Te Aroha Angling Club.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXII, Issue 42769, 24 August 1905, Page 2

Te Aroha Angling Club.

A meeting of the Te Aroha Angling Club was held in the Town Hall on Tuesday evening last. The chair was taken by Mr Somers. Minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed.

The seiratary then read the report for the past year as follows : —The Te Aroha Angling Club formed on the 17th October, 1904, has to report progress as follows : —The amount of fish caught between Gordon,...Settle,-, ment and Te Aroha by club members amounted to about - forty, the two largest being a seven and a six-and-a* . half, caught by Mr Annan in the Waitareke Creek and at Te Aroha. The average size of the fish caught was about 2£ibs, the sport they gaye bt ing excellent. Last year .this club ■ obtained 5000 fry from the Auckland;' Society, and distributed them in ithe Wairaukau, Tunakahoio, : Qmahii, Mangaiti and Kutukohu streams. The committee recommends that if possible . i 5,000 fry be obtained this year for distribution. There can be no doubt that the trout in the vicinity of Te Aroha are becoming more plentiful, and in a few years first-class fishing should be obtained.' It has been found that the fish * are most numerous at the mouths of the small creeks tributing to the Waihou, and that the most successful lure is the whitebait minnow. • • -.>■ •

The balance sheet was then read and passed. Mr Annan, speaking with regard to getting into the river, said that up to the end of last year you could tap-the river almost anywhere, but that" onbe he put a horse and trap through a gate and on returning, found it standing on the road. He thought there ought to be some way of getting into the reserve, and suggested that steps should be taken to find out where the reserves actually existed. He did not like the idea of fishermens’ horses being turned out onto the road.

Mr Wild said there was a. reserve everywhere except on Maori land, and suggested writing to the owners for permission to fish where there was no chain reserve. ; • .; , , v- ,$. \ Mr Wallis thought it was chiefly the horses and carts that were objected to. Mr Wild then proposed Mr Wallis as a delegate to the Acclimatisation Society. Seconded and carried. ." :f

Mr Wallis suggested that when the fry arrived this season, they should be t iken up the river in a boat to save the danger to the yonng fish when carting was resorted to. The number of fry likely to be required was then discussed and it was mentioned that last season late application was made and only 5,000 were f put in, but that this year 15,000 would by no means be too many if they could be obtained. Mr Wallis said he would be able to assure fhe Society that the fish would, be put in suitable places as all members of the Club wotild assist in carrying this out. ~ . . Mr Wallis said that -«another thing which they should combat was the question cf people fishing without license, and suggested a scheme by which this might, to a great extent, be stopped. Mr Annan was of opinion that persons fishing without a license should certainly be brought to book. There had been a good deal of it last season. Mr Wallis: The onus would fall upon the club. Continuing he asked if anything could be done with regard to the shags on the Waihou river. Mr Wild: They ought to be exterminated. It was thought that if they had a shooting party out once a year it might keep them down. The question of the annual subscription would be disussed at the next meeting which it was decided should be held in a month. The meeting was thee adjourned.

In an informal discussion after- " ards, the question was raised as to the suitability of the Waitoa river for trout fishing. Mr Annan said there wore far too many eels there for the young fish to have any chauee, but Mr Wild had, he said, seen some enormous trout there some time ago. Mr Annan, however, was \of fixe i opinion that perch would be more suitable in that river, Mr Wallis remarking that eels destroyed all the trout spawn, Mr v Wild stated that there were plenty of whitebait in the y Waitoa river. Mr Wallis said that w hen fry wore killed eels, is when they are about halbun-Wh. long, |usfc after they are hatched, but after the trout got a couple of yours old they are safe from the eeK