ANGLING NOTES.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 33, 29 October 1920, Page 6

ANGLING NOTES.

BY "CREEL."

It was a very bright summer'e day, the heat and warmth of life radiated from the earth, and brought the beads of perspiration to the angler's brow. Fish were shy so my chum and I adjourned to "Ye olde English tavern," presided over by mine host "Bert." In the cool of the er— bath room life seemed easier, and the fish easier to catch. Seated on a barrel— er chair, was of course the oldest inhabitant. Addressing my chum and I he said, "Well, gents, you been fishin' ?" We assented. "Well/' he said, "I don't mind havin' a dr— er talk with you fellers. (He got it), and then proeeeded thus: "Yer see, gents, I used to be some angler me'self in me young days, and I remembers a day similar ter this, when it was very 'ot an' dry. (Yes, thanks, gents, the same again). An' I wuz fishin' the Noo River at Oporo, just below the railway bridge. Fish wuz very scarce, bnt 'arter a while a good nor'-wester started to blow, an' the fish began to take alright. I landed some very nice fish, when all of a sudden I strxkes a regular beauty, twenty pounds weight, if an ounce. (Here he wi'ped his lips and Baldey accepted the hint.) Well, gents, I played that 'ere fish up an' down the river just below the railway bridge for an hour, and at last got him near the top of the 'ole, ready t-o gaff him quick. Jest at that moment, blowed if a train didn't come over the bridge, an' a spark from the engine landed on me line, as I stooped to do the trick.' There was a suddint stra%htenin' of me rod, and the beautiful fish disappeared from sight. Yes, gents, that wuz 'ard luck;' blowed if the spark from the engine didn't burn through me line. I've never fished since ; took on racin* instead. (Yes, Bert, I'm going home now). Goodbye, gents, take my. tip an' never fish near the railway ingine." (The editor and * Jacques, " arrived just too late to hear this interesting fisherman who lied in the er— West). Incidentally *1 would like to inform Jacques, that uhder circumstances as related above, not only fisherman — but others — will lie anywhere.

RE ANGLING CLUB AT GuRL. On malcing enqniries recently I was rather disappointed to learn that nothing definite had been done in the way of forming a cluib. I am sure it only wants the convening of the initial meeting t-o establish a club,' and I was assured by some of the anglers who reside np Mandeville way that they would give the project their whole-hearted support. I would suggest to Messrs J. P. Wylie, Y. Young, L. Poppelwell, J. Gillies, Jas, Hoffman, J. McArthur, and oCher enthusiasts, to make a special effort to inaugurate a club, and the members of the Southland, Mataura, Wyndham, and other clubs, would be only too plea-sed to send delegates, to give advice, and the bene'fit of their club's experience in drawing up rules, arranging competitions, etc. Let's hope to get intimation very shortly that the movement is in train. Mr J. McArthur, Gore#, creeled 11 iish recently for one day's fishing on the Otamita. Included in the take were two splendid fish that scaled 31bs 15ozs each. They were caught on tne red body Waipahi fly. 0-wing to a typographical error in last week's notes, Mr A. C. Lyon was credited with two bags of fish secured by Mr H. A. Lyon (ex railway guard). Mr Geo. Friend, Balfour, fishing the Waimea recently, landed 14 fish averaging about 21bs. Red body Waipahi was the killing fly. On the Dunsdale last week a local angler creeled 15 nice fish on the fly. He reports the river as being exceptionally low for this time of the year and also states that the weed and slime are very bad, the river requiring .a good "fresh" to clear it out. The following is the result of th'e "bare fly" competition held under the auspices of the Mataura Angling Club on Labour Dav

TRIAN GTJLAR CLUB COMPEllTION. We hear that the annual Shield Competition between- fourmen teams representing the Southland, Mataura, and Wyndham A.C.'s respectively, will Se

decided in all probabfliu „ , iOth Novemher. Thi/ ° of the Oreti, i„ k ^ ft. Invercargill, are to be ti,. ' "'-x i contestants' finesse and skiii th, iine. r,l(i ^ Wyndham Club are J holders. ShiJ Wyndham's team is 'u Mitchell, A. Udy, G Strar» l with Mesarg G. Bosoe "d Cfor emergencies. • 1 BIG HAUL 0F TRORx The second competition 0{ th season promoted by Wyndham Oub took place on Wednesdav ; October 20th. The conditien, N fairly favourahle, were not blustering sou'-wester interferi^ ^ ' best-laid schemes of the There was an entry of 12 "time" was called in Qr '. /h* Rooms, at 9 o'clock 10 ! , weighed in. The count showed Zit aggregate number of fish tallied wi, nnmber 134 brought along to ij' opening competition on 1st fari ' J] total weight this time was ffiliv , J ' heavier 1141b 13ozs to 941bg 40J 5 J ; of the fish were In prime condittor, J Gerald Bogue produced the heaviest fish— scaling 3^1bs. The foflowing f result of the weigh-in:- ^

It was a competition govemed by sealed handicaps ; and so soon as . "weight adjusting" was over, the following were an. nounced as the prizetakers:— Caldwell (plus 10 p.c.), 21lU 7 2-5oa 1 Udy (scratch), 171bs 5ozs i Barnett (plus 100 p.c.), 161bs 8ozs ... j The other handicapps were :— Mitchell (scratch), Strang (10 p.c.), King (20 p.c.),

Young (25 p.c.), Bogue (30 p.c.), Aitka and Macpherson (50 p.c.). The formal proceedmgs over, the fnr> plus fish were distributed among honmemhers of the club. The Southland Angling Club held toi initial competition on Labour Day, and some twelve anglers weighed in aiter their strenuous efforts with rod and line. Th) conditions were any legal bait on any river in the Southland Acclimatiaatlon 1 district, Some very good bags were caught, and the following is the final result, after the handicaps and conditifM were taken into consideration.

Name. No. of Fish. Weight. lbs. ozs. D. Cameron 51 39 4 H. Cotter ell 37 29 4 D. McGowan 22 17 J. Murdoch ... ... 21 13 4 131 98 12

W. Murdoch 14 § 4 R. McLean ... g 4 20 14 4

Novice Competition.

Competitor. No. Fish. Lbs Dave Caldwell 21 19 ' , Allan Udy 21 17 . John E. Mitchell ... 18 ' 15 jj j George Strang 12 y ^ Gerald Bogue 10 p Allan Young ,5 g ^ Peter Barnett 12 g ^ Chas. King 15 8 A. A. Aitken 9 8 ^ J. B. Macpherson ... 10 6 g 134 114 13

Name. No of Fish. Weight. lbs. om, R.. Sinclair (Dipton) ... 50 36 0 W. Steel (Invercargill) ... 30 IS 6 J. Ogilivy (Lumsden) ... 13 W ' W. Brown (Winton) ..30 H u

A. W. McBean 24 18 » 11. Kelly ® N. R. MacKay 29 H. A. Lyons » . A. Branks ... » » | H. Hammond „ A. Macdonald 8 t ' W. Jenkins 20 312 211 5

Other Competitors.