ANGLING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23689, 22 December 1938, Page 4

ANGLING

By Dry Fly

COMPETITIONS * January 2.—Waikouaili River. February 4-s.—Pomchaka River; weekend outing; two club competitions and Griffiths Cup; interclub competition with Taieri Anglers' Club. February 18—Shag River: bare fly NIGHT FISHING Let me say straight off that it is only in the last two seasons that I have taken up night fishing with a big fly at all seriously. I was induced to do so (writes Captain M. Foster in the New Zealand Shooting and Fishing Gazette) for two reasons. One was that a friend of mine who in his youth had spent many enjoyable nights fly fishing on the Canterbury rivers was always bringing the subject up until I thought there might be something in it after all. The second reason was that I was intrigued by the way the fish in the Otaki fed. I knew that the morning rise was supposed to be a good, while the afternoon and evening rise had proved to be rather patchy and uncertain. I; therefore, made up my mind to spend all night, if necessary, on one pool only and see what the result would be. The local night fishermen, I was convinced, did not or could not stay late enough for the rise, and I also thought that the flies they, or some of them, used were far too big. being size 3 old number. I had been given a hint as well that one of the best flies was a teal and silver. And so it came about that I dressed a few Mallard and silver flies, having no teal feathers, but, instead of having an all-silver body, they had bodies of white Ostrich Herl ribbed with embossed silver. My reason for this, was that I. thought it possible that the embossed silver would catch the light reflected from the bottom of the river and make the body glow, instead of flash. I do not mind owning that my knowledge of light and its effect amounts to nothing at all. But that was the way I worked It out. Having tied the flies, I then set out to find and prospect a suitable pool. This was easy. At that time there existed a long broad pool, just above the railway bridge, with a good shelving shingle bottom. This pool I surveyed very carefully, marking down the snags and so forth, and then on December 4, 1935. I started operations. To my delight I was fairly successful, and arrived home somewhere about 4 a.m. on the sth with a couple of fish, both well over 21b.

I should have said before that this took place in the week of full moon or just before, but I will leave this question till later.

Anyway, by the middle of January, 1936.1 had had 15 good fish, the largest weighing sJlb, out of that one pool, besides losing four or five more. Then we had the usual unwanted flood, which completely spoiled this pool, and I had to find another. I was so taken with this fly-fishing by moonlight that for the rest of that Reason and the following season I made a point of staying out occasionally till sunrise, but usually till 3 a.m., and It was rarely that I came *home wkh an empty bag. By the end of the 1936 season I had had time to experiment .with the various flies, and I found that the Mallard and White killed very well till the end of January. After that to the end of the season I used the Salmon March Brown, the wings of which are from the well-marked tail feathers of the golden pheasant. If the river was at all coloured I found that the Dusty Miller was an almost certain killer. I have also killed fish on a Hopes Lure and a Fiery Brown salmon fly. These I dress myself on No. 3 and No. 8 hooks.

The importance of the size of the hook and therefore of the fly, I think, is not sufficiently realised by the average night fisherman. He is usually content to use one size only, not realising that the speed of the fly has a lot to do with its attractiveness. I mean that a large fly just doddles past a fish, who does not take much notice, but a smallish fly, say a No. 8, flashes past the same fish, giving him the impression of a small fish who has got an urgent appointment elsewhere, and for that reason to be snapped up at once. I regret I cannot claim this theory as my own, as my attention was drawn to it by a paragraph in Courtney Williams's book on flies. It is, I think, a theory well worthy of thought. In this phase of fishing there are many questions which occur to me and for which I have not found an answer. The fish feed largely on whitebait until January, but what makes the whitebait shoal move at night, and why are the times of that movement so irregular? The same question applies to bullies from January onwards. In both cases I have known fish to come on the feed about 9 p.m. and go on feeding till 4 a.m. Then on other nights when conditions of weather and water were identical, the rise, if I may call it so, lasted from midnight to 1.30 a.m. and after that nothing moved. Has barometric pressure got anything to do with it? I do not know, but I put forward this suggestion in case there might be something in it. We know so little about these questions that any theory is worth notice.

