212 
SUPPLEMENT TO THE PISHING GAZETTE 
[April 1, 1893 
catch, and, save on odd occasions, take anything but 
freely. Once fairly among bream in the taking mood 
there is no coarse fish of which bigger bags can be made, 
but the difficulty is to get them in the taking mood. It 
may be remembered that I recently noted the results of 
a day’s netting, or rather, three draws of a certain 
celebrated bream pond in Derbyshire, in which there are 
thousands of bream; well, I was informed by its noble 
owner that it is only for a week or so throughout the 
year (the period varies) that the bream take at all freely. 
On one afternoon, while this week was “ on,” one angler 
took 1151b. weight of fish out of the pond. Now this 
has been, and probably will continue to be, the state of 
matters on the Trent; an odd good bag, failure in moat 
cases, ea.price on the part of the fish, and an increasing 
number in the river, for bream are both hardy and pro- 
lific. The water, as a matter of fact, oftener suited bream 
^hingthan any of the other departments of coarse fish- 
so that unsnitable conditions can hardly be advanced 
as an excuse. In the lower portion of the Derwent a similar 
state of matters prevailed. As to the perch season— 
over it I would fain draw the veil of reticence, but it 
may be dismissed in a word. Perch have for years, for 
some very unaccountable reason, been growing scarcer 
and scarcer in the Trent. This year very few were 
killed, and perhaps of these few the major portion were 
taken in the Weston, Shardlow, and Sawley districts. 
Of tench it hardly seems necessary to speak. Tench 
thrives better in ponds and still waters than any other 
fist—bream perhaps excepted—and in the main river of 
J Trent there are not many tench—at least few are 
killed in it, but in some of the backwaters, and in such 
places as the “Old Trent” at Sawley and in certain 
portions of the canals, there is a fair number. It was 
in these that most of the tench were killed. So far as 
I know they were all the common tench. I am not 
aware that the golden variety occurs in any of the 
rivers of the county. The dace season was a poor one. 
I can remember no special capture of these fish either as 
“ punifier or size. From personal observation fly¬ 
fishing in the shallows during the earlier months of the 
season would most certainly have yielded good results ; 
but as I had occasion to remark last week your 
average Trent fisher fights shy of that mode of 
angling. Of the minor fish it is not my intention 
to say more than that they maintained the status (/uo 
ante as to numbers. The eel season was also up to the 
average, though lamperns showed perhaps a slight fall¬ 
ing off. Viewing the season as a whole, fish of all sorts 
were numerous, disease occasionally showed itself 
especially amongst the roach and dace, but the weather 
and water were generally unsuitable, and, from any 
point of view, the results were far from gratifying con- 
wdering the quantity of fish of all sorts in the river. 
The prospects are, however, good, and, given suitable 
conditions, next season will surely atone for the one 
just passed. 
Pike are, as yet, the only fish showing signs of begin¬ 
ning to spawn, but on an average of years on the Trent, 
j. find that pike are usually spawning about the 12th 
dace about the 4th May, roach and bream about 
the 7th May, and barbel and chub about the 28th May. 
This marked difference seems to point to the fact that, 
so far as some coarse fish are concerned, the season closes 
too early and opens too soon, but no doubt any recogni- 
tion of this difference if beneficial in one direction 
would be the opposite in another. 
Trout fishing can hardly yet be said to be in full swing 
at least, not in club waters. The season for some of the 
club waters opened on Saturday, e.g., on the Matlock 
reach, but, though the waters are all in excellent order 
fiy‘fi®b'^fr> little will bo done with the fly until 
the hard frost, which we have every night, gives 
way. The weather, it is true, is unnaturally warm 
during the day, and there is a fair “ hatch out ” of flies, 
but there has as yet been no marked or general 
rise” on the part of the fish. On the whole 
the teout may be said to be in good condition, consider¬ 
ing how late the spawning season was, but I think 
anglers will find tha,t the condition of the fish is very 
variable, some all right, and others very far from it. 
should this weather continue, and the wind 
shift from the east (it changed to that disagreeable 
quarter about midnight last night), I see no reason why 
Faster should not produce good results with the fly. In 
any view the country is looking lovely, the days are 
warm, the waters are in good ply—and east wind or no 
cast wind, the jaded town man who wants fresh air and 
exercise must be hard to please if not contented with 
such conditions. 
