Fishing in the Nelson Province.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 26, 28 December 1910, Page 37

Fishing in the Nelson Province.

THE LUCK CHANGES

(Specialty written for “ The Weekly Graphic " by

Major Boyd Wilson,

O 7 J WELCOME invitation to stay p I with some friends, whose home j is situated on one of the best trout fishing ivaehes of the Motueka, gave the writer the first opportunity of serious angling that has fallen to his lot this season. The keenly anticipated day arrived at last, and a train had to be caught at ten, but the early morning prospects looked anything but favourable, for the sky was thickly overcast with dense grey clouds, a steady rain which had commenced at dawn was relentlessly falling, indications pointed to a hopelessly wet day, and worst of all was the certainty that a few more hours of heavy rain would have the effect of making the river rise, and put fly fishing temporarily out of court. Probably owing to the unpleasant meteorological conditions out of doors, everything seemed out of joint. A dull razor called forth anathemas as the matutinal operation of shaving was painfully proceeded with, a collar stud, elusive but essential, elected to roll out of reach under the most cumbrous and immovable piece of furniture it could select, and, to crown all, a vagrant eat was discovered on the breakfast table making a brilliant and by no means futile effort to encircle the cold ham. After a vigorous but inconclusive pursuit, of which grimalkin had always the best, a faint break in the clouds and a temporary cessation of the rain gave slight hopes of better things, and when this was succeeded by a veritable gleam of welcome sunshine breaking through the dense canopy with which the heavens were overspread, spirits began to rise, prospects looked brighter, and the afterbreakfast tobacco tasted sweeter than could have been anticipated but one short hour ago. It is a pet belief of mine, founded on numerous corroborative instances, that when everything goes wrong at the beginning of a day, Dame Fortune will relent later, and smile on the sportsman before night falls, as though she were trying to recompense him for the preliminary tribulations she has forced him to undergo, and the day concerning which these lines are being put together gave no reason, as the sequel will show, for any weakening of this theory. The weather, as though ashamed of its tearful mood, cleared up with satisfactory alacrity, and soon the raindrops on grass and bush were twinkling in the sunshine like drops.of crystal, the birds sang their sweetest, a few sprays of early May blossom stood out with dazzling whiteness against the fresh green foliage, the lilacs, now in full bloom, were scenting the air with their perfume, and the spirit of spring was everywhere abroad over the whole countryside. The scene of operations was reached about noon, and it was not long before the line was being threaded through the rod rings, and all being prepared for the fray. At this portion of its course the Motueka. already a majestic river, runs through a granite formation, and here and there great masses of the igneons rock stand like sentinels in the tide, vainly essaying to curb and bridle the hurrying waters which foam and surge round their spray-moistened sides, as the immovable obstacles cause the flow to be momentarily divided, only to be at once reunited in ropy swirls which suggest, even while concealing, the depths beneath. It is in the deep pools formed by these granitic impediments that mighty trout have their homes, and the water, in a normal state of the river, is so clear that, cautiously peering from a high bank, the observer may distinguish, through the crystal profundity, numbers of heavy trout lying motionless save for an almost imperceptible flicker of tail and fins, which enables the fish to maintain his position, and, to borrow a naval phrase, keep station.

It is not, however, in these deep pools that the experienced angler expects to fill his basket, for, although an occasional fish may be tempted by an art-fully-placed fly, or by a craftily spun minnow, as a general rule the trout resort to the shallows and sides of the rougher ripples when in quest of food, and it is there that the most execution is usually done. To-day a start is made below the deep pools, where the water plashes and gurgles merrily over the boulder-strewn bed of the stream. In such a large river as this it is found more convenient to fish across and down, using a long line and allowing the current to carry the flies well into the hither bank, for it is near the side and

out of the strong current, in water so shallow that it would appear almost inadequate to cover a fish, that former experience on the Motueka has shown most of the big fellows generally lie waiting for what tit-bits the stream may bring down to them. The line is cast well out, and circles round with the action of the water until the dies

are almost touching the bank, and is then lifted ami re-cast. Several times has this manoeuvre been repeated before anything hapjMUis. then, when the flies are almost touching the half-dry half-wet boulders which mark the water’s edge, when the rod point is bei »g raised preliminary to lifting the fbrs off the water for another cast, when tl e

line, in obedience to the lifting of the rod, is tightening, there conies a check to the backward movement: fly caught on a stone? No! it moves, and in another second it is realised that a heavy fish is firmly hooked. Slowly he moves away, as if as yet unconscious of the pointed artificiality of the fly sticking in his jaw, and gives the angler a muchprized opportunity to reel in some of the long line ami get on more advantageous terms ere the struggle that is before him shall have commenced. Not for long does this complacent mood on the part of the fish last; suddenly he wakes up to the indignity that has been thrust upon him. and like a flash he is off into

the very roughest and swiftest part of the ■stream; the reel screams as the line so lately regained is torn from the wildly-revolving drum; the rod assumes the shape of a Norman arch, and in the twinkling of an eye the fish is twenty yards distant. There is nothing else for it, this game must be stopped at any cost, and although doubts and fears cross the mind when it is remembered that the east is composed of tine drawn gut. a heavy strain is brought to bear and soon produces an effect, for the fish unwillingly concedes the point, and his ferocious rush, which threatened dire and complete disaster, is stayed. The end is not yet, however, for the trout is now in the swiftest part of the current, ami although his rush is checked the existing strain is all that the light tackle will bear, and the only chance is to allow the fish to exhaust himself. Meantime he is being carried down stream, ami perforce the fisherman must go down with him: slipping and stumbling amongst the big boulders, the rough road is negotiated somehow, and opportunity is even found to regain quite an appreciable measure of line. After quite fifty yards of this boulder-strewn passage, a friendly backwash of calm water is noted, and the fish, having been adroitly coaxed into this haven, gives a fleeting opportunity for the gaff to lx* brought into play. Fortune smiles at last, and the goodly trout, although bv no means played out. is carried, kirk ing ami writhing, up the bank.