BANK NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2667, 26 April 1905, Page 56

BANK NOTES.

The Mataura. — The Athol correspondent of ihe -Southern Standard writes^cn the 18th inst. : *There have been several good baskets of fish taken iafcely from the 3ttataura here, but owing- to the Jow state of ihe river the large fish, are rather shy, and content themselves with keeping in the deep pools. I ha«e se^en several baskets, but- the fish are mostly on the small size, from 31b down, ■while , in" former years I have seen Major Campbell (who used to visit as every season) ■with baskets of 601b weight of fish, weighing 31b up. T have been her© for the last 20 years, and hare never before seen the river bo low as it is at the present time. JSoaching in South Canterbury. — The Timaru Post of the 22nd inst. says: Poaching in the South Canterbury rivers is said to be very rife, and though the rangers are constantly on the alert they find it difficult to get •evidence sufficiently convincing for a court of law. On Tuesday next, However, a. resident of Temnka trill appear before the court to explain how he obtained a very big haul of -exceptionally fine trout, which, with, a net, were found in his house by Constable .Fra&er and Ranger Franks.

Rotorua. — Trout -are s'tilLjplentiful in the .lakes and streams, so that visitors from Auckland -during the Easter holidays may «njoy -good -sport in this direction if they are that way inclined. To give some idea -of the quantity of fish in the lakes, it is only necessary to mention that from the Ist to the 16th inst. 1014 trout are known ■to have been secured, among which were some very fln© specimens, one weighing X4£lb, while many went 111b. Recently warbies were out, and brought home 20. 26, 46, 21, 32, 44, 25: and 9 respectively. During March 2613 fish were taken, and since the opening of the season 13,158 trout have been secured, equal to 18 tons. From these figures your readers will see there are lots of fish Jhe-re, and anglers declare the sport now is mucK" better than at the beginning of the season. — Exchange. .A I*apse-of .Memory. — "So you and Jones l^ent fishing- yesterday? What did you catch?" — "Oh, ask Jones. I've forgotten the number -we ion."

-Acclimatisation Society. — The Whangarei Acclimatisation Society has just concluded a successful" year. There were distributed nearly 30,000 young isdnbow trout in the local streams. The hatchery in the Whauiviiau Valley turned out an excellent investment. It has been decided to increase the hatchery, and -make it capable o thatching 100,000 next season.

Buckingham Balace Trout. — You may be interested to see the first rainbow trout ever caught in !London. I caught it yesterday «vening in the 'lake in Buckingham Palace Gardens on a plain medium black hackle fly, and rose two others. Tins fish, however, "were not moving at all during the threequarters of an hour that I was fishing, I did not see a eign of fish other than those mentioned, though the gardeners told me there had been a good many rising earlier in the afternoon, and the day before, after the rain, they Lad been rising all over the place. This" fish is one of those — about 400 — put into the lake last January (described in the Field at the time), and the average length of them was lOin, and age two years and a-half. This particular fish that I send you does not appear to have grown mucSi, but the interesting thing- is its excellent condition. Its weight when taken from the ■water was {J^oz. It- was very plump and ■well shaped, and quite silvery when caught, • •with the red band along the side showing very faintly. It was quite a lively -fish, running out line and throwing itself out of •water when hooked. All the conditions of thi3 lake are against the fish ; the water is practically stagnant, only now and then a supply from the Serpentine being let in through the pipes. There is an almost constant deposit of soot and smuts on the surface of the water when there is no wind. The bottom is mostly cemented, the greatest depth bein» 4ft. Plenty of vegetation is now growing along the unoemented edges, and there is a good deal of insect We in the water, snails (both stagnalis and peregra), which were introduced last year, a

having multiplied freely, and tlii« year water shrimps, caddis, and larvae have been planted. There is very little fly, however, so far to be seen on the water.

A certain number of fish were founti dead and taken out during the two months after planting, being probably those that had been bruised owing to the difficult}'- of transporting fish of this size. For the last two months, however, none appear to have died, and, though one swallow does not make a summer, it is interesting to note the good condition of the fiist fish taken. — Denbigh, writing to the Field.

Eels Feeding on Diseased Salmon. — I think you will agree that the following is a curious case. While walking along my river I saw a large salmon in a small pool : h© had a little white on his head, and I watched him for some time. He moved from the place on which I saw him, and I lost sight cf him until my attention was caught by two eels turning over in the water. I then saw that they were feeding on the salmon. I managed with a small double-hooked fly to foul-hook the fish,- and got him out. He apparently had a small patch of fungus on his' gills, and though his fins and back were q-uite clean, the gills were full of maggot, and the eels had quite eaten away one gill cover, leaving the inside quite exposed and partially eaten. The fish weighed 191b, and seemed otherwise in capital condition. All the salnton I <have< ever seen affected with fungus have lost the webbing in their tails and fins, and it iisually goes to the eyes at once. The white matter on this fisili was just following th© line of the gill cover. May it have been caused by the maggots and were the eels feeding on them? The fish had not "been long out of the eea. — "Seahorse." in the Field.

