"THE FIRST"

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 81, 3 October 1927, Page 10

"THE FIRST"

IDEAL FOR ANGLERS

VARYING EXPERIENCES

A FIGHT TO THE DEATH

"I don't remember as good an opening day all the years I have' been fishing, with the streams in such good order," was a well-known angler's opinion of Saturday, when the angling season opened. It was a still, hot day, and from the experiences related to a "Post" reporter, most fishermen did fairly well on the opening day. Those who continued fishing over the week-end, were not so fortunate. ■ It was nearly as perfect a day, but. some difference in the atmospheric conditions, with the disadvantage of a downstream wind on most rivers in the Wellington district, seemed to arouse the capricious spirit of the trout, which were not feeding so well.

The Waimii is an excellent stream at the beginning of the season as a rule, and this year was no exception. Colonel C. A. AVhitney (Auckland) and Mr. F. Dyer (Wellington) did very well there, despite the large number of rods on the river, and found the conditions good except for the presence of a considerable amount of green wedd which proved annoying. The fish were in excellent condition for the start of the season. A number of small fish were seen, showing that' the river is well stocked. One angler secured a limit bag of eighteen fish downstream, averaging lib, and other parties got nice baskets. Plenty of eels were seen, and one fisherman who torched the stream with a gaff took out thirty.

(The smaller brooks round Wellington provided good sport. The Upper Karori, Korokoro, and Kaiwarra contributed plenty of half pounders and upwards. ! -

The Kaikanae is one of the best stockcrl rivers, in the district, and yielded excellent bags, though none of' the fish were heavy.. On the Horokiwi a visitor took thirteen nice fish, one of three pounds. The Little Wainui, off the Whakatiki, is rather disappointing this season, the fish being small, and the only basket so far heard of there is five fish.

It is ' said that' the Whakatiki can only be fished by an athlete, and it is certainly not the place for a stranger to venture by himself, unless he is in perfect condition and used to the bush. The stream is occasionally flanked by perpendicular walls of rock, facing deep pools, and a detour means repacking the outfit and climbing through the dense.'.grpwth' rpund the obstacle. A party. pf five', fishing the Whakatiki on Saturday, got thirty fish: It was their experience that there Was as a rule only one fish to a hole, a big one, and a second fishing of the same water was fruitless. Mr. E. H. Nimmo, one of the party, took eight fish, averaging three pounds. Three of these weighed fifteen pounds together, and one of them weighed just over four pounds gutted. This was a beautiful fish, deep and wide across'the back, vividly: marked, a. perfect female specimen of the brown trout. ill the fish taken by this party !were in excellent condition, pink fleshed, and strong. Only one member of the party, a novice, was without luck.- After a hard frost, the

day became so hot in the gorges that one of the party took a fish on the dry fly, unusual thus early in the season when the., wet fly is more;readily. taken. The Purple".March Brown and the:Coch-y-ijon'dhu. were" the most successful on, the Whakatiki. Mr. Reynolds, another member of-the party, took five fish, averaging three pounds. Confirmation of the damage done amongst trout by ee!s was afforded the party by a fight to the death between a i'our-f oqt eel" and a pound and a half trout/.'When iirst observed the eel had almost the whole of the trout's head in its mouth, and was boring down. to . the bottom amongst the stones, in the effort to gain some anchorage against the tremendous . efforts of the fish to escape. The eel, though pounds, heavier than the trout, was : several times completely turned over by the i-frantic struggles of the fish, showing the power contained in a trout's tail. When the eel was gaffed by the tail, the trout escaped, so that tli c damage done could not be ascertained, but it could never have, escaped the vise-like grip otherwise. "Only tha big and strong survive," was the impression gained by the party of the fate of trout in the Whafiatiki. ■• Eeports from the Akatarawa are not encouraging. This is another stream where the fish are few and sizeable, but on Sunday, at any rate they were not rising well, as a Wellington angler hooked only one, a good fish, which got away after a "long fight. .Those who fished the sections of trie. Hutt river open to the creeper did well on Saturday. no limit baskets were heard of, thirteen nice fish were taken in the .upper reaches on the natural bait. ' Others report that they did well on the wet fly. On Sunday, though there were many rods on the river, the results were somewhat disappointing.