LINE AND TRIGGER

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 676, 19 February 1903, Page 6

LINE AND TRIGGER

(By

“Gillie.”)

A very nice trout was taken in the Waitaki River during the week, which turned the scale at 181bs. Mr Barlow got a beauty of 171bs down Winton way.

A correspondent to the Otago “ Witness ” vouches for the following fish story “ Some weeks ago Mr Peter Farquhar went out to have a shot at the rab.bitf;, taking with him his old retriever dog Oscar. In going along the banks of the lagboh below the Hermitage, Mr Farquhar saw a large eel swimming along a few inches beneath the surface of the water. He up gun and fired, with the result that he cut a big gash in the eel just behind its head. It immediately rose to the surface, and made a big splash, when Oscar sprang into the water to seize it ; but instead of the dog seizing* the slippery monster the eel seized the dog by the ear. Oscar howled and made for the shore, and ran several chains across the paddock with the eel holding on to the old dog’s ear, and the dog howling and trying to shake off the eel, Mr Farquhar laughing and running after the pair and trying to knock off the eel with the muzzle of his gun. When the eel did let go, Oscar had had enough of it, and would not tackle it again, but looked at his master with a look which said plainly, ‘ No thanks, I’m not having any.’ ” The Rotorua Rod and Gun Club have written to the Auckland Acclimatisation Society that the netting of trout would probably continue as long as there was a sound net in the district. It was suggested that steps might be taken to purchase all nets. A Thames * correspondent wrote that systematic poaching .of duck was being carried out on the Piako River. It was decided to take action in the matter, and also in the direction of preventing trout poaching. # * * * Mr Smales has reported that ninety-six thousand fish had been liberated during the past month, and that twenty-four thousand still remained in the ponds at the hatcheries. * # > • ♦ The eleventh annual meeting of the Wairarapa Rifle Association will take place on March 2 and 3 on the preytown Rifle Range, at Papawai, which is about thirty miles from Trentham. There axe ten different matches l , and the prize list is on a generous scale, including the Challenge Cup, which is valued at twenty guineas. Mr A. L. Webster is the secretary. * * * * The River Clyde, at Bothwell, Tasmania, would appear to be something of an angler’s paradise. The other day a party of four brought to bank fifty-six trout in one day, while a day or two later two rods accounted for thirty-six spreckled beauties. The Tasmanian “ Mail ” gives an illustration of the big, haul. . * * * * Mr Ayson, the Inspector of Fisheries, is on a tour of inspection of all the North Island Fisheries. He reports that there are seventy thousand young salmon at the Hakataramea hatcheries, and these will be turned out 'into the various rivers in the autumn.