BANK NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2429, 3 October 1900, Page 51

BANK NOTES.

The heavy rains of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday should have freshened the streams up considerably, and improved their condition, bub the excessive cold and the blustfering nature of the weather would, I much fear, put the fiJi completely off their feed, and spoil the fisherman's fun on Monday morning. Well, if it does there are plenty more opportunities to angle. It is a poor consolation to the enthusiastic, but it is the only one, under th^circiimstance&jthat can be offered. What appears to be a case of liming the Water of Leith is reported, anifl though no fish were found turned up it does not follow that no damage was done. Naturally, if the river was limed it would be with the object of killing the fish, not merely for the sake of destroying them, but for the purpose of obtaining them, by which I mean that the conclusion to be come to is that, assuming the fish were killed, they would be all very carefully removed from the water by the rascal who used the lime. I say this because some stress is laid on the fact that lio fell were found affected by the lime, which is only what might be expected if the limer was left undisturbed at his little game for a short time. Well might the secretary of the Otago Acclimatisation Society say that some extreme measure should be taken, and I think the council did quite right in deciding to offer a reward of £5 for such information as would lead to the conviction, of anyone liming the Leith, or any other stream. For my own part, I think the inducement is scarcely high enough, and that the council might have made it £10 instead of £5. Anglers are still grumbling about the netting of the Shag River, and it will give me the greatest gratification to record in this column that someone has been caught redhanded at this trick, and has been fined the maximum penalty allowed by the law. Unfortunately all justices are not anglers, and treat the offence of poaching far too lightly, not quite realising the magnitude of the wrong that is done. In fact, I often think that poachers themselves do not quite understand that the act is a most unfair one, and at the same time very contemptible. Some, I daresay, perpetrate it with much the same feeling as the schoolboy who robs the apple tree, but like the schoolboy, they are guilty of theft, and theft of a very much more serious order at that. It is an ugly word that theft, but when a man takes what is not his he commits the crime of stealing. Let those who take fish in this way pause for a momont, and consider what they are doing, and unless there is something radically wrong with their mind I venture to cay they will poach no more. Put it fairly and squarely to yourselves, and 6eo

how you stand in the matter. 1 cannot say 1 quite agree with the reduction of the size at which fish may be taken to seven inches. What ifc the good of a 7in trout to anybody? As it was some anglers were not very particular about basketing a fish a little under nine inches, and it is quite certain the same thing will happen with regard to 7in fish, so that to all intents and purposes the minimum size at which trout may now be caught is pretty well anything. I referred last week to an attempt that had been made, and was still being wade to get as nearly as £>ossiblo a complete list of flies most suitable for vi?e on the various streams, and I affirmed the desirability of doing so, pointing out that it could only be done with the assistance of country anglerF. I have since received the following- letter from one of tho Otago Acclimatisation Society's Council: —

Dear Jock, — During the past year the Otago Anglers' Association affirmed the desirability of cataloguing the various artificial flies that have proved successful lures on the Otago streams, ♦ and deputed one of its members to see what coul/1 be cloiae m the matter. It was hoped that 3. 'ihe M.Jc*cessful hires on each stream for each month of the seaso.i. 2. To exhibit speoimens of these hires. 3. To indicate "the accommodation obtainable in the various pngling centres.

4. To refer anglers to local residents who would be willing to assist them by giving information concerning the resources of their respective districts.

The editor of the Witness courteously afforded us access to the files of his paper, and an examination of the angling column for the past five years was undertaken. The result las been disappointing, but not discouraging. You have appealed repeatedly through your column, and personally, for the very information of which we haA c been in search, and to my own knowledge have supplied postcards to those who could have given you full information, your efforts to collect and publish this information deserve the warmest commendation, and I sincerely hope that this season you will be better supported in this respect by anglers. Anglers in supplying you with the results of their expeditions have omitted the name of the fly, or the minnow that has lured the spotted denizens of the streams from their lairs. There are, however, two exceptions — your correspondents at Waipahi and at Waiwera. These gentlemen have consistently supplied the names of tho lures used. I would »p2)eal to all anglers during the coining season to follow their example, and thus enable the Otago Anglers' Association to coinmle the information to which I have leferred above. c In conclusion, I have to tender ray sincere thanks to the editor for his kindness in placing the files of the Witness at my disposal, and to yourself for the courtesy 1 have received at your hands. — I am, etc.,

C. K. EICHAEDSON.

I thank Mr Riehardsom for his commendation, but think he overestimates what I have done. However, I certainly have made the effort, and that more than ones, to get the information referred to, and ana =ti3l in hopes that those efforts will bear fruit. — .3. S,

Table showing lures that have proved successful during Ootobar on the various Olago streams :

