FLIES AND FLY FISHING. O 



and are, I believe, usually paid according to the amount 

 of fish. The small fines given as a punishment for this 

 offence by most magistrates are not the slightest use in 

 checking it. 



There is also great poaching carried on in the neigh- 

 bourhood of all watering places, or any other summer 

 resort of visitors, by men on their own hook. The hotels 

 and lodging-house keepers, or the visitors themselves, buy 

 fish ; and the poacher finds he can always obtain at least 

 one shilling a pound for trout or grayling. 



Another dreadful evil is having the brooks poisoned, a 

 constant, and in several cases a yearly occurrence now-a- 

 days. If the delinquents are caught (which if a sufficient 

 reward is offered they sometimes can be) they ought to be 

 most heavily punished, even by those magistrates whose 

 maxim is : fish poaching no crime. It is a dastardly 

 act as bad as firing ricks and utterly destroys every 

 living thing in the water. It will most probably be asked 

 how has this sort of poaching arisen, and what are the 

 water-keepers about ? The principal reason is the great 

 demand for and great facility of disposing of fish now, in 

 comparison to what there was formerly. The poacher of 

 some years ago was fond of rod-fishing, and as there was 

 generally some free water he could always fish legally 



