338 THE DRY-FLY MAN'S HANDBOOK 



The first point to deal with is the dates at which 



the season should commence 

 Season. and finish. My own idea is 



that for trout the season should 

 commence on the ist of April and terminate, say, 

 on the 15th September, or in the case of a late 

 river like the Itcheii on the 30th September. If it is 

 desired to preserve the grayling, they should not be 

 killed before the 15th July, or, better still, the ist of 

 August, while the termination of their season may be 

 any date not later than, say, the end of February. 

 The limit of size must vary according to the average 



size of the fish in the river. I 

 Limits of size. think that no trout under f-lb. 



should be killed on any chalk- 

 stream. It is better to prescribe a length below 

 which all fish are to be returned and a perfect 

 trout of 1 1 in. should weigh |-lb., and this I 

 would suggest as the minimum limit of size. On 

 the Test no trout under 13 in. should be killed, and 

 on the lower reaches of this river 14, 15, or even 

 16 in. is not too large a limit for killable trout. 



In poorly stocked fisheries, or where there are a 



considerable number of rods in 

 Limit of number. proportion to the length of the 



water, it is often wise to limit 

 the number of fish to be killed on any one day. I 

 am, perhaps, more conservative than many of my 

 brother anglers on this point, and on a club water 

 I should feel perfectly satisfied with two brace of 



