THE GENTLE ART.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 8033, 4 December 1886, Page 3

THE GENTLE ART.

"An anglor, air, uses the finest tickle, and catches hi„ fiah scientifically trout, for instance—with the artificial fly, and he is mostly a quiet well behaved gentleman. A fisherman, sir, rues any kind of 'ooke and linp, and catches them any way; so he frets them it's all one to 'im, and he is geneially a noisy fellah, sir, something like a gunner." —Cb Bitedse. It is unfortunate that the trout in the New Zealand rivers do not universally take the fly; but Buch is the lamentable fact. In the small brooks and in the smaller streams, and even in many of the smaller shingle rivers, a good basket, if -the day be suitable, can nearly always be made with the artificial fly; but as Mr Trout increases in size he adopts the habits of his Thames progenitor, and can be caught with nothing but bait. The largest trout I have ever caught with the artificial fly weighed only 6Jlb. For the bigger fish one has to take to the bull-head and the creeper, a gross and demoralising sort of sport; yet if one does not adopt it in Now Zealand, the larger trout must be left behind ; they will not come at the fly, and for myself I can only say, though video meliora proboque, I must sadly add deteriora scquor. But it is of fly-fishing I wish to speak now ; with bait fishing I will deal another time. What the effect of the introduction of salmon into New Zealand waters will be ou their habits we have yet no means of knowing, bu*; in England and Scotland as a rule the lordly salmon refuses bait utterly, and it is only with the most artistic tackle and the greatest skill can he be taken. Of course, salmon fishing is the highest department in the school of angling, and salmon fishing has been said to be to all other kinds of angling what buck shooting is to shooting of any meaner description. I am not sure that this is quite true. I have known men get sick of salmon fishing, yet never of catching the humbler trout. There is more excitement for a short time in a combat with a fresh run salmon doubtless, but the trout requires a dexterous hand and an accurate eye to strike him, and much of the angler's enjoyment is derived from the uncertainty of where he niay be lurking. A short time on a salmon river, and you know pretty certain all the likely haunts of the salmo salar. But if the salmon does come first, the noble trout and his cousin the grayling come next, and are the fish friends of the great majority of anglers; few of us can afford a salmon river, but when the time comes round, the fated Oct. 16—alas ! that it should be so early—the lovers of the rod cheerfully bring their carefully saved pounds to the Secretary of the Acclimatisation Society in crowds, for they know it is well spent in a license, and that they are buying with it a store of health to be found on the banks of the New Zealand rivers. I have often been asked why do trout rise at flies? Is it in sport and wantonness, or really for food ? There is no doubt they are actuated in this as in most of their other actions by a desire to obtain food. Flies contain a large proportion of phosphate of lime. Nearly the whole of the life of a fish is spent in seeking its foot and in escaping from its enemies. Catch a trout just after the May fly season at Home, and you will always find him fat and well liking. Experiments made by feeding trout exclusively on worms and flies have proved that the flyfed trout increases in bulk as fast again as the worm-fed one, though the bulk of food given to the latter was twice that of the former.

We have here then at once a clue to the fact that trout rise freely at' the artificial fly when there are plenty of natural flies on the water, or when from the circumstances of wind and weather their experience tells them they may expect flies to be about, and never when the conditions are against the appearance of the natural fly. In the first case, they take your humbug of wool and feathers without consideration; they know that the legitimate fly food either is or should be on the water. In the other case, their experience tells them it is all moonshine ; that the ephemeras don't come frolicking about with that sort of wind blowing, and, instead of paying the slightest attention to one's efforts, they take it out of the angler by sneers and humiliating remarks on his ugliness. The size of the fly and also the colour depends on the condition of the water. If the water is deep and strong I choose probably the largest fly I have ; and if it is thick as well, a bright-coloured fly is bettei than a more sober-coloured one. When the water is deep and clear, though the fly is large it must not be a gaudy-coloured one, since the sparkle of the tinsel would be more glittering than anything'in nature,

and the fish would be very apt to turn short. In fact, a sovereign rule with the fly .fisherman, in choosing bis flies, i 3 that the depth of the water should regulate the size of the fly, and the clearness of the water its colours. Of eourse thi3 rule is not without exception j but there is no doubt it is a fundamental principle to go upon. The sun, the wind, the season of the year, the state of the atmosphere must all be taken into consideration. Angling will never be reduced to an exact science. Experience must be carefully bought and treasured up before anyone can become a successful fly-fisherman. About half-a-dozen kinds of flies, each of two sizea, will carry you all through the season. Trout take some flies because they resemble the real fly on which they feed. They take others for no such reason. Of course, the best flies to use are imitations of those which are born on the water, since it is the water flies that he chiefly is used to; but beetles, and any other fly or insect that are born elsewhere, and come on the water, are of ten as useful. If trout arenotrising.it is a waste of time to be for ever changing your flies, it is entirely useless to fling an assortment of flies at them. For all the North Canterbury rivers in the early part of the season, nothing beats the Irish. March brown, dressed rather large. I have caught more fish with this, and a dark-bodied fly with brownish wings, than all the others in my fly book. With regard to whether it is best to fish. up or down stream in New Zealand, my experience is, that it depends chiefly on the character of the river. Where the banks are somewhat high, and covered with flax, as is the case with the Oust, and most streams of a similar character, it is impossible to fish up stream, and often, in many cases very difficult to throw a fly at all more than a few yards; in suck streams I always fish down stream, and generally with success. But in open rivers like the Selwyn I should Eay fish up stream; through the summer months these shingle rivers, except such a 3 ate snow-fed, are usually very clear, and "fine and far off" must be the rule for Jthe flyfisherman. Of coarse an exception would be when a strong sun at your back would betray your presenco to the fish. In that case I should choose the lesser of the two evils, and fish down stream; bat as a rule, though trout have not here yet learnt to be so shy as .»t Home, the more you can keep out of sighc the better.

