SPORT WITH THE ROD.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 374, 1 July 1911, Page 6

SPORT WITH THE ROD.

TROUT PISHING IN THE KING COUNTRY. Though New Zealand is comparatively a young country, sportsmen can find here even better opportunities of indulging in their favourite sport than in the Old Country. The Kiwr Country offers fine field to the trout-fisher, with its numerous rapid streams, welt stocked with the active rainbow trout. The best of the King Country streams in thiß respect are the upper reaches of the Wanganui, the Ongarue, the Waimiha, and the Waipa. As the .writer has had a good deal of experience with the Waimiha and Ongarue, this article will deal chiefly with theße streams. Intending fishermen leave the train at Waimiha, a small station 23 miles north of Taumarunui. They may bring a camping outfit, and Bleep out the banks of the river, or, if they prefer it they may obtain accommodation in the township. About one mile north of the station the Waimiha and Ongarue which take their rise in the vicinity of Lake Taupo combine to form the Ongarue river wliich runs into the Wanganui at Taumarunui. The streams are ideal fishing waters combining as they do still pools with rapids having sandy or shingle bottoms and being almost entirely free from the dreaded "snags." Let us sally out for a day's fishing. We came with strong steel rods, which can be telescoped to enable us to scramble through the dense manuka, which, mote's the pity, still fringes much of the river banks. We are clad in old clothes and heavy boots. Many fishermen adopt the waders, but we think they are hardly suitable, as the waters are so swift in places, that if one lost his footing, it is doubtful whether he would regain it. Be that as it may, we wade into the water waist-deep, and commence operations. The morning is dull and overcast, eo we try the fly first—a "Durham Ranger," and "Red Ant" fail to elicit any repsonse from the wary "rainbow' but a "Silver Doctor" brings a fourpounder to the surface with a splash. Further casts proving fruitless, we change to a small white-bait minnow —artificial—and on the first throw my companion's line is seized ravenously and away goes the fish about forty yardy down stream. How he fights! I lay aside my rod, and, gaff in hand —the gaff is many points ahead of the landing net for river-fishing 1 go to help in his capture. Even then ,it is twenty minutes before I can gaff him and lift him dripping and flashing red in the rays of the sun, which has now broken through the mists.

So we go on missing the still water, and using the articfiial minnow in the rapids, sometimes one having the luck to hook and land a fish, sometimes the Other. Almost invariably, we hook our fish at the break, or head of the ripple, where the fish has been feeding. Some may cavil at the use of the minnow instead of the fly, as not being such sport, but, let me assure Such that the landing of a fish hooked on the minnow is quite as uncertain as that of one on the fly. A defective swivel-link or the pul ling out or breaking of a tiny hook has jost me many a fish. We have fished right up to the falls on the Waimiha, a distance of six miles from the township. We have lunch, and,, working back a bit, cross over to the Ongarue, a walk of about a mile and a half. We find the water in thin stream many degrees colder than in the one we have just left. As the sun is now very bright, and the water clear, we use the fly, the dullcoloured ones being thhe most successful. We fish the still stretches, and reach the township at dusk, after a day as full of incidents, and clean healthy sport as the heart of any fisherman could desire. The exciitng point about the fishing in the King Country streams is the way in which all the fish fight. Even a one-pounder will cause cuite a struggle before being landed. Another feature is that it is very seldom that a fish,under size will take the bait. In four seasons' fishing I have hooked only one fish that I had to throw back again and he measured nine inches long. In the Waimiha and Ongarue the fish never seem to exceed the weight of six pounds though in the upper reaches of the Waimiha above the falls a friend of mine caught an eight-and-ahalf pounder. The fish are all in splendid condition nevertheless. In the Wanganui the fish grow much larger, and a resident of Manunui landed one scaling 211bs. The fish are splendid for eating, not having tie muddy flavour noticeable in those living in the warm waters of Lake Rotorua. The brown trout have been tried in these streams, but do not seem to flourish aB do the rainbow species. > To catch the brown trout in abundance, one should go to Lake Taupo.