ANGLING NOTES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17281, 23 September 1916, Page 12

ANGLING NOTES.

(By IRON BLUE.) A GUIDE FOR 3EGINNERS. It was proposed that the prospeots of sport in the coming season should be the subject of this week's " Angling Notes," but several letters requested information on various matters, and hi the interests of the beginners it seems that "prospects" must wait until the day before " the first." One of my correspondents^—aged, I imagine,'about sixteen—is chiefly desirous of buying a rod priced at' four pounds for about forty shillings, but really I cannot tell him.quite how to manage that, and must comfort bim as best I can. Let me say clearly, it ia a mistake for the beginner to think an expensive structure of ''split-cane" is necessary to his first efforts in tho ftngling art. Such rods are merely a matter of choice and pounds, which may bo wanted for another purpose, and it is possible to catch trout just as well with a good " greenheart " rod as with any other. Perhaps the handiest flyrod is a fairly whippy greenheart, fitted with a cork grip and enake rings, and not more than ten feet or ten feet six inches in length. A longer rod .may b 3 required for lake fishing or some special use, but in an ordinary day's fishing it is quite unnecessary, and will soon make the business of casting into hard work instead o? pleasure. A good gieonheart rod can be bought for considerably Jess than forty shillings, but iu is unwise to become the owner of the cheapest you may see, because in that case it is, likely enough, made of inferior or cross-grained wood. For myself, I prefer a two-jointed rod, bub this, again, is a matter of choice. It is better to get both rod and reel at the same time,, so that they can be fitted together, and different reels tried on, until you find one which balanced the rod. To give a rough idea of this, the rod with reel attached, if placed across your left forefinger, should balance at a point between fourteen and sixteen inches from tho butt. A good sort of reel is a bronzedmetal check-reel, of the three-inch size, costing about seven shillings. If the rod will carry it, a reel of this size is better than a smaller one, for it will answer more than a single purpose, and if you want a longer line, than usual the extra yards will go on without any difficulty. Remember tn secure a good reel, for a bad one is always getting out of order, and is just a curso, leading to many others. Forty or, te be safe, fifty yards of line should prove sufficient for all ordinary .occasions, though of course we love listening to the man who tells us how his latest capture took out lino by the quarter-mile of it, in his final struggles. Somehow, such beautiful things never happen to me, but I have no doubt that a big trout will pull off quite a lot of line, if left to his own devices. However, it is reasonable to suppose an angler will put on some fair amount of strain, after humouring tho first rush of his quarry; and having landed a rather large number of trout, I can say truly that I never had a hundred yards of line out after any one of them. For excitements of this kind I imagine one must hook a kingfish, and, by the way, a man recentlydescribed a little fcmgfishing incident to us in vivid terms. The man said, "I baited with a seven-pound kahawai, and a sixty-pound kingfish scoffed him at once, and presently a three hundredpound swordfish came along and scoffed tho kingfish, so I had them all on the hooks together. What could you want with more than thatP" I said, "Of course you wanted a takeable whale to com© along, and scoff tho lot." I fail to see how I could have said anything else, but the man went on as if I bad doubted the truth of his story. On the whole, I think the most serviceable line is the kind known as "level waterproof Bilk, size 22, letter E." Some people consider that s : zo 22 is two too heavy—h'm this is deplorable—and its thickness may scare the fish, but in the act of casting they should never see the line at all, and if they do it is not likely they will stay to meditate upon its exact bigness. Oh the other hand, you can cast a fairly heavy line against or across a strong wind, when the thinner sorts are practically useless, and for another reason in its favour, Ifind that size 22 will do very well either for fly-fishing or spinning, as the need of each method may occur. "f■ In the matter of caste, probably tho two most useful sizes are "2x ' for day-fishing and "lx" for after dark, and it is worth while to carry a bit of rubber in a pocket, for by pulling a cast between a fold of the rubber all curls or twists are soon made straight. For the lowest, clearest water finer casts like 3 or 4x may be necessary, but rarely in October, and if the leginner tries them he will .discover in the first place that they are dreadfully easy ,to break. ~ The subject of flies .is <much too lig for discussion in a brief note, but as a guide for beginners, here is a selection of a few varieties which are sure to prove useful during the early part of the season: —Blue Upright, Red Upright, Red Spinner, a pattern of March Brown with yellow-ribbed body, Thompson's Favourite, Georgina Coachman and Red Governor, the last not least, but in several sizes, for certainly it is one of the most useful flies ever invented. ?