International Casting Tournarccut at Chicago. — Mr J. J. Hardy, Alnwick, has received * letter from a special committee appointed by the Chicago Fiy-casbing Club to consider and report on the advisability of holding an international fly and bait casting tournament at Chicago in August next. Mr Hardy is invited to form a team of cast-ears to represent England. He would be glad to hear from gentlemen who are disposed to form a. small party to go to Chicago in August. Tb© casting is all single-handed, and rods must not exceed lift, and weight is limited, excex^t in event No. 1. We notice that the events are all open, no distinction being drawn between piofessionaJs and amateurs. A Japanese Salmon. — Last September there appeared in the Field an amusing account of Japanese- hospitality to the foreign angler. It was described how a fisherman persevered in fishing the Shinanogawa River for salmon wifch no success, to the no small chagrin of his hosts, who were determined to 'give their guest some sport. Accordingly, a salmon was led " captive to a submerged snag -and there tethered, in order that a diver rni-grht take advantage of the angler's netting caught up in the snag to dive in, like Cleopatra's slave, and fasten the salmon to the minnow. But tbe strength of th© angler's tackle spoilt tbe scheme, for he v&ry nearly pulled the snag out. amid breathless excitement, and would not allow the diver to go in. A very similar story is to be- found in La Pcchc Moderne for Jaaiuary 1. But there is an important difference, in that the diver, in the French story, did .get into tie water And did attach the salmon to the angler's line. Piseator proudly splayed and landed it, and only discovered some time afterwards that success was not the result of his own unaided efforts. If this be not an improved version of the original tale, it suggests that the kind efforts of oui Japanese allies have at last been crowned v.ith welldeserved success, and also that fishing in the Shinanosrawa must b.j both interesting and instructive.

Concerning a Thirty-pound Pike. — We first made his acquaintance in the suiamci' of 1902. He lived in a little weed-fringed hay hard by the village of Tourmalcea, on the western shores of Lough Mask, and w_ were first formally introduced to him whilst sculling homewards after a long day's dapping with the mayfly early in the montii of June. The day had been sultry, so the big lough trout w-ere dour, and disinclined to taste the delicate mayflies that danced so attractively over each succeeding wave that broke over the shallows in front of vs. Our gillies were busy with preparations for landing as tho beat glided quietly towards the stones' below Uie boathouse, when there happened a colossal spia-sh among the weeds that choked the centre of the bay. It was a T»il, pike basking in the sunshine, so we landed hastily, and improvised pike tackle from the limited amount of equipment at our disposal. Then for an hour or move we lay on our backs and watched the gulls quarrelling- over the driftwood and the red-breasted mergansers play ing in <he bay behind us. The fascination of watching th? snow-white cluds chasing each other across the interminable denths of deep blue sky provoked one to a heartfelt grumble, when the gillies called our attention to th 2 erratic behaviour of one of the gorgeously-painted floats. "The big pike for a hundred !" cried the Major, as he cave two vicious jags with the rod point just to make the hold secure, and a wi<.\e from the gre-ai broad tail of the ■fis-h went eddj'inpr over the stones bolide the landing-place. "Houkl him up, eoit, hould him up!'' cried the older of the two gillies; but no power on earth in the shape of fishing lackl-5 could have prevented that bi^g

