January 11, 1893] 
THE EISHING GAZETTE 
23 
iBotes antr (lotteries 
Trent anglers are to be congratulated on their 
victory over the Corporation of IManchester’s 
attempt to form a huge sewage farm on the banks 
of that beautiful river. Sewage farms are 
abominations, they contaminate air, water, and 
land, and are a disgrace to modern civilization. 
As will be seen from our report, the Cardiff 
I’iscatorial Society members closed up their open 
meetings of the year that is now past by gather- 
ing together in goodly numbers, more particularly 
to do honour to their honorary secretary, Mr. AV. 
F. Harris, in a practical manner. The members 
of the society through their chairman, Mr. R. J. 
Watkins, presented to him a handsome gold 
watch with suitable inscription, in cordial recog¬ 
nition of his many valuable services as hon. secre¬ 
tary to the society. As Mr. AV. F. Harris was 
a member of the committee of the provincial 
society, no doubt many of his there formed 
friends will join with their Cai’diff bi’Other 
anglers in shaking the hand of congratulation. 
The rod fishing in the Kirkcudbrightshire 
Fee, between the lloachs and the railway bridge, 
has been leased to a party of anglers from Kirk¬ 
cudbright and Castle Douglas from June 1, until 
the end of the season (Oct. Jl.) A rise of rent 
has been given for the fishings. 
Dr KING fhe severe snow storms a fine otter 
could be marked nearly the whole length of 
Dacre Beck in the Penrith district. AVith snow 
on the ice the footprints were easy to discern. It 
appears to have crept under the ice a distance of 
forty or fifty yards and then come out for 
recreation, alternatively making its w'aj’ to the 
river Eamont. 
Mr D.wid AYilson, hon. sec. of the Fly-fishers 
Club, who has, we regret to say, been ordered to 
go abroad for his health, writes to us as follows, 
iinder date of Jan. 3, from Tangiers :— 
“ Dear Marston, —Here I am, for the second time, 
having, after six days’ glorious weather, bad to flee 
hither from a gale that lasted four-and-twenty hours 
nearly. AVent from here to Gib. and back yesterday. 
AVeather again glorious—like June. Expect to come 
back as fit as a fiddle.—A’'our8 faithfully, “ D. AV.’’ 
AAH are glad to see that the Liverpool Anglers’ 
Association, after paying all expenses, including 
over £’6u for renting and stocking waters, have a 
good balance to start the year with at their 
bankers. 
Netting and Netting. —No doubt that many 
large, five to six feet deep nets, would again be 
used if increased netting facilities be given to 
the smallest class of riparians in the Upper 
Thames. A large cast-net, thrown cleverly in 
not too deep water, will capture a lot of fish— 
coarse fish especially, and gudgeon. The bait- 
catchers in the City tidal waters by comparatively 
small nets do no injury to speak of, because live- 
bait caught by such men as the Gibsons and 
Pearce, &c., supply the London tackle-shops, and 
render so far the taking of dace, and bleak, and 
gudgeon, in W’aters higher up the Thames. 
Once, however, allow further and far greater 
facilities for irregular netting, then how can such 
people be stopped in their desire to “ ketch their 
whack of fish.^’’ The w’riter when a lad often 
witnessed the Newbury and part of the Greenbam 
waters above the old silk and flour mills, and the 
lock, netted by working men, townsmen, in “ the 
exercise of an old right (i) ” on AYhit Monday, 
when the water was “ drawn ’’ low for the repairs 
of the camp-shedding in the canal embankment. 