Occasionally on a warm night the fish seem to be rising madly at something but will refuse all flies, small or large. I am convinced that they are then not feeding on moths, but have yet to find something they will take at that time. Again, I have.found that when fish start jumping at night it is hopeless to catch them. In this case I subscribe to the theory that they can see vou when they are in the' air. And I have been assured that the same has been noticed with a jumping salmon. I see no reason why they should be not able to see when they are jumping especially when Chamber's Encyclopaedia. I understand, states that the lens of a fish's eve has been used as a magnifying glass. Another query, what is it that seems to hang on to your fly for an appreciable time and then let it go. although you may strike as hard as you dare? Is it the father of all trout which is holding en to the fly with the bend of the hook flat in its mouth, or is it a large eel mouthing the fly? This has happened twice to me in

the same place in the same pool. And both times have I failed to connect, but not for want of striking. These are the sort of problems which make night fishing so interesting besides the fact that one usually has the river to oneself, at any rate after 11 p.m. I am given to understand that in the case of married fishermen their better halves get nervous, I will not say suspicious, if their lords and masters do not show up by then. One other aspecv of being on the river by night strikes one and that is the absence of bird movement at night. Only one or two nights in the last two seasons have I heard duck flighting at night nor do there, seem to be any wading birds moving at that time. I am certain that if one was fishing near an estuary of any river in England or Scotland the night would be alive with widgeon and curlew at any rate, not to mention dunlins, knots and snipe. r think it is this which has impressed me more now than anything else. I have left till now the question of why I fish at full moon while most anglers swear by a night without a moon. It is for the very simple reason that I can see what I am up to in casting and in playing and landing a fish. "have tried fishing on a black night, but it has given me no pleasure at all and I was certain that would be so. even if I persevered with it. A moonlight night also reduces the use of an electric torch to the minimum; Never Hash your torch on the water at night. Nine times out of ten it will put a feeding fish down at once. Apropos of this, many years ago when ihe H.M.S. Ringarooma was ai Timaru, she played her searchlights on the clouds. This was sufficient to cast a reflection on to the Opihi River 12 miles away when the fish had been taking fairly well, and it was n- ticed' chat the fish left off rising ."fter the first flash at about 9.30 p.m. It was noticed-again on the Selwyn when the same ship was in Lyttelton harbour. -

And finally at the beginning and end of the season keep ah eye lifting on the weather when you are out at night, especially when the river gives little warning of a flood. A fish is not worth a funeral. There seems to be an idea that night fishing is harmful and one of the causes of the deterioration of trout fishing. With this view I have no sympathy whatsoever, as I consider that the charge is not borne out by facts. People who have only superficial knowledge of the trout and his* psychology say, " Give the poor thing a rest," but they either do not know or ignore the fact that fishing depends entirely ..on the trout's appetite. And until he is good and ready to, have a feed he will take no notice of what goes past him, be it flies, minnows or anything else. ~ '."■'. Now night fishing is usually carried on most successfully in' those stretches of a river which are within one, or two miles of tidal water. It is, I think, a generally accepted axiom that fish within reach of tidal water are possibly the most " pernicketty " of their kind. It is next to impossible to predict, as one can on other water, when they will rise or come on the feed. Moreover, when their staple article of diet is either whitebait or bully;with fresh-water shrimps as a hors d'oauvre, how can one expect them to take any notice of an insignificant object like a fly floating above? I remember one decent fish which was so full of whitebait that it could only have been sheer greed which made him take my fly to fill up the last corner available in his stomach.: \

. Now we come to the question of disturbing the water when fishing at night, and thus making the fish shy. The answer to this is that fish take less notice of the fishermen by night than by day chiefly because he throws little or no shadow on the water, even at full moon,* and because he fits into the background better at night. I have frequently noticed fish feeding quite happily 10 yards away where oy day one would have been lucky to have got within 15 or 20 yards of them. Again, only one pool is fished by night against possibly one or two miles of water by day.' Wading, I am convinced, will not disturb a pool so much by night as by day, if judiciously done. As little as possible is a good motto in any case. Unfortunately high waders seem to offer an irresistible attraction for some people and make them behave like performing seals. I expect a psychologist would be able to explain it. FinaHy; it must never be forgotten that fishing is a recreation, pure and simple, and once recreation is hedged/ about with a zariba of regulations, it ceases to be a recreation and becomes an organised game. From which Allah ■ preserve us!