FOR PLEASURE AND PROFIT. 13 



possible after they have spawned they should be netted out 

 and replaced in the water whence they came. This can easily 

 be done if the redds are properly formed or wisely chosen, and, 

 as I have said, easily get-at-able from either bank. In most 

 cases the fish will drop down stream and be found in the lower 

 water right against the screen, and the 1 job is then simplified ; 

 often enough, indeed, one need only lift the screen and the fish 

 will, of their own accord, bolt into the lake or river. Under 

 these latter circumstances be careful to replace the screen at 

 once, and make sure that no other fish run up to the redds. 

 From the time that a sufficiency of eggs has been spawned 

 until the fry are allowed to escape ait will a matter dealt with 

 in the chaipter on stocking the- screens must be kept in 

 position; ; the principal reason for this being the necessity of 

 keeping other fish from, intruding on the redds, for if they ara 

 allowed to do so they will assuredly root among the good 

 eggs, probably eat them, or, at least, dot something objection- 

 able. Their idea is to spawn themselves, and, as they are 

 later, and probably in other ways- less desirable fish, you do not 

 want them. Moreover, often enough these late fish visit the 

 redds with the one and only object of eating the eggs. Later 

 cm, the alevins and fry would suffer in a similar manner from 

 the same cause. 



The two next matters that concern us are the answers to 

 two questions that most probably have occurred to your mind : 

 When is a trcut well matured ? and what constitutes a suffi- 

 ciency of eggs? Well, an ordinary British brown trout arrives 

 a,t maturity in its third year, but the best eggs are obtained 

 from it in the fourth, fifth, and sixth years. The size of the 

 fish varies considerably in different waters, but, speaking 

 generally, it is not worth while to protect the eggs of fish of 

 less than one pound in weight, and a pound and a half or a 

 two^pounder fish is to be preferred. After the seventh year the 

 eggs deteriorate in value, and it may be generally relied on 

 that very old spawners you will soon learn to tell them are 

 as useless as very young fish. You must have some knowledge of 

 the fish in the particular water you are interested in before 