On. all the sticnms the most successful hue has been • the "creeper (larva. of the Chanliodes diversus)- For tlie following description of this interesting insect vre are indebted to G. V. Hudson's " Manual of New Zealand Entomology," page 102: "During still, warm weather, fioni December till March, this large insect is freqiienUy observed flying la.zily over water at dusk, when it may be readi'y captured with the ordinary net. Its larva is aquatic, living under stones in running streams, where it devours large quantities of epheinerm and other insect larvre, v.-hicli are always abundant in those situations. It is very ferocious, and will bite violently when disturbed, being furnished with a pair of poweriul mandibles. The curious filaments on each side are gills, and it will be noticed that they arc situated exactly whore the spiracles of the perfect insect afterwards appear. The larva probably lives over a year, its growth proceeding very slowly. When iTu.ll grown it loaves the water and iorms an oval cell in the mud, usually under a large stone; its gills then gradually shrivel up, and in ten days or a fortnight it is transformed into the pupa, from which the perfect' insect proceeds in about six weeks' time. The sexes of this species may be icadily distinguished by their size, the male being considerably larger than the female, and possessing longei antennas.

Worms and minnows : Whitebait, soleskin, and the minnow made from the cocoon of the Oeceticus omnivorous.

Flies: For the Waitati and Leith. — O" gnats, Pomahaka, Jessie, grey spicier, black gnat, March brown.

For Kaihiku, Waiwera, and Waipahi and Kuriwao. — PomahakPv, March biown, red goveinor, Leith, Jessie, black gnat, blue dun, Anderson, Samuel-, red spinner, and turkey brown and Waipahi.

Owaka, Puerua, and Glehomaru. — Pomahaka, March blown, cinnamon, red governor, Coch-y-Bondhn, Waipahi, Samuel, Jessie, and Thomson's fancy.

Winchester, September 28. — The prospects for the coming season are decidedly good. During the winter two fair floods came down the local streams, the last abovt 15th inst., very useful as scavengers of objectionable weeds. At the moment all Maters are in first-class condition for fly fishing, and as whitebait is now coming up from the sea minnow fishermen should get good sport in the Lower Opihi and Rangitata. All paraphernalia suitable for -the district can be obtained from Mr Langdon at the Wolesley Hotel.

The Waiiaki. — Mr H. Mackintosh, secretary to the "Waitaki Acclimatisation Society, has received the following note from Mr W. J. Cain, ILurow : — "I write this to inform you that I saw a great many trout in the Waitaki last week, more than I have ever seen on any other occasion so early hi the season. If the river keeps clear there should be good fishiiig up here."

Timaru Anglers' Society. — The annual meeting was held on the 21st tilt., Mr P. Foster presiding, and about ten members being present. The report and balance sheet showed that the society, botli from an angler's and financial points of view, had had a most successful year. The credit balance was £5 8s sd. The election of officers resulted as follows : — President, Mr P. Foster ; vicepresidents, Mr D. J. Oaldwell and Mr F. Tasker ; honorary secretary and treasurer, Mr 0. E. Ha&sell ; committee^ — Messrs R. H. Ferguson, S. Fergusson, F. Allen, T. Palli«er, and It. M'Queen; axiditor, Mr S. Fevgusson. It was resolved to hold four competitions during" the season — 12 hours' fly by day, 12 hours' fly at night, 12 hours for minnow, and an allin 24- hours' competition for any legal bait. The first competition is to be held on the 9th November. The prizes for competition were fixed at £2 2s and £1 Is. Messrs Foster. Oaldwell, and Tasker gave special prizes, Messrs Foster's and Tasker' s being specifically for night /ly fishing. An honorarium of £3 3s was uaaiiimously voted to the lion, secretary and treasurer, who has done so much for tho club.

The Stage Angler. — The following is from the Fiuld: — "While attention to the minutest detail is usually given to representations at the best London theatres, there is very frequently something wanting about the stage sportsman, and particularly the stage angler. As a rule the property rod is not a rod at all, but a straight piece of deal painted brown. There is no winch, and the line is fastened to the end of the rod, though anything but

' tight-line ' fishing may be intended. But some of our actor-mr.nagers are brothers of the angle, among them being Mr Cyril Maude, of the Kaymarket, who probably for this reason puts a characteristic touch into the alehouse scene in ' She Stoops to Conquer,' placing a stuffed pike in a case o\ er the inn door. Perhaps the most realistic bit of fishing that was ever staged was in an old musical first piece at the Savoy, called ' The Carp.' The hero of the little play was an old-time fisherman, who was carp fishing in a lake, and had evidently studied with the greatest care the necessary p.ction of the part, sometimes coming down the stage to sing a song with the heroine yv'hile, pummelling huge piece of V.TIT'C ' TYVfVr''ril vi ' < *~ "r<"*Hc! b«:t". " " uinv- »*»- deed, have' "Been real dough; it looked 'like it. Boalipm is 'carried far nowadays!. Only the other day an actress was complaining to the writer of these notes that a ham-bone, which was supposed in the piece to be exceedingly stale and offensive, was in nowise superstitious, but, in very truth, such a very old and noisome piece of bone and meat a= to induce an air of great vorsimilitude into her acting. The time, however, has yet to come when we shall see the si age angler catch livo fish, and- bring them kicking on to the stage."