172 



THE COMPLETE AKGLER. 



[PART i. 



will, by your favour, say a little of the umber or grayling ; 

 which is so like a trout for his shape and feeding, that I 

 desire I may exercise your patience with a short discourse 

 of him ; an'd, then, the next shall be of the salmon. 



ence in a spike, screwed into the end of the butt of your rod : when you 

 have struck a fish, retire backwards from the river, and, by means of the 

 spike, stick the rod perpendicular in the ground ; you may then lay hold of 

 the line, and draw the fish to you, as you see proper. But this should not 

 be done against the stream, or till the fish is exhausted, as the line would 

 be likely to snap. ED.] When you angle for a trout, whether with a fly 

 or at the ground, you need but make three or four trials in a place ; which, 

 if unsuccessful, you may conclude that there are none there. Walton, in 

 speaking of the several rivers where trout are found, has made no mention 

 of the Kennet ; which, undoubtedly, produces as good and as many trouts 

 as any river in England. In the reign of King Charles the Second, a trout 

 was taken in that river, near Newbury, with a casting net which 

 measured forty-five inches in length. H. Hofland is very elaborate on the 

 subject of trout-fishing, to whom the practical angler is referred. For the 

 economy of the fish consult Yarrell, and an ingenious paper by Mr. Boccius, 

 in Loudon's " Entertaining Naturalist." ED. 



Broxbourn, on the Lea. 



