4 Fly Fishing for Salmon, 



ends the 4th of September. They (the salmon) bear 

 a most extravagant price in the London markets, 

 having been sold at twelve shillings a pound ; 

 eight shillings and half a guinea a pound is fre- 

 quently given for the whole fish together, and the 

 average price is five shillings ; although the quality 

 is probably equalled in other rivers, and there is so 

 little other excellence in the fish beyond their being 

 caught so near the metropolis, and not losing their 

 flavour by long carriage before they are brought to 

 table ; to be eaten in perfection salmon cannot be 

 too fresh." 



The late Mr. Buckland (" Familiar History of 

 British Fishes ") gives a list of the number of 

 salmon caught in the Thames from 1794 to 1822, 

 amounting to 483, of the weight of 7,3464^ lbs. This 

 record was kept at Boulter's Lock, near Maiden- 

 head, and the Rev. G. Venables, who furnishes this 

 account, says, " If this journal had been begun 

 about twenty years earlier, say about 1774, our 

 figures would have been much higher, both in 

 respect to number of fish, and likewise weight." 

 He also says that his father, in 1780, caught up- 

 wards of fifty salmon in the reach of the Thames 

 opposite Cleevedon Spring. The same gentleman 

 has heard his father say that he remembers seeing 

 one Hobbs take twenty salmon in one haul in a 

 net in Chelsea Reach, and that £Zqo a year was 



