i goo. 



XXXIII. THE "KILLING" OF THE LOUTH AND TETNEY 

 CANAL. 



IF there is a fishing resort dear to the heart of the Grimsby 

 angler it is the Louth and Tetney Canal, or to give its more 

 correct name "The Navigable Canal from the town of Louth 

 to the River Humber in the County of Lincoln," but alas ! if 

 things are permitted to go on as at present, it will, before many 

 years are past, be an angling resort no longer. But how is 

 this? Mr. Hopper's angling readers will exclaim, " Surely that 

 splendidly stocked water cannot be depleted of the immense 

 shoals of fish it contains by fair and legitimate angling ! " No, 

 certainly not, Mr. Hopper replies. No fair rod fishing would 

 ever sensibly diminish the stock of fish, but there are evils 

 gradually working towards the destruction, and eventually the 

 entire extinction of the fish from end to end of the canal. 



Before proceeding to explain what these causes are, Mr. 

 Hopper can claim to have a tolerably long and intimate 

 knowledge of the canal, for he has fished in its waters for a 

 period of 47 years. That makes Mr. Hopper somewhat of an 

 " ancient " in angling matters, but he started to wield the rod 

 early in his juvenile days, when he was just as keen on a day's 

 fishing as he is now. Lying extended across his knee Mr. 

 Hopper has now before him what probably no other Grimsby 

 angler has, viz., a plan and longitudinal section of the canal (as 

 surveyed October, 1828,) from the River Head, at Louth, down 

 to the White Gate on the Tetney Sea Bank, that bone of 

 contention between the late Mr. Charles West, a man of many 

 lawsuits, and the Tetney Inclosure Commissioners. The length 

 of the canal is nf miles and 121 yards. Beyond the White 

 Gate (although the canal proper ends there) its course is con- 

 tinued along what is known as the " New Cut," and thence 

 seawards or rather Humberwards under the name of "Tetney 

 Haven," and its waters pursue their course to a little beyond 

 the first Hob Beacon, the complete distance from its com- 

 mencement at the River Head, Louth, being 15 miles. 



