42 FLY FISHING AND SPINNING 



imposed on any water should vary in accordance with the 

 condition of its three-year-old fish. The limit should not, 

 I think, be as regards weight or size, but rather as regards the 

 age of the fish, either a three-year-old or a four-year-old fish 

 being creelable, as the case may be. Thus, if the three-year- 

 old fish of a certain year ran from f Ib. to well over 1 Ib. the 

 limit should be f Ib., the limit to be determined by the 

 length. It should not be necessary to weigh such fish. 



When a weight limit is enforced, however, a small muslin 

 bag should be carried, into which, after it has been wetted, 

 the trout can be dropped, and then weighed on a pocket 

 spring balance, but even this method causes prejudicial 

 handling and a longer detention from the water. If then, 

 the owners of the water, or the Committee of the Fishing 

 Club, would give a few minutes' consideration to the probable 

 length attained by their three-year-old fish each year, and 

 select a size covering the greater number of such three-year- 

 old fish, they would, while preventing the two-year-old fish 

 from being killed, give themselves, or their friends, or 

 members, better sport prevent the appearance of so many 

 discoloured fish, and thin out the fish of three years' growth 

 whose presence is least desired, i.e., those fish whose growth 

 shows them to be of weaker character than the rest of their 

 own year's hatch. 



Some time ago, when designing the first " Fred. G. 

 Shaw" rod I instructed Messrs. Hardy Bros, to make the 

 lower whippings of the butt-joint exactly one inch apart, 

 and to number them from one upward to fifteen. If then 

 the limit be one of size, the fish directly it is lifted from 

 the water can be held up by the wetted, gloved hand, to 

 the marking on the rod, and if found to be short of the limit 

 can be returned to the water without delay. 



Unless great care in the handling of a f Ib. trout be 

 observed, it is far better, I consider, that it should be creeled 