Di’iig nets were used, and a man or two would 
use the pole pretty freely to drive the fish into 
the net or nets. . Luckily, the fellows were mostly 
amateurs at the game, and although they cap¬ 
tured smallish out-of-season jack, and also some 
coarse fish, the row made happily drove a quan¬ 
tity of fish into the mud above the lock-gates 
and the Greenham Mile-head, and these fish 
escaped. There is no more fertile river for lish 
than the Kennet. In the very mile-stream .above 
the Greenham Mills the writer has often caught 
a number of, it is true, not large roach, but 
plenty of good sizeable fish in August, in the 
very water partially—that “ partially ’’ was also 
a part of the “ saving clause ’’-—dragged by 
certain of the townsmen’s net or nets on the 
AVhit Monday previously. So there is netting 
and netting, and nets and nets. In those days— 
just before and after Her Majesty’s accession— 
quantities of large rudd and roach were sent lo 
a Newburg fish-dealer, when noblemen’s and 
gentlemen’s lakes were netted. The said dealer 
went round the town selling out “ fresh fish ” 
.at Id. to lAd. per lb.—fish that would have 
cleared all the London angling clubs’ (irizes 
for “specimen” rudd and roach. People were 
glad, in the pre-railway days, of inland towns 
off the main lines to buy a “ bit of fish cheap,” 
and barrow loads were frequently sold in this 
way. About ten or a dozen years ago, the eldest 
son of the late Lord Falmouth, desiring to stock 
the Mereworth (in Kent) Lakes (three) with 
trout, bad the said lakes netted in the hopping 
time, and vast quantities of large carp and eels, 
&c., were captured and distributed among the 
villagers and the “ hoppers.” Big nets, in efficient 
hands, can even clear a lake, or pond, or part of a 
river, of fish. Take, for instance, the stretch of 
the Kennet, above Reading, and here, as in the 
little Holy Brook, very few fish could, forty years 
ago, be got by the angler, except some fairish 
chub in the Old River, above Fobney Pound. 
But to net the Thames with far-stretching flue- 
nets, a boat, or boats, must be used; and unless 
the proposed bye-law is abandoned in this respect, 
unpardonable damage must ensue wherever a 
hungry riparian puts into practice the right 
claimed. The other day some of the freemen at 
Oxford claimed the right to net the City waters 
proper. The angling society objected, and possibly 
the dispute is not yet settled. A “ Common 
Hall ” might bo called to discuss the question. 
Formerly, in the early fifties and previously, the 
freemen Beeseleys did a lot of netting, and 
exposed fish so caught in Oxford market. A"ery 
few anglers fished the Isis—it was no good in 
“ City w.aters ”—and possibly nobody was much 
injured by the persistent netting. But to legalise 
netting by all riparians in the Thames, then good¬ 
bye to sjiort with the angle. — Rusticl’s. 
Nigut-Lintng During Fence Months.—The 
Proposed New Thames Bye-Laws. —When a 
wailing rolls down along from the Reading 
Angling Association’s leading members, it is 
pretty conclusive proof that there is something 
very serious “in the wind.” The Thames Con¬ 
servancy has elsewhere raised an indignant 
protest against the proposed new bye-laws for 
the regulation (?) of the fisheries of the Upper 
Thames. Night-lining during the “open” 
seasons for angling in the river is very objection¬ 
able, in tbe common interests of fair sport with 
rod and line; but when it is stated that “ the 
proposed bye-law'.s allow the laying of night- 
lines by prirafe oirners during the fence months,” 
it really seems as bad as if some riparian or 
other landed proprietor, having manorial or free 
warren rights over another man’s farm, should 
go forth, he or his keeper, gun in hand, .and 
accompanied by a pointer, and kill every 
“ craking ” landrail in the rush grass, every breed¬ 
ing brace of birds in the red clover and green corn 
crops, and doe hares heavy in kid! “Ah!” 
somebody will perhaps say, “ the fence laws 
protect game birds during the breeding season, 
and until after harvest, as regards partridges and 
rails.” Of course it does, and for the self-same 
reason the fishery fence laws ought to sternly 
prohibit the laying of night-lines, say in 
February or March, for the off-chance of 
catching a big trout in poor condilion—not 
fit to grace the table even of the most impe¬ 
cunious landowning riparian in the Thames 
Valley, in the Berks or Bucks, or Oxfordshire 
sides of the great river. There might in past 
decades have been great annoyance, if not 
indeed depredations, committed hardly by anglers, 
but by thoughtless fellows, not all of the ’Arry 
type, picknicking on the Upper Thames, and 
partially so—as in Squire Grenfell’s woods at 
Taplow—in the meadows, and leaving a lot of 
rubbish behind them. But members of the recog¬ 
nised provincial and London angling clubs would 
not act in such a thoughtless manner. And yet 
it would lead me to suspect that some riparian 
had button-holed one or two members of the hon. 
