FISHING FOR THE AYU.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 255, 25 September 1935, Page 11

FISHING FOR THE AYU.

JAPANESE USE CORMORANTS. For ten centuries fishermen of Japan have sought the ayu, a typo of trout distinctive to the Orient. In recent years the Occidental tourist has been taken on the search and thus viewed a method of fishing to be found in no other part of the world. Cormorant fishing, this game is called, and from reports brought back it is weird and exciting. Cormorant fishing thrives on the Nagara River, near Gifu. The season opens in May and continues to October 15, creating an active traffic in pleasure boats that convey spectators from the Nagara-Bashi Bridge to the fishing grounds. The ayu dislikes moonlight, thus lie is sought only when the night is dark. The fishing boats go down the river, carrying torchlights at their masts, the most important passengers being cormorants, a type of longbeaked marine bird whose appetite lor fish has made its name the synonym of a gluttonous person. Each cormorant wears a ring about its throat, and to it a line is attached. The cormorant, trained for its .work, is held by the boamaster and is released to seize the unwary ayu in its beak. To prevent its swallowing the fish the cormorant is quickly pulled back into the boat at each catch. At intervals a fish is fed to the bird ; thus the knowledge that tribute will bo paid for work well done prompts the cormorant to again and again.