78 
THE PISHING GAZETTE 
[Pebruary 4, 1893 
TOaltoniana 
I SF.AUCii in vain for anything in the Queen’s 
speech at the opening of Parliament, which is of 
interest to anglers. The nearest approach to 
anything of the kind are the references to the 
District Councils Bill, and the Bill for enlarging 
the powers of the London County Council. As I 
understand there will be clauses in the latter 
Bill giving the County Council the power of 
nominating a certain number of their members 
for seats on the Board of Thames Conservancy, 
London anglers will, in a sense, be represented on 
the Board, or at any rate, have three or four 
members on the Board who will be in sympathy 
with their wishes. 
Tt is not the first time that County Council 
conservators have been suggested. A Bill to 
give the council representation on the board was 
brought in last session, but was so hotly opposed 
by the conservators and the Government, that it 
was dropped. The chief argument against the 
proposal was, that London was already unduly 
represented on the board. It is tnae that there 
are many more London members than country or 
up-river, but, with the exception of the members 
of the Corporation, the London members only 
represent certain interests on the river below 
bridge, and are not in any sense representatives 
of the people of London. 
In the District Councils Bill it is probable that 
proposals will be found having reference to the 
preservation of footpaths and other highways. 
Considerable powers in such matters may be con¬ 
ferred on the District Councils, and, when we 
remember that many of the tow-paths are rights 
of way, it will be at once seen that anglers are 
more or less interested in the Bill. However, 
political prophets hint that many of the proposed 
bills will not reach a second reading before 
another general election comes, to keep honest 
anglers away from the rivers just when the fish 
are feeding or rising at their hest, so it may be 
years before any corporate body is called into 
existence, having the preservation of public rights 
under its charge, or London is properly repre¬ 
sented on the Thames Conservancy Board. 
The Thames has been high this week, and not 
a very good colour, but fish have been feeding 
here and there all the same. I hear of a fine 
jack weighing 13glb. being taken in the mill tail 
at Streatly, and perch have been inclined to feed. 
1 am inclined to advise a visit to the Thames on 
Saturday if there are no heavy rains to put the 
water out of condition again. Jack should now 
be working into the backwater, and when not 
already in breeding riuarters will be found near 
the mouths of backwaters, ditches, and other 
suitable spawning places. 
Perch should now take the minnow better than 
the worm, and the bank angler will have as good 
a chance of catching them as the man in the 
punt, for they lie close to the bank in every eddy 
of any depth. They are not partial to a muddy 
bottom, but I have caught many, when the water 
has been high, over the muddiest of muddy 
bottoms. Only this week I took one of I|lb. at a 
spot wliere my punt pole sank a good 4ft. into 
the mud. As with most fish, it is the exception 
rather than the rule to catch a male perch at this 
time of year. The females are developing spawn 
rapidly, and have to feed well to keep in anything 
like condition. As a consequence they bite more 
freely than the males, and that fact constitutes 
the greatest argument in my opinion against 
killing fish when they are more or less gravid. 
It’s like shooting all one’s hen pheasants. Cocks 
cannot breed by themselves, whether fish or 
birds. 
When rivers are bank high fish of all sorts, 
including pike, are mostly found in .and close to 
the edge. One of the best tackles I know of to 
get at the pike when so situated is what is termed 
snap trolling tackle. It is worked in exactly the 
same manner as the old-fashioned gorge trolling 
bait, with this immense difference—as soon as one 
has a run the fish is struck. Hardys make one of 
these tackles, Warners another; and they are both 
very good indeed. In summer they cannot, of 
course, be worked in quite such thick weeds as 
the Gore trolling tackle, but at all times of the 
year they are very serviceable, and have quite 
done away wich the necessity for the old gorge 
bait, when one gave the fish five minutes and 
then pulled up either a mass of weeds and the 
bait with a couple of teeth marks on it, or a 
pickerel of three-quarters of a pound. As a 
youngster I was a most enthusiastic troller, and, 
knowing of nothing better, used the old gorge 
tackle. Many a pikelet might have grown into a 
40-pounder if only Hardy’s or Warner’s tackles 
had then been invented. I am calling these 
tackles by the names of their makers, but they 
were invented by our editor and John Bickerdyke 
respectively. There had previously been a snap- 
trolling tackle to be bought at the shops, but 
until the two I have mentioned, which in their 
leading main features are almost identical, were 
brought out there was no really practical snap- 
trolling tackle to be obtained. 
There is much art in working a trolling bait. 
The pike fisher who has never tried it may think 
it a simple thing, but the way the beginner 
splashes the bait into the water is very different 
to the neat manner in which it is worked by the 
old hand. The bait, to begin with, should be 
cast with great accuracy, and should be swung 
out underhand rather than cast as a spinning 
bait. Ratber a long rod should be used, or else 
no great length of line can be swung out. As 
the bait hovers for a fraction of a second over 
the spot which has been aimed at, the line is 
suddenly let go, and in darts the dace or gudgeon 
headforemost to the bottom. It is important to 
have the bait rightly leaded. It can go too fast, 
it can also go too slowly; and I find myself at 
fault in endeavouring to describe on paper how 
fast it should go. More often than not the pike, 
if it seizes it at all, takes it on its downward 
journey, or as it is pulled up for the first time. 
Therefore much sinking and drawing of it is 
little use. Templar. 
Comsyonlrmt 
[IFe do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions 
expressed by our Correspondents. 
“ One of the charms of angling is that it presents an 
endless field for argument, speculation, and experi¬ 
ment." —T. E. Pritt. 