I have sometimes tried the experiment when wanting to find out what trout were feeding on, of crawling very carefully to the edge of the stream, where I have noticed a good trout rising. As long as the trout was unaware of my neighbourhood, it would continue to rise freely, but the first suspicious noise and his whole demeanour is changed. Let any angler try the same experiment once or twice, and he will be convinced that he, must neither approach the water with heavy footsteps, nor allow any ynrt of himself or his tackle to be seen, except the fly. Shouting or whistling is of fsr less consequence in disturbing the fish than treading heavily on the bank; the vibration alarms the fish under the bank, and they rush outand frighten those in midstream. The returns from the North Canterbury rivers so far this year have not been good. The Lower Selwyn has yielded some few good fish, but in the upper waters the takes have been neither so numerous nor so heavy as last year. The fish do not yet seem to have shaken off their winter lethargy, and though there is a fairly good stock in the streams, a week or two of really hot weather is required before the fishing will be really good. I am more than ever convinced of the absolute folly of opening the season in October; in South Canterbury the season began on the first of that month. Of all the returns I have receive I, not one angler has reported the fish caught in the first fortnight of the season as in good condition. Fair condition is the term j.;er.e rally used by even those who were so anxious to fix Oct. las the opening clay. My own experience and that of many others is that in North Canterbury thij year, with an exceptional supply of food in the rivers all through the winter, the fish were in very bad order on til's Kith. In tV-; fo-n of these facts, it does seem a pity to ;.LUv. ye irafter year fish to be taken be tote they are thoroughly fit for food. On the Oust severalgood takes have been made, one especially of 301 b, which is a grand basket for a day with the fly ; and several others I know of any augler might be proud of. I understand the lower part of the Cust is being strict ;y preserved by the proprietors, and probably wish a good deal of reason. Much of it w.-u nearly dry last year, and many of the trout destroyed. It will require a year or two before it is thoroughly well stocked a^nin. The Rangiora main dr;u:i holds a few good fish, but they are fur between. The trout here never seem to have striven very well, and it is very difficult to account for it. It ia full of deep hole-, with plenty of cover, such as txout lovv. ; but, nevertheless, I know of no angler who has ever made a good bag oa it. A stray fish, strong, lusty, and full of fight, invy- bo picked up here and there. Food, in the shape of bullies, &c, is abundant. Way the trout are not more numerous is quite a ptizz'e. There is good news from the Northern, rivers. Good trout have lucen seen in the Waiau, the Hurunui, the Acheron, and the Percival, and in a year or wo these rivers will swarm with fish. Or' the snow-fed rivers on the south, the and the Eangitata, from source to mouth, swarm with trout. Of course, the difficulty- with, these streams is to catch them in proper order; but the trout are there, aud I hope some enterprising angler will give these large rivers a good try thi;. season. Given the wind and water right, and thereout I am sure he will take no i-iuall advantage, nor regret the time devoted to it as mis-

spent. The lower parts of th-v Kororata went dry last year, and I fea* that pretty stream will be some tiiL;e before it can compare with its fonv.ii' condition in the eyes of the fly nsherwiiii. It was the queen of streams, giving the angler every variety of enjoyment. S.viffc rapids, deep pools, beautiful opea water, ell swarming with strong heavy fish; for several miles last year every drop of water vanished, and every trout died j and it must be long before its glories are restored. The upper portion did not suffer nearly so much, and I hear is fairly stocked with Loth salmo faris and/onitnalis, the Americas "brook trout. Speaking of fontinalis, a friend the other evening, brought me one weighing about a pound and a, half, which he had caught in the Avon. He lamented that he had caught it, as he thought from the distended appearance of its stomach, it was full of spawn, but I pointed out to him such was not the case, and offered to dissect it for him. Inside its stomach was a piece of fat bacon evidently swallowed a short time before it was caught, and wedged in so tightly that directly I touched the stomach with the knife, it went pop ; yet, notwithstanding this it had attempted to swallow his bait, a largo worm. The bacon weighed a little over a quarter of a pound. These American brook trout are very bold; I have pulled them out of the water, and have had them fall back, and again take the bait directly it was returned to the water. But I fear this article has already grown to a most tiresome length, and yet I have much more to say, which I will leave till another time. I shall not, however, end with any apology. The many-sided character of the angler's art has united so many suffrages in its favour, and has made it attractive to so many distinguished men of such dissimilar tastes and character, that any assistance given to them by a humble votary will be accepted in the spirit in which it is written—a genuine desire to give information and to add to the sport and pleasure of my fellowcraftsmen. W.H.S.