BANK NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2604, 10 February 1904, Page 55

BANK NOTES.

Kakanui. — "F/. &.." writing on February 6, says: — "Yesterday heavy rain fell on th& Eakanui Ranges, and the river got up" very fast. I went out in the afternoon, and got 12 medium fish, averaging from lib to l£lb. bui the fish were not in good order, being xather dark in colour and v-ery flabby. This no doubt is due to the lownecs of the river for some time and the scarcity of feed. The river should be in good order on Monday, and tho-e who can spare the time will have a chance of making fair baskets. The weather is still very hot."

On Tour. — "J. M.," (Riversdale) writing en the Bth inst., says: — "Fishing down Dipton. way during the warm spell I got plenty of small trout-, 20 or 30 in an evening. Nearly half, however, were chuck-backs. One peculiarity that was constantly attracting my attention was that tbe trout seemed to h& in, a feverish state, as all felt when landed to be ever so much warmer than the. water. I got to Athol on the 25th ult., and tad two evenings fishing, and got 16 fish. Next day the river rose only a few inches, 3>ut got so excessively dirty that I half expected to see it kill the trout. Two days later I was at Gaistcn, and found upon inquiry that a landslip had takf-n place near the he-ad of the Mstaura, and that it had killed a large numbc-r of trout. One man told me 1.0 had been up towards Mr 3Vs'Leod's station, some 20 miles above Gars-ton, and that the river there was so thick that it was rolling down, not flowing. When fishing tho Waikaia River during my last visit, one evening towards dusk. I hooked what seemed to me to be a fairsized trout. Shortly afterwards it rose to the surface and =tarted lashing abGut at a great rate. Catching a glimpse of it, I at once concluded that it was an eel. After it was safely landed it turned out to be a trout after all. How que^er it looked ; it had grown in length but not in girth. In turning it over and over and examining it closely, I saw it was blind of an eye. No doubt this queer -haped trout experienced considerable difficulty in procuring iw fair ishare of whatever food was going. After showing the fish to seme people I threw it away."

"Iron Blue" in tho Timaru Post of Janu- j ary 29 says: — Though most of the rivers are , getting very low, pome good sport is -till j •bemg obtained. Some grand fish, including , eevc-ral of 121b and one. of 161b, vvc-re j landed from the Rrmgiiata last week. One \ of the most favoured places is at the June- • lion of Smell's Creek with the Rangitata, i ort the south bank, i>s a lot of big trout j arc? congregated there. Above the traffic • bridge the fbh are taking the fiy very 1 well just now. a visitor r-eing 19 large fHi ' in an afternoon, of winch, however, he only landed five, weighing between 41b and 61b' each. The best flies to use are the blue iir-right, olive quill, and Groenwill's glory. 'Mr F. Elder hrs secured =oine grand fish in the lower Opihi, where the big ones ecem to be taking freely, but the beet I sport is to be had between Pleasant Point and Voah's Ark. The fly fishing there is • most excellent. The O«\in U very low, and , though, there are a good many, sea, trout , in the river, fiona. the mouth of the Ohape 1 down, they will only take at night, and even then" not ot all well. Perhaps this ' is not to be wondered at, as the, water m ' the daytime is quite tepid The bc-st I . have hcaid of was a fish of lUo, caught J

by Mr Burdon, of Woodbury, on Saturday night. On the same evening I killed 12 above Riverslea with natural inanga, but none of them were over 21b. Further up the river, at Kompster's Cro-sing, Mr A. Lyon killed two nice trout, the brace weighing Sib. A good many of the pools in the Oiari Gorge have been dynamited, and I hear that over 40 trout of from 41b to 151b were killed. It is a. pity that the ramgors are not at hand on these occasions, as a conviction would do much to put a stop to this practice, which, I am sorry to say, is far from rare. If this river could be looked after and preserved for a couple of seasons it would yield as good .sport as any in the island. It is si range that the Acclimatisation Society do- not put on more rangers, as they have a good balance at the bank, and some of the money could be well spent in this way. Several fishermen, in the G-eraldine district intend to take out their licenses next year from the Ashburton Society, where the license fees will be put to better use. The Hae-Hae-to-Moana is also much poached, but it is very much overstocked, so no great harm is done, except for the principle of the thing. The fish will rise to a red amt in a bright sun in a few i>nches of water, the reason, no doubt, being that they have' not enough food. Plenty of baskets of from 30 to 40 fish, going about three to the pound, have been reported. If the present fine weather continues I am afraid that this stream will run dry. The Ohape is almost the only creek which is not suffering from tli© drought. It is now full of smelts. am<l I might add of smells from drowned ehe&p, S3 that the trout are not rising well to the fly, much preferring a diet of emelt and drowned mutton; still, with perseverance, a fair basket can be made with a quill or red spinner fehed dry. My record on Saturday at Riverslea was 14 fish weighing 221b. My great difficulty was that mc-arly all of the fish took the fly under water, and it was very hard to know when to strike. After consideration I found a solution of the problem. Before leaving camp in the morning I had been oiling my reel, and the- bottle of oil happened to be in the basket, so I carefully oiled 'he cast to within nine inches or so of the fly. This made the cast float, and allowed the fly ro sink, the effect being that when a fish touched the fly it pushed some of the oiled ?aid floating portion of the cast under water, and 7 knew instantly when to strike. After I had found out this dodge I hardly missed a rise. A very killing bait at the present time, when the rivers are so low, is a couple of grasshoppers on a No. 6 hook. This is cs-st across the stream and allowed xo run slowly down with tho cuirrnt. Whon a fhh takes it the line stops and a sort of double tug, like a postman's knock, is felt. The most important part of the business is not to strike too quickly. Wait for a few seconds after the tua. and then strike pretty hard, when the fish will piobably bav-e swallowed the bait, ?nd may be firmly dealt with. A number of large fish which would not rise to a fly may be thus accounted for, especially in very lew water.

