BANK NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2389, 14 December 1899, Page 46

BANK NOTES.

I thank my friend at Winchester for his note very much. My only reason for mentioning the flies was so that any anglers journeying Jiis way might be pi epared with a stock in case they were not procurable handily in the district. I thank him for drawing my attention to the matter of other reports from the district he is interested in, and it shall be my endeavour to prevent duplicating in. future.

The Leith. — I understand that Mr Henry was up the Leith early one morning last week after the river had been in fresh, and between the paper mill and the sawmill got 10 fish weighing about 91b.

The Waitati. — This river was in splendid order on Saturday week, but the thunder storm completely changed its aspect, 'and it was, in the afternoon, running like a millrace, and the colour of clay.

The Owaka. — I am informed that Messrs K. Crust and P. Aitken had three or four days in the Owaka recently, and had very good sport, the latter for one day's fishing getting 28 fish. The most of the fish caught were taken on the fly.

Waipahi. — " W. D." writes on the 4th that the river was in flood over the banks. Not much fishing had been done the previous week, the weather being too unsettled. Only two or three fiph. were got for a clay's work with the rod. It started to rain on the night of the 3rd, and came down heavily, and was, at the time of writing, still continuing to do so. — A later report from "W.D.," dated 11th insl., states that the river is in good fishing order, but the writer has heard of no takes being, made. The river is low again. — Writing from Arthurlon, my old friend "J. R. S. says the river is in fine fishing trim in the meantime (December 11), after one of the heaviest floods that has been seen during the past 25 years. In consequence of the unsettled state of the weather and the water being high there has been very little fishing done lately. A couplo of days ago a local angler secured 20 fish on the fiat below the railway bridge. Tho taking flies were the Jessie and the red quill.

The Kakanui. — "Angler" writes that this river was in splendid order on the 11th inst. for fly or minnow, the fly being the best lure during the daytime, but the minnow the most effective at night. Some very good baskets have been taken lately, and if the weather keeps good there should be some rattling sport fox the holidays.

Winchester, December 11. — Langdon's register for the week stands at 126 fish weighing 1431b. Of these, 15 fish (731b) were brought in from the Rangitata, which was clearinc; towards the close of the week, the balance being taken with the fly in local water?. Mr Frank Browu'g take iv the Rangitata included fish

up to- 121b. The weather has been rather sultry,- t>ut to-day is cooler. — Correspondent.