I was much amused, when in one of the riverside 
towns of the Derwent the other night, to see a certain 
cubing old veteran spinning a minnow from the balcony 
of his house towards 7.30 p.m., when it was virtually 
/ ®“® while I was watching him 
(about jib.), and many large fish fall each season to his 
rod in this way. He is a freeholder, and hence no one 
can prevent him from so fishing. AVhere the joke came 
in, was that many of the members of the club, them- 
selyes debarred from angling by their own rules, were 
watching his operations, powerless to prevent or parti¬ 
cipate m them. 
VIrecent dynamiting and netting in the Wye below 
Pakowell would have turned out a very serious matter 
had the pohce not come down upon the men. The con¬ 
summate impertinence—the adding of insult to injury— 
in proceeding to use explosives and nets within 300 
yards of the police-station, and so short a distance from 
the village, IS, to my mind, extremely suggestive. It shows 
that there is considerable laxity on the part of those pri- 
vately interested in the water, and that these poachers 
were not by any manner of means new to the business 
Immunity from interruption seems to have begot careless¬ 
ness. Two of them have, I hear, absconded. One of the 
matters that will come up before the Trent Board of 
Conservators at their annual meeting this week will be 
the question as to the extension of the rod season for 
trout. So far as I have been able to ascertain, the better 
class clubs a,re opposed to it, while the clubs whose 
members fish in the smaller brooks and mostly with bait, 
are in favour of it. The clubs can, of course, get over 
the difficulty so far as their own waters are concerned, 
by fixing any close time private to themselves, as they 
already fix their opening at a period much later than the 
law requires. In my view, the opening should be delayed 
a month, while the season might with advantage be pro¬ 
tracted for a fortnight, on the ground many of the more 
cannibalistic and aged trout might be killed during the 
fortnight. There can be no doubt but that there are 
many old trout which, like old cock grouse on a moor, 
would be far better out of the streams than in them. 
Salmon fishing is now being prosecuted with consider¬ 
able vigour on Trent-side, and with a fair measure of 
success, at least in the King’s Mills bit of water, in the 
streams just Ijelow the weir. On Thursday Mr. AVood 
the lessee, killed a small fish of S^lb. above the Ferry 
Chain, while in the afternoon Mr. H. Coxon, Nottingham, 
took a 141b. fish, which I had the pleasure of gaffing! 
Mr. AVood’s fish was killed on a Devon, while Mr. Coxon 
secured his on a spiral spinner. On Friday Mr. AVood had 
another fish of 121b., also taken on the Devon (which is 
the favourite lure on Trent). It was a remarkably 
shapely fish. Four fish in one week from this short 
stretch of water is remarkably good for the river, and if 
matters progress equally favourably during April, May, 
and June, we may hope to revive some of the departed 
&tory of the hundred-armed Trent as a salmon river. 
The next freshet should bring up a large number of 
fish. 
I have been frequently asked of late, by the riverside 
and elsewhere, if an angling association, having no 
leased water, qua association has power propria matu, 
to prosecute offenders against any of the bye-laws 
of the board of conservators of the district. I have put 
the matter thus generally, not only because the question 
IS one of considerable importance, but also because the 
first prosecution by such an association, so far as I am 
aware, occurred through a breach of one of the Trent 
Fishery Board bye-laws with regard to night-netting. 
I may state that in terms of the 3.5th section of the iStil 
Act any person could lay an information and recover 
one half of the penalty imposed (and the rule was that 
all penalties were recoverable under the Jervis’s Act) 
but after the creation of boards by the 1865 Act, this' 
power was lost, and the law as to the formal laying of 
^formation became very strict—so strict, in fact, that 
in all cases even water bailiffs—the duly authorised, 
paid, and recognised servants of the boards—were 
required to produce w’ritten authority from the boards 
in taking out a summons. In the case of Anderson v 
Ramtm (Q. B. Div. 63 L. T. 168, April 1890) a convic¬ 
tion was quashed on the ground that the water bailiff, 
though he had been authorised in writing to take out a 
suinmons by his bop’d, could not produce that written 
authority at the trial, nor show that any resolution had 
been specially passed by the board authorising the pro- 
eeedings. In consequence of this manifest miscarriage 
of justice on a purely technical ground, a clau'se 
(sect. 13) was inserted in the Fisheries Act, 1891 
(just as previously the Eels Act, 1886, had 
been jmssed to remedy the decision in Bradley v. 
