May 6, 1893] 
THE PISHING GAZETTE 
331 
the sport, and treating a trout as he deserves to 
be treated. I have made a point of never bearing 
jealousy to a brother angler more successful than 
myself, and have always tried to act on a give 
and take principle throughout; bub this has 
always vexed me, and always will, viz., to see a 
man using coarse, wretched stuff, only fit 
for pike, when trout fishing. This simply 
precludes all idea of real sport; it is a 
matter of “ hook him and hold him ” only, 
and makes the true sportsman almost weep at 
the butchery of a noble fish. What beautiful 
finesse and skill, play and touch, are completely 
lost to the angler (?) who uses a twisted gut trace 
and a jack rod for a Thames trout! Only those 
who possess the skill and knowledge required 
for the use of properly fine tackle, can ever 
experience to the full the bliss of playing such a 
fish. What a pity it is that many will not 
consider this; their one idea being to land a trout 
almost immediately he is hooked; simply meaning 
to have the fish and not caring about the sport 
—chacun d son gout — bub does anyone kill a 
partridge or a pheasant with a duck gun ? Why 
then should a nobly game fish be slaughtered 
with jack tackle ? This is one of the evils of 
“ pot hunting once this possesses a man he 
loses all sense of fair play in whatever branch 
of sport his tastes lie; and I cannot understand 
how anyone can use two rods at once on a weir 
when trouting, and still consider himself a sports¬ 
man in the true sense of the word. He is destroy¬ 
ing his own chance, and the chances of others as 
well; for if a trout be hooked by the tackle he 
has left to fish for itself at, perhaps, the far end 
of the weir, what is almost the invariable 
result? Why, there is a sudden bend of the 
rod, a scream from the winch, and the line 
slackens, either being clean broken, or the fish 
has gone away, hard pricked, having learnt a 
lesson he will never forget. If he has broken 
the tackle, and the hooks remain in him, it is 
ten chances to one the fish will die, and be picked 
np some few days afterwards in a semi-putrid 
condition. It takes very little injury in the 
mouth or throat to kill a trout; he is not like a 
great hard-mouthed jack with jaws a foot long; 
a trout’s mouth is quite a different shape and 
style, and the vital organs are more easily 
affected. Besides this, the use of two rods, in 
some weirs, quite prevents anyone else fishing; 
and when I renewed my weir permit for the 
present season, I wrote to the Thames Con¬ 
servancy on the subject, saying that I hoped the 
matter would be particularly considered in the 
new bye-laws. When my permit was forwarded 
to me I was informed that the matter should 
have attention, and can only hope that the “ two 
rod business ” will be strictly prohibited on all 
weirs under their control.* Having had my little 
“ growl,” which has immensely relieved my 
feelings, I gladly return to a more pleasant 
subject. 
It is one thing to stroll down to the river and 
land a fine fish almost instantly, which sometimes 
happens (as I have above related); but it is quite 
another thing to fish, and fish steadily and per- 
severingly, with the utmost care, till you do at 
last get hold of a trout which has many times 
refused to look at the best bait you can put before 
him. Y’ou will be far prouder of the latter fish ; 
the carefully thought out schemes for his capture 
will be recollected with the greatest enjoyment; 
you go back to the very moment you first saw him 
leed, and all the varied hopes and disappointments 
experieaced from that moment till the fish was 
safely in the landing net, will again present them¬ 
selves to your contented mind in the most 
pleasureable sequence. 
How well you remember the precise spot where 
the baits all suddenly scattered—the wild bounds 
and leaps of the one unhappy bleak on which the 
trout had fixed his attention—the swirl and dash 
of the noble fish after him, and the final dis¬ 
appearance of the bleak in the open jaws of death 
awaiting his last leap—the flap of a huge spotted 
tail in the foam—and you had, for the first time, 
seen the fish now in the landing net; your blood 
perfectly tingled with the excitement of it all, 
and the resolve instantly made was to have that 
intit, even if you tried after him the whole season. 
