BANK NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2719, 25 April 1906, Page 63

BANK NOTES.

A Good Catch at Timaru.— Mr F. Tasker, of Hardy's Tackle Depot, had his end of season record catch of trout on view at the depot yesterday. It comprised 14 fish, of a total weight of lll^lb— l4lb, 13£lb, 131b, 12ilb, ll£lb (two), 101b, 9ilb, 91b, 31b, and four of lib each. The lures used were salmon fly and phantom minnow. The /fish, as is usual at this period of the season, were all in splendid condition. — Timaru Herald, 20th inst. The Opihi. — An angler who spent his Easter at the Opihi informs a member of the- Timaru Herald staff that in a walk from the junction to the railway bridge he saw only three trout. The waters of the river are so low now that, with tha exception of two pools in the course named, every pebble on the bottom can be counted. A Dreary Easter at the Opihi. — Some of the anglers, who, on the whole, put in a dreary Easter at the Opihi, hit upon rather a novel way of getting fish. They engineered what might truly be called a fish drive. This was carried out in somewhat the following fashion: — A little before darkness set in a boy in a boat was gent out on a pool, told to start at the bottom of it, and row and splash about as much as he could, at the same time working his way up the pool. The. effect of disturbing the water was to drive the fish up to the ripples, and after they had got over their temporary scare, the up-to-date anglers got to work. The results of their bkill and science were fairly good, some very nice-sized fish being secured. This latest "sporiine;" device is another link >v tbe chain of evidence of the comparative scarcity of fish- in the Opihi. — Timaru Herald, 18r'h inst. The Ashburton. — Anglers have not met with much success lately, but on Monday week two fine trout at least were landed at the Ashburton mouth, one a 15-pounder, the other an 8-pounder. Was It A Salmon? — What may prove to be an important discovery from an angler's point ol view, at anyrate. says the East Coast Guardian, was made in the vicinity of Opape the other day by Mr X M. Butler. Seeing: a fish -struggling in the "breakers, he went to the scene and landed a ma-snificerft specimen cf the finny tribe weighing 40Tb. The remarkable feature in connection with €he 'discovery was that none of the Natives present "could name the variety, the flesh, when cooked, being of a pinkish hue. This fact and the size and weight -point to the conclusion that it must be a salmon. Distribution of Trout at Whangarei.— l ; Forty -§ev€U thousand. trou,t have been dis-''

