THEY'LL WAIT FOR THE DAWN

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32099, 22 September 1969, Page 17

THEY'LL WAIT FOR THE DAWN

Hundreds of Canterbury fishing veterans will r.ot be tucked up in their little wooden beds on the night of September 30. Instead they will be camped out in dozens of back country lakesides and riverbeds waiting for the crack of dawn. It has become a tradition since the law decreed when men could fish for trout and salmon that the real enthusiasts should spend the night preparing themselves for the first assault on the fish in the chilly dawn at the mouths of various rivers in the province. And the night before the first Saturday of November, hundreds of fishermen will roar into the high country, set up camp by the lakeside in readiness for a solid weekend's fishing and various party activites. Lake Coleridge for example will be surrounded on all sides by tents and caravans. The icy cold waters will echo the sound of dozens of outboard motors carrying hopeful fishermen to the deep where the big rainbow trout lie in wait for the thoughtless fly. Each year it's the same. The call of fishing is too much for the men who have tasted the thrill of fighting and playing with a threshing six pounder. This week there will be dozens of regulars down at the Selwyn huts getting ready for the opening of the new season.

There are plenty of preparations to make—cleaning the huts ship shape, sorting out fishing gear, cleaning up boats, trimming up engines. Fishing in Canterbury has all the excitinent, disappointment, tall stories, fantasies that go with the sport in any part of New Zealand or, the world.