ANGLING NOTES

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21726, 7 March 1936, Page 23

ANGLING NOTES

A DISAPPOINTING MONTH

[By BLACK GNAT.]

With the coming of autumn and little hope of a good spell of fine, warm weather it appears that’ dry fly fishermen .are to be denied the pleasures of late season, low water fishing. February, often the best month in Canterbury, has been-a complete failure. Apart altogether from the effect the floods have had on the fish themselves, the riversides will scarcely be attractive to anglers now. Deposits of debris and mud alongside the favoured haunts are likely to- cool the enthusiasm of the most ardent anglers for a few weeks anyway. Possibly the most distressing feature of it is that , most pools have been altered by the flowing shingle and the resting places of the trout will have to be sought out afresh.*, A stream that can be relied on alAvays at this time of the year is the south branch of the Waimakariri, and it has suffered harm from the floods, in its fish producing capacity at least; No doubt the heavy fish which usually frequent the junction of the streams have been induced to run upstream earlier than usual, and though more than ordinary skill is required to kill them on a dry fly, a few anglers r have been successful. The upper Selwyn should benefit from the floods also, and anglers who know the Grcendale area well, predict good fishing there as soon as the river clears.

The lakes have been far below expectations so far. and with the exception of Coleridge. none of them can be relied on to give more than a very modest return. A most interesting development at Coleridge is that the quinnat salmon, for so long entirely the prey of bait casters, have developed a taste for the green manuka bugs, and are easily caught on a flv. On a flv thev --ov** themselves hard flghteis, though in the words ’of one angler thpy ‘‘take it like fools >!

Two anglers l recently discussing the weather prospects for their week-end trip; “How’s the glass, Fred ? ” “Still set steady at rotten ” • • •

The limited variety of fresh water fishing obtainable in New* Zealand is often the cause of a certain amount of regret amongst local anglers, but we are probably fortunate that no serious attempt has been made to establish coarse fishes in our streams. Perch are the only coarse fish to have become established in Canterbury streams, and they never seem to increase much. They are fairly-plenti-ful in the Cmihi creek and in the Kaituna and Selwyn rivers.. Few anglers attempt to capture them when conditions for ■ tr~ut Ashing are favourable. though they provide a certain amount of sport in the Selwyn at times. The usual-method; for wh|ch a stock of live silveries is Essential, is hook " cilverv through the back and allow it to swim about under the overhanging willows, ' The perch is. not a oarticularly shy fish, though very cunning and difficult to tempt, but when on the feed will bite lustily and Hive good soort. Pome anglers prefer to spin for them and use a small Devon minnow touched red paint, with a certain amount of success. , In the sluggish, willow-fringed owl®, of the lower Kakanul river in’ .Otago; there are found fairly large,Apipbefs, of tench of up to four pounds weight.-; They are seldom sought after by anglers as they do not make good eating and are extremfely poor fighters. Those anglers who spin for trout, and more particularly salmon, will know all there is to be known about snags and how to clear the-spinner from them. For the benefit of the mere tyros let it be said here that a snagged spinner is not necessarily a lost spinner, and many are the'ways in which it may be successfully’ re-: moved. An item of luggage frequently found in many anglers' bag®, is the bottle, full or partly full. When* empty a bottle can often be used to

clear . , th , e spacer from a mag. awl provided they (the emptyteftfr*! are apt tpo numerous they should bekfept to the bag until the end«nfe;:ldhi(rt! , fishing for thatpurpoee.- in where it is not possible to get dan* stream erf the snagged spinner a hope will often be the ftteans of ‘iaviri spinner and perhaps a length cT-Hae as well if it is allowed to C'at <S»ir'nstream attached to the Une tar a leQg loop of string which w m nm IS? If the spinner still holds the bottle; to fin and sanh’dowh em the line heldtaut A frw togs im» then remove it, The attached toa strong more ' -