OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 November 1943, Page 4

OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

A PISCATORIAL PUZZLE Sir,— Naturally alarmed at this season’s paucity of fishable trout in rivers and streams under the jurisdiction of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society (more especially since the closing of the Masterton fish ponds after 50 years of successful operations), advocates, of “natural spawning” are now appealing to anglers to kee pa strict tally of all undersized trout coming their way in such plenty as to make it hardly worth while to pay for a licence. Formerly an angler’s paradise, this district for one has gone back a decade at least in comparison with those marvellous bags so proudly snapshotted and sent to illustrated newspapers as a special attraction to fishermen all over the world. As far as autocratic city control goes in this direction, unless a change of heart is indicated by the vague promise of reopening our local fish ponds, the Acclimatisation Society, as regards this side of its activities, might with the fish ponds also go into recess until the war is ended, when the return of hundreds of trout fishermen in the Wellington area might lead to a separation from the parent body, or at least a radical change in its administrative personnel. —Yours, etc.,

IZAAK WALTON. Masterton, November 26.