38 TROUT-FISHING IN BROOKS 



will remember the above. I have to add that no 

 attempt should be made to net a trout until it is 

 thoroughly exhausted. In playing a good brook 

 trout it is important to allow it as little line as 

 possible. To quote Francis Francis, " Give it out 

 as if it cost a guinea a yard " ; the obvious 

 reason being that so innumerable are the ob- 

 stacles, as old stumps, drooping briars, roots, 

 etc., for which the trout is sure to make, letting 

 him go, as in a river, would in a confined stream 

 court disaster. To obviate this, as far as may be, 

 it is well to walk down and keep up a steady 

 strain, following the fish and trying to keep it in 

 hand by butting it away from danger-points. In 

 doing this, I always keep the left hand on the reel 

 line, pulling in or letting go line as occasion 

 demands, which I prefer to reel work, but I may 

 not recommend it, though I find it a convenient 

 plan. 



Although I said in my introduction that trout 

 of 4 oz. are quite common, it is equally true that a 

 vast number under this weight will be hooked 

 even in meadowland brooks ; a remark which, 

 by the way, also applies to many rivers. But, 

 compared with the latter, it is hardly necessary 

 to say that a brook, with its small limits, cannot 

 produce fish-life to anything like the same extent, 



