STROKE HAULING.

Timaru Herald, Volume CVI, Issue 16232, 30 March 1917, Page 4

STROKE HAULING.

AN -UNSUSTAIKED CHARGE. PROSECUTION OF JOHN CLIFF. Considerable interest attached to a case winch was heard in the Magistrate s Court at Timaru yes[terdav. before Mr Wyvern Wilson, S.M., when John Cliff, -wool-worker, "bf' Waimataitm, was charged with usirnr an nnfcportmaimke device. namely strokehauling, to catch trout, while- fishing ur-a place called Clara's Poo l , on the Opun nver. - ' "Mr F- J- Rolleston appeared forHhe South Canterbury Acclimatisation Society and Mr W. I). Campbell appeared for the defendant. James Reekie, ranger in tlie employ of the feouth Canterbury Acclimatisation Society, caid ho saw Cliff on the Opihi rivorbed at about eleven o'clock at night, on February 20. He was not then using the regulation minnow, 'out he (Cliff) said he was using a cocoon minnow, with the lugs cut off. Cliff landed a fish, and he (witness) ran up to hirr.' Mid saw tho fish lying on the ground, bleeding from a rip under the inw. ' ■ To Mr Campbell: He did nob 'look at the l.ait- Cliff was using. Tie was iising a 'bamboo rod, and not the proper cane, rod, • and he did not tell Cliff he was using it in a. wrong-manner. Ho (witness) used a "bully." He had had. Cliff's minnow, in his possession ever since took it from him. He admitted having shown it to some Christchurch anglers later on, but he did not think he removed the cocoon. Tlic Magistrate, (examining the minnow used): "This is the crudest affair I have ever seen. It is iust two Tiooks tied together-a,nd covered with a cocoon." Robert Brc-okland, Temuka, said he i was fishing with Cliff on the river on 1 the niprht in question. He was above 1 the defendant; fishing up stream, and :,n the opposite side of the river. He ! <>a\v Cliff land a fish, and he went over, to seo it. It was lying on the ground bleeding from one of its eyes. When he sa»v the tackle he said that it was a d d poacher's tackle. Mr Rolleston asked the opinion of the witness in the matter of the tackle iised. . \ j - Mi Campbell* We don't-'.wanV ,his opinion We want" the Bench's opinion. To Mr Campbell witness said he was fishing al'but one and a half chains above Cliff. He had never foul-hooked a fish in his life. Mr Campbell said that Cliff had only fished for five- nights with 'the cocoon minnow, and he had hooked six fish. Four of these had taken the baiifc. A man who would stand for "four hours, as the defendant had done, beside a ranger and use illegal tackle, would be nothing more, than a raving lunatic. John Cliff said he had fished for twenty voars, and had uscdl. fly and other tackles. To his Worship: HiVrod was a'oout thirteen feet long. Continuing, defendant said that in |che first pert of the evening, which was a l dark one, he used a ( largo fly, and in the latter part he used the cocoon minnow. He saw the ranger there. He had never, used the cocoon before this season, and he made_his own cocoons. The one used on this occasion. had been knockd about since the ranger took it The fish he caught were mostly seven and eight pounders. He simply pulled the minnow 'chrough ■ the waior slowly, arid did not jerk'it as the ranger said. To Mr Rolleston: He was below the ripple and was not in it as Leckie and Brookland had stated. He was fishing in dead or almost dead water all the time. To Mr Campbell: He. had'gone down io the pool early in the evening to get u trood place. Frank Pa.lliser said' he had been a, trustee of the Acclimatisation Society, and was as soro against stroke-hauling as anyone. ', He showed various tackles and explained them. a To Mr Campbell: He had a. cocoon himself, but had never used it. A lengthy discussion here took place regarding tho use of various types of tackles. Corirad Haar, Winchester, said ho ■ had fished 'for fifteen years, and was a , member of the Acclimatisation Society. ' He paw Cliff fishing on tin l night in question, when it was drizzling. He I saw Cliff hook two fish both in a fair manner, on the minnow. •To Mr Campbell: He saw Leckie take the.cocoon to pieces in the presence of several anglers. To Mr Rolleston: He had seen Cliff take the bait from the fish's jaws. The Magistrate summed up the case and said that an accident could easily happon, so that,a. fish could be jagged. It had been a dark night and the witnesses would be engaged fishing and would only glance at their neighbours to see how they were getting on. He did not think they could have seen, at their distance, how the defendant had used his tackle. In tho light of the evidence he had heard that the cocoon minnow was largely used, he did not think that the defendant had used an illegal device to catch fish, arid would dismiss the case.