102 FLY FISHING AND SPINNING 



the drawbacks of the day, and your going on to ask 

 what should be done with the fish you caught did 

 I want them, or should they be returned to the water ? 

 etc., and my response that, personally, I had always 

 found it safer to catch the fish before disposing of 

 them. Then when at the river side, do you remember 

 how you began catching fish almost immediately, 

 and kept on doing so during the remainder of the 

 afternoon ? and, if I remember rightly, your total 

 mounted up to some forty-five (or forty-seven, was 

 it?)* 



" How clearly I recall the lovely clear running 

 stream, and your figure on the water. I had many 

 anglers then, but do not remember anyone who came 

 near to that record day of yours, and it ever comes 

 first to my memory when I think of my fishing days. 

 Certainly, though living on the water, I never came 

 near such figures myself, and should not think many 

 better records existed on the Itchen. 

 " Sincerely yours, 



" G. R. BRYANT." 



Perhaps I may be forgiven for putting in so eulogistic 

 a reference to myself, but I am certain that to the majority 

 of my readers it may recall the delights of similar happy 

 days, and in any case it tends to show how the pleasant 

 memories of such times linger in the minds of fishermen 

 even when they are at last compelled to lay down their 

 rod and creel. 



A river, then, which can support such a wonderful 

 number of wild fish is eminently suited for trout rearing, 

 and the trout which are reared at Lower Chilland breeding 

 pounds fully establish the advantages which I claim for 

 such a method. There are probably not many rivers in 



* My friend is correct as to the number of the fish ; all but nine of these fish 

 were returned to the river or placed in the stock pounds. The keeper's estimate 

 of the weight of the fish was that they averaged i| Ibs. 



