NOT AFTER DRY FLY

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 143, 14 December 1923, Page 8

NOT AFTER DRY FLY

EPICUREAN TROUT OF THE HUTT.

To catch trout with fly in the-Hutt River before Christmas is not easy, though really good fly fishermen can do it. This year, however, one of the best dry-fly men reports very little success. The persistently low river does not help, although in normal up-and-down seasons this fisherman 13 very successful on a low river. The trout are easily to be seen, as they lika to lie among tho stones in comparatively shallow places, and often their backs are well out of the water— a class of display that seldom' accompanies a dry-fly appetite. The secret ot the scrambling among the stones seems to be a desire to consume the small; tubular, shell-like .creature that is found on them. When this sort of trout food is in demand,'the fly fisherman has not much chance—at any rate, not in daylight. At night it is different. The fish feed voraciously, and fishermen who use a livo bully (small fresh-water fish) "catch big trout. Night fishing with a bully is increasing in the Hutt ["V alley. Big fish are seldom caught in any other way.

T,he daylight fly fisherman may do better after Christmas. At present he is disappointing his friends, and is contributing very little to the picnic party's larder. In fact, the cross-examination on returning empty-handed to lunch is becoming quite an ordeal.