KILLING THE TROUT'S ENEMIES 369 



night gnawing the lines and cutting the whole trimmer 

 adrift from the withy. My own keeper has on occa- 

 sions been driven almost to despair by finding, morn- 

 ing after morning, his trimmers destroyed. The plan 

 has been adopted of using bamboos instead of withies 

 and fixing the trimmer-fork to the extremity with 

 wire, allowing it to hang three or four inches below 

 the top, with a swivel placed in the middle of the wire 

 to prevent kinking. This method of arranging the 

 trimmers has been found successful, and seems to 

 completely baffle the would-be depredators. 



In addition to all the methods referred to before, 



the thorouoh and efficient net- 

 Netting. ting of every part of a really 



well- managed fishery on a 

 trout-stream at least once in the early autumn, and 

 possibly once or twice more before the spring, will 

 prove most effectual in helping to kill down the pike 

 and other coarse fish. All netting of the river must 

 be finished before the end of February, as after that 

 date the working of the nets over shallows will do a 

 great amount of harm to the young trout alevins 

 or fry. 



Three nets are required, of which preferably two 



should be trammel-nets and one 

 Nets required. a purse-net. A trammel-net, 



as shown in Plate XXXVIII, 



consists of a loose net of small meshes, called the 



sheeting or linnet, between two tighter nets of coarser 



twine and large square mesh called the walling. The 



2 B 



