Rain-Fed Streams In Good Order For Anglers

Southland Times, Issue 23948, 14 October 1939, Page 16

Rain-Fed Streams In Good Order For Anglers

By

MATUKU

Last week-end the smaller rain-fed streams were getting low and clear and in good order for fly fishing. The fine weather for the previous fortnight soon affected these smaller streams. Also the fine weather promotes a good hatch of flies and the trout are found feeding on these surface insects.

On the Makarewa a few trout were rising on Saturday afternoon, mostly towards the tail of the large pools. These fish in the Makarewa generally prove difficult to catch and Saturday was no exception to this rule. One twopounder, rising as above, fell a victim to an angler’s very small dry fly on a No. 16 hook. These fish could be seen spasmodically rising at or near the surface and were obviously feeding continuously. On examination, the stomach contents of one of these fish proved that his main meal consisted of caddis fly larvae. These larvae were in their cases and were obviously picked off the bottom of the stream. Among the caddis larvae there were a few very minute flies and fly larvae smaller than an artificial fly on a No. 18 hook. It was apparently difficult to get an artificial to represent the diet adopted by this trout. The angler’s No. 16 dry fly was sufficiently near the flies being taken by this trout to attract his attention and cause his downfall.

A visitor to Lake Waituna the previous week-end reports fair sport, having caught four fish from 3Jlb to 81b in weight, on an evening’s and morning’s fishing. These fish were taken on the natural smelt and were in good condition. The outlet to the sea was still blocked although it is intended to make an effort to open same, if this has not already been done. These trout were got at the western end of the lake near the blocked outlet. Apoarently there is a good stock of trout imprisoned in the lake.

THE WYNDHAM

Anglers visiting the Wyndham last week-end were interested to find a migration of kani-kani otherwise the New Zealand lampreys or blind eels in evidence. These fish are well known migrants in the Mataura river and at certain seasons are found in great numbers at the Mataura Falls. The life history of these fish is very interesting. The adult fish proceed up the rivers from the sea, and deposit their ova in beds of silt. The larvae lampreys, a few inches long, can be found by lifting a shovelful of silt out of the rivers they frequent. These small fish are beautifully coloured and almost iridescent. The adult eels are green on the back with a red stripe on each side shading into a lighter colour on the belly. These fish although resembling an eel in shape are in some respects less repulsive. In particular they are not slimy like an eel, but can be caught and held in the hands, feeling like a piece of rubber tubing. It is reported that they are excellent from a culinary point of view and were much prized as an article of diet by the Maoris. The Mataura river promises to be much clearer this summer and if so excellent sport should be obtained in same. At present the Mataura in common with the other snow-fed streams is high, but it is much clearer than was the case last year at this time. There is a certain amount of mining sledge coming into the stream but the main dirty water from the Waikaka seems to have stopped. There is no doubt that the Mataura is the best stocked brown trout river in Southland, if not in New Zealand. An angler who fished the upper Mataura at Garston last week-end reports that the river was clear but was carrying too much snow watc? for successful fishing. One or two nice fish were got on the minnow.

The great majority of anglers do not sufficiently study the effect of weather on their sport. Most anglers have a hazy idea that temperature and barometric pressure in some way influence their sport. In America J. A. Knight has a theory which he calls the “solunar theory.” Under the solunar theory Mr Knight contends that the influence of the attraction of the sun and moon is the determining factor in the trout’s periods of feeding. In the coastal regions the solunar periods can be ascertained from the periods of high and low tides. For the middle states of America Mr Knight publishes solunar tables giv-

ing the hours when trout may be expected to rise each day of the season. The angler before going fishing consults his solunar tables and sees October, solunar time 3to 5 p.m.. He therefore decides to stay at home and dig in the garden until 3 p.m. In Britain, however, Mr Knight’s solunar theory is looked on with suspicion, much to that author’s disgust.

As for temperature and atmospheric pressure, the best explanation of the position is, I think, set out in W. Earl Hodgson’s work “How to Fish.” Mr Earl Hodgson’s theory, set out with a good deal of force, is that atmospheric pressure is the underlying determining factor and that this affects both the weather and the fish. Mfr Hodgson says:—

“As far as the atmosphere is concerned, the cause of the trout taking or not taking is the state of pressure. Sunshine, clouds, winds, warmth, cold, rain, snow and fog, the phenomena that are commonly regarded as causes, are themselves produced by the influence which affects the fish. That is to say, these manifestations of the weather and the moods of the trout, instead of being in the relation of causes and effects, are alike effects of the same cause.

“Writing in ‘Fisherman’s Weather’ and elsewhere, angler after angler, records splendid sport in time of snow.

Now, snow, especially in spring, very often comes when the thermometer marks low or falling temperature and the barometer records a rising pressure.

“Is sport, then, certain when the mercury in the barometer is high? “It is not. The mercury being high is not a better omen than the mercury being low. Its being steady is negatively a good sign in spring or when the trout are moving again after the period of summer indolence. Steadiness indicates that no change for the worse impends, and throughout the seasons mentioned trout habitually rise, more or less freely, when the weati. .t is equable or improving. It is not high pressure that puts the fish into the mood that results in sport. Especially in summer, they are often unwilling to rise when the pressure is high. The condition that brings them to the flies, is, I think, the sudden increase of pressure. The time of their most agreeable activity begins soon after the passage of a cyclonic storm that has brought rain. The mercury is low then; but it is going up. That, as our eminent naturalist said, is the only time when sport is certain. Usually it lasts until the barometer records the mean pressure. Then, whether the mercury rises farther or begins to fall, the trout become comparatively indifferent, during daytime, to insects and lures alike. They will wake up again, and give sport, immediately after the passage of the next storm.”

Last Saturday and Sunday there was a falling barometer in Southland and anglers who failed to get good sport are justified in blaming their lack of success on this phenomeno:-