288 TROUT FISHING 



another that due care should be taken in unhooking 

 and handling any trout which is not to be kept. 

 Perhaps a third might be that it is undesirable to 

 fish consciously for trout which have recently been 

 turned in, even though they do not come quite 

 within the category of small ones. Where a size- 

 limit is, say, twelve inches and the new stock fish run 

 up to eleven inches, the temptation to see sizeable 

 trout rising everywhere is considerable. It may 

 perhaps be considered absurd to suggest differentia- 

 tion between a stock fish of eleven inches and an old 

 inhabitant of about the same size, but the feat is 

 not difficult really while the stock fish are new to the 

 water, which is the period that matters. There is 

 no mistaking their splashy and " unfinished " way 

 of rising after one has studied it a little. I admit, 

 however, that abstinence may be a hard doctrine. 

 The stock fish will display themselves when no other 

 fish are rising and the angler always hopes for the 

 best! 



Trout are worth careful treatment while they are 

 alive, and they are also worth careful treatment 

 when they are dead death by the way should be 

 administered promptly when the fish has been 

 landed, before even the fly has been extracted. Two 

 or three smart taps on the back of the head, given 

 with a small weighted stick or even the end of a 

 spring balance, will do what is required as they are, 



