ANGLING.

Otago Witness, Issue 2661, 15 March 1905, Page 63

ANGLING.

By Jock Scott.

T» be b perfect Brterman 70a require more excellencies than •rannmlljr to be found in inch a small ipace aB is allotted to * EU'i carcw, — Fiicn Qii.mouk. Zea4er« *re inrited to contribute items or local fishing nen« for iaserliaa in thll oeluiun. For lusertioo in the ensuing iuue lfc»j shcuM ruch Dunedia bjr Monday night's uuul. BANE NOTE?. The Waitaki. — An exchange says : During Jlis visits to the Waitaki River this frason MrX?. Swinard secured 100 fine fish. This is a record for the season. The Teyiot. — Writing from Roxburgh on the 11th inst, "Angrier" says:— The Teviot is in good order, but low. Messrs Bates and Cockburn were out on the Bth inst., ar>d got 14 and 15 respectively ; heaviest fish, 2£lb. Mr R. Kinaston on the 9fch inst. got a irice basket of 15 fish, all with the fly. Mr Shiels got a splendid basket th# other day at the Island Block dam; heaviest fish, 41b. This dam, I hear, is teaming with large fish. Trout for the Shotover. — The correspondent of the Lafke County Press writes: — The local members of the Lake Acclimatisation Society held a meeting recently, and formed themselves into a subcommittee for -ihe purpose of looking after the interests ■ ©f the society in this dietrict. Mr Lambie ■was elected chairman, and Mr R. Stevecfion. secretary. An effort will bs made to get 2000 rainbow trout fry, which will beliberated mainly in the Shotover branches. These streams are very well suitee? for trout, the only drawback being- their distance from Sfkippere. Every effort will he made by the Skippers committee to put down poaching. " Several of our streams would have been well stocked with trout but for the systematic dynamiting that ras Tieen carried on unchecked for several jears . past. — [From what I ..have seen of the Shotover -itself, I certainly do not think trout . «ould exist in it in its present ronditiD/i. — j J S.I . Ferry at the Waiau.— The Southland ■ Times writes:— lt is reported that Mr Hun- J ter. who has controlled the ferry nt the 1 mouth of the Waiau, so much appreciated • by angler 3 who visit the river, is g'ing 10 i give it up, swing to the Wallace County j Ocuncil withdrawing the subsidy it formerly < "gave towards maintaining it. An «*ffori is < being made by the Anglers' Association at ' Orepuki to get a subsidy from the Tourist 1 Department, in which case, it is stated, Mr s Hunter wili remain. The river is a particu- i larly_ dangerous one, and in the interests of i pqblic safety it is hoped that the services of such an experienced and capable water- s man as Mr Hunter may be retain su. 6 Tapanui. — An exchange says : — Owing to £ the water being very low in most of the streams of late, poachers are having a jjocd j tune. The anglers were busy last webK, t and the best take was secured by Air P. t M'Cann in the vicinity of the State Fo«-t«=t 5 air tne Leithen. The local Anglers' A ? so- t ciation is now having a horse l.addo^k v fenced in at the Rankleburn hut 4 and this a will be found a convenience. v The Selwyn.— The Lytfcelton Time? of Wednesday says: — Recently Messrs H. Tur- i< ner. H. Dacre, and J. K. Adams, Islnog in p ♦be Selwyn, landed 20 fish, weighing 6>l!/. o Waikato. — The Waikato Argus of a :e- t «ent date contains the following : — A Mor- a cer correspondent writes : Some very la/ge ji trout have been seen in the Waikato J;iTer t< here. A great many have been f.>imJ dead A or sick, and in some spots the fish have w fosen seen with the tails apparently half- o paralysed. In one instance two large shags h were fighting with a large fish on a sand- f( bank, and when somebody went to ge« L 35

