THE PIONEERS

Southland Times, Issue 20615, 13 October 1928, Page 13 (Supplement)

THE PIONEERS

FISHING

(By

Rambler.)

The average early settler seems to have had a remarkable fondness for fish of every description and those who lived on the coast supplemented the larder with fish from the sea and the streams on every opportunity. The Waikawa coast is still justly famed for its excellent fishing grounds and 11 think it is safe to say that some really j unusual fish have been caught there. The : bay at the Beach is locally known as PorI poise Bay on account of the large number lof porpoises to be seen there. These anI imals form a very pretty sight when in a | sportive mood for they appear to hold races ! in the breakers and may be seen rushing j madly along in the foam on the crest of i the rollers only to disappear before the i roller breaks on the shore. Many a visitor has attempted to “bag” one of these anI imals with a rifle, but, while the porpoises ' provided good practice in sharpshooting, I i never knew of anyone killing one by this ; means. The porpoise is too well guarded i with a very tough hide to be troubled by j rifle pellets. Although these animals must ! die eventually, strange to say, a dead porpoise is very rarely seen. To my knowledge only one dead porpoise has ever been j found on the Waikawa Beach. A bush feller decided to skin it to obtain bootlaces and commenced by attempting to chop ; the head off with an axe but to his great . surprise the axe made no impression on the skin. It yielded fairly readily when a sharp knife was drawn across the skin, j however, but I do not know if the laces I were made or not. One of the Campbell boys decided to I capture a porpoise on one occasion, about ‘ twenty years ago, and manufactured a harpoon for the purpose. He stripped and swam out to sea, dived under the breakers, ! and then looked about. He saw several ■ and they appeared to be advancing straight upon him. This proved too much for him and he droped his harpoon and fled nor did he ever attempt that mode of hunting i again. Another of the Campbells was much ; more successful in his fishing at about the ' same spot, but he was not in quest of por- • poises. He had discovered a stranded flat ■ fish which looked like a very large flounder j and he came to the conclusion that others ' might be found in the bay. He made a ! spear out of a piece of fencing wire and waded out into the waves at dusk. He had not been searching for long when he saw a huge fish and promptly plunged his spear into it. The spear was not strong I enough for the fish and he was forced to i stoop down into the water and gather the , fish up in his hands. He was thoroughly | wetted in the process but he did nut mind ’ that for his catch would have gladdened I the heart of any fisherman. The fish measured twer\ty-two inches in length and weighed eight and a-half pounds. The fishermen did not know what it was, but if was probably a brill. The Campbells discovered and still use a very good fishing rock near Curio Bay and some good catches of blue cod and g?6per have been made there. The rock is situated at the foot of a high cliff and consequently visitors do not fish there to any extent. Many have been invited to try their luck there, but few have accepted the invitation. As the first part of the descent is down a perpendicular grassy face this is scarcely to be wondered at. The cliff is really quite safe to anyone who knows anything about cliff climbing, but it is difficult to climb when a fisherman has a good catch on his back. As it is a common thing to catch about fifteen blue cod averaging about three pounds in weight the reader will realize that the catch would make a good load on level ground. A fine specimen of a sunfish was washed up on the Waikawa Beach some twelve years ago. The fish was of a whitish colour and of a peculiar shape, being short and thick. It may be well to mention that i the sunfish is not usually found in New , Zealand waters, but is a habitant of the I deep sea. The body of the specimen mentioned was about the size of a bullock, the skin being about two inches thick. A portion of this skin was removed and dried in the sun and shrivelled up in a remarkable manner. The fish had no true bones but only a framework of gristle. Frost fish have never been found in this locality but on one occasion a shoal of kingfish was stranded on the beach and the fish were gathered in dozens by the settlers. Seahorses and penfish were frequently found along the highwater mark and were dried in the sun and kept as curias. One evening over twenty years ago the settlers at Waikawa Beach were startled by a strange bellowing from the bay. Investigations were made and five fine whales were discovered swimming around inside the reef, the bellowing noise being made when they rose to blow. They remained in the bay for an hour and then moved off to the south. The favourite fishing ground was at the mouth of the Wakawa river and parties frequently fished there in boats. I was a member of a fishing party there many years ago and while we caught dozens of red cod we could catch nothing else until late in the evening when we had the misfortune to hook two dogfish. We had decided to cease fishing and were winding in our lines when one member of the party discovered that he had hooked a dogfish about six feet long. He was new to the coast and thought he had secured a dangerous shark and promptly dropped his line and dashed for the other end of the boat, nearly unsetting us in his progress. Another member of the party secured the line and attempted to draw the fish on board but it cut through the line with its saw-like teeth and made off. A few minutes later a second dogfish was hooked and we decided to tow it ashore, but it cut loose before we had gone very far. One of the fish was picked up on the beach some days later with the hook still secured in its throat. During the same week we were fishing from a rock in Curio Bay and the only catch made was a dogfish and it was hauled ashore and dispatched before it had time to cut loose. For a long time after that we always used copper wire on our hooks but never encountered anv mere dogfish. The well known mariner, Dougald Hanning, decided to trawl in Porpoise Bay for brill and caught over a dozen dogfish and they literally cut the trawl net to pieces.

Spearing flounders by torch or lamplight has always been a popular sport with the residents of Waikawa and two dozen fine fish are frequently secured by one fisherman in an evening. The fish are found on the sand bars when the tide is at the flood and a dark night is considered to be the best for successful operations. Needless to say the weather has to be calm, for the slightest ripple on the water obscures the fisherman’s view. The fisherman requires to know the position of the stars as otherwise he is liable to become lost on the considerable expanse of water in the darkness. I remember accompanying Dick Jocelyn on the estuary one evening and when we decided to return home after having had good sport, Dick declared that we should row in one direction while I declared for another. I backed up my argument by pointing to the Southern Cross and

in admitting that he had been in favour of inadvertently going out over the bar Dick remarked, “I’ve often read of going by the stars but I never thought of doing it before.”