LOCH NESS SALMON ANGLING. 
Sir, —Having been born and brought up on the 
banks of Loch Ness where I have enjoyed much 
splendid fishing for several years past, I should 
very much like, through the medium of your 
most valuable paper, to recommend my brother 
anglers to the splendid fishing to be had on this 
celebrated salmon loch in the early months of the 
year. 
By leaps and bounds the popularity of this 
loch in respect of its salmon angling has increased 
and is increasing. Last year a wonderfully fine 
lot of salmon were taken out of it by gentlemen 
from the south during the first month of the 
fishing, which I consider decidedly the best; and, 
if the loch’s popularity depends on its angling 
for salmon, I am certain it will not fall off this 
year. On Feb. 11 the fishing begins, and, from 
the distance forward the great mass of the fish 
are at the present time, I am sure that but very 
few of them will have run through the whole of 
Loch Ness, and passed into the River Oich before 
the season opens. It was but the other day 
that the first great shoals of the year got 
out of the River Ness into Loch Ness; at this 
season they take long to push forward from 
the foot to the head of the loch. And I have 
not the least hesitation in saying that the 
anglers who try the loch will be sure to meet with 
plenty of them during the first week, as they will 
not have had time to get forward to pass out of 
the loch. I expect, but I am not so sanguine, 
that the angling will keep well up for six weeks 
from its commencement, but this will all depend 
upon the state of the River Oich, for when it is 
high it draws the fish out of the loch. I may 
remark that I do not know of a more desirable 
place in respect of its scenery and its salmon, 
both of which one can enjoy free of charge. The 
quality of Loch Ness salmon fishing was, until 
recently, comparatively unknown, but now that it 
is known, it has already been fully shown how 
well it is appreciated by the many anglers from 
the different parts of the country. There is still 
scope for all; anglers are in no danger of hust¬ 
ling and jostling one another. Then they find 
very decent accommodation, and excellent food, 
and creature comforts at the hotels at Foyers, 
Invermoriston, and at Fort Augustus. The latter 
place boasting two houses of good cheer, the 
Lovat Arms and Ghisholm’s private hotel, which 
last is a new venture, specially designed for 
tourist anglers. Hector Mi nro. 
I niversify, Aberdeen. 
STREAM CLEANING. 
Dear Sir, —If your correspondent, “ \'al Con- 
son,” will read my article on stream cleaning 
again, he will see that I make no mention of the 
Hampshire streams, or any part of them. I gave 
instances of the rivers my remarks mostly 
referred to, and of which “ Val Conson ” cannot 
have much knowledge. I do not advocate a bare 
bottom for a river, but a clean bottom with a 
certain amount of weed, thus giving the trout a 
chance of seeing any surface food. I have seen 
rivers so full of weeds that there is not a square 
foot anywhere to be found on which to cast your 
fly, and so full of mad that it is impossible for 
fish to thrive in them. I will refer “ Val Conson ” 
to the remarks made by T. W. Murray, on the 
state of the rivers in the locality to which I 
referred, which appear on the same page as his 
correspondence.—Yours, &c., Renton Hook. 
“THE ROSSES,” DONEGAL. 
Dear Sir, —To the list of standard sea trout 
flies for this district, given by Mr. H. A. Raley in 
your issue of Jan. 28, may I add one which, from 
my own experience, and from that of others, 
I know to be a very good fly—viz., the Zulu. 
Dressed small, but with long hackle and with 
plenty of tinsel, it is a splendid sea-trout fly in 
Donegal.—Yours truly, 
Southsea. _ W. Monte Gould. 
TROUT FISHING IN ANGLESEY. 
Dear Sir, —Trout fishing commences in Angle¬ 
sey Feb. 2, and is free in all the rivers except the 
Cefni and the Braint, which are under the 
control of the Carnarvon Board of Conservators, 
who charge five shillings for a season ticket, or one 
shilling for a single day. Tickets may be had 
from Mr. Crewdson, Bull Hotel, Llangefni. Of 
the free fishing waters, the flow running through 
Llanfachracth has the reputation of being the 
earliest stream. Anglers from a distance mostly 
put up at Mr. Rierce’s spacious hotel at the 
valley. Maclog Lake is undoubtedly early with 
a minnow, and for the next two months, before 
the weeds appear, good sport is in store with 
these gamey trout. I remember many years ago 
taking a heavy basket with a Brown Totness 
(Devon), in the latter end of February. Coron 
Lake, for some reason or other, even in the early 
part, is essentially an evening lake ; but the trout 
are strong and sizeable, and if open weather, like 
the present, prevails, a few local anglers look with 
certainty for exceptional sport. A small lake 
called Frogury, in Bodffordd, two miles from 
Llangefni, fished well at the commencement of 
last season. Day tickets a shilling each, and a 
boat procurable, which is, or at any rate was, 
under the charge of the local blacksmith.—I am, 
Sir, yours respectfully, W. H. 
THE DON AND YTHAN—“ SCOTCH 
NOTES.” 
Sir, —Mr. Andrew Murrayq of Inverdon, has 
the just reputation of being a right good fellow 
and a jolly angler to boot. But whenever the 
mere mention of the Nether Don Fishings appears 
in print, be it river report or cursory angling 
note, he and his colleagues are extremely touchy, 
and hence all the dust over the slip I made in 
paying a compliment to “ Major ” instead of “ Mr. 
\V. R. Raton,” the proprietor of the Grandholm 
water. 
With regard to the Nether Don fishing it is 
