i6o SOUTH COUNTRY TROUT STREAMS 



Tainar, as well as in most of the tributaries, but 

 they run small. A basket of, say, five dozen fish, 

 weighing about 15 lbs., would be regarded as one 

 of the best of the season, though I am told that 

 trout up to i^. lbs., and even 2 lbs., have been occa- 

 sionally taken, especially in the stretches of the 

 Tamar below Launceston. A correspondent writes 

 to me — " Years ago, when I was young, fish in 

 the beautiful Tamar were plentiful " — he is speaking 

 of the lower water — " and they were then often called 

 the glittering or golden trout, owing to the bright 

 marks on their backs, which shone out most dis- 

 tinctly when they were ' grid-ironed ' — the Cornish 

 method of cooking them." Another correspondent 

 compares the Tamar, in regard both to the country 

 through which it flows and its trout, to the River 

 VVatach in the Black Forest. 



Fly fishing is general on the Tamar and its upper 

 tributaries, and the artificials recommended are the 

 February red, March brown, grannam, hawthorn, 

 palmers. Maxwell blue, and blue and silver. Salmon 

 and salmon-peel were formerly always found in the 

 stream in the winter months, but their numbers 

 seem to have much diminished. They come up 

 too late for angling purposes. Dace are plentiful 

 in the Tamar. 



Turner was well acquainted with some of the 

 finest scenery on the Tamar, which he painted in 

 his Crossing the Brook. The river drains one of 

 the largest areas of any river flowing into the 

 English Channel — namely, 600 square miles. The 

 Exe drains an area of 645, and the (Chiistchurch) 

 Avon an area of 673 square miles. 



The Tavy, which contains some salmon-peel and 

 salmon, in addition to trout, rises at Cranmere 



