4 FLIES AND FLY FISHING. 



2ndly The great pollution of rivers by mills and 



sewerage. 

 3rdly That from the above reasons trout are scarce. 



4thly From the number of fishermen in the present 

 day having so much increased, all waters that 

 are not quite private property are so continually 

 flogged, that fish never rise very well. 



During the last ten years, I have fished a very large 

 number of rivers in England, Wales, and Scotland, and 

 am convinced that poaching is everywhere carried on, 

 and that, very often, poaching of the worst description. 

 Preservation, when it is not most thoroughly carried out, 

 is an encouragement to the poacher, for he expects greater 

 gains from preserved water, and the fish are also more 

 collected in it. The poacher of the present day is, in 

 general, quite a different stamp of man from the old hand, 

 who was most probably an enthusiast about fishing, and 

 poached a bit at odd times, when he could get a ready 

 sale for a brace or so of fish. The present man does not 

 often work for himself, but is furnished with tools, such as 

 nets, etc., by some scoundrel in one of the large towns. 

 This hired poacher's plan is to stop at one of the small 

 secluded beershops all day and sally forth at night in 

 gangs of three or four, to do the netting. They hand 

 over the fish taken to some one sent by their employer, 



