ANGLING SEASON

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 81, 3 October 1938, Page 11

ANGLING SEASON

FEW GOOD BASKETS

MANY SMALL FISH

Though the weather on Saturday morning was excellent, and though the wind interfered less than usual in the afternoon, few good baskets of trout have been heard of as the result of the weekend's fishing. On Sunday, of course, there was half a gale, and the average angler would find it hard to catch fish. A general complaint was that the fish that were caught were small. One man on the Wainui took fifteen, but had to put them all back except five, and another who landed nearly double the number of small fry, succeeded in legitimately keeping only six. What puzzled those anglers who were interviewed Tyaa that the fish v/ere rising > naturally, but nothing sizeable was forthcoming. The experience of dry and wet fly fishermen seems to have been tha same. Onp angler who tried the Hbrokiwi, always a good spot, like many of the smaller streams on the "first," put down the fact that he got nothing of value to the presence of eleven rods on those small waters at the'sama time, and anothel- who >: tried the Wainui saw eight fishermen from. the.one standpoint. As anglers' methods vary, one going down stream and another up, this sort of thing would certainly account for poor sport. Four men who went to that fine.dry fly stream, the Akatarawa, on two successive days, got nothing, which looks rather bad for the remainder of the season. It is still a' little early for dry fly to be the deadly method it is in the warmer weather when the rivers are lower, but many anglers can recall, if not limits, certainly very satisfactory bags on October 1, using dry fly only. - Nothing very exciting is reported from the Wairarapa, while in the Manawatu the Rangtikei and vMana-. watu were in flood. This apparently applied also to the Waekanae. Eight small fish were tafcen in the South Karori. Nothing very encouraging: is reported from the Hutt River. •: «"If we go on like this- there will soon be more rods than fish," said one disgusted angler, who put down-: the poor fishing to a gradual grouping .'of unfavourable circumstances, the worst of which, in: hfe opinion, was the terrific scouring and erosion caused;, by floods. "Trout like the old waters best," he said, "but it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a, channel ?bf more than a few seasons' permanence;."