what was up, thc-y found a trout about 111b or 121b weight, with its tail broken. This shows that shags will tackle large as well as 1 sir-ail fish, and the sickness among the trout is most probably cau-^ed by the attacks of the shag. Everybody agrees that the Acclimatisation Sbciety should do something to try and rid these waters of shags, or else try to reduce their number, which is ei.ormous this year. They are flying around here in mobs of between 10 and 20. The river and tributaries is infested with them. Some people argue that if shags were shot in large numbers around here, others would come from the coast to replace them; but they seem to forget that these also could ,b? shot, and, at anyrate, the number could be kept down. As it is, if nothing is done ia the way of extermination, the birds will take possession, and. fish, especially irout, will not become numerous, as at present they promise to be. Being so close to Auckland, and being just on the railway, Mercer would become a favourite fishing resort for anglers, :-f they were sure that the river was well stocked with fish. The Acclimatisation Society would soon recoup itself for an outlay in the way of killing shags, as licenses would be taken out all over the district, and the general public would be able to take part in a pastime which is now enjoyed solely by a favoured few who can j afford to take a week's holiday at any time. — [The last paragraph puzzles me somewhat. Eo*» are those who cannot "afford to take a week's holiday at any time" going to have th? position altered by the society iriliing fihags? I suppose it's all right, but the gcod sense of it does not appeal to me. — J. B.] Trout-fishing in New Zealand.— The following views concerning angling in New Zealand were expressed by Dr M'Farland and the Rev. Dr Rentoul in the course of conversation with a Melbourne newspaper representative: — "Yes it is quite true that ou- tour this summer was a success. The state of the New Zealand rivers was much better than last summer, when the prolonged dry weather had made the streams unusually low and warm. We had begun to think that the trout were deteriorating in quality and decreasing in both size and number. This summer' 3 experience dissipated all these fears. A aucoession of freshets kept the rivers cool and free from 'wepd,' while the fine weather which followed and the clearness of the water when J the rivers lowered gave fine oppor-unity to the skilful fly-angler, snd put the crowd [ of 'wormers' out of the running." ''Are ' there actually salmon in New Zealand?" "No," was the emphatic reply. "We will affirm that, outside the ac-climatisation j ponds, there is not a true salmon ' any- . wh-»re in any New Zealand or Australasian river. A vast number of salmon fry have been put in. The rivers are perfect in New Zealand for salmon, but ihe semi-tropic sta renders the acclimatisation of salmon impossible. People ought to be content with the trout. The sea-run brown trout (Salmo fario Ansomi) and the 'white trout, or 'sea trout' (Salmo trutta). are now multitudinous in the New Zealand waters. These, with the rainbow trout (Salmo iridescens) in the [ warmer rivers of the northern part of New Zealand, ought to satisfy anglers. The searun trout is quifce as good ho ■eat as ihe salmon ; and trout-fishing in difficult conditions requires more skill than salmon fishing." "Are the statements true that triwling and netting are playing havoc with the trout in New Zealand?" "Yes, partly true," was the reply: "but not to the extent some have -asserted. What is far more destructive to the trout is the practice of 'worming" in the small tributary brooks, or of sweeping the best pools at night with tho minnow or swamp worm ; or, above ali, the slaughter of the trout on the spawning beds of the upper reaches of rivers during 1 the close season. Also, wherever a flaxmill or sawmill is e-tab-hshed, the trout soon disappear from that part of the river. Dredging for gold has also ruined some of the best rivers, and turned them into swirling channels of liquid grit and clay." "You mentioned, last year, with regret, that fly-fishing was being abandoned in some parts of New Zealand?" "Yes, and if that had continued it would lißve meant the death-knell of true angling altogether. This season, however, with better conditions of river and wind, fly-fishing, ere are glad to say. reasserted itself." A New Kind of Angler. — An exchange says: — A North Canterbury settler and his son saw an unusual sight on the bank of the J°-lwyn River. A weasel came down to the . water's edge, and engaged in a fishing exledition. It entered upon the pastime with ,he utmost enthusiasm, and worked itself lp into quite a. frenzy when it saw the • roung trout swimming by. It rushed into , he water time after time, but those who , vere watching it could not ascertain if it actually caught the fish, as the proceedings ; vere taking place on the opposite bank. ; Possible Danger of Stripping Fish. — Tt , <? stated that some of the local anglers pro)ose to ask the Acclimatisation Society to ] object to the further "stripping" of fish for j heir spawn in the Opihi River, as they ] ro of opinion that repeated stripping is in- t urious to many fish, and is therefore likely 1 o materially spoil the sport at this river. ] the last spawning a. number of dead fish ■" rere found on the edge of the river, oncl g >n opening them, it was seen that they ' t tad a fungoid growth where the spawn is j ound, and it is presumed by some that this j \ fas caused; by the strippine process, this ' t