Price, that eels were freshwater fish within the meaning 
of sect. 11 of the Freshwater Fisheries Act, 1878) to the 
Mlowing effect: “ The powers conferred by the Sea 
Fisheries Act, 1883, or this Act, or any other Act re¬ 
lating to sea fisheries, or by any Act relating to 
salmon and freshwater fisheries, upon any autho¬ 
rities or officers to pforce any such Act, shall not 
be construed as limiting or taking away the power of 
any person to take legal proceedings for the enforce¬ 
ment of any such Act, or any bye-law made thereunder.” 
I presume that such associations found upon the words 
'*,any bye-law,” but am of opinion 
that the clause was inserted with a view to obviating 
tlm necessity for any person having interest in eausd., 
whether as a private individual who has suffered 
injury, or as a guardian of the public interest in the 
nshipg, from proving that he has been authorised by 
special resolution of the Board of Conservators; and 
this more especially in view of the fact that, so far as the 
bye-laws of any board are concerned, water bailiffs, and 
even private individuals having an interest in the fishing, 
must necessarily be merely nominal prosecutors, for the 
bye-laws of any board, in virtue of the Acts authorising 
them, require a special form of publication to make them 
opera,tiv®. On the reductio ad absurdum principle, it 
would be monstrous to suppose that any Act would 
confer the powers of a board upon any stranger without 
the cop®sponding responsibilities, and in my opinion 
niiM^ interest in causd would in all such cases he a 
sufficient answer. In any view, the fact that the 
penalties recovered in such cases are handed over to the 
board, and that the decisions in the cases of Rec v 
Uirks (24 L T N. S. 94, M. C.) and Rejc v. Carden (4 Burr! 
t least confirmed, the principle, 
that the person or corporate body whose right is in- 
Iringed, and to whom the penalty is paid, alone has the 
right to sue. I am of opinion that the clause, read in 
conjunction with the ease of Anderson v. Hamlin, must 
be construed, not as conferring the right to prosecute 
who have no vested interest in, or title to, 
the fashing, but merely as remedying the technical defect 
in the previous law as to written and special authority. 
A report of the Twelfth Annual Dinner of the Watford 
1 iscators is unai'oidably held over till next week. 
FROM Hampshire and district. 
To the Editor of the Fishing Gazette. 
Mayfly in March! Yes, owing to the wonderfully 
warm weather, the Mayfly has made a fatal mistake. 
The water meadows between AVinchester and Twyford 
are exceedingly pretty spots during the balmy days of 
May, and the splendid walk in this direction is greatly 
enhanced by the merry rippling stream, with the famous 
St. Catherine’s Hill as sentry, and the blazing sun 
smiling graciously on the whole. On Saturday week, 
many local gentlemen observed the Mayflies dancing just 
above the merry waters. One gentleman describes the 
scene as follows : “ It was about mid-day, and my atten» 
tioa was attracted by a swarm of chaffinches flying down 
stream in pursuit of something. I watched, and noticed 
a large number of Mayflies, which the unusually warm 
weather had hatched, and which ever aud anon received 
close attention from the trout.” They were what are 
known as March Browns, and, what with the ohafBnohes 
and trout, had a bad time of it. 
The salmon fishing at Ringwood continues very pro¬ 
ductive, and several good ones have also been taken near 
Eomsey. 
A beautiful trout was taken from the AVinchester 
waters on Tuesday, and was exhibited upon the slab of a 
local fishmonger. 
