COMFORTABLE FISHING

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25766, 30 March 1949, Page 4

COMFORTABLE FISHING

Line Hauled From Bedroom Window

SNAPPER, COD, AND GURNARD CAUGHT

•'rhe Press” Special Service

NEW PLYMOUTH, March 29. “Fish in comfort” is the motto of Mr P. Wakeman, the occupant of a cottage on top of a cliff above the beach at Oakura, near New Plymouth. Mr Wakeman has devised a lazy sportsman’s dream —a way to catch fish without getting out of bed. The apparatus closely resembles a suspension railway. On the cliff top on the front lawn of the cottage a P ol j has been mounted which is connected by cable to an underwater rock about 50 yards from the beach. A twowheeled “dolly” has been mounted on the cable and is allowed to run down to the underwater rock. The dolly carries with it a fishing line and baited hooks, which, when the rock is reached, are submerged. The line is left down until the fish are thought to have struck and then can be easily hauled up by anyone on the cliff top. The catch to date has included snapper, gurnard, and cod. The average catch is between three and four fish for each haul. For some time the line was operated from the front lawn, but when sickness confined Mr Wakeman to his bedroom he was determined not to break his fish diet. He added a small extension to the cable and hauled the fish in through his bedroom window. “This type of fishing may not be quite according to Hoyle,” said Mr Wakeman, who considers, however, that the end justifies the means. His well-supplied neighbours echo this opinion.