THAMES TROUT-FISHING. 411 



of the water is too strong for any but the most athletic sculler. 

 Moreover, the various societies which have taken part in the 

 preservation of the river have given special attention to keeping 

 up and in some cases getting up the stock of trout. What 

 remains yet to be done for the better attainment of these objects 

 I shall try to show towards the end of this paper. For the 

 present, I will at once address myself to the ways and means 

 of capturing Thames trout which my own experience has 

 recommended to me. 



I ought however at the outset to make two admissions 

 which will go far to ' disable my judgment ' in the eyes of many 

 skilful London anglers. My experience is ' ancient ' as well as 

 'fish-like,' having been acquired almost wholly in the years 

 from 1844 to 1854 inclusive. I have, it is true, twice within 

 the last few years tried my old casts with the fly for a few 

 hours, and both times with success, but I have ' lost touch ' of 

 many parts of the river with which I was once familiar. Again, 

 I can only claim to have known well the trouting capacities of 

 the river between Pangbourne and Bray Weir, and have but a 

 general knowledge of those lower reaches in svhich the trout 

 are heaviest and most highly educated. 



There was a story current some thirty years ago of a gentle- 

 man who took boat at Chertsey for his first day's assault on 

 these wary giants, and favoured by weather or water or that 

 mysterious power called ' luck ' brought home two noble trout, 

 'the likes' of which he had never seen. He lost no time in 

 leasing a Thames-side villa, the hall of which he already beheld 

 in his mind's eyes decorated with a goodly array of similar 

 water-trophies. But during a two-years' tenancy he never 

 killed another Thames trout. 



Similar experiences, however, were not unknown in what I 

 may call the ' middle waters,' my own special beat. I could 

 mention men well-known in the angling world who were con- 

 stantly baffled in their attempts to secure a trout from Father 

 Thames. I shall never forget the reply made to me by a dear 

 friend and sporting companion of my own beyond question a 



