412 
THE FISHING GAZETTE 
[June 3, 1893 
hook, hoping by a sbeady lateral pull to draw my 
fieh out from under the ice, it was of no use; my 
line, frayed by the sharp edges of the ice, broke, 
and the pike escaped. 
]\Iy friend was equally unfortunate, for be also 
hooked a fine fish ; but the ice floes damaged his 
tackle in a similar way, and the result was his 
fish too was lost. 
This was very discouraging, but “ a bad 
beginning often makes a good ending.” 
(To be continued!) 
THE NORWEGIAN AGEN'J’S. 
We have received a long letter from Mr. Beyer, 
but from expressions in it are uncertain if it 
is intended for us or the editor of the Field. We 
give one extract from it because Mr. Bever refers 
to his agents in London, Messrs. E. Baton and 
Son, for confirmation of it. It is as follows : 
“With regard to Mr. Sturdy’s remark that my 
agents are still offering my water with the usual 
statements and reticences likely to cause appli¬ 
cants to deceive themselves, 1 beg to say that 
in the description which I gave them, and accord¬ 
ing to which they were to offer my fishing to 
intending tenants, both the correct length is 
stated and the salmon trap and the Seimslake 
mentioned. In addition to such exact description 
(of which I have a press copy), I further gave 
them a large scale map showing all these thing.s. 
This my agents will admit themselves if Mr. 
Sturdy will take the trouble to investigate it, 
which he of course ought to have done already 
before writing his last letter. If they nevertheless 
have omitted to mention either the lahe or salmon 
trap, or both, they have certainly done so nninten- 
tionally, and I can at least not be blamed for their 
mistake.” 
We took the trouble to write to Mr. Beyer's 
London agents, Messrs. E. Baton and Son, 14, 
St. James’-street, saying that Mr. Beyer had re¬ 
ferred to them, and adding that we were informed 
that the advertisements sent by them to the 
Field, and the information supplied to applicants 
about Mr. Beyer’s fishery by them, contained no 
mention of the lake or the salmon trap. Certainly, 
the only advertisements and circular from their 
office which we have seen do not mention the 
lake or the salmon trap. 
It will be seen from the last lines (in italic) 
which we quote from Mr. Beyer, that he repu¬ 
diates any blame attaching to him in consequence 
of his agents not carrying out his instructions. 
Messrs. Baton and Son evidently do not trouble 
themselves about the matter extensively. Here 
is their reply :— 
“ IMessrs. Edward Baton and Son must decline 
to di<cuss with Mr. Marston either Mr. Beyer’s 
(of Bergen) affairs, or whether that gentleman or 
they are to blame in anyway about anything.” 
In future we hope Mr. Beyer, before he refers 
people to his agents, will ascertain that there is 
any use in doing so. 
Mr. Beyer says Mr. Sturdy accused him of 
inserting advertisements likely to cause appli¬ 
cants to deceive themselves, and he first denies 
this, and then states if it was done it was done 
against his express order.s by his agents, and 
refers us to them. They simply decline to 
discuss the matter. Certainly the more it is 
discussed the worse it looks for ]\[r. Beyer, and 
unless he can satisfactorily reply to Mr. Sturdy’s 
challenge, which we publish this week, we shall 
close our columns to him. 
Recoiid Bo.vciieiis —At the Aberdeen Sheriff’s 
Court on Friday, Ogilvie, a labourer, was con¬ 
victed on evidence lor having used a gaff at 
cruives of Don for catching salmon. Of course, 
he pleaded ‘ Not guilty.” and produced as testi¬ 
mony of his innocence the witness of John 
Taylor Watt, who, on stepping into the box, ad¬ 
mitted having been seventeen times convicted of 
poaching, but explained to his lordship, amidst 
the laughter of the court, that it was all through 
spite that he had attained such eminence in the 
ranks of the fraternity. The accused admitted 
thirteen previous convictions, and this last makes 
the fourteenth, for which he was sweetly mulcted 
in the sum of to, with tl Els. tij. expenses, with 
the alternative of thirty days in prison. 
THE THAMES FISHERY BYE¬ 
LAWS. 
Akoleks may be congratulated on the success 
of their efforts to improve the Thames Fisheries 
Bye-laws. The revised draft has at last been 
published, and we are extremely glad to find they 
contain most important improvements and modi¬ 
fications. 
Onr readers will, however, look in vain for any 
bye-law's dealing with swans or steam launches, 
nor will they find any alteration of importance 
in the fence season, nor in the sizes of fish. But 
in the matter of netting the conservators have 
given up all attempt to increase the privileges of 
owners or claimants of fisheries, and have 
reverted to the old bye-law of 1833. That bye¬ 
law is sufficiently strong, for it gives owners of 
fisheries unlimited night-lining and cast netting 
powers, but the two-inch mesh of the drag and 
hoop net (allo«ved only to those who could obtain 
a licence to use them) is sO large that no revival 
of netting on any large scale may be feared in 
the Thames. 
Another most important point in which the 
conservators have given way is, that relating 
to the taking of fish for scientific purposes, e.y., 
fish culture. Under the old bye-laws any person 
could do this with a licence from the conservators, 
but under the proposed bye-laws no person could 
do this unless he was the owiter of a fishery. The 
old order of things is reverted to. 
