FIELD AND STREAM.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 461, 20 March 1909, Page 12

FIELD AND STREAM.

« m?, ; i:.!.-. . (BY Dry FtT.) t .. o l Somo welcome showers wero l experienced this week, and, although not nearly enough, have' slightly improved, the streams. Much more rain is required to restore fishing conditions to good order. Fishing at South Karori on two days recently an augler secured tho limit on one occasion and 12 on the othor. From Mungaroa comes the doleful report that the stream is-very low, and hardly fishable. • On one day this week an anglor secured 10 for nine hours' fishing. Tney barely averaged }lb. each. In tho land of hot springs and many quakes anglers are as plentiful as mushrooms in autumn after rain (says the "Sydney Morning The many years they have been at work amongst big fish on the lakes and in the rivers should have produced in the Dominion plenty of expert flycasters capable of teaching our tyros tho A B C of accuracy and distanco casting. There is a keen feeling amongst our anglers that there should be a substantial ;entry of Dominion anglers in the next championship casting competition here; and, on the other hand, somo of our best men would be glad to slip over to New Zealand for a well-man-aged three-days' tournament in order to learn from the anglers of the lake district particularly something about fly-casting. Rumour hath it that there are more spinners than fly-fishermen about Rotorua, and that tho man who uses a daintily-built flyrod. there is looked upon as an ancient survival. It would he of great interest to see just_ now which of the States of the Dominion can produce tho best fly-casters, but any meeting of men of the rod and fly for such a test should be arranged under real championship conditions. Our last New South Wales championship competition organised by tho Anglers' Casting Club is not entitled, to be called an Australian event, because .it was spread over three or four Saturday afternoons. It would be palpably unfair to ask competitors from other States to join in tests extending over such a length of time again. Two or three days' continuous work would be fair, with postponements m case of substantially adverse -weather conditions. Wo mentioned in last issue (says the Tapanui "Courier") that the Otago Acclimatisation Society had reduced tho price of shags heads from 3s. to Is. No doubt this was dono m view of tho fact that last year's balance-sheet shows an expenditure of £77 It f t°, r hoa l s Purchased. Anglers who visited the Upper Pomahaka recently inform us that over thirty shags wore counted in one lot, and that small iish arc not to bo seen in the river. It appears to us a retrograde policy to expend Jargo sums annually on the upkeep or hatcheries and staff for raising young fish to feed shags, as the quantity that theso voracious birds devour must bo enormous It the society increased the price for heads and retrenched in other directions.it would bo more to tho point. At Is. per head their expenditure on t' ll ' B . will bo small enough, but tho fishing streams will suffer to a disastrous extent.

An exchange contains the following on shags Mr. Edgar Stoad, of ChristchuHi s . long championed tho cause of the shag against those who contend that this bird is a groedy devourer of trout, and should therefore have a price set upon its head. At tho -meeting of the Mackenzio County Couucil, Mr. Guthrie said that Mr. Stead was quito w , r ° n S- had cleared tho Upper Opihi of trout throo years ago during a dry pariod when tho fish were easily obtainable, and ho (tho speaker) had seen shags taking trout up to 41b. in weight. They could not carrv them away, but dragged them to tho bank and devoured them there. Mr. Smith said he had shot shags with half-digested trout in them, the undigested part protruding from their mouths. Mr. F. R. Gillingham also boro testimony against tho shag, as did also air. K. JLi. Hanks, tho county engineer Not a member of tho council had a good word tn say for the bird.

the rivers near Timaru, U, P "Herald" contains the following "Snort among the trout, which lias been rather poor lately, seems to have brightened up a little judging by the accounts given hy sevcTii local anglers of their takes 011 Saturday and Sunday week, when several nice baskets n'ero secured. Tlio best sport, so far as reports go. was had in the upper waters of tlio Opilii/'