* Have just received a letter from the secretary of the 
Thames Conservancy, which states that the use of more 
than one rod and line at a time on any of the weirs has 
been prohibited. Good news.—C. H. W. 
Truly, Thames trouting is a madness which fully 
possesses you after an experience of this sort, 
and an artful old fish will give you many anxious 
days till you have got him. You can never forget 
him; you fancy So-and-So has seen him, and the 
haunting fear that he will hook the fishyou already 
consider to be your own especial property never 
leaves you. 
Then, the next time you saw him, he fed in a 
totally different place, and much later in the day. 
This set you puzzling your brains again as to the 
why and wherefore, much cogitation and anxious 
thought ensuing. Determining to have a really 
good “ go ” for him, you picked out what might 
be considered a perfect day for trout fishing, 
warm, but not scorching hot; a gentle, westerly 
breeze, light fleecy clouds lazily moving across 
the sky, and a general balminess everywhere and 
in all things, which bespoke one of Dame Nature’s 
most genial moods. The water was in excellent 
condition, your baits were fresh and plentiful; 
nothing went wrong, there was no hitch anywhere, 
the calm sense of enjoyment in all your sur¬ 
roundings banished care and vexations of all 
sorts; you felt capable of loving even your 
bitterest enemy. What was the result of all this ? 
The trout never so much as moved the whole day 
long, and you went home firmly convinced that 
there was more in fishy nature than you could 
yet make out. 
When you again tried him what a contrast 
the day presented. A nasty, sneaky sort of 
day, gusty and showery, the wind nipping you 
unawares, the puffs blowing the fine spray in 
clouds back into your face, the sun coming out 
fitfully, watery and ragged, now and then a little 
hail falling, with every promise of snow; the 
tender spring foliage all nipped and black, an 
intensely miserable feeling in the air, and the 
water a sickly, unwholesome colour. Now, why 
on such a day as this should that trout have fed 
twice, right under your very eyes? Really, I 
cannot say; for the ways of Thames trout are 
peculiar, like those of the Heathen Chinee, and it 
is impossible to realise why, on the most lovely, 
perfect day you can pick out, you will sometimes 
not see a fish move, while on the vilest, blackest, 
beastliest days imaginable, they will be feeding all 
over the weir. 
After these sweet (?) days, you had a short time 
of depression, feeling that Thames trouting was a 
snare and a delusion, and that the game was not 
worth the candle; but the determination not to 
be “ done ” soon reasserted itself, and one way 
or another you carefully and patiently tried for 
that fish, until one fine day, perhaps late in the 
season, he committed the fatal error of not letting 
well alone, taking your bait with a most terrific 
“ whack,” and affording you twenty minutes of 
the grandest sport (on your pretty tackle) that an 
angler can ever experience. 
Besides the difficulty of deluding a wary fish, 
there are several others to bo overcome, one of 
the most troublesome being to acquire a perfect 
knowledge of the weirs. Till you know a weir 
thoroughly you will be certain to lose a large 
quantity of tackle, you only find out hidden 
stumps, and other obstructions, by the sad losses 
they occasion. The loss of three tackles in as 
many hours is a frequent occurrence when fishing 
a strange weir ; this only forms part of the 
“ education.” Every Thames weir is a study in 
itself, especially as regards back eddies and 
undercurrents, vastly different tackle being 
required for different weirs. You draw the 
bait across an apparently perfectly clear run, 
but the line checks; you lift a little, and find 
yourself fast, though nothing in the shape of an 
obstacle is visible on the surface of the water. 
