6 ANGLING 



about Easter last year, placed a hundred yearling trout 

 of about three or four inches in length in the Park 

 lake. By July this year some of them had reached ioi 

 to ii inches in length, and judging by the manner 

 in which they have risen to the natural fly during the past 

 summer evenings, they have thriven exceedingly well. Three 

 gentlemen and the writer last year placed in another trout 

 stream in the neighbourhood 4,500 trout fry, but there was so 

 little water that it is feared they did not thrive well. The fry 

 and also the yearlings before mentioned were purchased from 

 Mr. Ford, of the Manor Fishery, Caistor, whose breeding ponds 

 and hatching houses are full of interest and well worth a visit 

 about February and March. He has some fine specimens in 

 his ponds of the Salmo Fario, Loch Leven, and Fontinalis, the 

 latter being, Mr. Hopper believes, the American brook trout, 

 remarkable for its rapid growth and " playful " capacity when 

 hooked. Last year, when fishing on the Trent, the writer saw a 

 professional fisherman land, in about two hours, seven barbel 

 weighing 42^ Ibs. He was fishing 26 feet deep with what is 

 known as a "tight " float, and the odds were about 3 to I that 

 if he did not catch a barbel each time of throwing in he lost his 

 tackle amongst the debris of the sunken barges which had been 

 from time to time placed in various parts of the river by the 

 Trent Commissioners to keep the banks up. The individual in 

 question has fished the river at that particular spot, or within 

 50 or 60 yards, for about 30 years past, every morning for 

 several months in the year, and he professes to know exactly 

 where, under the influence of undercurrents and eddies, a worm 

 thrown in the river from his boat will in the course of a few 

 minutes be found, barring of course the possibility of having in 

 the course of transit met with an untimely end from one of the 

 monsters of the deep. Our friend, the piscatorial " professional," 

 is one of the bibulous ones, so fishing with a " tight " float is a 

 pleasant and congenial occupation. Last month he caught on 

 night lines two fine eels, weighing respectively jibs. 6oz. and 

 61bs. joz. The bane of Trent fishing is the flannel weed if it 

 be a dry summer and no heavy rains to cause a rise of water 

 and flush the river, many swims are rendered unfishable by it. 



