THAMES TROUT FISHING. 12 



New Zealand, the product of the present age, which have thriven 

 so amazingly fast because of the stock of food, the compound 

 interest of centuries, waiting for them to eat it. The physical 

 perfection attained by the Trout of the Thames and New Zealand 

 is attributable to'precisely the same causes. 



The Thames Trout is a spoil which no one hesitates to make his 

 own. Anglers picture him as one holding the fort, not lowering 

 behind weeds, like the pike, but in the full rush of water where all 

 may behold him, and whence he issues with a dash that makes 

 known the presence of someone of importance. The angler knows, 

 too, that even when that rare moment arrives when the Trout un- 

 warily seizes the barbed lure, he is far from being certain of his 

 prey. On his hook he has one possessed of both craft and 

 power, and until the last gasp both of these will be utilized. For 

 the supreme moment of this struggle between man and fish, men 

 — sane men, able-bodied and with means to do other things, and 

 the intellectuality to enjoy them — will devote hours, days and 

 weeks to the pursuit of the Thames Trout, knowing full well that 

 the proportion of blank days to those bringing prizes must be 

 sadly disproportionate, judged by the standard of other phases of 

 trout fishing. Fishing for Thames Trout is certainly the nearest 

 approach to piscatorial gambling that can be imagined, for, spirit 

 you never so wisely or so well, if the Trout be not in the humour 

 your labour is all in vain. 



The accepted modes of fishing for Thames Trout are two-fold, 

 viz., live-baiting and spinning. Once upon a time there was a 

 strong section which affected to think that the live-baiter was but 

 little removed from a poacher, and nothing at all from a mere fish 

 butcher. Whether the falsity of their position has made itself 



