HOW TO MAKE TROUT-FISHING 



the total of fish taken was the lowest recorded, viz. 2002. 

 The main factor in redeeming the fishery from its low estate 

 has been the systematic measures taken to put down pike. 

 Mr. Malloch took over the management in 1908 ; the pike 

 destroyed in that year were numbered by the thousand. In 

 the twelve months ending in September 191 2 only fifteen pike 

 were accounted for. 



Of the 49,044 trout taken in the season 1912, 13,166 were 

 landed by 2052 anglers fishing in club competitions, leaving 

 35,878 as the booty of those in pursuit of fair sport, untinged 

 by any mercenary consideration. One very satisfactory feature 

 in the case is that, whereas in former years minnow-fishing 

 was much in vogue on Loch Leven, that inartistic and (as I 

 think) reprehensible device has become the exception, as it 

 ought to be in a lake so manifestly suitable for fly-fishing. 



The moral of all this is that, if sagacious management has 

 so largely increased the natural resources of Loch Leven as 

 to render it capable of providing excellent sport for thousands 

 of anglers, similar measures applied to other waters would 

 produce like results, and thereby much might be done to 

 satisfy the demand for trout-fishing with which all good sports- 

 men ought to sympathise, and which, if neglected, may give 

 some trouble in the future. I could name a score of towns in 

 Scotland in the near neighbourhood of which there are waters 

 worthless through neglect, which could be turned into ex- 

 cellent fisheries if properly taken in hand and treated. 



In the clear chalk streams of southern England pike are 

 certainly not indigenous. Doubtless they owe their presence 



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