ANGLING SIDELIGHTS

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12394, 13 March 1926, Page 12

ANGLING SIDELIGHTS

The Joys of the Stream—and Other Things

Written for the “N.Z. Times”

“Missed him!” A fat two-pounder 1 rises in no half-hearted fashion from the amber ripple, but the “strike” has been made too late. There is hut one sound prospect. Be patient for a Bee- 1 ond, and try him again. A black shag -—marauder *of the shallows I —moves, across tlie upper water in determined' flight: A pair of magpies respectably conduct a family affair in the paddock near at hand. Otherwise, there is nothing but the murmur of the stream, as it babbles qoisily in complete freeitem. over the stones, beyond to disturb the fisherman’s quest. A pause. He sets his teeth, and casts over the spot once more. A sudden swirl, a well-timed strike,, and tho thrills? Plenty of them.

Well booked, the fish makes downstream as though to see what has happened. A swirling dash in the otjier direction shows he . has found out. Desperately he makes to mount the rapid. The reel sings the sweetest of music. Checked he is, just iivtime, as. he flashes past, this time making a bold hid for the lower pool. After him, fearful of his light cast, stumbles the man with tho rod, and the line is nearly all out ! The trout reaches the still water, and mills about for precious seconds. Chit of sight' -again, to come up with a wide sweep to the head of the rough water, showing as he does so the whole of his under part. What a beauty I Played'out? Not a hit of it! There are submerged brambles by the. far bank, and he makes for them m a rush that- upsets' all calculktions. Out goes- the line again. He must be stopped. A risk has to be taken to steer him hack to deep water. The chances are he will give. If not, something -else surely will Up he comes,' still fighting desperately against the steady -pull of the line. Another real thrill as he makes the last wild rush “we all have' waited for with batec), breath. Wbat a pang at the heart of the angler if he now escapes! And what

a pang at the heart of -the fish if he doesn’t! But ho turns over, his jaws and gilia distended, to he safolyvdrawn into the waiting net. A ten minutes’ battle ended, with every second of the unforgiving variety. The angler lights his pipe, prepares for the next viotim, and wonders why everyone doesn’t fob, low fishing.- And before him: there is the prospect of a good day. *. » • «i ■ *.

There are the multitudinous fleas in the fern mattress, badly nurtured (the fleas), and out for human blopd at anv cest in consequence. The possibilities of an equally piratical wota—and they do bite I—dropping at any moment from the bulging bunk above loom large. In the light of the candle's from the slab table below two distinct spider webs show above the foot the blankets. The larger web contains a big blank chap, who seems - restless. But one is hungry, if deliciously drowsy, and the smell from the ca-mp 1 oven is good. 5 . It was dark when the early morning risp was tried with success, and, after a hard day on the stream, “whipping” every little swirl and rapid where, the big fellows love to lie, followed., bv that long walk home* through inconvenient gorse-covcred paddocks whore the taoklo got so inconveniently hung u;> lu easy Rtnges, it is dark again; But the basket represents tho limit of twenty good fish, the 1 angler’s bosom friends below him are wondering and trying hard to explain to'each other -yvhy they didn’t manage like catches, and for him all is temporarily right with -the world. Eight good hours on the- stream,'.even With the return journey thrown in! Wllo, would deny hinv his drowsiness and- his hiiijger, eleven- the cunning, -ho has showm in, letting someone else get the much-needed meal Teadiv? And so, while the - tin plates rattle* and ho waits for the-call to eat* ■ he - goes over in rhis m ind each liijtle incident of the day—the big fish he hooked with the first cast, only to lose him in an Inconvenient snag; the equally weighty one that he landed a few minutes 'afterwards, and the fight it gave ; the two be hooked, at ones, to lose cast and all—and the countless othpr real pieces of -excitement that went to i. mate the day of days on his favourite trout stream. And,-to-prove ft to hfs own satisfaction, the'speckled beauties, all nicely ’cleaned, a n d wrapSeel in wild mint, fill his creel to over-owing-'in tlie ’snfe outside. His philosophy takes him over the ground covered by the distinguished general who would rather have written certain verse than talce Quebec. For his part, ho would rather secure the record baa

ket of the day than become/ Prime Minister. of any average distressed country. • * -* -- *

