126 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i, 



there be in the river Wye in Monmouthshire, where they be in 

 season, as Camden observes, from September till April.* But, 

 my scholar, the observation of this and many other things I must 

 in manners omit, because they will prove too large for our narrow 

 compass of time, and therefore I shall next fall upon my direc- 

 tions how to fish for this Salmon. 



And, for that : First you shall observe, that usually he stays 

 not long in a place, as Trouts will, but, as I said, covets still to 

 go nearer the spring-head : f and that he does not, as the Trout 

 and many other fish, lie near the water-side or bank, or roots of 

 trees, but swims in the deep and broad parts of the water, and 

 usually in the middle, and near the ground, and that there you are 

 to fish for him, and that he is to be caught, as the Trout is, with 

 a worm, a minnow, which some call a penk, or with a fly. 



And you are to observe, that he is very seldom observed to 

 bite at a minnow, yet sometimes he will, and not usually at a fly, 

 but more usually at a worm, and then most usually at a lob or 

 garden worm, which should be well scoured, that is to say, kept 

 seven or eight days in moss before you fish with them : and if 



■* Mr Duncombe, speaking oF the Salmon, says, "They are found in the Wye at all 

 times, but they are only in perfection from December to August." The assertion of 

 Doctor Fuller {Worthies^ p. 34), that "the Salmon of the Wye are in season all the year 

 long, is altogether groundless. They formerly abounded so much, that it was a common 

 clause in the indentures of children apprenticed in Hereford, that they should not be com- 

 pelled to live on Salmon more than two days in a week." Such precautions are, how- 

 ever, now unnecessary. "After a short' continuance in freshwater," adds Mr Dun- 

 combe, '* they tend rapidly to impoverishment, and as they are only stationary when 

 thereisnotasufficientstreamtoadmitof their proceeding, a moderate swell puts the new 

 fish in motion up the river, and ehables the fishermen to calculate their*approach with 

 considerable accuracy. They are very rarely found to proceed against a current of 

 cold or very hard water : when therefore the Wye is swelled by snow dissolving in large 

 quantities from the mountains towards its source, which occasionally happens as late as 

 April, or even May, all attempts to take them are suspended for the time." They are 

 not intercepted by the fishermen when returning to the sea, as it is known that the 

 voyage which they have performed has deprived them of th^jr principal value : and in 

 this state they are denominated old fish. The spawn deposited in the river produces fish 

 of very minute size, which about April become as heavy as a gudgeon, but more taper 

 and delicate in their form : these are in some parts termed salmon-fry, but are here 

 known by the name of last-springs from the date of their annual appearance, and are 

 readily taken by the artificial fly. Two kinds of last-springs are found in the Wye, the 

 one which is the larger, and more common sort, leaves the river in the spring floods : 

 the smaller is termed the gravel last-spring, and is met with, particularly in shoals, 

 during the whole summer. The general opinion is, that the last-spri«gs, after making 

 a voyage to the sea, return botchers in the beginning of the following slimmer. Botchers 

 ai-e taken from three to twelve pounds weight ; they are distinguished from the Salmon 

 by a smaller head, more silvery scales, and by retaining much of the delicate appear- 

 ance of the last-spring. In the third year they become Salmon, and often wei^h from 

 forty to fifty pounds each. These are the generally-received opinions respectmg the 

 progress of the last-spring to the botcher and Salmon : but it must not be omitted, that 

 some able naturalists of the present time contend that the last-spring and boLcher are 

 each distinct in their' species from the Salmon, and that the botcher resembles the 

 s'uin taken in the Welsh rivers, or that It is even the same fish." — Collections towards 

 the History a7id Antiquities of Herefordshire, p. 161 et seq. 



t The Salmon delights in large rapid rivers, especially such as have pebbly, gravelly, 

 and sometimes weedy bottoms. 



