PROSPECTS GOOD.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 256, 26 September 1940, Page 8

PROSPECTS GOOD.

NEW FISHING SEASON

For the angling season which is to open on October 1 prospects in the Manawatu and adjacent districts are described as bright if present conditions continue, as everything at the moment is favourable. The rivers are at summer level and in a good state for fishing right through the district. Fish seem to lie in evidence in all the streams in the district and the rivers are all thought to bo well stocked.

The best spawning season for years has been experienced locally, and it has been remarkably prolific. Since the young fish were formed there have been no big freshes in the rivers, so that the fry have been saved and the rivers now have prolific quantities of them. This was revealed in a recent inspection by officers of the Palmerston North branch of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society of several streams in the district, hut angleks, of course, will not receive the full benefit of the spawning for another three years, when the fish will have developed. Local anglers will face certain restrictions on their fishing this year, in view of fly-fishing only now being allowed in several small streams,- some of them near Palmerston North. Tiltstreams affected include the Kahuterawa, Tiritea and Tokomaru. Minnow fishing is prohibited there, it being felt that fly-fishing is of a type better suited for these streams. However, the smaller local streams are usually fished with the fly, and as the larger rivers such as the Manawatu. part of the Oroua, a.nd the'ltangitikei, are still open for minnow fishing, the new regulations should not be found unduly irksome. The Palmerston North branch expects a decrease in revenue this year. A fall in licenses will naturally be experienced as many anglers will be serving in the forces. Another factor will be petrol restrictions, which will prevent many anglers who formerly did so from going far afield for their sport, i