The coarse fishing has closed, and at Newbury it was 
very successful. One angler alone, during the season 
from June to March, bagged thirty-two jack at 31b. ; one 
' at 4Jlb. ; one at 61b.; one at 16ib.; and one at 181b., 
which is a good record for one rod. Roach and perch 
have also yielded well at Newbury. 
Taken as a whole, the fishing at Newbury has been 
the best for several years, pike especially providing 
good sport. 
In the Hants waters, the pike and other coarse fish 
are not appreciated, having to make room for the more 
sporting trout. 
A fine specimen of the hawk—Peregrine falcon—has 
been shot at Highcleve Park. 
A large male badger has been dug out at Edmund’s 
Hill, Ramsbury, by Mr. Atherton. 
A Henley fisherman had a strange experience the 
other week. He nearly caught a fine stag single-handed. 
The stag was hard pressed by the hounds, and made for 
the water, passing close to the angler’s boat. He hurled 
a rope, and caught hold of the stag, but was unable to 
keep his hold without any assistance, and was forced to 
let go. _ 
FROM THE LAKE DISTRICT. 
To the Editor of the Fishing Gazette. 
Days cold as December, giving place to others o 
summer heat, has been the order ot the weather for th 
past week. Thursday and Friday saw heavy falls o 
snow, that on the former day amounting to a depth of 
two inches. Such weather as this is not conduoible to 
fishing, and, as a consequence, not much has been done. 
A few fish have been taken on the brighter days with 
the running worm, but we have heard of no great takes. 
Fly-fishing in Baudly Beck (a tributary to the Eden), 
Mr. I. Rowlandson had fifteen trout, weighing 4^1b. ; 
and Mr. J. T. Rowlandson from the stream on throe 
occasions had six, fifteen, and six respectively, two of 
which weighed 11b. and ^Ib. each. Messrs. AV. Nelson 
(Bougate), W. Richardson, D. Graham, and others, have 
also done fairly well, the favourite lure being the Light 
Snipe and Partridge with orange body. Eden trout are 
reported to be in good condition, but angling in this 
river will not become general until after rain falls—a 
distant prospect, apparently. 
Anglers throughout the northern counties will be 
pleased to hear that the stocking of AVindermere Lake 
is proceeding apace. Daring the past week the stock of 
trout has heen increased by 7500 yearlings. On Friday 
3638 fish were turned into the lake at various places 
from Twonhead, at La’aeside, up to Graythwaite on one 
side of the lake and to Storra on the other. Eighteen 
more tanks containing the balance of the fish arrived at 
AVindermere station on Saturday, and were taken to 
Bo wness and distributed on the very best fishing grounds 
in the lake from Bowneas Bay to Ambleside. The 
distribution was carried out by Mr. AV. Bolton, Roose ; 
Mr. A. B. Dunlop, AVindermere; and Mr. H. Chapman, 
the Lake Angling Association watcher. The fish were 
large, varying in length from 3Jin. to 6in., healthy and 
in good condition. ’This handsome stock of fish has also 
been supplemented by about 140,000 fry from the 
hatchery at Sborrs. ’These were placed in the tribu¬ 
taries of the lake and will gradually drop down as they 
attain size. Other fry from Boulton’s hatcheries, at 
Roose, Barrow, have also been put into the waters of 
the lake and streams. The death rate at the hatcheries 
establishment has not exceeded three per cent. 
AATndermere is now fit to take its place at the head of 
the fishing-waters of the country. With the excellent 
feed the lake affords, these fish should thrive, and will 
in twelve months give good sport to anglers. Good fish 
are to be obtained now, and should favourable weather 
make its appearance, the lake with its magnificent 
scenery and pleasing associations may be thought 
worthy of a visit this Easter from sportsmen intending 
to have a few days’ fishing. 
As the outcome of the salmon poaching affray at Sed- 
bergh a few weeks back, a meeting, numerously attended 
by landowners, farmers, and fishermen, was held on 
Wednesday last at the Red Lion Hotel, Sedbergh. The 
object of the meeting was to consider what the steps to 
be taken to remedy the grievances which exist under 
the bye-laws of the Lune, Wyne, &c.. Fishing Board, 
should be. The general opinion of the meeting was 
that, as the salmon did not reach the higher portions of the 
