Angling.

Southern Cross, Volume 2, Issue 29, 13 October 1894, Page 5

Angling.

[Readers are invited to contribute items of local fishing news for insertion. in this column.]

CURRENT NOTES.

[Bt Phantom.]

During the past week the fish have had the best of it, with bright days and water very thin. Town anglers have been holding back for a spate; from the indications of the barometer I think they will have a different tale to tell next week. Fishermen living handy to the water are getting a few fish in the evenings, but I have heard of nothing sensational in weights or number. The best bag that has been reported to me this season was made by Mr A. Pro van of Heddon Bush, who landed 29 fish from the Aparima on the opening day, six of the best of them weighing twenty lb. A meeting of the council of the Southland Acclimation Society was held last Monday evening to arrange for the distribution of trout fishing. The following list was passed : Otautau, 15,000 ; Waimatuku, 5,000 ; Waihopai, 15,000; Winton Creek, 10.000 ; Otapiri, 10,000; Upper Mataura., 25,000 ; Oreti, 25,000 ; Makarewa, 25,000; Upper Oreti, 20,000 ; Oleddau River, (Milford Sound) 10.000 ; Otamete, 15,000 ; Waikiwi, 5,000; Orawai, 10,000; Upper Mimihau 3,000; Lake George, 10,000 ; total 203.000 ; if any surplus, 5,000 to be placed in a stream in Stewart Island. The list appears to be a good and fair one but I think this Society should try and increase the output of young fish to 500,000. The district is a large one, and anglers are getting more expert and numerous every year. Mr Rupert Cameron, of Redcliffe, has authorised the North Otago Acclimatisation Society to offer £b for the first true salmon taken out of New Zealand waters, not being ponds. Oysters in the shell - This is the last day of the season that they may be sold. The Southern Standard reports : “Mr J. D. Hunter, while fishing in the Mataura about half-a-mile above the Gore bridge, observed a man on the opposite bank examining something in the water in a very suspicious manner. Feeling satisfied that the matter wanted investigating, Mr Hunter, accompanied by Mr Charles Steans, visited the locality in the afternoon, when the former’s suspicions were confirmed, and in a short time the two gentlemen had secured about a dozen poaching traps, and in addition a couple of fine trout, which had been caught in the traps.”—l am sorry to say that there is some of this work going on not far from Invercargill, and the only way to stop it is to make it illegal to set lines of every description. Two seasons ago, while fishing in the Waihopai above Dawson’s mill,. I spied a young man carefully stretching a line across a bend in the creek. “So this is the reason I have seen so few fish,” I thought. He was much bigger than me, but I felt to be my duty to investigate at all hazards, so I made sure that my gaff was handy, and asked him what he was baiting for. The innocent way he smiled and said “ eels,” made me feel ashamed that I had suspected him of poaching. I offered him my flask by way of compensation, and while walking along he told me such wonderful stories about the eels he caught that I was quite curious to see the tackle he used; so when he left me I went back and examined it, and found at intervals along the stretcher five nice hooks beautifulty mounted to gimp and baited with live bullies. He probably told his friends that a big eel went off with his tackle, but it was not so.