opinion being founded on the fact that all tho dead fish found were females. It is also said that many trout are &o affected ! by the stripping as to render them incapable of again spawning, as a considerable number of the female fish caught this «eason have been found to be without =pawn, though in other female fish the ipawn was found to be well advanced. Anglers who have noted these facts are somewhat alarmed' lest the inability of a number of trout to reproduce their kind should cause the river to be understocked, and thus spoil the sport. It is a noteworthy fact lhat the fish found without spawn are in poor condition, while the jack fish and those with spawn are in the best of fettle — a fact which assists fishermen in coming to the conclusion that repeated stripping at one river is injurious. — Timaru Post. A 351b Eel. — An inveterate poacher in the" shape of a monster col was obtained in the lower Opihi with the aid of a dexterouslywielded spear. The eel weighed 351b, was 4ft lOin in length and 14-in in girth. — Timaru Herald. Acclimatisation of the English Lobster. — The Clutha Leader recently contained ths following: — While a number of fishermen at Molyneux Bay we-re out fishing off the ■ Nuggets one day they caught a large gropcr, and on cutting it open for cleaning pur- [ pose 3, they found a half-grown lobster inj side, the lobster being practically intact: The fishermen are qualified to speak on the point, and they aver with no manner of uncertainty that what they saw was an , English lobster. Mr George Ottaway. wl o ; saw the fish, corroborates the opinion of the fishermen, and states further that he has an indistinct recollection that some English ■ lobsters were liberated at the Nuggets some j years ago. If the foregoing be correct, 1 then it would seem that the acclimatisation of the lobster in our coastal waters is an accomplished fact. The Fishing Regulations. — " Ranger " writes as follows: — With reference to your reply in the Witness of February 15, re minimum fine of 40s, I cannot agree with you. The order-in-counoil under date of March 31, 1304, says: — "2. If any person shall commit a breach of any of these regulations he shall be liable on conviction to a penalty of not less than forty shillings or more than £50." You state "Ranger" refers to the amended regulations found in the N.Z. Gazette of March 31. This deals with the pollution of streams where trout and salmon exist, the penalty provided being a minimum of 40s. I would again refer you to the order-in-couneil additional regulation under "The Fisheries Conservation Act, 1884," and amendments. If you again look at the order in-council you will find there are only two regulations in it : No. 1, referring to the pollution of trout streams, and No. 2, making the penalty 40s for a breach of any of these regulations, evidently meaning the regulations contained in all crders-in-council under the Fisheries Act of 1884 and its amendments. If it did iot refer to all the regulations, why use the language employed, as there is only one regulation re polluting streams in the order-in-eouneil of March 31? Even granting your ruling is correct as to the order-in-eouneil of March 31, 190*, I think the. fine of 20s is entirely wrong, and in support of my contention I would refer you to the order-in-couneil of September 8, 1904, which I think covers the case completely. The charge, as seated in the Witness of February 8. is that Alex. Gardiner George and Richard Notman were charged with a series of offences under ,"The Fisheries Conservation Act, 1884." ""They were oharged with using a net and with failing to empty same into the water ; also with using a net and taking trout without a license, to which ,Mr Hanlon pleaded guilty. The usual I excuse was given, and the magistrate considered a fine of 20s each would meet the case. In support of my statement that the fine should b? 40s each, T would refer you to the order-in-council of September 5. 190 containing general regulations under the Fisheries Conservation Acts: — "First, the Governor doth hereby revoke the regulations for the purpose of thp said acts, and doth hereby declare that these regulations shajl have force and effect in each acclimatisation district throughout the colony." I rpfer you to the tinder-quoted regulations: "1. The said acts mean 'The Fis-herrs Conservation Act, 1884,' and its amendments." "3. No person shall take, fish for, catch, or kill in any manner whatever, or have in his possession any salmon, salmon parr, or smolt, or the ova, youne:, or fry in a.nv sta^ewhatever," etc. "9. No person shall fish for trout or perch without a license," etc. "10. Every trout not exceeding 9in in length from nose to tip of tail shall be immediately returned alive to the water," etc. (N.B. — Mr Hanlon urges in extenuation '"the trout taken were very small, about the size of mullet.") "12. Except as aforesaid, no person shall fish with or use any net or any instrument or device or means for taking salmon or trout or perch in an}- river, stream, or waters at* the mouth or entrance of any such river, stream, or waters." "15. ' The penalty for the breach of any of these i regulations .=hall not be iesa than 40s or • more than £50." As an authority on fishing ; matters, I fear you are not well up in the regulations. I can understand Mr Hanlon < not bringing the regulations of the Gazette j of September 8. 1904. prominently before J the R M., who is probably not an angler, ' and knows (by his sentence) very little about ' the regulations : but what the secretary of tho Otago Acclimatisation Society and his ] solicitor, Mr MacGregor, were thinking of ' is a caution. To suppose them to be ig- "* norant of the general regulations published ' for this season completely upsets me. [ c have attended every conference of societies held. Knowing the trouble we have to get a conviction, it is most disheartening to •• =cc in a case like this, when they plead guilty, * and after all the trouble the conferences * have had to get the minimum fine raised a from 5s to 40 s , and the fines to be paid over f to the societies interested, the Otago So- ' eiety to lore £3 After reading the above l extracts. T think you will agree with "Ranger's," ruling. The order-in-counoil of a 1892 was also repealed, and the magistrate, * lumng convicted, had no option, if he a obeyed the law, but to fine each man con- r victed 40s, at least that is how it seems to me.— [Very possibly lam not well up in the <"] regulations, but if I can set time I will d look into the matter, and shall perhaps be ible to show "Ranger" that, while he may v be very well up in them, he has by some J neans got on the wrong tack altogether. ", Meantime, I have not really the time to t. spare. I quite agree with "Ranger" that he fines in such cases are absurdly small, h Lnd I think myself that those t-itting on the f< jenoh and hearing them, do not fully realise '] lio mischief that is done by persons commit- c

ting breaches of the regulations, nor tho base results that follow the infliction of a small penalty. Fines of £1 and £2 are really only inducements to continue in the ramo way, in plaoe of a deterrent — by which I mean that a man paying £1 fine has often had about £20 worth of trout before he is caught, and can afford to pay up and amile. — J. S.]