' triouKu amoug toe various streams 111 I Wflangarei district; during- the present fishing season, all ot tnem navmjj ueen bred and reared at the Whau Whau fish hatchery, under tne supervision of Mr Jiolman. As there are still some trout remain ng lor dispcfeal, it is likely that the total Cistributea will reach 50,b'00 before the season closes. — JSew Zea^and Herald, 16th ir.se. Salmon Jumping into a Heat. — The following remarkable incident may interest your readers : One Sunday afternoon we — a party of four — went down to the River Teify, -which runs within 200 yards of the house, to the boat intending to go tcr a row. In the boat lay a 101b salmon, only just dead, as rigor mortis had not then set in. For its presence I can only account by supposing that it hrji jumped in by accident. The river, which is about 20 yards broad and 15ft deep at this point, makes a sharp bend here, the boat being mcored at the apex of the angle formed by the outside bank. The gunwale is about a foot above the level of the water. Another possible explanation is that somebody had plaoed tho fish in the boat, but this ie improbable, because, first, it was Sunday, and, therefore, no one was about ; J -sscondly, there was no mark of gaff or hook on the fish ; thirdly, the boat is moored in full view of tho windows, and is only used by ourselves. I hops that you and your readers will give more credence to the above than a near relation to whom I wrote an account,' and from whom the following came by return : "It is an odd coincidence, but just about the time that you were writing your- very fishy story I was. standing by the drawing-room window (in Mayfair), v/hen three brace of grouse I f.cw in over my left shoulder and went downstairs- One bracß went into the kit-chen, where J. was at tk© ixioxn-ent, in the tiucst spirit of unconscious prophecy, telling the cook that we would have grouss for dinner ; the other two brace flew into the larder. Passing the emoking room as they went downstairs, they left a lot ofgood pipe-cleaning feathprs just outside the door. I thought fhc whole thing worthy of notice, and told it to a squadron of j horsa marines who happened to be passing." — D. C. X. F.— [Similar incidents (so far as the fish is concerned) have occurred before. The discovery of a 101b Thames trout which had jumped into a j punt near Henley was reported in the Field I of January 23.— Ed. Fi.eld.] Curious Angling Experience on the Tweed. — On the Tweed at Sprouston one night this week Mr Tait, fisherman, and his son had a somewhat singular angling experience. They were fishing near one another from opposite sides of the river, and no sooner had the younger man hooked a grilse than Tait, sen., also had a pull, and the anglers naturally enough thought that they had on separate fish. However^ they speedily discovered that they were pulling at one and the same fish, and Tait, the elder,, waded over to where his son was, t and -after a nice .run the grilse, which weighed 31b, was landed. It was then^ found that the one had hooked it by fhe' mouth and the other by the -back fin. — "Tweedside," .in the Field, 1 < - A ,Loss of Six Good Trout. — An angler who is a very skilful dry fly man wrote me to say that when fishing on ths far-famed Drifficld Eeck he lost six good trout hand running, although apparently well hooked. He tells me that in Scotland old .fishermen aver that during the month of September the mouths of trout rot to a certain extent, and it is the tenderness of the skin that causes you to lose so -many trout during this month. There may be something in this, although I must say that I never j heard of the theory before. Perhaps my j friend, Mr T. Ford, tho eminent piscioulI turist, of Cai-stor. who I know reads this I column every week, will give me his opinion on the subject. — Halcyon. • Length and Weight of Trout. — A correspondent writes to ask if there is any table published for estimating the weight of trout from their length. The following scale of weights were given at the end of the late Francis Francis's little book, "Angling" (Field office, 1877):— 9 in, 4|oz: lOin. 6Joz ; llin, 9oz; 12rn, lUoz ; 13in. 14-ioz ; Win, lib lj>oz ; 15in, lib 6oz ; 16iu, lib 10£oz ; 17iu, lib 1520z; 18in, 21b 6oz ; 19in, 21b 12£oz; 20in 31b 4oz: 21in, 3lb 12Aez; 22m, 41b s£oz; 23in, 41b 15ioz ; 24in, 51b 10£oz ; 25in 61b sfoz ; 26in, 71b 2£oz ; 27in, 81b ; 28in, 81b 15oz ; 29in, 91b 14£oz ; 30in, 101b 15oz. South-country trout often weigh much more for their length than is allowed to them in this table. Mr J&alford in "An AnglerV Autobiography" mentions a 15in Wandle fish which weighed 3lb 2oz. though j that, of course, was very remarkable. But, ' though it is a poor south-country" trout of i 13in which will not weigh lib. the table | is fairly accurate for the general run of trout streams.— H. T. S.. in the Field. An Exciting Time at Ilkley. — An angler, who does not like his name put in print, liad an exciting bit of snort the other day on the Ilkley water. The river was running pretty full, and he was fishing the natural j minnow. His line got entangled, and while ; he was engaged in freeing it his bait sank ] to the bottom of the watei-. When he re- ' sumed his fishing he thought that he was fast at the bottom, and gave a tug to the line. In an instant out it flew across the river, and he recognised the fact that he was fast in a heavy fish. He wound it gradually up to within a yard or two of the bank, where there were some obstructions in the shave of tree roots, ami for these the fish made. The angler skilfully turned him, and he made another voyage of exploration across the river. Once more he came back, and made another ugly ru=h for the roots. Once again was he warded off. Another rush outwards, and another j attempt to reach his stronghold, in which I this time he succeeded, and then a sudden , smash. "I won't tell you what I said,' remarked my friend, "for he was a threepounder, all out." I know what I should have said under similar circumstance, for 6uch fish are very rare on our Yorkshire Tivers. However, I trust that my friend may find him "at home" on some future occasion. — Halcyon. VIRTUE'S REWARD. Fne angler came back from his day's ■fishing with only a sun-browned face to show. "I suppose you caught some big -fish, but you ga\e them all away?" asked his friend? encouragingly. "No," said the sportsman" quietly, I didn't catch any at all." ! "But." they asked, in a kindly effort to .give him an opening for excuse, "didn't you hook Any big fellows that broke away I just as you were about to land them?" y- "Not a single one," ajiswered the fisaerrman virtuously.

At that there was a sudden chill in the air, as his frienda turned their backs on him, muttering :

"What new trickery is thai man planning now that he is making such an effort to get a reput-ation for truthfulness? He'll be trying to get us to endorse his promissory note, thinking that we'll regard this as proof of his honesty."