ANGLING

Southland Times, Issue 20675, 22 December 1928, Page 19 (Supplement)

ANGLING

(By “Creel.”) Anglers last week-end were dissappointed to be faced with swollen rivers generally, the Oreti. Aparima and Makarewa being only suitable for worm operations. The smaller streams, especially in the Eastern District were in good fly order, and were visited by a large number of “fly” enthusiasts. The Mimihau River carried a large number of rods and the trout were found to be moving fairly well, several nice baskets being obtained. Among the successful visitors were Messrs. E. Davis and another rod who killed some 30 nice trout, mostly on Hardy’s Favourite fly. Messrs. H. Halligan, J. Halliday. E. Davis and another rod. paid a visit to the waters near Venlaw on Wednesday afternoon, but found the fish hard to move, the smaller “spratts” only being in evidence. Judging by the numbers encountered, this locality should be well stocked in a season or two. At the present time, the green slime on the rocks is very much in evidence, and this river now requires a good “fresh” to clean it out. Until this occurs, anglers are not advised to visit this locality in quest of heavy creels. Apropos of the above remarks a story told the writer recently is too good to remain unpublished. It appears that some four anglers were camped for a few days some time ago on a boney fly stream, and on their opening day. experienced a splendid head of feeding fish. Heavy bags were soon the order of the day, and one enthusiast. when the basket was becoming heavy, decided to leave the bag captured in some tussocks, removing the water-proof container for duty, while fishing further up stream. A companion, fishing lower down, observed the operation, and when expert number one had disappeared around a bend, stole quietly un to the creel, removed several fish, and placed four large stones, on the bottom, covering up the evidence with a liberal supply of trout on the top. That evening a championship #as mooted for the heaviest catch, and after some considerable manoeuvering, a display was decided of the various takes. Imagine the sanguine winner’s dismay, when on uncovering his “record,” the discovery of the buried stones came to light, and h ; s disgust can be imagined, when it is stated that for two miles he fondly limped his “handicap” weight up hill and down dale. Now it is dangerous on any account, to ask him. when met along the river side, what he has at the bottom of fiis creel. It is pleasing to report that the Waiau River is yielding some good catches lately, a party comprising Messrs. W. Steans. J. Crengle. J. Chrystial, and V. Adams, who fished at the mouth during last week-end, bagged atotal of 32 fish, including a few large perch. One trout landed by Mr. Steans. turned the scale at 15!bs., and was a perfect snecimen. Another large trout was taken by Mr. A. Walker from the Monowai River, and when weighed, was found to be 1741b5.. after being some time out of the water. There is every reason to expect further captures of heavy specimens in Southland during the holiday fishing. The final competition for the year under the auspices of the Otago Anglers’ Association was held on the contour channel on December 8, reports “Jock Scott” in the Otago Witness. It attracted only five entrants and the conditions were any legal bait. The results were very poor, and fish cannot have been “on the job,” to use an angler’s expression. Mr. C. Cameron came first with 9 fish weigh’ng 3^lbs. and Mr. W. Ferguson second with 6 fish weighing 21b I2oz. It gives an average in the first instance of only about 6oz per fish. Conditions for the competition were fair. The next competition will not be held until January of next year. A Greymouth aneler. out after trout during the last week-end, had a thrilling experience (reports the Greymouth Evening Star.) Using a trout rod, casting with the whitebait minnow, he caught and landed a 281 b eel. 4ft 6Ain in length and with a girth of 17 inches. Inside the eel was found a trout 10A inches long, and the remains of another which must have gone from 211 b to 31b in weight. The eel took over two hours to land. Recently another angler landed a trout with a round stone about an inch and a-half long in its stomach. He was fishing near Omoto and thought at first that he had solved the mystery of disappearing golf balls. A Word to Wormers. Dear Creel, —Taking a short cut the other day from bend to bend on a fishing expedition, I happened across a ewe and lamb, the former cast in a rut among the gorse and from its condition had been there the day previous. I had been engaged righting it for about ten minutes trying to get it to stand, when I was startled by a gruff “Hullo" and an enquiry’ as to my name. I replied, “Do you think I am sheep stealing?” His answer was “Na, you have saved me a ewe and perhaps a lamb, for it was only by a streak of luck you came across it among the gorse. I saw you from a distance crossing the paddock and I followed to order you off. Where’s your spade?” “Spade?” “Yes, spade, don’t most of you so-called anglers include a spade among your fishing gear nowadays? Could you spare ten minutes to come with me?” He led the way to a grassy bend adjacent to the river, where almost a chain of ground had been dug and left in the rough, and in the next paddock about half a dozen rabbit burrows had been opened up and the sods left as they were thrown out, and because of this he was unable to cut the thistles with a mower. He asked “Was it a fair thing for the fisherman from the towns to come out and deliberately destroy a man’s property, not content digging for worms, they wanted to supplement their bag with a rabbit or two?” He had been defied by some who stated there was a chain reserve on the property, whereas it had been washed away years ago. Now this is the kind of actions that give visiting anglers a bad name, for by the crime of one all are judged. It is a pity that many should suffer through the folly of a few. In Southland we have some of the best and freer fishing in the world, so I would ask wormers not to abuse the privileges and right of entry granted them by riparian owners. Make a friend not an enemy of the fanner by respecting his property, and if you must dig worms then dig them at home and leave your spade there. The reply of the farmer to my query why he particularly blamed the town angler was ingenious: “Because it could only be those from town, where they had no land to dig for worms, any country fisherman would not bother carting a spade about on his rar or bike because he had plenty of places to get his worms at home.” Wormers please take note. —“Red Spinner/

Enormous numbers of pythons and lizards are being killed, especially in the East Indies', so that their skins may leather.