Board of Thames Conservancy, poured his com¬ 
plaints into their ears, and induced the board to 
propose this despicable night lining during the 
fence months ! Why, it is like killing — not 
the goose that laid tbe golden eggs, but of Thame s 
trout, in and out of condition, sizeable and un- 
sizeable. Now, suppose a 21b. eel should be 
caught on one of the hooks of a night-line, and a 
pound chub, or a jack, or a half-pound rudd, or 
a two-year-old trout—directly Mr. Eel feels the 
steel he begins twisting and twirling round in 
his efforts to escape; and if the night-line be 
pegged into the bank the eel keeps on twisting 
until it gets the thing into a short and very thick 
tangle. And any poor perch, or chub, or rudd. 
small jack, or trout, or half-pound barbel would 
get half killed by the stronger and ever-twisting 
eel caught on a night-line. The writer has seen 
a 5oz. chub caught on an eel-line or night-line; 
and the live gudgeon or the deadly lobworm will 
lure any large-mouthed and best fish in the 
Upper Thames. Some night-lines in past davs 
were kept always in parts of the Kennet. By 
means of an iron “ di’ag ” or a hitcher, if a boat 
be used, and heavy bricks placed on either 
end of the line, the latter was lifted every now 
and then, the victims bagged, its hooks re¬ 
baited, and down the line sunk in position, the 
spots being known by a bush or other mark 
known only to the river-poacher, and here and 
there a—riparian. Happily, nowadays the angling 
press is a power for all fair fishermen. Perhaps, 
however, even if the new bye-laws allowing 
these murderous night lines to be laid at any and 
at all times should pass, which, by-the-bye, is 
not at all probable—f.air anglers have, as “Tem¬ 
plar ” suggests, far more to fear from small 
riparians than any landowners who are “ sports¬ 
men to the manner born.” It might, however, 
be otherwise here and there, as regai'ds Thames 
trout when high in “ season.” Some covetous 
riparian among the smaller class might allege, in 
justification, that hitherto the anglers have had 
the best of the Thames trout, it w'as only fair that 
he should bring out his flue-net, encompass the 
nobby fish “feeding” hard by, and drag net and 
trout out. But even here the fish thus murdered 
might have owed its presence, and its previous 
preservation in the river, to the direct action of 
one of tbe Angling Presei'vation Associations. 
Riparians can try and capture seasonable fish in 
the Thames—trout as the finest product of the 
river, and the other trout turned therein at same 
association’s expense. If, in conclusion, the 
LT pper Thames and all that has been done of 
late years for its preservation and persistent 
stocking, should “be given away” by the Con¬ 
servancy, Parliament itself could not turn a 
deaf ear in these days to the united cry of 
London and provincial anglers practising their 
sport in the great river. Happily, the Board of 
Conservancy is amenable to public opinion as 
against the proposed neiv bye-laws; and if an 
imperfect knowledge of the claims of anglers be 
pleaded or alleged by any outsider, the hon. board 
will do w'cll to reconsider the whole question, tbe 
night-lining above all.— Strike it Out. 
EXilTBITION OF YACHTS, FISHING 
BOATS, PUNTS, &c. 
Wk are informed by the manager of the Roj’al 
Aquarium, AAestminster, that fishing tackle 
makers will be invited to exhibit at the forth¬ 
coming exhibition of yachts, fishing boats, punt.s, 
&c. There is no doubt whatever the Aachting 
Exhibition will be a great success, and be visited 
by a wealthy class of sportsmen, who, many of 
them, combine yachting ivith fishing. It w'ould 
pay any fishing tackle firm to have a sea fishing 
and general exhibit at this exhibition, which 
opens next month, and will be open for several 
weeks under the management of Mr. G. A. dn Plat, 
clerk to the exhibitions. 
If you are Interested In Books 
send 2b. 6ii. In stamps for a copy post free every week for 
8 months of “ Thu Publishers’ Cihoular and Booksellers 
Record, " Ht. Dunalan's Honse, Fetter Lane, Fleet-street, 
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