



50 DOVE DALE REVISITED 



takeable. I am aware that the Trent Conserv- 

 ancy Board, who are supposed to conserve the 

 main river and its tributaries, are, or" ought to 

 be, very strict in their enforcement of the law 

 as to the close time for trout from and after 

 October 2nd; but my own experience, and that of 

 the other anglers whom I have met here, is that 

 that date is unnecessarily early. All the trout 

 taken by us were in perfect condition, and if the 

 close time for trout had been Octo"ber i5th in- 

 stead of October 2nd, I am sure that I should 

 have had a different story to tell. I suppose it 

 may be taken for granted that trout in the same 

 river do not all spawn at' the same time some are 

 early, some late, and some barren. Of course, 

 it is at all times a thrilling and pleasant sensa- 

 tion to have a struggle with a big trout, even 

 when he rises to your grayling fly, and the gray- 

 ling are sulking on the bottom, but one's pleasure 

 is just a little modified by the pain one cannot 

 avoid inflicting on the trout in extracting the 

 hook, and the grief one cannot help feeling in 

 parting with him by consigning him to his native 

 element instead of to one's bag. 



" Well, Mr. Painter \ " says Angler, in " The 

 River Dove," " What say you now to my Dove ?" 



