SOUTH ISLAND ANGLING

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 97, 18 January 1919, Page 13

SOUTH ISLAND ANGLING

•' ''DETERIORATION" OF SPORT." In 1886 a'few Old Country anglers ■ resident. in Melbourne formed a. Melbourne Angling Brotherhood', to visit 'New Zealand each 'summer. Of this .brotherhood,.; Dr. ..-/Reutoul, Dr. Jlac•'i'arland; arid:-; Mrs' - A'. MacDiarmid' (a--well-known barrister of I.Adelaide) are;the*lasfc remaining, members. Anglers' . from 1 ' all'.giiar'ters belonged^to thsrhooil', " but' what " they consider deterioration of the angling conditions, combined with the loss of time, has largely brought it to an end. Dri Rentoul, who used to visit Southland witli his friends every summer, explains why the. trips iwere .discontinued in aii: ar-'. aid" of Dccgmber 7, the following extract from which will be found interesting:— . '

"One thing it is necessary to say in order/ to keep some ■ from disappointment. In I*iew Zealand wo use.d to have .-.probably ,the finest trout-fishing-rivers in the: world, both for;the small-' er size of trout (ranging from lib. to 41b.), and - also -for ithe .'large sea-run trout at the tidal mouth of the gf eau snow rivers. The boom days for the angler were from the years .1885 to. 1906... Anglers' cani'e to New Zealand from the Old Land, from ;lndia, and from all quarters of the" world. Thoso who, like our Melbourne angling party, shared in'the unique experience "of those years know that they felt a, joy that, can never in these' lands return. : "The deterioration of angling in New Zealand is one. of the. saddest tilings in angling history,. .All kind? of-,base practices—netting, 'dynamiting,. worm?' ing—have.. become.. so widespread, that the - true angler thinks, of. it with.a, kind of 'hearfbreak!: The action of the' Scddon,' and especially of the "Ward Government, precipitated this deterioration of angling in ■ Now Zealand. The boatmen, for example, at.ltiverton, at the-tidal mouth of the fainous Ap.ar,ima River, are now allow-ed-to spread their nets for flounder and otttr .fish Up to the narrow railway crossing, and tlua stops large sea-run trout from commgaip the oucq. famous river. .

"The" destruction of the finest kinds of large''- trout .in most of the main rivers in New Zealand is something terrible to. think about to one who lias gone ;■ through the experience of years, The,* finer/kind of- lly-fishing has now become.'much rarer in what used to be the best angling regions, and the. majority oE anglers who wish great sport nr. angling -now go to the warmer.riv'.eisiofithe North, Island,' in which the stronger and- rainbow trout sive's them a, tfobman worthy of their rod and their •reel." ~S,