“THE GENTLE ART”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 December 1939, Page 15 (Supplement)

“THE GENTLE ART”

Local followers of "the gentle art,” in enjoying the Christmas holidays in their own quiet way, are-by no means having a bad time of it. On Christmas Eve, Mr Gaut was again rewarded for his zeal as an angler, and landed four nice trout, weighing from 31 to 411bs each and yesterday he caught another fish which turned the scale at 411bs. Mr Green, too, who is also a persevering fisherman, secured one of the same weight. It seems that trout are becoming more plentiful than ever in the Waipoua and are steadih* - working their way up from the Ruamahanga. At almost any time in the day it is by no means an uncommon sight to see half a dozen of these denizens of the river basking in the sun at the bathing place. Our local rod-man, however, have not been having it quite all to themselves, for a few days ago we heard of a "catch" on the Uriti Beach, near Waironga, of quite an unique character. It seems that two young ladies were fishing there, when they hauled up an octopus, commonly known as a "devil-fish.”, The creature's body was as large as a man’s head, and its suckers were two feet long. It was hard to say which was the more frightened, the festive cuttlefish or the ladies, and the latter were by no means loth to let the fish escape after it had expressed its dissatisfaction by the usual discharge of inky fluid.