88 ANGLING. 



taken when the sun begins to air the water. If you hook 

 a trout keep a hold on him, but don't be too rough; 

 remember that the stream is sharp, the fish heavy, and the 

 hooks (mostly) small ; and beware of pulling at him when 

 he is head to you down stream, as that is how six trout 

 in ten are lost. If you are fishing in open water keep 

 below him if you can. If you are fishing a weir, always, 

 if possible, have your boat below it, and having hooked the 

 fish drop into your boat and hand your rod down, and, if 

 you can, get your fish out of the rough water. One never 

 knows what there may be in the eddies of a weir, but 

 weirs under the new management are not so much in 

 favour with trout as of old. The old weirs always had a 

 plank apron at the foot, under which the fish rooted and 

 burrowed for often yards in extent. They were splendid 

 trout lodgings. These are all done away with, and 

 concrete and stone, which would not give a hiding place to 

 a minnow, stand in place of them. This, with the filling 

 of deep holes, the pulling out of old stumps, the abolition 

 of old campshots, and the destruction of spawning beds by 

 dredging, has much injured the Thames generally as a 

 big-trout river. The houses and homes and the nurseries 

 are gone, and the fish with them. You may keep on 

 breeding trout by the thousand, but you will have no more 

 good trout in your water than you have homes for. 



My tackle, shown at Fig. 2, Plate 2, is, I consider, the 

 very best invention for Thames trout, as it spins a small 

 dace beautifully, keeps him in condition for a long time, 

 and is very unobtrusive to the view ; and if the big tail 

 hook does chance to get on, good bye to Trouty ; unless 

 there is a flaw in the gut he will have to come ashore. As 

 I have already said, the directions I have given for pike 

 spinning answer here. 



