86 SALMON AND TROUT. 



Putting this question aside, however, the use of the landing 

 net, as I have observed, is practically confined to fish under 

 about ' salmon size,' the gaff, on the score of portability, pos- 

 sessing a decided advantage in the case of heavier weights. 

 Turning, therefore, to the subject of nets adapted for the pur- 

 pose indicated, we find that the stimulus given to angling 

 inventions by the Fisheries Exhibition has not left us without 

 some distinct advance in this direction also. 



The portability of nets, as well as of gaffs, is of primary 

 importance to the trout fisher, who constantly does his work 

 without an attendant. This is one sort of portability. Another 

 is the portability of the net, not as considered with reference to 

 the fly-fisher's shoulder or pocket, but in regard to his rod case 

 or portmanteau. A net that does not ' compress ' or fold up in 

 some form or other is a most unmanageable and inconvenient 

 addition to a traveller's impedimenta, and numerous inventions 

 have accordingly been made to supply this demand. Hoop- 

 shaped nets, both of steel and whalebone, which stretch out at 

 full length and thus form, when not in use, an appendage that 

 can be readily strapped on to, or carried in the rod case, are 

 amongst the ingenious dodges which the inventive talent of 

 tackle-makers or their patrons have called into existence, and 

 several of the most recent of these will be found figured in the 

 appendix to Vol. II. A less modern invention was the steel 

 hoop in three joints, which, when out of work, could be folded 

 up with the net around it into a shape and compass not much 

 unlike that of the fish itself. This net, however, has the dis- 

 advantage of being heavy, and unsuited to the second great 

 requirement in the matter of portability — so far as the fly- 

 fisher or worm-fisher is concerned — or, in fact, in the case of 

 anyone who fishes without an attendant — namely, that he 

 should be able to carry his own net, and that in a form and in 

 a position where it will be most out of the way when not re- 

 quired, and most ready at hand when wanted. 



This position is undoubtedly under, or just behind, the 

 left arm or shoulder of the fisherman. Here it would or 



