AN ANGLER'S PARADISE [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Siu,—As an old New Zealand settler and a keen fisherman, I have read with great interest the article on An Angler's Paradise, by " F. W. W." About salmon I know nothing, their successful debut having been quite recent, and I have not been in N.Z. since 1917.
In that year, however, I spent some happy weeks at Taupo fishing at river mouths in the great lake. The hotel was full of fishermen, who all agreed that the day of great fish there was past and that a five-pounder was a very lucky catch. The general opinion was that the fish there and at Rotorua had eaten out the crayfish and other food once so abundant, and that now the bigger fish had to prey on the small ones, who lived on minute life. Anyway, I neither took nor heard of anything over 5 lbs., though 10 years before I had caught 14-pounders in less celebrated N.Z. fishing lakes.
"F. W. W.'? says that in a recent season one man had caught 261 fish at Taupo, averaging 81 lbs., in a month, and that another in a few days last year caught numerous rainbows weighing from 161 down to 8 lbs.
I conclude that either the trout fishing at Taupo has been magnificently revolutionized or that the writer has had his leg pulled. The other records_ of huge catches and great fish are quite credible, but have no bearing on the present state of things without the dates: Undated statements may be exceed- ingly mislcarling and do harm to the sporting reputation of a most delightful land.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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