NETTING ROTORUA TROUT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14585, 23 January 1911, Page 6

NETTING ROTORUA TROUT.

-PRESENT METHOD CRITICISED

IS THE FLY-FISHER ROBBED?

[BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

• Wellington, Sunday. Tits system which tho Government, follow in netting the trout in Lake Rotorua is supplying a large quantity of fresh and smoked trout to a public who had often to regard that particular fish as a nearly unattainable luxury, and so far it has not been subjected to any widely-heard criticism. It is now assorted that, owing to tho method adopted, the fly-fishers who are attracted to Rotorua do not faro as well as they should do. . The Mayor of Wellington "(Mr.; T. M. Wilford, M.P.), who is an ardent fisherman, has returned to Wellington, and is complaining of the same thing. In,an interview, he said —"One morning when I was there the launch and the netting team, if I may call them so, went to the mouth of the Ngongotaha stream, running into Lake Rotorua, and between three a.m. and seven a.m. they netted a ton and a-quarter of fish, 25cwt of trout. When the fishermen, who had come from all parts of the world to the 'fisherman's paradiso,' arrived on the scene a little later they drew a blank, of course, although this is one of the best places for the fly fisherman.

"Really it is absurd," declared Mr. Wilford, " to say in one breath that Rotorua is grand for fly-fishing, and then try to justify early nesting in the only places where fly-fishers can operate. No man comes to New Zealand to 'troll' for trout. It is the fly-fishermen who come from all quarters of the globo, and I say that if there is one thing that is going to settle Rotorua for the 'fly' man it is netting at this stage of the season at the mouths of the best streams in the early morning, i admit that they are catching plenty of fish in the nets ; that most of those fish are in good condition and also that tho Government is able to sell a great quantity of fish when caught; but if the Government proposes to keep Ilotorua as a netting place for procuring and soiling fish, and not for the sportsman with rod and fly, it would be better to say so straight out. Rotorua is getting a bad name amongst sportsmen. The fish are recovering their condition, yet you can understand that under the present system fly-fishermen are disgusted. Every man who comes from the Old Country, America, or Australia to fish with the fly at Rotorua or any other part of New Zealand, spends a good deal of money in the country. There are railway fares, coach fares, hotel expenses, fishing tackle, and the rest, with launch proprietors reaping , a rich harvest, so that we do not want to take away the attraction that brings these sportsmen to our country. What I suggest is that the Government should net Lake Rotorua at the close of the fishing seaeon, and take out all the big fish, fixing a mesh of a size to allow the smaller fish to pass through, but to hold the larger ones. In this way they would serve the purpose of keeping up the quality of the' trout, and at the same time i not interfere with legitimate fly-fishing."