Why will vtameui ,ga fishing?, You might as readily ask me whep, the income tax man will. cease from troubling. They ;(the women) simply ; love it, but the position has never been quite clear to me. To please them, you are compelled to select a . spot where the fishing ip of. the .-worst. \Vith real optimism, you get your tackle together, and don waders and brogues. You promise them fb .be back for,’lunch with the ’ necessary ingredients for a fish course* coqked -in real- camp style. They make it plain- that they don't believe you, and mention,. in. a ponderous motherly sort of.-way, that in any case they l Have sardines in the hamperYour only consolation is that you never intended to be back in, Any event. Possibly tliey elect to follow you, and, ■>» a desperate - effort to, make a : brave showing, you. are, guilty of every amateurish effort likely. And, after an hour’s solid whipping, you hook (probably by accident) a three-pounder - that goes exactly eleven ounces by scale measurement. For the'benefit of the audience, you treat the wily one with ,the, respect due to a swordfish. And you are about to gather him in. And they all beg you not to be cruel, to let ■the poor thing go,-'and that anyhow there are still .the sardines. And you ; consider their prayers, and slacken the line, nnd give the fish, freedom,-do' not? Yoii do not I’ll risk answeringthat question for you. And then they insist on trying a cast, and chivalrousIy, you can’t refuse. And- the first attempt lands flies and all in an inaccessible tree. And, what with calling back yoiir forgotten youth in a hope-le-ss endeavour to get them \the flies) out, to the accompaniment of a running fire of comment from below, you have a most delightful time, do you not? You do: not. And finally, you give it up in

disgust, and firmly resolve to come alone next time. And, in the middle of such bitter-sweet reflectidhs, they all aEsuue you what a splendid- time they've had, and make you promise to take them again, and -you promise, of course; do you not? You do I And you have morp punctures on the toad home than the average car gets in a year. That is generally the way of it. • « # •

As a ’ keen angler since early childhood, let me 'deal in passing with my only grouch at present—the question of “private ownership” of-certain of our best" waters around this favoured city. The iact that ’the Wellington Accl’niatisation Society- has already registered a -strong protest ■ agailist the principle involved places_ me in good company., - - ■ ■ ' ' 1 ' " There are rather too many of them -r-tho private waters, I mean. Forma ny years I have been making wellworn paths along certain of our best Streams, only to find “Trespass” notices confronting me in my old ’ age “. , . let no mau put asunder” might well be quoted for t|ie benefit of anyone who tries to separate a roan and his tod: but, kicking in this or any other fashion into what amounts, from tho angler’s standpoint, to a. grooving evil, .doesn't appear to have much efieot. To-day, practically the whole of the Wainui-o-mata is “reserved,” together with portions of the Horokiwi. the Pakuratahi, the Porirua, and others. It may be good ,Judgment on the part of the owner of property Who ---dearly loves Jus little reach of water where ho can‘fish undisturbed, or perhaps to bring his friends from town to display his affluence as the holder of real estate in the country. For one vhing, however, jt is the collective'subscriptions, in the shape of license fee 3, of the -men who follow the sport, that provide the means whereby there are any fish jn the waters at all, For ajw other, the truly democratic spirit that governs our colonial sport in any shape or form hardly allows for- the intorductioiv of an autocratic business of this sort—quite at home on the otjier side of tho world, but hopelessly out of place here. V Moreover, .your’angler is generally a harmless sort of person, out to respect the rights of- ownership, and sufficient, therefore, of the gentleman to See that no damage is clone to any private property on which lie may be fishing. Tbere may be exceptions to the rule, but they are few. Mind you, it is the trespass notices themselves that arinov ros the most, l can only admire the man who doesn’t get into print like- this.

hut who conveniently lets a wild • hull go in tho paddock nearest his favourite reach. This is an easy way out of it The ownei achieves his purpose, and the true angler appreciates the other chap’s sense of humour in the unlocked for exercise he gets. The Porirua stream, as any- fisherman will .tell you, is rather noted for its seeming overdose of fractious biflls, and the explanation Is plain. They have, ni course, a certain institution in that district which may perhaps be taken to show bow advanced it is in comparison, for example, with the place where ou: shortages ot water on washing days; so frequently develop. Some of the owners in certain realms I could name, have been consigned to less cheerful reception halls. Wellington. lAN MACKAY.