210 
THE EISHING GAZETTE 
[Makch 25, 1893 
description. We were recently using one of his 
fourteen-feet grilse rods in this material, and 
were very pleased with it indeed. 
The flies, especially the trout flies, tied by Mrs. 
Richardson, are, we think, known to most trout 
fishers. A splendid assortment is on view at 
this stand, and perhaps we cannot do better than 
repeat what we said in these columns exactly a 
year ago: “ After careful examination we came 
to the conclusion that we had never seen better 
work, whether amateur or professional.” We 
should like to have referred to the waterproof 
specialites exhibited by Mr. Richardson, but 
we must postpone doing so to a future occa¬ 
sion. 
Messrs. HEARDER & SON, Plymouth, 
have a good show of sea-fishing tackle, and it 
will no doubt prove interesting to the members of 
the newly-formed society devoted to sea fishing. 
Mr. Ilearder was unfortunately away when we 
visited his stand, and we could get no particulars 
of the very many articles exhibited there. 
NEW FIiSHING TACKLE, CATA¬ 
LOGUES, &c. 
“FISHING AND FISHING TACKLE.” 
Tins is the title which Mr. W. J. Cummins, 
fishing tackle manufacturer. Bishop Auckland, 
gives to his new edition, the tenth, of his excel¬ 
lent fishing tackle catalogue. We have so often 
recommended the goods supplied by Mr. Cum¬ 
mins that it will be hardly necessary to say more 
than that every salmon, trout, and general 
angler will find in this new edition of his list 
something to interest him. One of the most 
astonishing things is an advertisement on a 
separate slip of American split cane rods at 
lOs. 6d. and 12s. 6d. each. With reference to 
these rods Mr. Cummins says : “ I have imported 
some of these split cane rods of good quality, 
the price being within the reach of all. They 
are 9| feet in length, made in three joints, with 
well-finished celluloid grooved handles, nickle 
ferrules and reel fittings, and packed in canvas 
bag. Price complete, one top, in bag, 10s. 6d.; 
two tops, 12s. 6d. For delicate casting and fine 
fishing in small streams these little champion 
rods are unequalled.” 
In addition to the illustrated particulars of 
rods and tackle, Mr. Cummins gives much useful 
information about fishing generally in this 
country, Norway, &c. He is himself an expe¬ 
rienced practical angler both for salmon and 
trout; he sent us recently some excellent slack 
twisted salmon gut casts, which he considers, 
and we think rightly, better both for casting and 
lasting than those twisted very tightly. 
Salmon anglers will find, on page (J2 in this 
list, an illustrated description of the “ Greg ” 
double taper salmon line, for which many advan¬ 
tages are claimed. _ 
From Messrs. Hill and Son, 4, Haymarket, 
London, we have received the following 
note;— 
“ Dear Sir,—We are sending you what we think, 
under certain contingencies, a useful clearing 
hook for weeds—those weeds which make the 
angler sad, and at times nearly drive him to 
despair. It can be attached, as you will see, by 
means of a piece of whipcord to the handle of a 
landing-net, to one or more joints of the rod— 
according to the distance of the obstruction—or, 
in fact, to a pole of any sort. We also make 
them with a socket—this latter allowing them 
to be fixed permanently on to a long or short 
pole. What do you think of the idea ?—Vours 
faithfully. Hill and Son.” 
[We think it is the best portable weed cutter 
we have seen—by portable we mean light enough 
to carry in one’s creel or bag (when the blade 
should be protected by a sheath of some kind)— 
not only for cutting water weeds but also for 
clearing away thistles along the edge of a 
favourite cast, where the line must fall partly on 
the grass. It looks as if it would be useful for 
lopping branches.] 
If you are Interested In Books 
Mnd 2^ 6U. in stampa for a copy post free every weelc for 
3 months of " Tag Pcblishf.r.s’ Ciroular and Booksellers’ 
Kecord, ' St. Dunatan’a House, Fefior-Iane, Fleet-atreet, 
London. 
