TALES OF BIG FISHES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 7 February 1928, Page 9

TALES OF BIG FISHES

LEGENDS FROM THE NORTH SKV EBAJ . ' 'Mm A CUSS'' EXAMINED Since the .Northland svvordfish started nibbling at the baits of fishermen from all corners of the globe, a new crop of legends has been springing up. One of these days someone will collect them under the title of "When the Mako Isn't Biting." Here is a start with the collection (says the "Sun"): —

NOT A "DRY" FISH

Even the bit of rope which attaches the captured fish to the weighing device has to be standardised as to weight now lest a fraction of an onnce may he gained. These latest refinements cause a grin of knowledge to mount the faces of the old hands who have seen more rraugh and ready methods. There is a story from Whangaroa of a party which went out fish hunting, a sweepstake having been arranged ; they had to land a fish which would scale ever 871 b to win. The Maori boatman took the party where the fish lived and finally a good-sized fish was hooked. The launchman carelessly hung the fish up by the mouth and on landing it was weighed the same way; with success to the party, for it went 891 b.. Asked what his charge would he for his services the Maori modestly replied Y-hat the honour would be sufficient only that lie would like the fish. The party did not want the fish, but modesty like that earned its own reward and £2 was pressed on the Maori. One of the onlookers, in an effort to help, pulled the fish off the scales and hurled it toward the native; to the surprise of all it disgorged a bottle of whisky and two bottles of beer!

STAGE-MANAGED

A few years ago the newspaper world .was staggered by a "fish story" which came from near Russell. A woman angler lost her ring and it was found four days later in the maw of a small shark caught off the same locality. A score of- witnesses actually saw the ring recovered. The secret, however, has since leaked out. The lady who lost the ring was loud in. her bewailing, but the most careful search of the launch from which she had been fishing, was made in vain. Later on a visitor found it in a coir mat used aboard the boat, and the launchman and the finder decided to play a trick. A Maori woman was brought into the joke. She was engaged to demonstrate how' fish were cooked in a hangi in the days of old, and before the assembled visitors her mentor casually invited her to show how sharks were prepared for drying. The woman went through the usual proces sof "carving" a shark; and ultimately the missing ring was brought to light in the shark's "innards."

EEL MIRACLE EXPLAINED

"It is gospel though that exploit of Captain l l ' 's," remarked one spinner of yarns; "I saw the eel come up with the shark held by the tail," he explained. The captain) in a period of waiting off Cipe Brett, had put down a line. He felt a real "bite," and when he had almost exhausted himself in getting the end of the line in view he was surprised almost to helplessness to see a fox-headed eel firmly hooked, and that it was coiled around the tail of a shark so securely that both were hauled on board. The explanation was that the eel (and every boatman hates the sight of one) had been caught on the top of a pair of hooks and the shark had taken the lower one; but the eel, with that peculiarity for twisting itself into a ball, had coiled around the shark with such a powerful grip that the bigger fish was hauled in tail first.

THE RROFESSOR

The gullibility of a professor is a byword among the unwashed and an incident that happened off the Hole-in-the-Wall hardly raised the reputation of a certain scientific gentleman. On a beautifully calm day he was in a dinghy otf the Hole with some fishermen. While having a snack the scientist put down a line. One of the onlookers solemnly warned him that he was fishing in a"country infested by foxheaded eels, and that he was sure to lose his line, as the fish, when it found itself hooked would wind its tail around a rock and refuse to budge. Then, when the line broke, it would head for the hole and get rid of the line. "That there Hole is full of lines like that," gloomily intimated his coach. A little later the line tightened and it was clear that a fish had taken the bait. Every attempt to haul in the line was fruitless. The sea bottom was never more resisting, and the line was between the boat and the Hole, just as the fisherman had prophesied. Finally, a volunteer, jin another dinghy, 'went and shook the line free and up came a four-foot eel.

The professor was confounded and duly published his experiences with an appreciative note on the. observances of the fishermen. What he had not noticed was that during the lunch spell the boat had swung with the tide, and his line had of course fouled the recks.

TWO-HEADED SCHNAPPER

At Russell is a "specimen" of a twoheaded Uaby shark. Auckland once boasted having seen a two-headed schnapper. Photographs of it were reproduced in nearly every paper of note. The "find" was the handiwork of a well-known skipper who, in an idle moment, amused his companions by splitting two fish and sewing parts of them together, so that the result looked like a two-headed fish. The deception was too good to let it go without trying it on someone else.