In the matter of the backwaters theanglers have 
scored another triumph. The conservators pro¬ 
posed to omit the word “backwater” from the 
bym-law which makes it illegal to set nets at the 
mouths of creeks and inlets to the river. They 
have now reintroduced the word “ backwater,” and 
in definition of the word “Thames” they no 
longer use the expression “ through which Thames 
water flows ” (in reference to backwaters), but 
they adopt the far preferable definition given in 
the Thames Breservation Act of 1885, which runs 
as follows: 
“Every part of the River Thame.s, through 
which Thames water flows, between the town of 
Cricklade and Teddington Lock, including all 
such backwaters, creeks, side-channels, bays, and 
inlets connected therewith as form parts of the 
said river within the limits aforesaid, except all 
private artificial cuts for purposes of drainage 
or irrigation, and all artificial inlets for moats, 
boathouses, pond^, or other like private purposes, 
already made or hereafter to be made, and all 
channels which by virtue of any conveyance from 
or agreement with the Conservators, or the Com¬ 
missioners acting under any of the Acts men¬ 
tioned in the first schedule to this Act, or by any 
lawful title, have been enjoyed as private chan¬ 
nels for the period of twenty years before the 
passing of this Act.” 
This definition, it will be observed, includes 
not only the channels through which Thames 
water flows, but also inlets, creeks, &c, which 
form part of the river. 
Anglers are not, perhaps, much interested in 
soles caught in the Thames estuary, but at a 
time when so much public attention is being 
directed to this most valuable food fish, it is not 
pleasant to find the conservators changing the 
limit of size below which soles must be returned 
to the water from 10 inches to 8 inches. An 
8-inch sole is a miserable little fish. 
There is one new addition to the bye-laws to 
which possibly some of the Upper Thames 
Fishery Associations will take objection. . With 
the object of preventing a large number of under¬ 
sized fish being taken on the excuse that they are 
required for the purposes of bait, the conservators 
inserted a clause making it illegal for any person 
to have in his possession more than fifty under¬ 
sized fish at one time, or to take more than fifty 
fish on one day for the purposes of bait. They 
now except from this provision small fish taken 
for the purpose of baiting eel baskets, so that 
the servant of any fishery owner might on the 
excuse that he reqirired them for his eel baskets 
kill an urdimited number of undersized roach, 
dace, chub, Ac. 
The present close season for trout commences 
on Sept. 11, and ends on March 31 following, both 
days inclusive. In the original draft of the new 
bj-e-laws, the fence season was enlarged by eleven 
days in September, which was objected to. In this 
present draft the fence season commences on 
Sept. 11, and ends on March 81, but to make the 
clause accord with the General Salmon Fishery 
Acts, a special close season is fixed for salmon 
and salmon trout, commencing on Sept. 1, and 
ending on March 31 following. We can only 
hope that the time will come when there will be 
an opportunity of applying this portion of the 
bye-law. Introduction of salmon into the Thame 3 
is looked upon as a vain dream, owing perhaps to 
the failure which attended the introduction of 
the fry of salmon a good many years ago. But 
the Thames is more pure now than it was then, 
and we have all learnt that to introduce fry, 
except in very large quantities, is worse than 
useless, for it means throwing money away. 
'I'he foregoing are the only points which have 
interest for anglers. If any of the societies or 
associations desire to make any further recom¬ 
mendations to the conservators, those recom¬ 
mendations have to be sent in, and must I e 
considered within one month of the publication 
of this present draft of the bye-laws. At the end 
of the month the bye-laws will be sent to the 
Brivy Council, and then any person or association 
wishing to pe ition against it can do so by 
sending in his petition, addressed to Her Majesty 
the Queen in Council, iinder covert of the Clerk 
of Brivy Council at Whitehall, that those of the 
bye-laws to which he, or th^y, object be dis¬ 
allowed. 
All the Thames anglers will be gratified at the 
su jcess they have achieved, and, no doubt, many 
of them will rest content with the result of their 
contest with the conservators, but some of the 
associations incline to the view that the time has 
come when night-lining and netting, except for 
bait, should be totally prohibited. 
Certainly, the conservators seem to have lost 
an opportunity of doing what would have been a 
very popular act among anglers, in making 
illegal practices which had fallen into disuitude. 
From the general remarks, when the matter 
was discussed before the Berkshire County 
{Council, it was perfectly clear that a consider¬ 
able number of riparian owners were not at all 
in sympathy with the conservators in their vieu b 
concerning netting. 
When the bye-laws have finally passed the 
Brivy Council we shall be in a position to con¬ 
sider them as a whole, and point out the chanees 
they have wrought in the law, and the probable 
effect they will have on angling and the Thames 
fisheries. 
MAY-FLY ON THE TEST, 1893. 
By Major W. G. Tukle. 
This, I expect, will be remembered as a record 
May-fly year, not because the fishing has been so 
unusually good, far from ii, but o i account of 
its being, so to say, entirely out of gear. To 
begin with, the May-flies made their appearance 
at least a fortnight before they had any business 
to show themselves. Then, instead of the soft 
balmy air and light south-west wind so dear to 
the dry-fly angler, the wind nearly always stood 
steady at eist-north-east, and it required a 
skilful fisherman to lure the fish from their 
watery bed. Not once this year have We been 
able to lay the proud array of thirty-two brace 
out on the lawn, the result of one day’s fishing, 
as we did last season; eight brace and a half to 
three rods being the best we have mustered as 
yet. 
That was yesterday, for thoug’u during the 
afternoon the fish on many of the streams were 
taking the fly well, it was next to impossible to 
get a straight line over them. There was a 
general complaint that the fish came short, but 
my opinion, founded on close examination is, that 
the fly never landed straight over the water, but 
was blown back some six inches, consequently 
when the fish rose and the angler struck, he 
failed to get a tight line. That A 1 fisherman, 
G. U. Wha'min, Es(| , made the best bag that I 
know of, killing ten brace on the Briory and 
Newton Stacey Waters. Another good take on 
the latter water alone was six brace last Friday, 
really the best day of the May-fly fishing. '»’es- 
terday the fly also rose well, and the heaviest fish 
of this season was then killed, weighing a little 
over 31b. My friend had been waiting for it all 