I AM not exactly an ancient mariner, but it 
must be more than a quarter of a century ago 
since I caught my first pike in the mill-pond at 
Godstone. He was a very little pike, not up to 
Thames standard by any means, but I placed him 
in my basket with five roach and two perch, and 
walked home three miles, quite the proudest lad 
in the county. My pride had a severe fall. 
Breakfast had been at eight, supper came thirteen 
hours later, and there was no meal or drink in 
between. The road was dusty, and how delicious 
was that bumper of claret which I drained off 
before eating anything. A full tumbler, and I a 
lad, full as to creel, but empty as to stomach, and 
very tired. Some friends had dined at our 
house, and after a hasty meal I went into the 
drawing-room, but found much difficulty in say¬ 
ing anything very plainly, or in walking very 
straight. Somehow I got out of the room, and 
remember being in our hall at the foot of the 
staircase. After that all is a blank until I woke 
up the next morning feeling rather heavy about 
the head, and not a little confused. That’s the 
history of my first pike, and it all came back to 
me to-day while reading about two anglers who— 
but it’s a delightful story, and shall have a 
paragraph to itself. _ 
Rose, my miller, died long ago, and in his place 
reigns one Hall. There is a solitary punt on the 
water, and into this, so the story goes, two strange 
anglers walked, unmoored, and rowed out some 
distance from the shore. The miller, catching 
sight of the anglers, said, “ Hulloo, you there, do 
you know you’re &c, &c., &c. ? ” or words to that 
effect. But the anglers answered nothing, but fished 
patiently on. To be on the bank when the enemy 
is on the water, there being only one boat, is to 
be in a state of impotence, or almost so. But that 
“ vile saltpetre ” did it. Mr. Hall had a gun, and 
finding all words useless, began peppering shot 
round the punt. Speaking as a lawyer, I should 
say this approached an assault, but I might have 
done the same thing myself. However, assault or 
not, the two jolly anglers were defeated, and came 
ashore without catching one single fish. Poor 
anglers! They deserved something better for 
their generalship in stealing the only boat. What 
happened after they came ashore I do not know. 
Let it be hoped th.at Mr. Hall is as good a fellow 
as his predecessor, who enabled me to catch my 
first pike, and took the anglers into his mill-house 
and gave them a tankard of his homebrew. 
Perhaps, after all, there is no truth in the story. 
I read it in the newspaper, you know, and those 
chaps who write in the papers are always telling 
some—that is to say, we cannot believe every¬ 
thing we read. 
Our old friend. Dr. Hamilton, author of some 
charming works on angling and riverside natural 
history, has been recently editing the records of 
“ Sport in Southern India,” left by his brother, 
the late General Douglas Hamilton, who was a 
mighty hunter. The result, to my mind, is an 
ideal book of sporting adventures. Encounters 
with tigers, bears, bisons, wild boars, wolves, and 
other ferocious animals, are all told of in that 
modest fashion which distinguishes the true 
sportsman from the braggart. When there was 
danger. General Flamilton knew it, and was not 
afraid to confess that he dreaded that danger, 
but a pluckier man never hunted the plains of 
India. Being, like his brother, Dr. Hamilton, an 
excellent artist, the book is adorned with some 
lifelike engravings of Indian scenery and wdd 
animals. Incidentally fishing is touched on. 
There is an account of spearing fish amongst the 
lovely islands of Singapore, the fish usually 
sought after being the seer, which takes the 
place of the salmon, but has white flesh. The 
natives, to enable them to see more distinctly 
under the water, wear large shades over their 
eyes. The spear used is a three pronged bamboo. 
One interesting, though lamentable, incident 
recorded in the book is the boiling of fish in a 
river owing to a volcanic eruption thirty miles 
distant. So hot was the river on the night of the 
eruption that the hand could not be held in 
it, and an immense mass of boiling mud and 
water was carried down, intermixed with 
thousands of dead and dying fish, parboiled 
bodies of tigers, deer, monkeys, and wild pigs. 
