Wet Fly Fishing for Brown Trout in New Zealand

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVII, Issue 25, 22 December 1906, Page 17

Wet Fly Fishing for Brown Trout in New Zealand

By

G. D. HAMILTON,

Author of Trout Fishing and Sport in Maoriland," etc., etc.

NO. V.

PAVING dealt with the reel lines and the gut lines, it will not ha amiss to remind the comparative beginner that no more reel line should be out than is needed- to keep out of sight of the trout, and to reach where they arc lying. The more line there is out the more difficult it is to cast accurately and lightly. In striking, the more line there is out the more sag or slack line there is to bring up before the movement of the rod called “striking” is felt at the fly, and so the result of the strike is slower than with a shorter and straighter line. Also, in playing fish after th-y are hooked, no more line should be out, if possible, than is required to enable the angler to keep abreast of, or rather down stream, from the fir-lr. 'The shorter the line out in reason the more the fish is under control for guidanc?; the less likely the line is to get entangled in snags; the less effect the wind or running water will have on it; and the less chance there will be of its being cut or broken. Of course it will not be lost sight of that a hooked fish must not be pulled against the current, unless unavoidable. It is also well to remember that the less a hooked fish aees of the angler, until aground, the better—the sight only increases its struggles with a corresponding chance of escape. I have for many years used a landing net of my own des’gn. For New Zealand trout of medium size it is made of hard black or tanned cord, fourteen inches deep when shrunk, with a mesh one and ahalf or two inches, on each side. The net is forty-six inches in circumference at the frame, and has a small lead, like a pistol bullet, fastened to the lower point of the net. This helps to sink the net in the waler when being used to laud a fish. The frame is best made of light flat spring steel. g inch wide, edge up. brazed together where is is driven into the handle, which is protected by a strong short fen ide. into which the frame is sunk to the depth of its w'idth. It has a straight side twenty inches long, and is twelve inches across from this to the handle. The sides of the frame form the segment of a circle. The handle is of ash or hickory about two or three feet long, three quarter inch diameter, dressed with raw linseed oil. The net and handle, weigh about three-quarters of a lb. The net can be carried on the fishing bag, when the band of the bag is worn (as it should be) over the left shoulder, as a loop about two or three inches broad, the full width of the band, can lie placed on the band where band and bag meet. This loop will take the handle. The net will then he behind the left shoulder--a ring of cord round the band will sene the same purpose. A cord fastened to the middle of the straight side, passed over the left shoulder, and secured by a loop over a front button of the coat, will prevent it being dropped. This cord can be kept from sliding down the shoulder by something in the nature of a high button sewn on the coat about four inches above the point of the shoulder. When carried in this way the handle should not be more than two feet Jong, unless telescopic, otherwise it will interfere with walking. Carried in this way the net is quite Out of the way of walking, wading, or fishing until wanted. A little practice is required at first in adjusting the not for carrying. Karlier in these sketches T alluded to the inconvenience occasionally rinsed by hooking two good trout at the sama

time, and from among many others give the following instance. One summer just before dark I saw some good trout feeding, and hardly making a perceptible mark on the surface of the water of the smooth shallow edge of a rap'd, the waters of the bank I was on gradually ending in flat shingle. After two or three casts with scarcely a pereptible rise, 1 hooked what promised to be a good fish that without any rush went steadily and heavily up and almost across the stream for perhaps sixty yards, and then as steadily and heavily it turned down stream. As I gently took in line, all at once the line slackenen and came in. It was now nearly dark and I thought perhaps that the hold had broken. However, I found the gut had broken just where the upp r dropper joined the casting Fne. It was strong, clean, well-soaked gut just put on for night fishing. It was too dark to put on a fresh east of flies, so I went back some three hundred yards to the house. Next night, just before dark, I went back to the same place and almost immediately hooked a fair fish that made a good fight, and took exactly the same course as was taken by the last fish the night before. It was not landed until dark. When I took the fly out of its mouth I was surprised to find only about eight inches of gut on it and thought what a singular escape' from losing the fish, and then put the fly in my hat and the fish in the bag. The line, however, seemed to be foul of the bag somehow, and on investigiting, found that it was not broken, and that the fish was still fast to the line by the fly it had been caught with. The fly with the broken gut on it was one of those taken by the two trout When they broke the line between them the previous night. As there were no other hooks of my- pattern there was no doubt about the identity of the fly. The trout thus captured was a little over two and a-half pounds. There is no doubt that the trout not recaptured was much heavier, and had taken the dropper fly where the line was broken. Most of the trout at the place were from three to five pounds. THE END.