fish from burrowing' inro the recede of +ho uc&rc «t weed hod when once h" had maJ« up his mind to it. Wo caught but a momentary glimpse of him— a long, brown, shadowy object that "aiWl "-trendy round about a foot below ihc ; but from all of us who saw him there came an involuntary rorroboration of cur gilhe'-s estimate: '"^Mother of Modes' what a mon>tor!'' Then ea-no the inerrable. The Major .strained the. rod to bioaking point : anything might go if only tho fish could be cheeked from tho^e atrocious weed 1 :. But the monster treated his awkward predicament v/ifh the utmost nonchalance, and a moment later v>e were sorrowing over the fragments of a broken trace. "Forty pounds!"' ga&ped iho angler. "Thirty," said his neighbour. "The biggest pike as ever I set eyes on, bar one.'' said our truthful gillie. It was certainly the biggest pike any of us had ever sceu, for half an Lour later our ".illies drew cur attention to a big- fish leaping opposite the entrance to th-e boathouse bay. Time after time the ■fish sprang madly from the water, and it was not at all improbable that ir was our friend trying- to rid himself of the hooks that were firmly embedded in his mouth. It -would be an exaggeration to say that we none of ils thought of that great bigfish again, for during the past two years h 1 . 1 has often visited us in fantastic guise ii our waking and sleeping moments, but it was not until a recent December day that we were privileged to settle cur account with him. "Woodcock and tnipo were r.rim&rily tho cause of a cold and stormy jour noy to distant co. Mayo, hut amongcur possessions we took the heaviest pike rod and the most formidable collection of tackle that ever left I.ordon. "We shot tmtil an off day came, when wo stole away to the boathouse and rigged up o. live bait tackle. Michael, the fid gillie, had s^oti us going, and, glad of ihc excuse, he left the gardening job he was engaged on tc come with us. Said he. "H<?r ladyship would not be «'isy at the gentry going out alone, and ihe broccolis will take no hint at all, at all." An hour passed before any fish came on Ihe feed, snd Michael, vibo had several times seen the big one since our last visit, vovre 1 that our baits were not half big enough, and that nothing Jess than a 31b or 41b jack was ever likely to coax him. "As long as the oar I have in my hand," paid Michael, as he tidied up tli3 boat, "and last sommer he grew so ferocious that there was folks would not let the children play too near th& waterside. It would be a kindness to the lough dwellers if your honour \-would catch him, for it's many a duck and gosling he's taken from r-he cottagers." The first run produced a game fish of 121b. followed soon after by a Splendid female fish cf 16lb, rearly as broad as she wa<s long, and then half a dozen smaller fish were laid out beside them. This boathouse bay is a well-known haunt of big pike in the winter time, when they are driven in by the stormy w-eother from the more open waters outside. The weeds v.eve all dead and gone long a§o, and the water higher by s-ercral feet than it had been in the spring time two years px-eviouvly. so the odds were ail against the fish, v and very much in favcur of the fisherman. The 16-pounder iv-ade a bravo fight of it before. i?he was finally towed witoin teach of the gaff, and by repeated rushes from one side of tie bay to the other *-he disturbed, as we thought, all the water m the immediate neighbourhood! One or two small jack caused a vast amount of annoyance when they rnastrea*x3d our very limited stock of baits into infiiitesimal fragments,- and then there camu a subtle agitation of tho float lhat told of yet another inquisitive fish. For fully 10 minutes the painted cork dipped gently, but- at the same time sufficient ly for us to realise That something was not far from the bait. Then it quietly sank out of sight, until nothing but a loom of red paint could bo distinguished about a yard below the surface. Not a yard of line moved off the reel, nor did the fish, whatever ir was, seemed disposed to leave th& exact spot where it had pouched the ha.it. and it was not until the hooks had been literally jammed into him that we icalised how big a one he was. Then ho sailed out majestically to his old home in the central weed bed, but no shelter or submerged obstruction offered him any ad. vantage on this occasion, and twice or three times the strike was repeated in order that there might be no doubt as to the fish beiug firmly hooked. I never saw a fishernan with strong tackle so utterly helpless a* was my companioi with that great pike. The longer the fish cruised about* without exposing himself the more agitated did the onlookers become, for we gradually came to realise that if this were not our friend of two years ago it was one that rivalled him in the matter of mighty proportions. Only once, whtn the fisherman pulled^him— as a small boy pulls a puppy dog — right up to the shallows below our feet did we catch a glimpse of him— a huge, great fish', larger than any of us had ever seen. "I'll try and pull him on to the shallows at the head of the bay,"' gasped the perspiring angler. "1 doubt if Micha-el could lift a fish like that with the gaff."' And, after many more exciting rushes across the bay. the fish was at last towed unwillingly on to the boathouse shallows, where Michael, regardless of his 70 years and his old bones racked with rheumatism, stood knee-deep iv the icy water ready with the fatal gaff. Then came a moment's wild commotion in the water ; Irish foam and Irish curse? were equailv well distributed, but Michael, beaming with satisfaction, walked ashore, nulling this enormous pike after him. A 301b salmon is a big fish, but a 301b pike is generally so much longe,r. and his hug.9 laws are so formidable in appearance that h-e looks twice the size of a salmon of similar weight. "We had no steelyard in the house capable of weighing him. but the Dublin consignment note recehed that same evening was sufficient evidence that when thi a mrnster left the water he vas well over 301b. — "Vaxcoi-vek," in the Field.

There is quite an epidemic of wedding* in Rangiora and neighbourhood just no\C; between last Thursday*and the end of thi* week the number of marriages solemnised or in prospect being 16.

"Are you in favour of State a ; d being granted to paronrs of lar£> - e families, say. over six?' Mr G. Laurensou, M.H.R.. was asked at WooUton last week. The member smiled " I mo=t decidedly am ; as a father of seven the idea appeals feelingly to mo." ho icplioj. Becoming venous, he ur^ed Hint married people who undertook the 1-urden of parentage deserved more consideration than those who shirked their lesuonsibilitics.