HINTS TO LEARNERS

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 108, 3 November 1923, Page 13

HINTS TO LEARNERS

BUY GOOD TACKLE

If your mentor is efficient and painstaking he will choose your rod and all other tackle and will start your first lesson in casting on a lawn, with a large sheet of white paper as a guide, or on a still pool of water. As you become used to the feel and pliability of your rod, you will be able to lengthen your cast, but try not at first a record flight of line. This is .the beginning, and perhaps you may think, you are 0.k., but bide-u-wee, and wait till you arrive on the river.

It .w very easy to watch an angler and say to yourself: "Oh, I can do that;" bvit try, and if you have not been properly taught, your line and cast will go oh,the water in such a way as to frighten all the fish in the pool. Or perhaps you have not been told re the backward flight, and your, fly gets hooked up in a branch or in some "obstacle, and you may try and pull it away with your rod, and that is just what you Bhpuld not do. Patience and plenty of it will rectify the trouble. Lay your rod down, or reel your line in, and walk back and undo your cast from where the hook is caught with your hands, or if hooked high up, use your gaff, and pull the branch down. All this will assuredly happen to you, and if you try and jerk your fly away with your rod, it will result in broken flies and casts, or flies so badly frayed that they are of no future use, or a badly strained or broken top-piece, and,they all cost money, and are hard to replace in the back-country. Once saw a so-called "fisherman" trying to free his fly by using his rod as a lever, and told him to have a little patience, and. walk back and free it, and he answered me : "Oh, ,d—ro the patience^ I want to be moving and catch fish;" Well, he caught very few, and yours truly; on his remark, closed up likd an oyster shell, but did- a lot,, of thinking, and knew he had met one man who would never make an.angler, or an easy man for a wife to live, with. When fishing through bush country, always cast a glance hehindyou to see how close the trees and ■ scrub avo before you lengthen your cast,' and by doing so you will miss that fatal hooking up. By observations and; practice you can generally gauge the backward flight. Always buy the best. in rcdß, lines, rceta, casts, etc., and it will repay you. A weak rod will not cleanly pick up a heavy line out of the water when the L;ne in. "net fly fishing"' has been, correctly allowed, to sink. ... So, as the backward lift cannot be perfect, so tho. forward cast muat be defective';-■

Don't buy too "many flies. Don't be deceived in the' glorious but useless beauty of some of them; s they are of little if any use in killing' fish. Your teacher will choose tho best. for your needs at the beginning, or any sporting, conscientious , dealer will sell you enly what are killers.

It is a splendid hobby, trying your own flies, and a great many of the old anglers - tie all their -flies. Your line should be as near the colour of ihe water as it can be/ a moss-green, grey with black stripes running'through it, or a dark amber are all good colours; l.ut fight shy of any light-coloured lines, such as light yellow,-etc. ■ Now, having secured your rod, reel, line, and other tackle, you go forth like a "gladiator" to his first fight in the arena, very confident. But your confidence may .receive a great setback if you have not been taught the habits of fish; 'arid they are many. -I may say that your education re the habits of trout and salmon will not be completed on the last of your fishing days. I watched an angler, whom I had overtaken on the river, fishing a pool,, and he missed the very place where I considered, a fish would be lying waiting for feed. Asking him' why he had not fished over that piece of water, he said he did not think a. fish would be there. Well, I took his rod, f'not my, own," and fished up toj and over, where a. sunken rpek caused the water to swirl, arid a nice fish was rose and hooked. I handed the rod to my new acquaintance, and he made it a kill. ■

Gave him the same advice as is given to you: study the habits of trout and salmon, where .they lie, the time they feed, and all other traits and habits that may be of use to you. You will generally find them where the feed converges, and where the water carries it into a smaller space. By the side of. a log or rock, under a hanging bough, or shelf of rock. :

Of course, at times the fish will swim about the pools in search of the green beetle, etc., but you will generally find them lying where they know the feed will be brought past or over them, and also where .they may. think they are out of all danger. . They are sadly mistaken at times, I think. By watching them in and out of season you will learn a-great deal. At night-time fish move about mor» freely in the pools and shallows, as if; when, darkness comes over the land and water, they are quite safe. You must search every square yard at night with your fly. ■ -. .- . 6 : When a fish rises to< your fly, Btrike quickly, not in such a way as if you wanted to yank him out. of the water. Practice will teach you. It is,done from the wrist. Do it roughly,-and you either break, your cast or tear the hook out of the fish s mouth.

Always keep your rod up, and only when a.fish breaks the water- do you lower your point, and then up with it again; when he- starts another rush Practice is everything, and practice will make^you as near perfect as you will ever become in the art of angling After you have fished for a season or so.you* wrmt. acts in unison with your brain, »ud your rod answers-all the' commands from your brain to your wrist. It you are fishing a clear, bright stream, bo more than careful; be as canny as you cau. Always, wade and make as httlo wave in the water as possible^ Once disturbed, a fish sinks out of sight,, and you ' have to look for another one.

Grouch down as you approach a fish that is very much on the alert. Always fish upstream, except in our large rivers, and in these waters fishing across and down the river are the surest way to kill. hsh. : -

Fishing some years ago in one of New Zealand b lakes, when the water was as clear as crystal, and hardly a ripple on it, I proved to myself and other fishermen _ that fish could-be: caught by Avading into the water.' '. No Hsh co\ild be caught from the banks, though you could see them swmmiing about, and" an occasional rise, and when the fish saw us they went for the deeper water. All the other rods g.rve it Dp, but I persevered and wading into the lake (minus my waders), -after a' time noticed the tish were not so easiiy disturbed, and that they could not see me so well. After a short time a nice rainbow rose to my "Hardy's Favourite," and we had a good fight. My cast was a 4x and "careful" had to be ' the "watchword " A five-pounder was at last landed, then throe more were creeled, all good fish This proved that fish could be caught by wading fairly deep, and that they cannot so easily see you. The deeper you wade the more fish you will, catch. The more you fish and the longer ynu fish the mi^e you will loam, and oile's

education seems never to be completed or finished when studying the habits of the wily rainbow trout or salmon. This subject will be continued next week.