28 THE PRACTICAL ANGLER 



thin the trout in any stream, however prolific it 

 may be. 



Fair rod-fishing will never seriously injure a stream. 

 Of this Gala Water affords an excellent illustration. 

 The favourite resort of anglers from Edinburgh, it is, 

 or used to be, fished during the angling season by 

 about thirty anglers daily, and supposing they only 

 average two pounds each, it implies the capture of 

 an immense quantity of trout. It also suffers as 

 much from nets as any tributary of the Tweed, and 

 yet in those parts where nets cannot be successfully 

 wrought trout are still numerous. Nor are they by 

 any means contemptible in size ; in this respect they 

 will bear comparison with any of the other tributaries 

 of Tweed open to the public. We once took with 

 the minnow, between Bowland and Stow, twenty 

 trout, the whole we got that day, which weighed 

 fifteen pounds, and we never got such a large average 

 size of trout in any of the other tributaries of the 

 Tweed, or even in Tweed itself. 



There are not by any means too many anglers ; on 

 the contrary, our Scottish waters would accommodate, 

 if properly distributed, twenty times as many as 

 there now are. Tweed and its tributaries alone 

 would, giving each plenty of water to himself, ac- 

 commodate several thousands every day during the 

 season. 



Much fishing, besides to a certain extent thinning 

 the trout, operates against the angler's killing large 

 takes by making the remaining trout more wary ; 

 and it is more from this cause than from the scarcity 



