page 5

ANGLING NOTES.

GRASSHOPPER FISHING. (BT "IbON BlXX.") Now I was once taken severely to task t>y certain of. my friends for mentioning the fact that trout might bo caught with, creepers, and this may happen to mo again, but I speak of grasshoppers with more confidence for their use is surely quite allowable. At this time of the year the creeper has shed liis many legs and. put on "wings. so he is no longer it© be found in. his usual lurking place ■under a stone, but the aotavo grasshopper hops in millions by the riverside, and! on a hook makes a most attractive bait. A minority of fishermen are clever with a fly and can generally caush nsh, even under difficulties, but the majority are not so expert, and when, as may often happen, a blank day falls to their lot, it is none the Joss annoying from its frequency. It they could get a few nsh fuirly all would bo well; if they cannot, it is possible all tho same that fish will be obtained. Nearly everyone in. Xew Zealand knows how to pouch a trout, and it is better that a man should b-j awro of other methods than fly in case of need, so that he. may not bo tempted to fill his basket, as do those people who aro beyond tho pale. No stream is likely to be fished out l> v fair meaiis, most of them are too thickly stocked- for their inhabitants to thrive, and unless it is desired that the state of things existing at Rotorna should extend elsewhere, the more fish taken with rod and lino the better. After this defence of ways and means 1 leel nerved to tell the story of viv terday, when I fished with grasshoppers in a swift, rushing stream, eddyinf hero and there in the shade beneath a rocky bluff, but for the most part rippling among boulders and seething in spray over miniature cascades. It is not quite the kind of water one might wish for grasshopper fishing—a gently running brook is. moro suitable—but tins I could not remedy. Neither was it in my power to reduce the high level of tho stream, so I made tho best of circumstances. The matter of capturing the wily "hoppers" proved none too easy of accomplishment. They were hopping and ohirrupping in all directions, but many energetic dabs of my hand, on ttifte of grass and occasional bits of gorse concealed therein, covered nothing except the place where they had just been. I had a tobacco box to servo as their temporary prison, with corresponding notches cut .in edge and lid, so that by turning the lid round until the notches were opposite, one insect could be put in without the rest escaping, but half an hour elapsed before it held a score. There was not any difficulty in getting them out for they seemed to watch the exit and walked eagerly between my waiting finger and thumb.

Presently a couple of hoppers were transfixed on a No. 9 hook —th© myotic number nine, the ordinary size of the Xew Zealand boot—and I ploughed through some thick gorso to the end of an angular pool. At th© first upstream cast the line stopped on its backward journey, and a helf-pounSer went into the bag, quickly followied by seven of his companions. Then th© pool and my supply of bait were finished together, and another 'hunt for boit becnuio necessary. This seems a woful extravagance in bait, but to mak© an irresistible morsel two hoppers go on tho hook at once. The point of tho hook is put through the head <rf tho first and brought out halfway down, its Ixxly; th© second is threaded on in tho opposite fashion. With eight trout in tho bag, weighting four pounds or thereabouts, I cam© to the conclusion that they were more easy to catch than grasshoppers, and having at length secured a stock of tihe eiusivo insects, I walked on for a couple of miles to a chain of deeper pools. Here, in a gliding run by a quartz-lined elan, I felt the tug of a worthy antagonist; mi fortunately I could sec him, and struck too soon, and consequently *»" to mourn his loss. An old hand at this style of fishing once directed mc. "When you have a bite from a. good fish count six rather slowjy before striking." and I am convinced it is a pood idea. It does not matter much what is allowed for small fish; they axe sr> groody that an instant striko is likely to'be as useful as any other, but

a big one takes time to enjoy a titbit, possibly because he liae learned to care for his digestion. Two more losses occurred before I remembered to count six. but then a short, deep fish came safesly to net, .after a stubborn fight, ond I reached the place from which I intended to retrace my steps. Down a steep fall in the river-bed the water swirls over sunken ledges of rock, finally to dash aeainst a oliff and j lose its swiftness in a long, deep pool. I thought it much too high for my purposes, and it was not at all cloar either, so without much hope I dropped tho bait into an eddy near the side. To my surprise, it was seized nt once, and on striking a lovely trout revealed himself in a wild leap. He rushed across tho pool and leaped , again and then again; he was no sooner in one place than he was in another, and at last sot out down stream as fast as he could tear line from tho shrieking reel. In some of tho leaps, and when ho was near the surface, a beautiful rosecoloured: stripe had been plainly visible along his side; I knew that I had to deal with a threo-T>ound rainbow trout, so thigh-deep through tho stream I splashed and followed down as- fast as I could run. Two hundred yards below there is another pool, and here at length ho paused, and in time was netted ; tho most beautiful fish I have seen this year.