FISHING.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 9465, 14 July 1891, Page 3

FISHING.

TO THE EDITOR. Si ßj _l saw a clipping from a newspaper, said to be published in South Canterbury or Otago, in which the writer is amused at the story of the “ champion fish liar of the Chatham Islands.” Let him come down here and see for himself. The “ haul,” over which he is so jubilant, is by no means an uncommon one. I will tell him of a fishing excursion in which I was one of the fishers, Mr Harry Oamau and I started at about ten o’clock a.m. to pull a distance of some four or five miles down the coast to a place called Waikaripi. We fastened to the kelp, and in about four or five hours we had caught the following fish:—Twenty-three hapuka, varying from 151 bto 571 bin weight; 29S blue cod, 31b to 61b; 7or 8 sharks, 3ft to 6ft long. I cannot remember the exact number of ling, terakee and kelp fish, bat not very many. Our boat was loaded to within three or four inches of the gunwale. My sceptical friend in the Smith has gone into a minute calculation of the number of fish caught pet minute. . What would he say to a catch of two hapuka and a ling on one line of three hooks. This happened to me. It is no uncommon thing to haul op your line with every hook on it holding a fish, and just when near the surface of the water, for one of your hooks to be doing double duty by a hapuka seizing the fish on one of the hooks and becoming hooked himself; thus four fish on three hooks are caught. Many times during the day of which I am writing, our lines had scarcely reached the bottom before every hook was employed, and wa hauled up six or eight fish, according to the number of hooks. The “champion liar ” was not exaggerating when he penned those lines. It is a source of wonder to many that fish-curing is a dead-letter here. All kinds of fish can he caught off the rocks, they are so tame.—l am, &c., ALEX. FOSTER, Lay-reader, N.B.—Lay-readers do not lie. Te Ore, July 7.