48 TROUT FISHING 



they spawn later, and consequently do not get 

 over the sickly condition which naturally ensues 

 during and after the breeding time. In these 

 later streams, although the fish is not in a healthy 

 condition for sport, and in good plight of body 

 for the table so early in the year, he yet is pleasing 

 to the sportsman and agreeable to the gourmand 

 proportionally later in the season. Trout, as 

 autumn approaches (and in North Devon streams, 

 about the months of August and September), 

 begin to prepare for the propagation of their 

 species, and in order to obtain places best adapted 

 for hatching their spawn, where, indeed, it is 

 least disturbed, and most likely to obtain the re- 

 quisite supply of natural elements, run away from 

 their old feeding grounds in the larger streams, 

 and repair to the smaller branches; 1 here they 

 remain some time, till the necessity for depositing 

 their spawn induces them, usually in October, to 

 seek the narrowest brooks and streamlets, and 

 here they remain watching their spawn and young 

 till the following spring, when they gradually 

 descend again to larger waters ; as yet enfeebled 

 by the late demands on their bodies, unable to 

 resist the powerful rapid, they prefer the more 

 still and quiet places, where, with the least 

 1 This assertion may seem to require proof. The best 

 I can advance, and from which I draw the conclusion, is 

 the gradual emptying of the bigger and at the same time 

 proportional filling of the lesser streams in the Autumn. 

 The rule of migration is believed to be generally true, 

 but not universally necessary to trout, as is the case for 

 example with salmon. 



