ii8 SOUTH COUNTRY TROUT STREAMS 



alone is permitted, and wading is only allowed 

 provided the fisherman keeps close in to the banks. 

 This last rule is a most wise one. Nothing is more 

 unsportsmanlike than indiscriminate wading in 

 chalk streams, which often disturbs the water and 

 sets down rising trout for hours. The season on 

 the club water begins on April ist and ends on 

 September 30th, and the angling hours are 6 A.M. 

 to 9 P.M. The club has six miles of the Frome, 

 three above and three below the town. The trout, 

 which are mostly pale coloured in flesh, run from 

 f lb. to 2J lbs., while now and then a bigger one is 

 taken on this river, and I have a record of one 

 weighing as much as 7 lbs,, taken in September, 

 1897. Dry and wet fly fishing are both practised 

 on the Frome, but the former is far the more 

 successful method, as the trout are shy and hard 

 to deceive. 



Of the flies the olive dun is the favourite, as it is, 

 and well deserves to be, on so many dry fly waters. 

 The stream has not been much restocked, but it is 

 well preserved, and its pike are fortunately few in 

 number. The other coarse fish are roach and dace, 

 and these are far from numerous. Salmon and 

 sea trout formerly used to go up the Frome in 

 considerable numbers, but, being taken out of 

 season, they greatly dwindled. More stringent 

 regulations have now been put into force to pre- 

 vent this barbarous practice. The tide, when high, 

 flows three miles above Warcham to Holme Bridge. 

 The Frome has a Fishery District, which includes 

 all streams flowing into the sea between Portland 

 Bill and the Hampshire boundary. 



The Ccrne, a nice chalk stream, joins the Frome 

 at Dorchester. It rises near Minterne Magna and 



