FLY FISHING IN NEW ZEALAND.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18900, 26 October 1929, Page 9

FLY FISHING IN NEW ZEALAND.

THE FICKLENESS OF TROUT; HOW TO CATCH THEM IN ALL MOODS. (By PISCATOR.) It is on those still, warm nights, after a blazing day, when the fly dances merrily over the mirrored waters of some placid river reach, that the fly-fisher-man comes into his own. Through the greying dusk can be heard the plop, plop, of the plump beauties as they start on their nocturnal feast. The angler slowly joins his rod, and then becomes engrossed in the task of selecting a suitable fly. He looks at the insects flying around him, catches one, and then compares it with those in his case. With a patience that can come only of experience he hunts among his selection for the replica of the captured insect. Then he prepares for the first cast. The line snakes out, the dry-fly lands lightly on the water to float slowly downstream. There is a faint splash, the fly disappears; the strike, and he is hooked. After a first wild rush downstream he circles slowly, his tail beating the surface as he vainly tries to get his head down into the weeds. He sees a friendly snag, and makes a jush towards it, but the relentless angler turns him off; he leaps, trying to whip the line with his tail, and thus he wears himself out. The net is slipped under him, and he lies gasping on the bank, a plump twopounder. Such is the art of dry-fly fishing. Dry-fly fishing is reckoned to be the highest branch of the “gentle art,” but he who says “I fish with the dry-fly only” is far from being the “complete angler.” Undoubtedly the dry-fly affords more sport, and requires greater skill than any other method of angling, but he who will not discard the dryfly for a wet one occasionally can never be sure of a creel of fish.

Sometimes the fish will accept every invitation of the “dry-fly man,” but then again they will let it pass unheeded, and yet take wet fly every time. The angler must change his lure with the weather, the water, and the fancy of the fish, if he would make sure of a good bag every time. One of the most natural baits for all game-fish is the fly. For the clear shallow reaches of the placid streams the dry-fly is unequalled, while in the deeper or swifter water the wet-fly rarely fails to take a few fish. One cannot be certain, however, on what days one lure should be used, and sometimes before a thunderstorm the fish seem to go mad, and will snap at anything, while, again, nothing will entice them. Sometimes the angler will strike a pocket of fish, and get a dozen or so in half an hour, but will fish for the rest of the day without getting a rise. Besides the usual fly taken by the fish, there are many small insects on which they feed, and if at any time they happen to be dining on these minute creatures it is almost impossible to catch them on the fly. The best thing to do is to take a small fly, cut off all the hackle, and present it to them this way. Sometimes a grasshopper or cricket hooked on the ordinary fly will fill the creel.

Casting plays perhaps the most important part in fly-fishing, and many anglers fail to take fish because they fail to master the cast. It is absolutely necessary that their line should straighten behind them, otherwise the cast is “flicked” and the fly “flies” away. The line should be kept well up off the ground at all times, never being allowed to sink below horizontal. For the re cast, flick the line back, pause, (to allow the line to straighten), and then cast forward, and you can’t go wrong. The cast should be made with the wrist, not with the arm. Having mastered the forehand cast, the angler should then practise the back-hand. When fishing up the right bank of a river the angler faces across the stream and works the right arm across, the line keeping almost parallel with the bank of the river. It is not a difficult cast to master, and is very effective where trees and shrubs abound.

The water nearest the angler should always be fished first, the line being gradually lengthened to cover the distant parts of the river. In this manner the water is thoroughly fished.