Fly Fishing for Salmon. 5 



paid to one net-maker alone in Fenchurch Street for 

 salmon nets for the River Thames. Mr. Venables' 

 father also records that he caught a salmon in the 

 Buck Pool on the 26th June, 1793, weighing 42 Ibs., 

 length, 4 ft. I in. Yarrell (" History of British 

 Fishes," vol. ii., p. 20) says, " On October 3rd, 

 1812, at Shepperton Deeps, Mr. G. Marshall, of 

 Brewer Street, London, caught and killed a salmon 

 with a single gut, without a landing net, that weighed 

 21 Ibs. 4 oz., but no mention is made as to the lure, 

 whether by worm, minnow, or fly. We may reason- 

 ably conclude that many of the salmon here re- 

 corded were taken in nets; indeed, Mr. Venables 

 states that a great many were taken in the Eel 

 Bucks. 



Up to the year 1822, therefore, plenty of salmon 

 frequented the Thames ; since then they have 

 gradually and entirely disappeared, and it seems 

 that no method of culture is able to bring them 

 back again. What is the reason ? The pollution of 

 the water is not sufficient to account for it. The 

 salmon run up to the upper waters of the Clyde 

 and the Liffey, and nothing can be worse in the 

 shape of pollution by sewers than the Clyde at 

 Glasgow and the Liffey at Dublin. However, 

 when Izaak Walton wrote his " Complete Angler," 

 salmon were as plentiful in the Thames as they are 

 now in the Tweed. It may be doubted, indeed, 



