96 MAKING A FISHERY. 



hence the adoption of the improved plan of 

 setting the heavy flue temporarily as a stop net, 

 to prevent fish from escaping by swimming «up 

 stream. At times and in places variations have 

 to be improvised to meet the exigencies of 

 particular cases : thus, for example, if there 

 should be an island in the middle of the stream, 

 the stop net should be placed below the island, 

 and the water at each side either netted down 

 separately, which would require two extra nets, 

 or, as an exceptional case, the water could be 

 dragged by one net only on each side, the two 

 nets coming into position and working one 

 behind the other in the main stream below the 

 island. 

 Use of the All ditches and carriers leading into the 



stream should be well beaten down with poles, 

 or trodden down by the men just before the 

 nets have reached the point of their juncture 

 with the river, so as to scare all the fish out of 

 them. A few short trammels are useful in such 

 cases to set across the mouths of such ditches 

 as stop nets, or the men treading them down 

 can remain in the water, splashing, and pre- 

 venting the pike from retreating into the 

 carriers until the nets have been dragged past 

 them. Stamping on the banks close to the 

 edge may drive out pike that have taken refuge 

 in rat holes or cavities in the sides. 



