VISITOR'S FISH

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 156, 30 December 1938, Page 8

VISITOR'S FISH

TAUPO HOLIDAY

GOING BACK AGAIN

', One of the objects of the visit to j New Zealand ot :vlr. S. Tinsley, a printer and publisher with a business in London, has beeo to get among the trout at Lake Taupo, and. although he did not.actually put it that way, some figures he quoted in an interview to day make it very evident that he .succeeded in his purpose. Anyway, this visitor (whose picturesque appearance in his kilt and with his white whiskers was described on his arrival in Wei- > lington last month) has had a delightful time in this country, even though the weather has been indifferent for j the greater part ol the time. He really has no complaints on that score, how ever. j in company with his wife, Mr. Tins ley spent a. month at Taupo. They also made the launch trip down the Wanganui River. It rained that day; in fact it did more than that. Mr. Tinsley's description ~>t it was that the clouds burst, but he said today that for all that h would not have missed the trip for anything in the world. It was wonderful, the scenery magnificent, and the skill of the helmsman likewise. Thy. way the launch was navigated, said Mr. Tinsley, was most interesting to him. Conversation turned to trout fishing, which, after having fished for 60 years. Mr. Tinsley may b« expected to know something about. The average weight of the trout he caught at Taupo was half a pound less thar when he fished Taupo two years ago. but he caught plenty of fish, and some very good ones too. Actually in twenty-eight and a half days' fishing, with fron: one to three rods, over three-quarters of a ton of fish were caught, but not all were kept. Mr. Tinsley is. emphatically opposed to retaining fish that are not in good condition. He said that 324 trout were retained of a total weight of 12111b, and that in addition he put back 212 fish—some of them fish of four or five pounds in weight but rather on the thin side as regards the tail. DOES NOT USE A SPOON. "Those 212 fish were returned uninjured," said Mr. Tinsley. *'I never use a spoon. I fish with long, springy roos, very fine traces and tackle,' and small hooks so that 1 can return the fish uninjured." Mr, Tinsley added that he never used the spoon for the reason that in his opinion those with large trebles tended to hurt the mouth of the fish too much. The smallest fish he caught, weighed 21l» and the largest 7£lb. "There were only one and a half days when we could not go out on the lake." continued Mr. Tinsley. "We had only one really brilliantly fine, hot day; for the rest of the time it was either cloudy or rainy, and generally extremely windy with the wind sometimes almost of gale force. The people there said that they could never remember anything like it before at this time of the year." Mr. Tinsley said that not one of the fish taken was wasted. They were either smoked and sent to relatives and friends, or they were given away ] to fellow-guests at the hotel and to { people who waited in the evenings for ' the launches to come in. The reason that he did not get more < of the larger fish, said Mr Tinsley, was t due to the indifferent weather. The £ trout in the nearby bays t had been = well raked over^ since the beginning of the season, for the reason that the t anglers had been prevented by the i prevailing conditions from going fur- £ ther afield. On the days when he was ] able to get out to the western bays he j caught lajger fish. -y RESOURCES OF THE LAKE. c Mr. Tinsley was quite definite that the fish are there, just as he is convinced that the lake is not over-fished. \ "In my opinion," he said, "the fishing £ done there doesn't touch the resources * of the lake." Mr. Tinsley made this £ comment after referring to criticism * by a correspondent which appeared in x the "New Zealand Herald." His catch, he continued, did not compare in weight with the catches of 20 years f ago in the Taupo fishing district, which s included the Tongariro River and the r Waikato River. Four rods some years c ago took 6821b of trout at a single fishing, and on another occasion four rods took 16501b of trout in a fortnight in the same district. Mr. Tinsley said he thought that he had scored a little by using very fine tackle. After fishing for 60 years, he said that he had found that as time went on it became more and more necessary to fish finer and finer. At Taupo he had seen fine big trout shoot up and refuse the lure. They had sither become hook conscious or were j> following the strongest instinct of life, 0 self-preservation. a After making a tour of the South [sland, Mr. Tinsley intends going back t] to Taupo for another eight or nine Jays' fishing. "I was so loath to leave raupo," he said, "that we have extended our stay in the Dominion. This time I hope the weather conditions will enable us to go further afield so that n we may be able to work up a better average as regards size." Mr. and Mrs. Tinsley are to leave Wellington by the Awatea early in February to connect with the Orcades at f, Sydney for the return trip to Britain.