BATTLE WITH EEL

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 112, 19 January 1940, Page 3

BATTLE WITH EEL

THIRTY-FIVE POUND MONSTER

LANDED ON TROUT GEAR

CAUGHT AT LAKIC TARAWHRA

It is not a simple mailer to land

a monster eel at any time, even on a stout line and eel hook, but tjo land one weighing Hslb on a light fly rod with a medium weight cast and a size six trout fly is an achievement, not only for the angler, but for the gear employed. This was accomplished several days ago at Lake Tarawera by a Rotorua angler, Mr W. Kusabs.

Mr Kusabs, who was camped at the lake, hooked the eel while night fishing from a rocky ledge. Part of the drama lay in tlie fact that he was not aware that lie had hooked an eel, and not a very large trout, until the head of the monster Was dragged on to the ledge. When it appeared, his wife, who was standing by with a torch and a landing net to assist him in landing a trout which promised to break all records, was so surprised that she incontinently dropped the landing net and the torch together.

The eel took the fly in deep water and put. up a tremendous struggle. Mr Kusabs estimates that the time occupied in bringing the eel to the edge of the ledge was three-quart* ers of an hour, and for the greater part of that time his light rod was bent almost double by the tremendous strain put upon it. When finally landed and weighed, the eel weighed 351b.

Alone among the lakes in the Kotorua district. Ta rawer a harbours* eels as well as trout. Both arc large specimens of their kind, the eels particularly so. Some of the largest fresh Avater eels landed in New Zealand have been taken from the lake waters, but few of them with troutfishing tackle. Mr Ivusabs was less successful with the trout than with the eel, landing only three fisli during seven days' fishing at the lake.