130 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. 



might almost be said that the weight of a real Thames 

 trout begins where that of an ordinary river trout ends ; 

 and certainly it is very strange that seldom is a real 

 Thames trout caught under three pounds. Like some 

 men and women, of whom it is difficult to realize the fact 

 that they were once babies and afterwards children tod- 

 dling about "on their own hook," Thames trout seem 

 always to be more or less at maturity. 



It is not easy to fix a limit of size to these grand fish, 

 but they have been taken by fair angling up to 15 lbs. or 

 16 lbs. Yarrell mentions one of 15 lbs. caught on the 21st 

 of March, 1835 ; and the one in a case at the well-known 

 hostelry close by Marlow Weir must have been at least 

 16 lbs. On May 31, 1834, a 141b. fish was caught by 

 Lieut.-General Sir Samuel Hawker, near Richmond. In 

 October, 1874, one of 11 J lbs. was picked up dead near 

 Ditton, and he would certainly have weighed 16 lbs. if he 

 had been in condition. Some years before that, about 

 1862, one was found dead at Weybridge weighing 

 over 23 lbs., though out of condition, his length being 40 

 inches and his deepest girth 22. Mr. Frank Buckland 

 seems to doubt whether this really was a veritable Thames 

 trout ; however, it looked very like one, though its colour- 

 ing had gone to a great extent, and its fan-like tail was 

 more suggestive of a trout than of a salmon. But be 

 this as it may, Thames trout will certainly grow to some- 

 thing like 20 lbs., though, as old age creeps on them, their 

 nozzles, especially the under jaw, grow malformed like 

 those of kelts, and gradually turning up over the upper 

 one render them less and less able to catch their baits and 

 eat them. Thus they fall away, and at last die of sheer 

 starvation. Still, it is not often that a fish over 12 lbs. is 