Thb Lyttelton Times of the 3rd inst. say?: — The fishing note received at tho Tourist Office yesterday morning state* that the noith branch of the Wairnakariri has been slightly discoloured by the recent rains. The Rakaia, Rangitata, and Waitaki Rivers continue in good order for fishing. — A fishing enthusiast who visited the Tourist Office yesterday statpd that seven splendid hour, were landed en January 29 from the Cpihi. which was in fine order for fishing. The Wai hi, also, hnd been in good order, and plenty of fish ivere being taken from it. One youth living near the river had established a scod record by catching over 4-00 rrout in it during the present season.

It has long been customary through undue ex&grgeralion on the parfc of anglers to discount all fish stories by at least 50 per c°nt , and creu then the hearer of moh stories hos been known to be led astray. The Tourist Department is, however, determined to prove its words so far as trout cs-ught at Rotcrua arc concerned, and (says the New Zealand Timob) with this intention most of the brst specimens secured rre boina cured for exhibition at Home and abroad as tangible evidence of the =pori to be obtained m the- north. The head office' of 'he deportment has been advised lliat on January 23 a sixteon-pounder was secured, on. January 26 a fifteen-pounder, and on January 29 and February I two fcurieeiii-pounder 5 !, each of which has been se-nt to Auckland to be preserved for exhibition purposes. The magnitude of the 29J>lb brown trout taken at Blenheim, and now on exhibition at the Wellington office of the Tourist Department, has staggered ma my a visit in <j Eusliah fisheraian.

The Timaru iT-rald of the 3rd inst. says: ''The Parser,*, in. its- lower reaches is

reported to be little more than a string of pools, and that these are crowded with trout of all sizes. The Timaru Committee of the Acclimatisation Society should ge>t their rangers to ehift the fish as quickly as possible, or there will be great loss."

Thirty Trout Weighing 2101b —Under this heading "Halcyon" has the following in the Leeds Mercury of a recent date: As I mentioned last week, Mr Whitlfy, of Wellington, New Zealand, kindly got a fricmd (Mr J. Emm Smith) to send some notes on thre-s days' fishing in the north He writes as follows: — "As requested, I >pnd some particulars of the sport that I and a friend bad at Rotorua during (ho last three days of the. season — viz., 13th, 14th, 15th April last. As you know, we fellows in Wellington havo often been told about the great riinhovv trout in the water? of the north. I can assure you that the reports have been on the big side of modpefy. I was fortunate enough to oblain a letter of intrcduction to a local fisherman named Kusab, who owns a nioe little oil-launch. On the 13th w- want off upon Lake Rotorua, a grand shc&t of water 10 miles by eight, at a sposd, eaj 1 ", of six miles an hour, and then slackened speed to about three. Almost as soort as we commenced we got among some grand strong rainbows, the biggest being 121b and the smallest 61b. I cannot describe in writing the way in which these fish fight, but when I ray that it is no use fishing with less than 100 yds of strong new line and treble salmon-gut trace?, you may be able to form some idea. On the next day, April 14, we •want up a river (Nun grata) running into the lake, and got as many fisb as we cculd carry. I have never seen anything like it in all my life. On the last day we again fiahed the fame river, and returned with seven fish, one of them being ISglb."

Under-sized Trout.— The Timaru Herald of a recant dato has the following paragraph: — "A day or two ago two small boys were before the Ashburton Court for having trout under size in their possession. The Acclimatisation Society might get a case or two against adult pnglers if theiv rangers inspected some- of the baskets that ar& being brought from the various rivers just now."

Caroline Bay. — Tho Timaru Herald of the 3rd met. says: — "A very large mimber of trout are being Daught in Caroline Bay just now The trout are on their wiry up thei coast, and as most of the rivers are open to the set those that escape the nets will make th-eir way up the rivers."

The Riverton Star of the 2nd inst. sa3's: "Tho fishing on tho Aparima River has not been co good of late owing to the recent spell of fine weather making the i iver very low. A resident in the Nightcaps district informs us that the river lias mot been so low for ypprs. Possibly the rains on Friday and Saturday may improve matter."

On Thursday night Mr Moyle, at pre^nt staying at Temuka, succeeded in catching a 161b' trout, ond Mr P, Mason (of Dunedin) a 351b fish.

Messrs Mason and Ram=ay, camped £>t Rankleburn, last week secured c rao nice fifth. Messrs John Howat and T. Murray obtained very good baskets on Tapani 1 ! Flat cm Saturday, and on Monday Mr P. M'Cann made a fine basket above Kelso. The river is now in good fishing order. — Tapanui Courier.

On Tuesday test Mr H. Raines landed 36 trout from the Otapiri River, all of which were catight with the fiy. The late rains have made- the rivers more suitable for anglers. — Wioton Record.

On Thursday night Mr Movie, at present staying at Temuka, succeeded in cntchintr a 161b trout, and Mr P. Mason (of Dunedin) a 151b fish.