26 THE THAMES ANGLER. 



in a great measure, I believe, to the exertions of the Thames 

 Angling Preservation Society, which has been unremitting in 

 its endeavours to put down poaching; and of which Society- 

 some account will be found towards the end of the book. The 

 Trout varies very much in form, colour, and flavour, in different 

 rivers, and sometimes even in the same piece of water varieties 

 may be met with. They spawn about October and November, 

 and come into season about April, being in perfection in May 

 and June, and continuing so till September. All Trout have 

 their haunts and homes, generally under a large stone, or trunk 

 of a tree, especially at a mill-tail. Each fish has his regular 

 run of water, and seldom goes into his neighbours' preserve ; 

 they will remain a long time in the same place. Mr. Blakey 

 mentions one that never moved for ten weeks ; he tried every 

 bait, but could never get him to look at any one ; soon a 

 flood came and the fish departed. I remember, in 1852, a 

 Trout under the centre arch of the bridge at Geneva; he was 

 there for ten days, I left and travelled through Switzerland and 

 Italy, and at the end of eight weeks, when I returned, I found 

 him there still. 



The Thames produces, I believe, the largest freshwater Trout 

 in England, with the exception perhaps of the Driffield river ; 

 but the number of Trout in the Thames is so small, and 

 the store of patience required so great, that I am afraid I 

 cannot recommend the beginner to expend much time in fishing 

 for them ; although the more initiated, and those residing on the 

 spot, will be amply repaid for their perseverance, as one fish 

 caught in a weir or sharp stream will afford glorious sport, and 

 I doubt if even a professed salmon fisher would despise the 

 efforts of one of our ten-pound Thames Trouts to regain his 

 liberty. As an encouragement to those who require it, I need 

 only refer them to the walls of some of the inns on the banks 

 of the Thames from Teddington upwards. 



Spinning commences about the beginning of April, but even 

 earlier if the weather be warm. As I have before mentioned, 

 nothing will be said of fly fishing, for although Thames Trout 

 are occasionally caught with a fly, this is of such rare occurrence, 

 as to render any list of flies to be used for them perfectly useless. 

 It may perhaps not be out of place here to observe that in the 

 Thames, bottom fishing commences on the 1st of June, and 

 lasts till the 1st of March ; and during the other months, which 



