TROUT FISHING IN NEW ZEALAND.

Waikato Times, Volume XX, Issue 1694, 15 May 1883, Page 2

TROUT FISHING IN NEW ZEALAND.

JT^ - following lp.ttgr,; , enclosure ,- and (editorial note, which *we extract from Lmd and Water will' be of interest to ■our readers,, more especially that, portion who delight in the ge*ntle*artl:^ . f / I beg toseu^,yon bxthjajnailone of our daily papers, in which you-will see a report of one day's brown, trout fishing on,} one of our C<uittrbury streams,' and that the most difficult to' fish-^ni' fjfdtf a stream that a stranger would not have a chance of doing any good upon unless, ho' got a "tip" (as they call it here) from a Canterbury man. For instance, an Otago gtMitlemftu^KoinibginQdKe'knigw^lots,'' was fishing the saine'streanrtne same ;day and got nothing.' Ofogo is the province" sou.th of Canterbury, an4-is*splen--; ; didly furnished with, streams well stocked with trout, as lean vouch for* and consequently the Southerners think they knowevery thing, but they make al'aiifctnke sometimes.. I was fortunate enough to do splendidly when I visited the South last year, and astoiii^od^faeja; a little, but I don't take much credit, as T have thirty' years trout and salmon fishing, experience, twenty of which Vfens spent in Ireland on the ! Shannon, Wes.j6? meath lakes, Balling,, the .lakes qf Kitf" larney, and wherever good fishing was to be had ; so fought to know a little about it, and, without being egotistical, I may say I hold the palm here. Even in Ireland on the Westmeath lakes I never had such sport as I had. lately on this river (the Selwyn). >The fish are simply magnificent in every way." They play like demons. ' A will give you from ten to, twenty five minutes' play. They are' short, thick fish, with very small heads, and a beautiful silvery body; witE black2s.pots. like a salmon. In fact t> they very seldom re I**1 ** turn their red spots after they reach 2£lb. A fish lib in weight 'will have^thBfii;-"-^I returned sixteen fish" rail, lib or over in one day to the river. I regret to say others dp not do ,this. We consider a fish of this size a sprat in I;he~fiver. W. S. Cooke. Christchurch, New Zealand, ' j December 20th, 1882. The following is the cutting forwarded* " That well-known disriple of om& Izaak Walton, Mr W. S. Cooke, wju|B s skill in circumventing the finny racsfis^ known to most anglers, has just returned from a trip to the gorge of the Selwyn, and gives the following remarkable result of one clay's fishing. The take was ten fish, weighing a* under s-lfclb, 4-Jlb, 2^lb, 31b, 2*lb, 4|ll), 441b, 71b, 61b, and 21b, making a net total of 40^10. As the public are somewhat sceptical as to these extraordinary takes. th 3 fish were carefully and separately weighed in the. presence of Messrs Thornton and Gwatkin, and several others. For the information" of those desirous of fishing in the upper waters of the Selwyn, or more properly the gorge it may be as well to state that the spo 1 " "8 easi! v reached by trap from the South Malvern Hotel," [We are much obliged to Mr Cooke for the enthusiastic sporting glimpse he gives us, wit'i the results which our ac-' cliinatisation efforts have accomplished for the waters of -New Zealand. We do nob wonder that our correspondent should have proved such a crack among the Antipodean anglers, seeing that ;he had serve 1 his apprenticeship in Ireland, along the glorious waters of the Shannon of the Moy, as well as over thelakes of Westmoath and Killamey. If the Old Country has sent to the Antipodes rather over much of sparrows, and rabbits, and thistles, it is some satisfaction to balance against those "too-much-of-a-good-thing" sort of imposts on land a growing supply of i ipping good trout, weighing from 31b to 71b a-piece, in the waters. We do not think the inhabitants of Now Zealand will ever complain of a superbnndance of trout.]