154 TROUT FISHING 



though it does not succeed so well with the six- 

 pounders, of which there must be some left. 



I have never caught a really big trout with the 

 worm myself, but I have had occasional three- 

 pounders when perch fishing. I remember travelling 

 down for a day with the Kennet perch in October, 

 and being rewarded with but a solitary bite, from a 

 trout of over three pounds, and a similar thing has 

 happened to me more than once. People who 

 only fish for trout do not know the experience of 

 returning three-pounders with revilings. I would 

 much sooner not get a bite at all than be tantalised 

 in that way. This brings me to a point on which I 

 want to touch. The large trout has, except in waters 

 which are much fished in that way, a disconcertingly 

 wholesale method of dealing with a worm. He just 

 swallows it. If you want to return him the only 

 thing to do is to cut the gut off as short as possible 

 and let him go. If you injure him by trying to 

 disgorge the hook he dies. I think a trout dies if 

 he bleeds at all on being unhooked. The only 

 safeguard that I know is never to use a single hook 

 in coarse fishing where there are trout. Use two 

 hooks, Pennell fashion, about two or two and a 

 half inches apart, and strike as soon as you get a 

 bite. Then you will almost always hook any fish in 

 the mouth and there will be no swallowing. It is 

 a decided advantage for perch as well as trout. 



