Disappointing Guide To N.Z. Fishing

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30176, 6 July 1963, Page 3

Disappointing Guide To N.Z. Fishing

The New Zealand Tourist and Publicity Department has undertaken to produce a series of guides to freshwater fishing in New Zealand. They are disappointing. The first to come off the press was a fairly competent account of trout fishing in Taranaki. It had the advantage of a detailed map, which showbd access to the various streams and recommended fishing spots. But the booklets dealing with Rotorua , NelsonMarlborough, Otago, Southland and the Southern Lakes are very disappointing. The access map has been done away with. Good streams are left out or not named and there is a tendency toward amateurish instruction — "fishing is good all the season and brown trout may be caught by all legal methods.” • How does the visitor know what is legal? The booklet does not tell him. But it tells him other details which, even now, only a few weeks after publication, are already outdated.

The department was aware a special visitor’s licence was »o be produced. It must have known regulations for Ro-torua-Taupo were undergoing a review. These are not anticipated. In the Nelson-Marlborough booklet at least eight good streams have been omitted, including the Maitai, which flows through Nelson and which the fishermen could

fish practically from outside the hotel door. The department may claim the guides were produced specifically for visitors interested only in fishing the bigger water where fish are not so easily put down. But how many keen dry fly fishermen are principally interested in large water? The decision not to include road maps in guides other than Taranaki is disappointing. A further fault is the omission of towns and country pubs recommended in the text, confusing the visitor more.

We are often criticised by visitors for painting too rosy a picture of our fishery. They complain the fish are not as big as we say, but the booklet for Rotorua gives too high an average weight of the trout to be had. Another blunder: “Otago,” says one guide, “is justly famous for its fine fishing and its season, recently extended, is now from November 1 to June 30.”

It is nothing of the sort. The season, according to regulations, is from October 1 to April 30. Finally, to miss the Mataura river from the Otago guide shows that the acknowledgement that the booklet was produced with the assistance of the Otago Acclimatisation Society is not very serious. Otago would certainly claim half of the river, which is a world-class stream and forms the boundary with the Southland society.