274 THE COMMON TROUT DESCRIBED. 



dish of trout,* you will see it every day of the 

 year at Chatsworth, in Landseer's c Bolton Abbey 

 in the Olden Time.' Trout should never be taken 

 by the angler from September f to March. In 

 the intervening months they are either spawning 

 or out of condition. I never saw a trout in prime 

 season before May. In June trout are in their 

 best condition. 



In the spring months trout are found in the 

 shallows and rough streams ; in the summer 

 months they seek deeper water, and the best fish 

 are then caught in pools with the fly or worm, on 

 gloomy breezy days, when the water's surface is 

 strongly ruffled. They are also found in whirl- 

 pools and holes into which sharps and shallows 

 fall, and near to locks, flood-gates, rocks, large 

 stones, weirs, under bridges, or between two streams 



* The trout of the Wandle, particularly those of the mill-tails, 

 are model fish. Though thick, they are not burly, and they 

 convey to my mind the best idea of a brook trout. Those 

 that feed under the cover of trees, or lie perdus under banks or 

 artificial hides ' during sunshine, are darkly brown, and yellow ; 

 those that frequent the unshaded streams, with clear sandy 

 bottoms, are of a silvery hue : they are, however, of the same 

 family, though one be ebon and the other pearl-hued. Night 

 and morning are children of day. 



f In my opinion, trout should not be taken after the month 

 of July. Many of them then are big with spawn, and the eggs 

 of the earliest spawners are always the most prolific, for the 

 process of incubation is less injured by frost and floods, and 

 other winter casualties. The trout season ought to be fixed 

 from the 1st of April to the 1st of August. 



