BANK NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2860, 6 January 1909, Page 64

BANK NOTES.

CTAGO ANGLERS' ASSOCIATION'S COMPETITIONS. Competition in Otago Harbour. — Date to *• fixed. The Mataura and the Waikaka. — The .Mataura Ensign saye : — The Mataura River during the Christmas holidays has become almost ac >lear as it used to be before gold-mining on the Waikaia turned its limpid waters into a muddy tail-race. The cessation of work on the dredges and hydraulieing claims has bean the cause of this return to purity. Anglers have taken •advantage cf th& state of the river to mdul c in r fiy-fishij;g. and have been rewarded by 'securing fair hauls. The ffeh are said to be in moderately good- condition, but trout froro the Mataura are not iuuch sought after for the table, as the l&rge amount^ of mud in solution in the rivfcr gives " them an earthy ta-ste. The ■form or minnow is usually the only bait that the fish will take in thie river. The Waikaka River has also got comparatively •clear during the holidays, but this onetime beautiful fishing stream would takemuch more than a week to clear its thick .muddy waters. Angling in the North Island. — "Minnow" "writes: — The regular running of the trains on the Main Trunk route has opened up •endless possibilities for local anglers. The water at Taumaranui ie most alluring to the eye. The Ongaruhe on the one side and the Upper Wanganui on the other side of this townshipj afford miles of nshable water stocked with rainbow. The fish are in splendid 1 condition, ar.d the largest • caught this season — with a minnow — scaled 3U&t under ]61b. For two hours' fishing in the Upper Wanganui early this month a local angler creeled four fish, two with fly and two with blue Devon — the largest 71b and the smallest 21b. The river* aio full of feed, and anglers would do well to study the feeding habits of the fish before trying their luck. Nearer Wellington, on the same line, is the beautiful Hautapu, running through lovely bush scenery, open .sountry, and high gorges. The fish run to a fair 6ize, and on a good day a skilful angler should easily maintain a' 21b aver- • age. Local anglers affect the deadly hop- , per and creeper, but with Greenwell's ' glory, black gnat, and that sheet anchor. She Governor, the believer in the artificial % will ho!d his own. The Hautapu is accessible from several stations, but pro- ! nably the best water is to be found Jicar ! Waiouru. At Taihape the same river affords good sport, and the trail of the ' dynamite fiend is now likely to vanish. — , A T<tupo eo-respendent telegraphed to rhe ' Auckland Si~r a few days ago:— "Splendid fiehing is now obtainable here. Mr J. j M'Ra > this morning Ocured the lecord '• lainbow trout, weighing 191b lloz. Mes:-rs ' Dunoan and Parker (two Napier angler*) ieeurpd 10 trout weighing 851b in less than an hour. Mr Woodhead also secured two woiqhing 14£lb and 141b respecthelv." , A well-known Masterton angler has icon (having some good spoit this season, report I yto Age. So far he has caught 252 fi*h Wiih the fly. a catch of five on one ocoa- , Blon weighing 17ilb. Trout of over 6Jh ! weight have been landed in the Upper ! -Waingawa. ! Libe.ation of Fry.— The Wakatipu Mail Ktate3 that some 18,000 brown lioufc fry *-ere distributed into the streams running anto the lake recently. Another consign- I ment will arrive later on. and will be die-tribut-ed in the streams and dykes be- ! tween Qaeenstown and Arrowtonii. Some ' will likely be liberated at Skipper* a!-o. j A." Novel Reel.— Mr R. J. Gedde«, one of the vice-presidents of the X.S.W. Amateur -Fishermen's Association, who has just leturned to Sydney afr«r a four months' holiday in Queensland, astonished the jnetn*era of the association by telling of the novel use 'by a sportsman of a hac afc Southport, near Brisbane. The fisherman , : was one who sought his sport- on the bead). • and_ he used a hand -line. In order to got a good way out he had his line v mrui round the top of a high-pointed hat, -\.l i/h he fastened to his head by means of a string under his chin. Wading out \-^.h the baited line in his hand the spor f em'n whirled it into the deep, and at <n o ducked hie head so as to allow the It'.e \0 run neatlj and freely off the hat. Tp

