TROUT FISHING IN OTAGO, NEW

Otago Witness, Issue 2734, 8 August 1906, Page 52

TROUT FISHING IN OTAGO, NEW

1/ thou art worn and hard beset With sorrows that thou would'st forget, Go to the woods and hills! — No tears

Dim the sweet look which Nature wears.

A party of pleasure-seekers having a brief holiday at their disposal resolved themselves into a committee of ways and means and determined on a fishing excursion to the far-famed trout districts of Otago, New Zealand. Equipping themselves in suitable garb, and taking with them a liberal supply of artificial Hies, minnows, etc , they got together their baskets, reels, and rods, and casting dull care behind them eet out on a bright, cri3p morning to exchange the grimy toil of the city for the pure, fresh, exhilarating atmospnene of beautiful Lumsden, the Derwent of Otago • o' i 5i 5 - >t not as equally noted for its picturesque scenery and the bold and_ rugged grandeur of its glorious surroundings as its great rival in the dear old Homeland. **

Having duly procured a fishing license — for not even " kissing goes by favour " in this land of the "canny Scot," — they left Dunedin in the early dawn of a summer's morning, and after a short run of 136 miles, in a westerly direction, they reached their destination at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Here they put up a# the Fisherman's Anns — Rogers's hotel, — and found their landlord not only a capital host, but also a genuine sport. In answer to their eager inquiries, they were met with tbe depressing intelligence that, owing to the melting of the snows on the neighbouring ranges, the Oreti River was " running a banker " ; this, however, was somewhat tempered!- by the quieting assurance : "It will be all right on the morrow " ; so there was nothing left to do but to gather up this crumb of comfort and " turn in '' and secure what proved to be a thoroughly enjoyable night's repose. " Rising with the lark," they were rewarded with the dawning of a gloriously beautiful morning — such an one as would task even a Longfellow to depict. Heaven's w»de arch ffn glor.ous with the sun's returning march, And woods wers brightened, and soft gales

Went foilh to kiss the aunclad vales. Of a truth the poet was rights when he -jug —

The course of Xature is the art of God."

Xo wonder that their spirits rose proportionately with their enchanting surroundings, and that their anticipations of a good day's Bport bade fair to be realised. And all Nature conspired to fall in with their mood — the river, though deep in some places, and somewhat wide, ran clear j*s crystal, and looked exquisitely lovely in its queenly beauty, as it flowed in and out amid the cool shades of overhanging foliage, enriched at almost every turn by the delicate tracery of umbrageous shrubs; while graceful fern-fronds hung in laoe-like wreaths of flowering garlands, as Nature alone could weave.

The picture was surpassingly lovely, uvallirrg if not actually ochpsing, the world famed beauties of the fiords of Nor-

way, or the glorious lakes and alni* scenery ol Switzerland.

The force of Nature jsuld nc further go,

To make a third, she joined the former two Or to quote the equally apt words of th« Italian poet, which might be writ ia./g* over the outlook of incomparable beauty, -

Natura il fece, c poi ruppe la sfcunpa. But the '*' singing of the reels, that musi< so sweet to the ear of the fisherman, breaks in upon these musings, and soon four of the happiest fishermen under the Southern Oross are whipping the stream for all th^y are worth, and so excellent is the sport and so prolific the take that the afternoon has well worn to an end ere a halt is called for luncheon by these enthusiastic Maorilander " Izaak Waltons. ' After a hastily discussed al fresco meal they are " at it again,'* whipping the stream . and playing the fish till the last streak of daylight.

Nor are their efforts unrewarded. Every basket is full to overflowing, and over 100 little prisoners glisten an«l gleam in tho shimmering, uncertain light, varying in weight from &Ib to 41b, but now they awake to another fact, which had obviously escaped their notice in the excitement of the sport. They find themselves five miles from their starting point, and with over x lewt of fish in their baskets. In this dilemma & local resident came to their aid, and took them up. in his buggy — fish and all — and drove them to his residence, where he feasted them right royally, and subsequently drove, them back to their hotel, where the fish made so pretty a display that the photographer of the party promptly took a snapshot of some or the finest. The, next day's sport was equally successful, and they returned to Dunedin with their baskets full ot fish, anil tKei* hearts full of thanksgivings for a most thoroughly enjoyable holiday. Sydney, June 6. Pisoatob.