HOW TO MAKE TROUT-FISHING 



The fact is that, despite all the accidents of frost and flood, 

 all the risks from predaceous foes to which salmon are exposed 

 at all stages of their growth, the number of fry produced by 

 the ordinary process of nature from a good stock of breeders 

 is so enormous that the output of any hatchery can be hardly 

 appreciable in comparison. Nobody, I think, who has watched 

 the descent of smolts in May over the shallows of a well-stocked 

 salmon river can entertain much doubt upon that matter. 

 Why, a flock of herring gulls, allowed to collect on one of these 

 shallows when the smolts are moving, will devour in a single 

 day as much as a well-regulated hatchery can produce in a 

 year. Moreover, the injury done by disturbing and stripping 

 spawning salmon in order to replenish the hatchery can hardly 

 be calculated. I feel convinced that far more fruitful results 

 might be attained if the money and labour spent on hatcheries 

 were applied to the eflFective protection of salmon on their 

 natural spawning grounds, to the netting of pike in the still 

 reaches of such rivers where these pirates abound, and to 

 vigilant watching of all the principal fords and shallows during 

 the descent of the smolts in order to scare away seagulls. The 

 precaution last mentioned I have never seen put in force ; 

 but the immense increase of seagulls in consequence of the 

 Wild Birds Protection Acts renders it oj prime importance to 

 the welfare of the fishery. The number of beautiful silvery 

 smolts devoured by these insatiable birds can hardly be cal- 

 culated, and can only be imagined, by one who has watched 

 them at work. To protect these fords and shallows will 

 certainly entail some expense, for watch must be kept during 



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