the Sydney observer's opinion it was one of the best approximations to casting from a detachable reel that ho had ever feen, and as it was effective it had the additional merit of indicating that under that hat was an observant brain unlramniollod by convention. An Interesting Bit of Reading. — "Iron Blue" generally tells things well, and this little story is onj of his best told:— "Two years ago I tokl of a man who kindly 'tried to teach me how to fish a pool, but in the effort, unfortunately, fell into the water, owing 'o his misplaced trust in an unreliable bank. Last week, when I happen ad to be fishing on the Lower Orari, I came across the same professor of tl-e gentle art as-ain, and 1 on this occasion he may bo said <o have scored. It was in the dusk, as we were on our homewaid way, with a scanty take of eighi trouT. caugnt during the evening rise. They had , risen fast and furiously for 20 minut-ee or ; so, stopping suddenly as if by a given ' signal, and nothing we could do to tempt j them had proved of the slightest a^ail. We were nearing our tent when a dim figure spoke to us from the darknes-. 'Had ye ony luck?' ajid without waiting for an answer the voice went on : No ; ana I've but two small ones. It's these brown beetles, they fill the fish in a few minutes, and they rise no more.' I musL admit that this reason had not occurred to us when we endeavoured to account for the curious way in which the fish had risen; we had settled to our own satisfaction that the cause was a lack cf fly to keep them up, but the wise words of the shadowy oracle brought us light. 'If ye are here tomorrow night,' we were informed, 'I'll put a brown beetle on ma hook, and show ye how to catch a fush.' A large bag ie not a necessity on the first nights of a camping .expedition : the fish would pro bably go bad before they could be used; and I did not intend' to adorn nay cast with a brown beetle, even if I could catch them in no other way : but we wished to see the professor at work, and on the following evening approached the pool at the hour we had been bidden. Dusk was closing in, and on drawing near we became aware of a man chaeing wildly through rho gloom in hot purouit of some elusive quarry. 'I'm gettin' ma beetles in a box,' He said, ''i'he trees fair throng wi' them, and I'll catch a bonny troot the nicht.' We looked, and at least a part of his assertion was correct. The willows which eheltered the strip of shingle on our side of the pool were alive with beetles, fluttering in thousands among the leaves, and 1 here and there a fish came cruising into the calm shallows of the side, marking its progress with an occasional widening ring, as a stray insect went to fulfil its destiny. Soon the professor's tin tobacco-box enclosed a buzzing, craw.ling swarm, and then he sat down to complete his preparations. \ thickish cast went on the line, with two No. 9 hooks, and in the pauses between the puffs and grunts of strained attention to the matter in hand he discoursed of fishing in general and of hie disappointment on the previous night. . 'Two I cott before ye came, and three afterwards,' he said, 'with the fly in ma hat, which is the like of a brown beetle.' Whether he meant his hat was the like of a beetle, ac his words led me to believe, or the large grilse fly in the band, I am not sure; both were brown in colour, and from their age and shape it might have been either, but I gave preference to rhe grilse fly, as it was the only brown one there, and hazarded the opinion that it was rather large. 'The bigger the fly, the bigger the fush,' said the professor solemnly: "I've cott an eight-pound fush with that one. It was hooked in the side,' he added. This seemed co likely that I could not doubt him. The spasmodic contraction of my companion* left eye gave mo great uneasiness, but at that moment the surface of the pool was suddenly disturbed with circles and splashings, as the trout came on the feed. Hurriedly the professor impaled a couple of his captives, losing se\eral more that refused to creep out of the box at the corner, where his thumb and forefinger awaited f hem, and going to the pool lie ca*t hi« bail upon the water. On the opposite -ifle a bluff stcod steeply from the i'<]%o, ar,<\ the faint sound of a liso in the g-loom beneath guided our profes-or to his chosen prey. From the places where we fished we noted the earnest struggle that enei'fd, and pre=ently he camo up. rod in one hand and a trout of nearly 31b triumphantly clurrhed in the other. He had made good, his speech, and very plea-ed he was; and accepted the fitting words of praise as the just meed of his prowet* s . ! Thereafter we departed with some fre=!i advice, 'Come back at the end of January, when the brown beetles are nearly over, and you can catch them with a fly: until then use a beetle'; and though we did not do that, but managed to make a bag of a kind, with thp rid of a big coachman, j there may have been reason in what he 5a id." | The New Zealand Herald srams that a remarkably fine specimen of rainbow trout ! has beon forwarded to inspector f'ullen I from Taupo. The fi^h was caught in the upper reaches of the Wailcato Ri\er by Mr i •T M'Rae, taking half an hour to land. ' It weighs 191b lOoz, and measures 2ft Tin in length, with a girth of lft 9in. A Masterton angler has been haiing gome goo*] =port thi« season. .So far h^ iiss caught 252 fi-h wnh the fly. a catch of fh c on one occasion weighing 17jJb. I