134 NOTES ON PISH AND FISHING. 



after each cast. Your bait, be it gudgeon, bleak, small dace, 

 or large minnow, must spin with mathematical correctness, 

 or it has no charms for a Thames trout, and there is not 

 one angler out of twenty who can put his bait on correctly, 

 whatever be the style of flight he uses. And even granted 

 that you are an adept in the art, and most patient and 

 persevering, you may not meet your reward for many days. 

 If I remember rightly Mr. Alfred, the well-known fishing- 

 ta.ckle maker of Moorgate Street, about twenty years ago 

 took twelve good trout in nine days' spinning between 

 Chertsey and Walton, a feat never eclipsed and rarely 

 approached in the annals of Thames trout-fishing. On an 

 average I should say that a fisherman does not get a Thames 

 trout under six days' spinning. 



The angler prizes above all things a tussle with a Thames 

 trout. He can afford to wait days — nay weeks for it, for 

 when it does come it is a case of Greek meeting Greek. 

 The sensation of killing a salmon is a grand one, but not 

 to be compared with that of capturing a large Thames 

 trout. There is really more skill in attaching one of these 

 farios than a salar to your rod and line, and when you 

 have attached one, it is sport indeed. Perhaps the first 

 rush or two of a salmon is more impetuous than that of a 

 Thames trout, in comparing two fish of equal weight, but 

 the Thames trout has more runs in him than the salmon. 

 He has " staying powers " of the first order, and is as full 

 of expedients to save his life as any Salmo salar. There 

 is no doubt about the " running " of a Thames trout. It 

 is a fierce rush he makes at your bait when he has made 

 up his mind to rush at all. As soon as he has struck the 

 fight commences. He — 



" Flies aloft and flounces round the pool." 



