244 ELEMENTS OF ANGLING. 



is fast destroying them. So glorious is the freedom 

 there, that there is not as yet even a close season 

 for breeding fish enforced, and though public 

 feeling is changing with regard to this, there still 

 appears to be a considerable number of local wise- 

 acres who do not see any necessity for such a thing. 

 Unless Broadland gets a close season very soon, 

 the fishing there will cease to be a thing of any 

 account. 



For these reasons I strongly advise the novice 

 not to depend on free fishing, but to join some 

 society or other which has fishing of its own. Club 

 waters, of course, are not the best waters ; they are 

 too much fished to provide the cream of sport. As 

 a rule, however, they are very well managed and 

 yield a surprising number of fish every year. Well- 

 considered rules governing the size and number of 

 fish to be taken, efficient keepering, and judicious 

 restocking can do w r onders for even a hard-fished 

 water. The subscription varies from a few shillings 

 in some provincial society up to twenty pounds or 

 more in one of the select clubs which rent really 

 good water, clubs like the Driffield, Dorchester, 

 Wilton or Leintwardine, which fish respectively the 

 Driffield Beck, the Frome, the Wylye and the Teme. 

 These, and a few more like them, are by no means 

 easy to get into ; a man has, as a rule, to put his 



