FIELD AND STREAM.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 69, 14 December 1907, Page 10

FIELD AND STREAM.

(By "Dry Fly.")

The streams locally are fast becoming unfishable through want of rain. Hopes were raised on Wednesday, but tho downpour did not last long enough to do any appreciable good. Tho green slime or weed nuisance is at its worst, and frequently the air in the vicinity of an angler, who has probably cleared his fly for trie sixteenth time, assumes tho hue that bad language is supposed to produce. It. is .to bo hoped th.it' rain conies soon, in t sufficient quantities to deplete bur streams of the existing nuisance, and also to give Xnias anglers a chanco of obtaining good fishing locally.

Somo ladies bont on picnicing recently had a unique experience. From a near-by hillside tliey watched the frantic efforts of a learned naturalist pursuing insects. Closer observation revealed to the ladies that the "professor" had no not and was pawing tho ground liko an infuriated bull. Thoughts of mental hospital escapees caused one of- tho party to become alarmed, and, woman-like, she emitted that sound of fear so customary with the gentler sex. The professor gallantly rushed to tho rescue. Explanations, of course, followed—an angler after-tho festive grasshopper.

Two limits were got at South- -Karon on Monday afternoon with fly. Tho fish'wcre'ail small, there being nothing exceeding a Alb. amongst tho catch.

Tho uppermost reaches of the Pahautanui stream, though seldom fished, hold a largo number of trout, which freely rise to the fly. Two anglers, returning from tho .Moonshine with one two-poimdcr between .'them, dismounted from their steel steeds and tried their luck. For about- an hour's fishing they creeled- sixteen sizablo fish. ! •..' '..,;..

The inappropriate condition of a• fish diit of water -has. passed'into''a proverb," but "at a meeting of the Otago Acclimatisation Society it appeared that the plight of -a 'fish' oh tho Otago Central railway is/not much better. A member, stated that he started to' take .eight, cans of. young .fish up to'lda' 'Valley. The fish were placed next to a couple of crates of live pigs arid a heap of undesirablelooking sacks. Tho water became lukewarm, and afterwards evaporated. Replenishing the cans from the. tanks did not improve mattors, and there was great mortality among the fish. On arrival at the.station no one was ready to receive them, and out of 15,000 all but about three dozen expired.

Fishing at the mouth: of the Ashburt-on River on November 30 several anglers from Ashburton mado good'baskets;-Mr.: J. H. Stephens landed eight fish', weighing :451b., the" largest weighing " 9lb; "Mr. A. C. Jbilansen caught eighteen fish weighing 541b. Theyvraiiged from a pound "and a ; half- to 51b. : M;''.' J. Thompson caught ono'lOlb. iish; iThe fish aro reported to bo in'very fair condition, and the largo fish are'going' up into the ■rivers from tho sea. ••-..-:■ -

Tho Ashley River appears to be very well stocked with trout tins" season. Amongst some good catches reported was ono a few days ago of twenty-live fish taken by a Christohurch angler from a short reach of the river near the township of Ashley, between the arrival of tho 'express train in the morning and its departure in the evening.

•Tho Marino Department; having asked the Canadian-Government to supply 500,000 ova of Atlantic salmon; Mr. L.- Ayson, manager of the Hakataramea Salmon Station," is to be.spnt to Vancouver to'receive" them. - Mr. Ayson left-oil Monday to catch the Suva boat at Auckland; and'ait Suva ho'will 'pickup tho Vancouver boat'." He will- 1 leavo Vancouver on the voyagb back 'to' tho Dominion on January 31,' or early in February. A temporary : hatchery : will bo erected' at' Lake Tq An'au to receive tho ova, arid the"'young fish, when they' appear, will bo placed in the Waiau River, Otago, which is believed to bo the most suitablo river in Now Zealand for this class of fish.

