SPORT WITH TROUT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20481, 5 February 1930, Page 13

SPORT WITH TROUT.

DAYS ON WAIKAREMOAM,

BEAUTIFUL LAKE SCENERY.

SOME FINE RAINBOW CAUGHT,

PLEASURES OF THE FISHING*

BY F. CARR ROLLETT.

We had a long day's trek from Mangapuhatu after many weary days riding up the then roadless Waimana Valley and a very rough journey down the Hopurua* hine Gorge, because the old road was overgrown with scrub so dense that wa had to thrust our horses through it. No one had travelled that way for soma years. In places we had to unload our packs in order to get under fallen tree") or to negotiate dangerous slips, and mora than once our horses crashed through rotten culverts to the danger of their ridera and themselves.

At the bottom of the gorge there was worse still, a treacherous corduroy track of tree-fern trunks over a swamp where the pack horse nearly got bogged. Then we came suddenly upon the north-western arm of Lake Waikaremoana and saw in the shallow water at the ford a shoal of big rainbow trout which shot away like arrows as we splashed through. A Memorable Catch. - My companions were eager for fresh" food after some weeks of tinned meats, so they were quite willing to pitch the tents and I needed no encouragement to go fishing. There was>h'ftle chance of a rise in the shallows, though I waded out as far as I could, so I turned up-stream where the Hopuruahine River rushes amid great quartzite boulders. After some rough scrambling I came to a fairly deep pool which promised well for trout but held difficulties in the way of casting. However, I got my flies oufc on to the swift current and immediately there was a swirl and I was into a big fish.

I have never seen a rainbow that fought as well as that Hopuruahine fish, and none with such vivid colouring. In the clear water its sides literally blazed with crimson. I do not know how I could have landed it because it took shelter between some rocks, but. Mapere, our guide through the Urewera, came up and although he had never used a net before managed somehow to get my " collapsible " under it and brought it safe ashore. Guide's Great Feast. I weighed the fish when we reached the camp and it scaled just under eight pounds. It was cooked just as in the embers like an Australian " damper " and was as fine a flavoured fish as ever I tasted. Mapere ate about five pounds o£ it with exclamations of " Kapai," and was disinclined to move for quite a long time. Next day the launch from the Government hostel came for us, so we left out; tent standing and our horses feeding on a grassy flat and enjoyed the luxury of comfortable beds and well-prepared meals once more.. I had excellent opportunities not only for seeing Waikaremoana in its phases but for enjoying some excellent fishing on its numerous arms. On the evening of our arrival I saw, one of the most gorgeous sunsets imaginable and under its brilliant colouring the lake was indescribably beautiful. Even under ordinary conditions it is, I think, one of the most beautiful lakes in New Zealand. It has great Cliffs like Panikere rising sheer from the water, rugged shores of strangely carved papa roeks, apd great slopes of virgin forest coming right down to the water's edge. Waikaremoana cannot be seen in its entirety from any one spot, because it is cut up into long arms and deep bays, but this adds a charm because it offers fresh and unexpected features wherever one goes. Success With Silver Doctor. It Is fishing I am describing not scenery and my first sport on the lake was at the mouth of the Aniwaniawa Inlet. We were rowing across to visit the beautiful falls there, but I saw fish rising near a low sedge-covered bank and begged to be put ashore. Conditions were good for casting and I tried fly after fly among eagerly-feeding fish without result until I put on a silver doctor and then there was 110 hesitation.

I took five beautiful rainbow of from five to seven pounds almost as fast as I could land them. Then duty called and I had perforce to see the lovely Aniwaniawa tumbling from wooded heights into its foaming pool and climb that most beautiful track through the hanging for-, est to that gem of all lakes, Waikare-iti. I tried brief fishings at the Mokau and the Western Arm and several other places and had moderate sport, but the best results were gained when we went back to our camp on the Hopuruahine arm of the lake. There, as in several other places, are long, narrow flats, where the laka goes up toward the mountain streams and from these flats it is easy, enough to cast. The water is still and very deep and the surest way of taking fish is to use a large salmon flv. A silver doctor served me well. You* have to let the fly sink and then bring it up with short-, sharp jerks of the rod. I took a fair number of good rainbow in this fashion, but I regret to say that they all had cultivated the wicked habit of boring down into the depths instead of playing boldly on the surface, and this habit of their 3 calls for patience and cunning in order to bring them to the net. But I was fishing for the pot. We had been unable to buy meat for our return journey, and men on the trek must have something to eat*