The Northern Advocate Daily “NORTHLAND FIRST” SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 1939. Pilgrimage to Mecca

Northern Advocate, 14 January 1939, Page 8

The Northern Advocate Daily “NORTHLAND FIRST”

SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 1939. Pilgrimage to Mecca

Registered for transmission through the post as a Newspaper

WHATEVER sports they may obtain in their own districts, the Taupo-Waikato district is;the anglers’ Mecca, as far as the majority of New Zealand t rent-fishermen are concerned. It is, too, a tremendous magnet to wealthy sportsmen from overseas, some of whom come every year to cast in New Zealand waters. These people spend a good deal of money in the Dominion. Some have even built homes at Taupo or on the banks of the Waikato, to which they return year after year. It is a serious matter, then, to find that the fishing, year by year is* gradually deteriorating, the present season, to date, being the worst in history. The weather has a lot to do with the success or failure of anglers, arid this summer the weather at Taupo has been anything but kind*. Gold and boisterous westerly weather has made it difficult to fish at the mouths of the Hatepe and Waitahanui streams,, where good bags are usually secured. Yet even in westerly weather, it is usually possible to take fish on the western shores of Lake Taupo, especially on the shores of the great indentation known as Western Bay. This summer, however, even those western shores, to which access can only be secured by launch, and where there }ms been no accommodation since the destruction of the houseboat at Kawa Kawa Bay, have fished disappointingly. Such fish as have been taken have usually been of the miserable “slab” variety, which fight poorly and present a striking contrast to the noble, deep-shaped fish of earlier years. At one time it was the exception to catch a “slab” at Taupo. Now they predominate to such an extent that there is no longer any room for doubt that the food supply is failing. When the lake was first stocked with trout it had an abundant food supply, and fish of prodigous size were soon setting a new standard for anglers’ tales. There was no need any longer for exaggerating the dimensions of “the one that got away.” Those that were caught, in the pre-war days when most anglers drove to Taupo by coach, were large to satisfy the most extravagant ambition, and stories of the gargantuan Taupo fish were soon in circulation wherever fish stories were told. The sceptic of today can see the originals of many of those stories in glass eases at Taupo, and they bear witness to the fact that there was no exaggeration. A ten-pounder, once a commonplace catch, is now a rarity. A 14-pounder would be an unbelievable phenomenon. It is true that in the Tongariro and in the beautiful reaches of the Waikato there are still fine fish to be caught. The river waters have to be fished with skill and fincsse.They are the hunting ground of the expert, and overseas anglers fishing in these waters, still take good enough fish to be more than satisfied with their sport. By comparison, of course, English and American trout are minnows. But even the river trout are not as good as they were. The fact is that if the recent falling off continues, New Zealand, in a comparatively few years, will no longer be able to claim attention as “the Anglers’ El Dorado,”

Already it has to be admitted that Chile, in South America, has trout streams just as good as New Zealand’s, in which fish just as large are caught. Soon, if New Zealand trout continue to diminish in size, as if they had mysteriously been given a draught from the magic bottle that made Alice in Wonderland a Lilliputian, overseas anglers will come to New Zealand more because of the advantageous exchange rate than because of the fish stories that came true. And, having come here, they may be placed in the embarrassing position of having to rely once more upon their powers of invention or exaggeration, rather than on the unassailable evidence of their cameras or packet scales. It is an unhappy thought. ,