Puerua, December 9. — Since my last report the weather has been very favourable for angling, and all those comirigv under my notice express themselves very pleased with their week's sport. The rivers at present are iri first-class condition for fishing, and I would advise those anglers living in town who would like to give the rivers a trial to do so without any delay, as they are sure to. get low before long. Mr James Robertson (Waitepeka) landed out of the upper reaches of the Puerua on the 9th inst. 38 fish, weighing 40£lb, for four hours' fishing ; and Mr T. E. Jefcoa,te, for one hour's angling, landed 12 fish, weighing 151b. He also fished the upper reaches of the_ Waiwera and grassed 1 beautiful fish weighing 71b. I may state the Upper Waiwera is somewhat uncertain for getting a good bag ; but any fish you do get are worth taking and afford excellent sport for about half an hour after hooking. I would like to" have " Jock Scott " hooked on to one to have his opinion. The baits used are Coch of bondhu Jessie and Leith. — Puerua Correspondent. The Waitaki (Oamaru), December 9. — Fishing on the 26th ult., near the north mouth Mr D. Collett got 7 fine trout, Mr Knight 3, Mr J. Toohy. 4, and other anglers were less successful, with 2 and 1 each. There were some 91b fish among the above. The river is in good order. On the 29th ult. the river came down thick, and anglers going out on that date found- it unfishable. „ Next day, however, jt cleared, and Mr William Bruce got 3 fine fish, averaging 71b earh. Mr John Sinclair got 2 good ones, as did also Mr J. Toohey. Other anglers returned with empty bage. Whitebait were .running up the river in thousands, and the big trout were swooping in among them, fairly driving them, on to the shingle sometimes. Fish were plentiful near the mouth of the river but owing to the great quantity of feed' about wore not on the take. On the 4th December, fishing near the mouth. Mr J. Mitchell got 3. A large number of anglers were out next clay, but the river came down dirty, the result beina no fish. About the Bth inst. the river got a little better and Mr M'Cieary. fishing on that date, got 3 fish and Mr Oliver 2. , The mouth oLtlre river has broken out about a mile nearer the fishiug camp, and this should be all the better for the fishing ground. The Kakanui has also been dirty with recent rains, and although clearing again, I have not heard of many successful angler*. — A Correspondent. — [Will my contributor kindly wrile-6n one side of the paper only, as it is a great convenience in petting. Thanks for information. — J.S.] Ashburton.— Mr A. H. Shury writesthnt the fishing i 3 still first rate. The lagoon is alive with fish. It is about an hour's drive to the mouth of the Ashburton River. Mr Dawson and others had jusfc returned, having driven clown the previous evening. Mr Dawson got five fish, fchroo 5-ponnrlers and qne 31b; Mr Comrie one fish, 51b weight/:' Mr Curtis, three fish, weighing 51b, 41b, and 31b, and Mr De Beer. oiip fi-h, lib. Mr Curtis lost several, and Mr Dawson v/as unlucky enough to miss one as big as the largest caught. During the week several heavy fish have been caught;- in fact, no one goes to the mouth without - getting a haul, some getting into double figure. Mr Cambridge secured- fouu nice fidi almost 51b each quite recently,' when the river was "fit." Up the river Iho fish have not been faking the fly well, and, as a rule, few fish have been caught there, and those taken have been small: Mr Field dot six a few evenings asro. The two largest were 81b and 61b, and the rest were 31b to 51b each. Mr Cambridge got his fish at (he mouth of the river. — My friend's urgent invitations are much apreciated : but, much as I should like to accept them, I cannot come just yet, 'but will endeavour to mako the acquaintance of the Ashburton before the season closes. I thank him for his kindness.— J. S. 1 find another note has •been forwarded from Mr Shury anterior to the foregoing, in which he tells me Mr W. D. V. Preston and his brother have just returned from the mouth of the- Ashburton. They got 10 fish— l4±lb, B£lb, 7^lb, 6ilb, 61b, s£lb, three 6-pounders. and one 31b ; — tolal, 661b— a very respectable haul. One kohwiar was also causrht. The 14£lh fish— a beauty— was exhibited at Messrs Onvand Company's. Mimihau.— Writing 'on the Bth, W. P. S. says that on the 4th there was a heavy flood, the rivers beinjr fully as high as ever experienced before. The weather was very cold and showery, .and nothing was being clone in angling. When tho weather changes he considers the rivers will be in good trim, _ so that a Rood time may be looked for during the holidays.

Mr J. Tough got a good take of trout on Friday in the Mimihau— lß* fish, weighing 401b.

Some of the Canterbury Rivers. — Anglers should get some good -sport -in the large rivers at an early date. The- recent heavy floods in the Rangitata, Rakaia* and • Waimakariri will have the effect of clearing these rivers of enormous quantities of natural bait (inanga and pawhitiri), whieh'Tiave' been' frequenting them near the sea for the past month, so much so that although trout are very plentiful, no very good takes have been made. The reports from the northern rivers are' very favourable, and the Waiau and Hu'runui.are teeming with good fish. Access to these rive,r3 being so difficult prevents them being . much fished. The Opihi and Temuka have been affording good sport lately, and the Ashley has been very good this season.— Lytielton Times.