The torrent of hot water had flowed over eight 
miles of jungle before it reached the river. 
From Surrey to India, from India to the 
Thames valley. Anglers will be gratified to hear 
that they are being aided in the struggle to 
defeat the attempt made by the I’pper Thames 
Conservators to perpetrate a foolish and unjust 
act. The corporations of the river side towns 
are waking up to the fact that the welfare of 
the fisheries influence the welfare of their own 
towns. Already at a council meeting at Henley- 
on-Thames, the matter has been discussed, and a 
strong resolution unanimously passed declaring 
that there should be no netting or night-lining 
in the Thames, copies of the resolution being 
sent to the conservators, the Board of Trade, 
and some other public bodies. Other towns will 
certainly follow the example of Henley, and the 
Berkshire County Council all but passed a 
similar resolution—twelve voted for and fourteen 
against. Had certain riparian owners abstained 
from voting, as they ought to have done, the reso¬ 
lution would have been carried. I bear that the 
matter will be brought before the council again. 
A circular fully explaining the bearings of this 
important matter will shortly be published bj’ 
the Reading Angling Associations, and 1 have 
no doubt that the hon. sec. will send a copy to 
any person interested. 
A WRITER in the Daily Aetes says on this 
question, “ The difficulties of angling in the 
Thames are serious enough at their best, but if 
Squire Graball is allowed to send his gardener 
down to the water-side every night to lay night- 
lines right and left, and to rake out fish, great 
and small, with his nets, a departure will bo 
made of a disgracefully retrograde character. I 
commend this matter to all members of Parlia¬ 
ment. The Thames Conservators have been 
invested with enormously wide powers to pre¬ 
serve and protect the Thames fisheries in the 
interests of all concerned, and if this is a 
specimen of the manner in which they propose 
to carry out their trust the sooner such a system 
is put an end to the better.” I entirely agree 
with the writer in the Daily JSfftvs. By the way, 
I strongly advise angling clubs, Ac., to forward 
copies of any resolutions they pass respecting 
these bye-laws to the president of the Board of 
Trade, - Whitehall Gardens, as well as to the 
conservators. Templar. 
A THIRTY-SEVEN POUND IRISH 
PIKE. 
Dear Marston, —I received your telegram, and 
went this afternoon to the Westminster Aquarium 
to see the large Irish pike. On measuring the 
fish very accurately I found its extreme length, 
from end of nose to fork of tail, was forty-six 
inches, and from the point of under jaw to fork 
exactly forty-seven inches; length of head, i.e., 
nose to edge of gill-cover, thirteen inches; and 
girth, twenty-four inches. It is a handsome, 
broad-backed, fish, but, being captured so late in 
the season, seems to have a lot of spawn in it. 
In general appearance and contour it is very 
like the 351b. Rapley Lake pike, the cast of which 
by the late Frank Buckland, painted by H. L. 
Rolfe, 1 arranged in a glass cabinet on a bank of 
moss, for the Piscatorial Society, in whose 
museum it is to be seen. 
My 371b. and 361b. pike exceeded this Irish 
fish in girth, both being twenty-six inches, and 
measuring forty-seven and forty-six inches res¬ 
pectively in length, from point of jaw to fork. 
But the 371b. specimen I caught lu late autumn, 
viz., November 4, had it been at the end of March 
it would have weighed over 401b. .Some while 
aero I saw a 281b. March fish opened, and its roe 
weighed 4|lb. 
Tnis Irish pike is a grand fish. Did you see 
it weighed ? It seemed to me to be very near— 
possibly quite—its accredited 371b. 
The placard stated it was caught by “ rod and 
bait ” by William Duffy, fisherman, Athlone.— 
I am, yours, &c., Alfred Jardine. 
March 23, 1893. 
[It was weighed very carefully at our office, 
and was.a good 371b.—En.], 
