RANK NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2905, 17 November 1909, Page 62

RANK NOTES.

Anglers still perseveringly spin the minnow over the waters of Lake Logan, and, according to report, met with some measure of success, but spcrt is patchy. Those who follow the gentle srt are still unfortunate with regard to weather. If it does not rain it bloiv-s heavily, a/id one is just about as bad as the other when it comes to angling.

The Oreti and Aparima.— A Southland paper says:— Very few big bags are reported for the week, but the number of fish caught is an increase on last week's returns. The total for the week ran to 280 (average 2.051b). as compared .with 152 (average 2.41b) last week. The catches for the past few weeks have been 213, 317, 152, and 280. Both fly and minnow were used to advantage in the Oreti, but the beat bags ftom the Aparima were obtained by the latter. No. Heaviest. Av'ge. Ib. lb. Oreti (upper) . .. 9E 4J 1J Oreti (lower) .... 8 7J 1J Aparima 49 G 2i Mikarewa „-... 32 * 1| ■Waimatuku 18 • 2J Total 28C 2.05 "Heaviest fish not to hand. Coalpit Gully Dam.— The Mount Ida Chronicle says: — Local anglers will be pleased to learn that there is a prospect of good sport in Coalpit Gully dam this teaeon. Lately Mr Dawson secured six fine trout weighing B£lb. The largest was just 2oz short <_f 21b.

The Waiau. — Mr P. M'Cann spent a few days at the Waiau, and returned with a nice lot of trout, the heaviest scaling up to 91b.

Bruce Anglers' Competition. — TMe fishing competition under the auspices of the Bruce Angling Society on Monday week was not very successful, judging by the "takes" of the entrants. Only one competitor weighed in, and be was a junior. Master Charles Mills won the competition with on~ fish, which weighed ljlh, securing the trophy, which was valued at 7s 6d. The weather was altogether against success in the gentle whipping art. The Opihi. — Fishing on the Lower Opihi, Mr H. Randrup had the fortune to basket 35 trout, jbhe largest of which scaled 3£lb. The ILsh were in very good condition, and the lake was a very nice one to carry home.

The Waimakariri.— Trout appears to be plentiful in the Waimakariri River, and some good baskets have been taken from the river and Crom the Rangiora drain. The catches are very good in numbers, although the fish are rather small.

Lake Pukaki.— Lake Pukaki is yielding some very fine trout. For two hours' fishing last week an angler landed three fish — 741b, 51b, and 31b respectively. Mr E. Maconakl secured a basket weighing 281b, ranging from lilb to sJlb; Dr M. MacdonaJd (Dunedin), I'oun weighing 231b, from lilb to 81b; and Mr G. Crow (Dunedin), ten fish scaling in all 401b, from 31b (four of this weight) to 71b (two of this weight). Angling in the North Island. — Sportsmen report excellent fishing at Lake Taupo and in its tributary river Waikato. The lake is said to be "teeming with' -fish. Easy Let Off. — Four' young men appeared before the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society 6 Couacil to show cause why their fishing licenses should not be cancelled for spearing tiout in the lower Sel.wyn recently. One of the offenders said they had speared thiee trout in mistake for «ela; it was difficult to distinguish trout from eels in the weeds. Two of the young" «}ien said they were not holders of licenses this year. The chairman characterised the Explanation given as a "bit thin," and, •fter further discassion, it was rejßolved to aaminist^r a eevere caution Jo the flffender*.

Dangerous Bathing. — A shark close on sft in length was hooked at the southern end of the Marine parade, Napier, close to where some children were paddling. A local paper says parents should take a warning, as it is evident that these monsters are coming close to the shore.. Odd Find in a Salmon.— A fishmonger in Wallin^ford, England, found a ilb bricklayer's chisel in the interior of a 71b salmon from Scotland.

