THE ANGLER’S PARADISE

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 154, 17 March 1923, Page 6

THE ANGLER’S PARADISE

FINE FISHING AT TAUPO TROUT IN SPLENDID CONDITION

Among the most ardent devotees of the rod is Mr. W. R. Morris, of Wellington, who has Just returned to town from his sixth visit to Lake Taupo, As Mr. Morris has been a fisherman —keen on the sport for over half a century—his views on the “trout fisher’s paradise” (as Taupo has been called by an overseas sportsman) are worthy of record- Mr. Morris made his headquarters at Taupo on this occasion, confining his attention to tho lake and the mouth of the Waitapunaßiver.

There are some locations on the lake where fishing is practicable only in certain weather, or rather where a man is liable to be held up for days without a cast. At the Taupo end, however, one selects Ms locale according to wind and weather, and can always fish. On this occasion Mr. Morris found the sport really excellent, and the fish (rainbow) in splendid condition. Though he did not land any “whoppers,” he took with tho fly fish weighing 131 b., 111 b., and 121 b., and caught none under 71b. One of his most favoured spots was the mouth of the Waitapuna Stream, over which the Natives hold fishing rights. Anyone desiring to fish that river or its mouth must not only have his Acclimatisation Society’s license, but must take out a Native license, which he may obtain for 2s. 6d. a day, 12s. 6d. a half-season, or £1 a season. “The fish taken there and on the lake were in fine condition and fought like fiends,” said Mr. Morris- “I never caught a fish which one could describe as a ‘slab.’ I saw one, however, which a man had thrown away, but 1 took it to be a fish which had lost condition after the exhausting operation of spawning. , , , 1 ~ “There are fish in the lake resembling land-locked salmon. Instead of the rainbow marks. along the back ti] o }' have a bright silvery skin, dotted with dark spots. These, however, seem harder to taka than the rainbow. I attribute the condition of the trout to a plenitude of food. Some years ago the Government liberated some tiny fish in tho lake to act as food for the trout. Those must have increased enormously, as after a big blow up there one day thousands of them were found thrown ut> on some of the beaches. The Natives considered that a shoal had been oaught inshore and stunned by tho waves smashing them. “Another reason for the condition or the trout is the absence of eels in the lake. Indeed, it is not known that there are any eels at all above the Aratiatia and Huka Falls —a fact that gives the lake fish a very special immunity. On the question of ‘•slabs.” Mr. Morris thinks that in the past there may have been seasons when food was not plentiful, but in the main he does not consider that the presence of “s.abs necessarily indicates disease in the hsh. He inclines to the belief .that ‘slabs are those fish which have just spawned, and are naturally low In condition, the English fisheries conservators wont closely into this matter, and by tagging certain kelts (or, as we call them, “slabs”), with a tiny silver plate attached to the adipose fin. and bearing a number, they were able, on retaking the fish to' ascertain something of the lite hinstory. Two years after being tagged such fish had been retaken in a splendid condition. Mr. Morris has no doubt that any “slabs” taken at Taupo would soon recover condition.