FISHING FOR MEN.

Auckland Star, Volume I, Issue 196, 25 August 1870, Page 2

FISHING FOR MEN.

Girls are like anglers. I don't know that the idea is original, but certainly is correct. All'girls are angling, and some, alas! past girlhood, are still at it. Some come jauntily to the river-side, with plentiful bait and hopeful hearts. They, foolish creatures, are just commencing, and know not how wary are the fish. Others fish desperately, having toiled all day and caught nothing. They too came with the same high hopes and plentiful bait. Theirjthoughts ran upon trout, and even a salmon did not eeem beyond them, but now that the sun is setting and their bait nearly gone, a minnow would be acceptable. Some throw their lines far into the stream, and dangle the tempting bait before the eves of the greedy fish. The gorgeous fly skims along the surface of the water, dips beneath it, then rises to descend Jagain and be caught in the mouth of some adventurous fish, who finds, when too-late, and the hook is in his mouth, that the coveted bait consists of padding, powder, and paint. Cease your struggles foolish fish! The more you struggle, the more will the hook hurt you. See, the hook is now taken from your mouth, and you are put into a little pool of water to disport yourself, and imagine yourself at liberty again, but Jyou are caught, there is no escape. The other anglers for a moment seem to forget their own lines, and come to look at the new-caught fish. They are envious of the lucky captor, and speak disparagingly of her captive. "There are as good fish in the eea as ever ■were caught," say they, and with this consoling reflection return to their sport.

Though these bold anglers sometimes land a trout, they are more often unsuccessful, for even foolish fish are auspicious of flies which advance to meet them and jump into their mouths. Other anglers, avoiding this extreme, drop their lines close to the bank, and when a fish does venture to smell or nibble, they coyly draw in the bait, hoping thus to .enhance its value, and to induce the fish to pursue. This I am inclined to think is a dangerous experiment. A fish who will follow must either be hard up for a fly, or thoroughly satiated with those that are easily caught.

But by far the most successful anglers are those who, adopting a medium course, neither advance nor retire. They keep the bait quietly in the stream, and there let it flo.it ; the fish gather round it and eye tit hungrily. It seems to them a passive, perhaps even, a sleeping fly, for little do they reck of the eager pair of eyes that watches them from the bank. At last one bold fellow advances, is hooked, and done for.

Sometimes a huge fish is seen playing round the bait. The envious sister-anglers say contemptuously, " very like a whale! " but it more often proves a shark, who carries off the bait, and leaves the line broken*

Oh! that fish would beware. But foolish creatures, they cannot be made to understand. The bait is too tempting for them. They look they smell, they nibble, they bite, and whether the bait prove tinsel or real fly, the hook is ever underneath, and will soon make itself felt.

To you, happy fishes, who are yet sporting in the ocean, or floating down the stream, let me say a few words, " Look well before you leap."