A Great Catch in New Zealand.— We have received a cutting from the Rotorua Times, New Zealand, giving the particulars of some remarkable fishing enjoyed by Mr Oharle3 Fitton, Rotorua, in the lakes of the district during the past season. He landed 2256 trout, of which the heaviest was 16£lb. The average worked out at 21b 13oz per fish. Of the total 2241 fish were caught on the fly, and most of the fishing was done in Lake Rotorua. with trips to Rotoiti, Taupo, and other places. The Rotorua Times says that this catch "is easily a New Zealand record," and the questiqn is put io us whether it is not also a record for the world. So far as English maters are concerned, we should 6ay euch a total and aggregate weight have never been approached by a single rod. Possibly British j Columbia might be able to match it. In "Fishing in British Columbia" (Horace Cox, 1907), Mr.T: W. Lambert records a' catch of some 1500 trout made by two. rods in three days on Fish Lake. But the average weight was much less than that of Mr Fitton's catch. Perhaps some readers of the Field have statistics of great, catches ■ in New Zealand or elsewhere arhien. would help to cledide the point. — The Field. Salmon v. Sea Trout Fly-fishing Incidents. — While fly-fishing' for sea trout in Ireland recently I had a fierce rise from a fish of lilb, which on my striking gave a couple of plunges on the surface, and then allowed ii&elf to be drawn "lip to the landing net. This «pmed so curious that it was carefully examined, and we discovered that the fish had missed the fly, got the gut in its mouth, and that the fly on the one side had swung under the lower jaw, and caught itself on the cast on the other side of the jaw. As a result the jaw of the fish was nooced. The trout apparently fainted from the shock of finding itself attached to the line after it had made a deliberate and 1 well-thought-out short rise (after the manner of sea trout). Unfortunately for the fish, it rose short on the wrong side of the fly. With reference to the curious incident of rising and hooking two salmon simultaneously, which occurred to Sir Joseph Leese, M.P., in the West of Ireland recently, in addition to the very interesting instances recorded in last week's Field, I may add that Mr F. W. Norbury, of Bridge House, Stratford-on-Avon, informs me that when fly-fishing for sea trout in Lough Currane, County Kerry, | in September, 1907, he rose and hooked two salmon simultaneously The better fish carI ried away the tail fly, but the other, which j weighed over 81b, was safely gaffed. An ordinary pea trout ca?t was being used. — John Bickerdyke, in the Field. j Along the Hard High Road. — It is not often that one catches trout while market carts laden with pigs and calves roll past one, oi the dust from touring motors is blown into one's face. Such corners on the stream where it runs against the high- ; way are xxsually shunned by the angler as being empty of fish, and too public for the proper plying of his art. But one morning recently I voluntarily set out, to an accompaniment of scorn, to search a olace of .this kind. There were about 100 yards of water lying between two bridges, separated from the road by a dozen yards of turf, swiftly flowing, but narrow, and, from a fishing point of view, perfect, except for a carpet of the densest weeds imaginable covering the bottom without a break. Under the first bridge, the property of the Great Western Railway, I cast a dry red quill at random ; it was 6eized immediately, and. to the accompaniment of a heavy goods train rattling overhead, I landed a pound fish. I had a mind then to go homa and not tempt Providence further, but first I would inspect thoroughly the water. To be brief, I 6aw in that short stretch a score of goodly fish lying well up in the water, evidently anxious for a fly, though not actually rising. I put them all down without casting a line, foT against their dark background of weed it was impossible to see them till actually ever them on the sloping banks ; but, satisfied that there was something to be caught, I went back to the bridge and »raited,* and- then at last, seeing an undoubted rise, I stalked my friend successfully, and he »roved a match to that already in the basket. Others were now on the move, but those trout were marvellously cunning, so much so that, I suspected they had been subjected to a good deal of wire-noose .treatment at the hands of the village boys, , foi certainly they bad never been fairly fished for previously. It was not till right I at the end of my beat that I was fast ! in another. This was a beauty, and he made me run with him down stream, *ot he had to be greatly humoured, lest he should burrow into the weedy bottom. After the first rush he soon dropped into the net, for all his weight of lib Boz and his magnificent condition. Not without hope that the fish would come to the surface yet again, I went back to my. bridge, and had just completed the putting on of a new cast when I looked up to see the laTgest woman in the whitest dre*s I have ever seen coming full steam ahead down my bank. Lunch was imminent, so there was nothing for it but home. In the evening I was back, and had taken a brace on a ccaohman when half a hundred cattle, escaped from a neighbouring field, came to join my 6port. The privilege I declined, and so once more an -adverse fate ended my fishing. But, judging my time between large women in white dresses and stampedes of cattle, to say nothing of lovers wandering in the gloaming and children playing- ducks and drakes by day, I managed to take seven brace of fish in all from that popular resort. None of them was under the 12in limit, and many others broke away, while some of those which I captured went straight into the weeds, and there stuck immovable till I followed them down with my hand and brought them out therein. It was not quite playing the game, but what else was one to do? At any rate, I was glad that it was not for nothing that I endured the encouraging jeers of passers-by. One gentleman would have liked to fight me, I think. I shouted at him, because he walked along the stream. Ke />ame back and told me that when he was interrupted in his sport he did not Rhout at people. As from his appearance his only for*** *>£. *■*>*>#£ seemed to be an

evasion of the police I was inclined to believe him, and he flattered my credulity more by stating that he knew nothing about fishing ; bnt when he further went on to suggest that he only approached the stream to wash — well, from the external evidence of his past life I was forced mentally to convict him of lying.— Alan R. Haig Brown, in the Field.