362 



NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. 



angler should never employ a fisherman who follows this 

 practice. Considering the expense of a day's fishing on 

 the Thames, and how many blank days a trout fisherman 

 has in a season, and the paucity of the trout themselves, 

 the fishermen who are paid for their services should not 

 attempt to thin the fish, or worry them into shyness by 

 additional fishing and frequently pricking them. 



And now I have done with them, though I could add 

 much more, a little to their dispraise and very much to 

 their praise. It is a hardish life for them in one sense, 

 and a very precarious mode of earning a livelihood. There 

 are the fence months, from the end of February to the 1st 

 of June, during which they can do no bottom fishing. 

 [By the way, March might well be included in the fishing 

 season, and before long I have no doubt it will be. J And 

 there are the long winter months, with many continuous 

 weeks of flood or frost or rough weather, when they 

 hardly see a customer. Ten shillings a-day, therefore, 

 and his grub is by no means an exorbitant sum to pay for 

 a punt and its appliances and the fisherman's services, and 

 often his tackle. A careful man, who lays himself out by 

 civility and attention to business to make friends, may be 

 able to put by a few pounds " against a rainy day ; " and 

 if he is really a good fisherman and can show his customers 

 sport, he may expect a trifle extra now and then when a 

 good trout is landed, or. a large take of fish brought off. 

 Where the genuine Thames fishermen of another genera- 

 tion are to come from, I do not know. The anglers are 

 on the increase ; professional fishermen, for some reason 

 or other, are not. Few seem to think the vocation good 

 enough for their sons to follow in their steps. 



Here at last I must " wind up my line," and say fare- 