Occasionally, by letting a large quantity of line 
run, the stream will drag the hooks clear. It is 
not the slightest use pulling and hauling; the 
more strain you exert, the further the hooks bury 
themselves. A bent willow twig, in the shape of 
a hoop, allowed to run down the line, will perhaps 
effect a clearance, if one does not do so try a 
second and a third; all these failing, the only 
course left is to put a strain on the line till 
something gives, and take the consequences. In 
doing this I have more than once cut my fingers, 
through allowing the line to slip in my hand, it 
is astonishing what a heavy strain really good 
fine tackle will bear when wet. Do not spoil 
your rod by unduly jerking when “ hung up,” 
but bring the top down and pull on a straight 
line with the hand. If you are fishing with the 
wind blowing right up stream, a sudden heavy 
gust will blow the bait back by acting on the 
line, and will tangle the slack line round a boulder 
high out of the water, this will perhaps cause the 
loss of much running line as well, the only remedy 
being to use a fine running line, which does not 
hold so much wind. 
Baits are sometimes most difficult to procure. 
In cold windy weather it is hard to catch a bleak; 
you may try for hours and not get one. I find 
they take a tiny bit of bread [paste more freely 
than anything else, they will take this when they 
will not ;look at a gentle ; the dodge is to throw 
a good sized piece of crusty bread, dry, on the 
surface, and draw your bait close to it ; the bleak 
take the tiny pieces detached by the action of the 
water, and yours among them. In very cold 
weather, bleak feed some feet below the 
surface, and a float must be used. Just below or 
above lock gates, in sheltered spots, you can 
nearly always get a bait by throwing plenty of 
bread on the surface; in sunny, still weather 
there is little difficulty, daping with the natural 
fly will then catch them as fast as possible. The 
fishermen will nearly always oblige you with a 
few baits when they can spare them, and should 
be well paid for them. A large minnow, or a 
small gudgeon, is an excellent bait, especially 
when spinning. 
If those anglers who have never tried Thames 
trouting will kindly consider my poor remarks 
on the subject, I think they will see there is a 
deal to be learnt, and much to be enjoyed, and 
should any one of them determine to make a 
beginning with the 1893 season, I pray that he 
will accept my heartiest wishes for his good 
success. 
THE GRANNOM ON THE TEST, 1893. 
By R. N, 
May has begun, and in a few more days the 
grannom of 1893 will be over. It has been a 
most remarkable spring, and no doubt will be 
well recorded by our meteorologists. But fishing 
and weather are so intimately connected it is 
almost impossible to speak of one without men¬ 
tioning the other. Owing to the bright, hot 
weather in April the grannom first appeared on 
the Test this year April 7th, or neaifly a fort¬ 
night before its usual time, and it has been 
strong on the water every day (with perhaps one 
or two exceptions) up to the present date. 
May 1st, and even now, although much diminished 
in quantity, it is still in evidence; and higher 
up the river, about Mottisfont, where it was not 
quite so early in appearing, it is as strong as ever. 
In the evenings after some of the very hot 
days, the clouds of this fly on the water were a 
most remarkable sight, the low rays of the sun 
shining through them as they flew over the 
water gave them the appearance of a shower of 
gold floating in the air. 
When flying in clouds like this the fly invari¬ 
ably directs its course up stream, and if there be 
a strong down stream blowing it seeks shelter in 
the grasses and bushes on the banks. 
This up-stream movement is evidently an 
instinct to enable it to maintain the original 
locality that gave it birth; as the grannom lays 
its eggs on the surface of the water these must 
necessarily drift some way below where they are 
deposited. 
The appearance of the grannom, when closely 
examined, is somewhat disappointing after the 
florrid imitation one sees, which would lead one 
to expect a much more gaily decorated insect. 
It belongs to the natural order Phryganidse, 
and when at rest the fly folds its wings on the 
body in the form of a roof, and it is provided 
with short, fine antennte. The wings are light 
brown, very transparent, and the light marking, 
generally reproduced so prominently in the arti¬ 
ficial fly, is merely the effect of the darker shade 
given by the under wing and body seen through. 
It will be noticed by a very casual observer that 
there are two sizes of this fly—the small and 
darker one being the male, the larger and lighter ^ 
the female. The latter, on being caughD and 
examined, will be found to have a green sack 
attached to the end of its body. This sack con¬ 
tains the eggs. 
