362 THE DRY-FLY MAN'S HANDBOOK 



yfear-olds, yearlings, and alevins was begun and has 

 been continued to the present time. I joined my 

 friend and made one of three rods pledged to fish the 

 water very lightly in 1905. At my friend's suggestion 

 I took over his lease in the spring of 1906, and 

 have since then kept the fishery entirely in my own 

 hands. 



Up to the end of 1905 the keeper had killed approx- 

 imately 800 pike, including many large ones of 13 lb., 

 12 lb., II lb., io|^ lb., and so on, down to, say, 3 lb., 

 and of course a great number of i lb. and less. In 

 1906, 155 ; in 1907, 65 ; in 1908, 68 ; in 1909, 60 ; in 

 1910. 53; a-nd in 191 1, 51 pike were killed; or ah 

 aggregate of 1252 pike from September, 1903, to the 

 end of 1 9 1 1. Just imagine the effect; of any relaxation 

 of our efforts, by which any great proportion of the 

 pike might have been left in the river in any year. 

 Meanwhile the bag of trout continuously increased, and 

 each year showed a better result than the previous one, 

 and the average weight of the fish killed in 191 1 was 

 a little more than i lb. 10 oz., the size limit being 

 lilb. 



Having established the principle that the pike must 



be kept down, the next point 



Methods of killing to consider is the methods by 



down the pike. which they should be secured. 



There are four means of getting 

 out pike successfully, (i) Spinning, (2) Wiring, (3) 

 Trimmering, and (4) Netting, and all of them should 

 be persevered in and no efforts relaxed to render the 



