THE FISHING SEASON.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1567, 10 October 1912, Page 5

THE FISHING SEASON.

. ■ GOOD ONE FOR SHAGS. Slowly the news is drifting into town as to the state of the streams in the vicinity of Wellington from a fisherman's point of view. Wainui promises to be excellent;" On the opening-day Mr. Burrow (tho local postmaster), secured a very nice basket-of eighteen fish in good condition, mostly with-the minnow. Mr. Frank Dyer took sixteen the same day with the fly, and'Mr: W. Dick," a settler, took fifteen, which aggregated 221b. 'in' weight'. These wore secured with tho minnow quite near the. school. As.the .water has-not been too clear, and the weather the re-verso-of favourable,. these..results argue strongly in favour of an exceptionally good- season on- the popular Wainui Stream. . On the Hutt the resultshave not been nearly .so satisfactory; arid some excuse is offered in tho dull, cold weather which was experienced during the first week of the season. A party of seven fished the river last .Saturday afternoon and Sunday, and only managed to ■get five trout between them. Local ypungsters who favour the worm as a lure have been a deal more successful. There are some fishermen who hold 'that the Acclimatisation Society neglects the Hutt River,'relying too much on the tributaries' to stock the main stream. It docs not always, follow that this is reliable, and it is urged that a section of the river, say, between the Hutt Bridge and. Belraont, ' might receive a little more attention . when the fry are being distributed. The Waikanae promises to be productive of. good baskets. One Wclli ngton angler took nineteen trout on the opening day. They were on the small side—as is usual in the case of the .Waikanae—but the quality was excellent. No reports have been received from the Otaki stream. The South Karori stream always receives attention from city -fishers. ■ One local medico, who visited the' stream on October 1, took half a dozen fine fish, which averaged nearly a pound in weight. There should bo good fishing there for the next six or eight weeks. ' ■ Only fairly satisfactory results are reported 'from Akatarawa—the swif t-flowine —owing to discoloured water and dull weather. Messrs. • Young, Hull, and Nathan tried the stream "on Sunday, and eecured a. few fish of fair size. '•'. ' _ Fishermen are complaining at the action of" the Wellington Acclimatisation Society in only offering Is. a pair for shags feet, ; as against the 2s. Gd. which was paid prior to Juno last year. Tms, they consider a rather 'retrograde , step, nnd riot one that will greatly assist in the extermination of tho-winged posts. One Wellington sportsman said that he saw 22 shags flying in a V up the Hntt Valilev'last week—a. most unusual .sight— which, shows that the shasu.3 still.existent in considerable numbers in the district. . He argues that one sha<c will take from : throe to four lisli a day during tho season, or, say, n minimum of 300 fish for the year (for thero is no closo reason for the shag), and a yearling trout costs about la. to rear. Assuming that to I>o the. case, and he believes his estimates to be low, surely 2s. Gd. per shag is not too much to pay, seeing the saving ench kill means. It seemed to.him an unwise ,p<iHcv h> breed the trout, and then not to nfloru 1 them better protection-.than is offered by the payment of Is. each.