FISHING CONDITIONS AT TONGARIRO

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 225, 19 June 1929, Page 13

FISHING CONDITIONS AT TONGARIRO

Sir, —I was alarmed to read in Thursday’s “Dominion” an article embodying several suggestions for “improving” the fishing conditions in the'Tongariro River, Lake Taupo. The fact that these suggestions emanated from overseas visitors and have found support from those who father the tourists here, is a matter for concern to New Zealand anglers.

Fishing in New Zealand is unique in that the cost prohibits no one from taking part in it. In Scotland, to quote your article, 100 fish (not to be compared, by the way, to our New Zealand trout) cost £5OO in fishing rights. An English angler at Tokaanu this last season caught 240 fish in five weeks —a catch of approximately one ton of trout—and the total cost was a license fee of £5. And yet this tourist was dissatisfied with the conditions of angling ip New Zealand. Some of his remarks were quoted in your article. It is time the tourist-angler was made to pay a license fee in some way commensurate with the sport he obtains, say £lOO for the season. At present he pays so little that he expects everything for nothing—even a river along which he can stroll at ease and fish in every pool. How can 200 anglers fish two or three miles of water all working downstream? Would they form a queue at the top? And what would be the procedure for an angler who reaches the end of fishable water —walk back to the queue at the top? The Tongariro River differs from most trout streams in that a good pool will yield 100 trout in a day. Can fishermen who are catching fish in such a pool be expected to move downstream? Last month I saw a dozen fish taken from the bridge pool by two rods in a morning; Elsewhere very few fish were being taken, and it is surely unreasonable to expect that; those two anglers should have moved on for some fisherman who came down to the river after a long sleep, to catch a bagful before lunch. Nor can a 7 a.m. limit (another of the suggestions) be satisfactory. Picture half a dozen fishermen spaced waist deep along the Hut pool, ■ rods • aloft and watches in hand, waiting for the day’s fishing to begin. The tourist can’t expect the same conditions for catching these five-pound (minimum) trout, as he has for his £5 Scotch trout, i.e„ a stretch of river paid for and reserved for his own use; and it behoves New Zealand anglers to see that no move in this direction is allowed. What won’t we do for money? But there is surely a limit to the commercialising of a country's attractions. Let the visiting angler be prepared to abide by the conditions already existing hare. The etiquette of the river demands that a man playing a fish has right of way; that the angler displaced by him may move up and take the other’s place; and that an angler must not start fishing so close to another a? to interfere with his sport What more is wanted ip a democratic country? If the limit of 15 fish per day is to be raised, then a limit to the weight and length of rod and strength of tackle should be instituted. I have seep an angler hook and drag out six fish in a quarter of an hour, using, of course, a huge two-handed rod and unbreakable tackle. Fish are not always so plentiful in the river that it is fair to allow such “record-seekers” to deplete the supply to the detriment of genuine fly-fishers. The fact that there are plenty of fish in the lake doe? not mean that during a dry spell in the autumn there cannot be a scarcity of fish in the river, \ Finally, does anyone fish upstream in the, Tongariro? If an angler is energetic and lucky enough to obtain a site, during the rush season, at a good pool in the river, let him enjoy the results. Don t spoil with regulations prompted by the lucrative tourist, the delightful inheritance of the New Zealand angler.— I am, etc.,

NOT A TOURIST, Palmerston North, June 13.