CHAPTER YI. 



TEE THAMES TROUT 



Habits and Haunts — Some Likely Flies — Fly-fishing— Spinning 

 — Live-haiting — A New Tackle. 



HAMES TROUT grow to a great size, and 

 much resemble salmon or sea trout in colour- 

 ing. Specimens over 201b. in weight have 

 been taken, and a season rarely passes 

 without the capture of one weighing 101b. 

 or 121b. It is illegal to kill them under 

 16in. in length. Owing to the vast num- 

 bers of what I may term foreign trout 

 which have been turned into the river, the angler may catch five 

 foreigners before he brings to creel one native. But there is no 

 doubt that the trout introduced into the Thames from Guildford, 

 Howietoun, High Wycombe, and other places, in time put on 

 silver livery and lose their red spots. Trout, I am glad to say, 

 are, without doubt, steadily increasing in the Thames, and in 

 the course of a few more years the fishing should be very good 

 indeed. An association which I formed some years ago for the 

 preservation of a portion of the river has turned in not less 

 than 100,000 trout, varying in size from fry to fish of 21b. Of 

 course, the great majority of these were fry which, in my 

 opinion, were far too small to turn into a river like the Thames. 

 Trout are found in all parts of the river, but are most numerous 

 in what I may term the Middle Thames, between Pangbourne 

 and Maidenhead. 