-Tho.-"Otago Witness" received tho following account of a shag destruction expedition: —"On November 23 a, party,of seven started for tho'UpperPareora Gorge, to liavo a'day's shooting among the shags in tho rookery at the upper end,of,the gorge Four,went over tho Carrington Range, and three went up through tho gorge. The three that .went through tho gorge were Mr. G. Smith, Miss K. Smith, and Mr. M. Smith. The track is exceedingly rough, and wading in places is inevitable, but Miss Smith, nothing daunted, undertook.what no lady has previously undertaken,, and with rifle on, shoulder made the passage, of .the gorgo in the - most plucky manner possible. Some excellent sport was obtained, tho' result for the day beimr 45 shags' heads. The-.cliffs are too steep for ascent, and the party bad to wait till the shags camo to disgorge their food for tho young ones before an opportunity was obtained of getting the drop on them. Ono of the party has been at the-rookery before, and says tho ■seagull.is .always on the'lookout, and when tho shags deposit tho food for their young he pounces down and secures his portion, and perhaps more than his portion of

Nelson anglers say that a marked feature of the various, streams at present is the great abundance of baby'trout, which are to be seen'darting in the shallows almost as thickly as whitebait. The; absence of heavy flood's has' ensured an excellent breeding season, and anglers havo great hopes of fine Catches a "couple of years hence. '-•'-. ' ' . .:;:• ■ The following, .from the pen of A. Brown, wc extractfrom .the,"Field'.':—The following curious angling .experience. -may possibly bo of interest to some- of your readers: On •Wednesday, : September 14, my party,. consisting of four,.hired a boat at Lu'ss,'-! and proceeded to the islands to fly-fish for sea trout. The day was dull and oppressive, the field of vision very limited, and water and sky of one uniform dull colour. Thero was no wind. About the middle of the afternoon, when I was rowing, a curious -phenomenon occurred, which we regarded as electrical. It affected first the rod in the stern and then tho rod in the bow within a few seconds of one another, and was as follows: Tho line wheu thrown foil on the water, in tho ordinary way as far as tho cast, and for 2ft. or 3ft. of the cast, aftor which tho gut curved gradually upwards, tho latter'part of the cast- being quite vertical with the tail fly pointing straight up in the air. - In this position it remained for some seconds,'say five o<- six; The tail fly then dropped: slowly on to tho water,, leaving'tho middle of the'east in a loop still pointing upwards. Lastly this, too, dropped' on to the water. The flies ware 'the - usual largo: Loch Lomond■■ sea trout variety, two on each cast. This ■ atmosphere condition continued for about 10 minutes, and then ceased. After about an hour it began again, when wo,put down our rods and rowed nway from tho spot. While doing so I took off my cap, and found that my 'hair at pneo began to stand on end, tho scalp having the feeling it has whon one is standing on an insulated stool holding tho terminals of a battery, and a bystander's hand is held abovo one's head. ; During this time the fish were rising, but not to our flies.. ■ ■

According to the "Woodvillo -Examiner," two fishermen in a Woodvillo district' havo adopted a novel method of ' landing the "speckled beauties," and they' never wet thcir ; feet during the operation. They- fish from off the»backs of their horses, and' when a fish is hooked tho horse quietlv takes tho fisherman to the shore,, and tho fish is landed. The idea is a good one, and no doubt wili become popular. The other day wo hoard of settlor who resides not very far from Woodvillo who has a dog that is Very expert at catching trout, especially when the river is a bit low. We do not know if tho settler in question has taken out a license for the dog. if not, ho should keep a sharp look-out for the ranger when he goes a-fislung.

It is by now recognised that-Great-Bri-tain, spends all her sparo time in efforts to ruin Germany politically and commercially but the attempt to impose upon that downtrodden empire the horrors of a British Sunday is carrying ill-feeling too far.—"Tlio Tnfcler."

At the Greenwich County Court.a man who made a claim for rout was stated to be in the Isle of-.Wight, and his solicitor,-asked for an- adjounmont for a week. ; "Let him take-, his rest," said Judge Willis i- "don't bring him back from the Isle' of Wight in a week. It ia a place very near Heaven."