ANGLING NOTES.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 14289, 27 February 1912, Page 8

ANGLING NOTES.

* IN A THUNDERSTORM. - I \ (By "Iron Blue."} ~C-~ (SPECIALLY WRITTEN FOR "THE I__sS- , »), ' Said Henry, "The only timo when H'\is quite hopeless to lish for trout, __■ 1 during a thunderstorm"; then while 1 J-'." envied him, he bit off a stray end <£a -' gut. with his own strong teeth, \ns / evidently considered the matter sit C-"-tied. Now, it a man is in possess,_, - ' of such decided views, there arc seveSy--ral ways in which ono may proceed.-_f'•« you "do not agree with him, but *«*)-,'; jl to avoid argument, an easy plan is&*-.ll' say, "Extraoidinary, isn't it," with-tof*"' wooden and solemn a faco as Can lecontrived on the spur of the momeaff. , and probably ho is quite satisfied,. v thought Henry was going to purr under." the treatment, so 1 reversed from ___- at a rate of knots, and went where own ideas upon the subject might ' bo »•' written down in peace. Apparently,-''' thero is a fairly general belief th_t'»v thunder will prevent succe&srui angling fr c but for myself, I think th© trout ri-e i better, both just before and during the V storm, than at most other times. v It does not follow, that angling at I such a timo is altogether a thing oi'Y' joy; but partly for tlie sake of proving.' 1 Henry wrong, and partly for my own/ ' saisfaction, I fishoa n fly-stream on - Monday, in a real angry thunderstorm * with hail and rain to match. At noon) I • when fishing began, everything wm £ yet fresh and beautiful in the sunA_ine; < after heavy rain on th© prevkm.' 0 night; and a pounder camo out of .'tbo,'' first ripple; soon to be joined in tha •'* basket by several of his mates. Th-a'"'* as usual, warning of thunder was by a splitting headache, and for th."" next hour a succession ot pools werotriwl 1 '» more because an arranged meeting-ri—s. " happened to bo a long way off. tktfor any pleasure derived irom tho sft><; cess. However, that 6torm broke ij-' among tho hills; only tho heavy r*j|" part of it reached the river, tbere_iir\ cool the air and revive my interestv.l* tho sport. In the meantime, each pool had contributed something to _* . - basket, whicn presently held nearlyv twenty nice brcikiast fish, of whiw .- about five' wero required to weigh tw> f pounds. .' *~i. A littlto later in the day, masses "»aj \ darkest cloud camo drifting ov_r~thjt ' kills; a stripned-up spray of whito fldat? 1 '; ing ahead; and all at once tho '. were madly on the feed. Almost every-?-cast found a fish, and tired of using ii**,',- . landing-net for halt-pounders, I wentr? ' o'i towing them ashore, and tnufrs£.£ to luck. After a dozen successful i: towings-out and about an equalber of losses,-1 halted to fill a and instantly tho weather cUimoa attention. Blacker and blacker th© clouds, and as I watched they?' °> seemed to swirl together in th© inkiest .X----placo, and a flame of lightning _p*4_fi across, "In for it now, anyway," J thought, but still the fish rose ever, and for the present it was much.*; ' too good to quit. Ha. and,rain.fell f* ' in stinging showers, .each . '__il_ton»> splashing smartly upon the* surface*."/ but contrary to all reasonable expeot&.J. l tion, tho trout wore not put down..^ v .f At last I had _s many as I washed>•'' to carry and decided .to try ono mora i, pool beneath a fifty-foot bluff. >$*"" "ginning at the shallow below the-.pool/iT -was'a chain or so away from '»•', when, a blaze and bang came right ' ' head, the water became muddy,,._ldil 1/ saw that a straight .section 'v more than a yard wide,' had »^ athwart tho 6tream. It may*'„have y S been 6truck, or perhaps the vibration':. 6hook it down; at the time it did not 7 occur to mo to ascertain'; more impors>j.v ant seemed tho question of "ecttiaVi, out of that." ' ,*\ 1 am not going to pretend that-,£j? ~ felt' altogether comfortable, at any tin. £ while'crossing tho bare, wide wire-v* fenced paddocks, to tho rendezvous ijrtjl - a hut a mile away. No scrap of could be seen anywhere, the hail •ana.-A rain poured over all with furious fore*; 1 !. and the lightning flashed in jagfjj_g,- f . stceaks, followed on the instant byK'-lJ-thunder, crash. Sometimes, wbejl'onlj-' * in a storm, I havo found consolation counting, and reckoning "that each' ■tov£" I ond between flash "and crash, KpftHfr >, sented a mile of distance. TheroMiYif/ '- certain temptation to count- a HttlsY. quickly, but here it was hardly poMJblyC;- " to count one before a deafening tasgF startled mc into a faster stride. J&eej*:' scampered in scared mobs, and a--3js*u came, running. "I saw tbo bghfettiv,^') strike-, that wire fence, and I am go»|i H to stand there, because it is not'hlttljC to hit the same place twice." . was good, and had not tho running down my back and flooding tiff boots. I might have stayed. As ifj£-*ii__ I walked on, and in its own* tinMr-tS^ 1 storm worked away and the rain stopped. Then I \- a great catch of trout against » V-ry>'' complete wetting, and considered i-H-* things might easily have been At a harvest camp a very good tan gave mo a big pannikin of tea, and after inducing him to a<x*P»~ a score of trout, I drove elsowhew.fJWf.itH -.- forgetting that Henry, for once, ~**** i, quite wrong. ''-,"■$