Salmon. — The Farmers' Gazette of September 30 says: — "At the present time is to be seen at the Galway Salmon Fishery a sight to be long remembered. Any person standing on the bridge which spans the river at the rear of the county courthouse and looking over the battlements can see in the shallow water beneath salmon lying in rows, almost as numerous as blades of grass in a cornfield. The sight is much admired by visitors to Galway, and day after day crowds of strangers may be seen viewing them with surprise from the bridge overhead. Seldom have we seen such a large number of fish as now occupy the 'stream, and it may be unhesitatingly stated that they might be enumerated by hundreds of thousands. The water is now so low in the river that they cannot go up further, except at night when the mills stop work and let down their sluices, or very early in the morning before work is begun, hence^ the accumulation during daytime.

The Angler Fiah.— Mr Edward Step, F.L.S., has, says "Topjoint" in the Australasian, a very interesting article in the Novembei number of tlie Windsor Magazine on. the angler fish. This fish is not a beauty to look at, as he is built something similar to our gurnard, only "much larger. Look at the angler, handle him',' and you will readily conclude that he has not been built for a life of activity. Ho is a. heavy, flabby mass, and as you turn him over (saya Mr Step) you might be pardoned for supposing that he is possessed of no skeleton and a very poor muscular system. His role is to lie among the rubbish of the sea bottom, to flatten himself out as much as possible, and to give hia dirty-brown tack a clo&e resem-

blance to a mud-embedded stone. .Oppiart 1 says: — "This fish is ) all one vast , extended - mouth,", and for a'p'oet; this is, -I' suppose, a" sufficiently accurate statement, but for a naturalist it is. not.. If we exclude the. tail, from our reckoning of the creature's longitude, about two-thirds of the remainder is a " vast • extended " mouth — extended to the width of lft in specimens of 3ft long. The lips are fringed by the fleshy tappets, and the jaws are set with double — in parts treble — rows oflong, conical, curved teeth. There are other teeth set on the palate and about the entrance to the throat, and all these are so arranged that it is no easy matter for anything to escape when once the jaws haye closed upon it. On the back of the angler are two firts (dorsal fine), but the first is apparently very short, owing to the fact that three of the six long rays are .separated from the others and greatly lengthened. The foremost of the series is placed just above the front of the upper jaw; it is long and flexible, and ends in, a narrow piece of greyish skin, like the bait at the end of a fishing rod. The angler has gotten this one of his many names from the rodlike first ray, of his back fins, and imaginative writers have made good use of this organ. They picture angler lying quietly among the rocks and "weeds, invisible by reason of its .resemblance to its environments, and deftly waving its rod to import a lifelike movement to the ' "glittering" bait, "the little membrane of a" brilliant metallic lustre,'' and so forth. Of course, those who have tlniß written have never __ seen the fish at close quarters, for the so-called bait is of no attractive hue, being dull grey ; nor is it at all wormlike. 'as sp me have pretended. What is the real use of the contrivance nvay 'only be conjectured, for the ' angler's habitat is in deeper water than will allow its ways to be carefully studied; but, probably, the most reasonable ■ suggestion is that the appendage is a very delicate instrument for the purpose of indicating that some other denizen of the deep is in the right position to be grabbed by the jaws. These raya may be touched by a .fish in passing, under the impression that "they are the decaying stems " of seaweeds, which they much resemble. Colour is given to this view by certain experiments undertaken by Mr Lane, in connection with the Irish Fisheries' Survey. He found that on touching the loose appendage with a stick, the angler's jaw instantly closed upon the stick with a snap, just as though it were a spring trap, operated by a hair trigger. Several repetitions of the experiment had precisely t'»e came effect, and serve to show that contact with the " bait " is communicated to the muscles of the jaws by means c t {] very sensitive nerves. Nothing is too large, too hard, or too toufch for the angler. Anything touching the hair trigger causes the machinery of the jaw to act, without any pause to enable the brain to consider whether the substance grabbed at is digestible or not. Thus it has lieen known to seize the keg buoy attached to a pilchard-scan, tho mass of corks attached to crab pots' lines to mark iheii location — in this ca--?e it choked the glutton — an iron grapnel , a large gull, a northern diver, and the , head of a mop.