414 
THE EISHING GAZETTE 
[June 3, 1893 
May-fly the fish rose in the evenings, taking 
other flies; a sure sign that they were never 
thoroughly goi’ged with May-fly. There is 
consolation in this, as the fish will continue to 
rise and feed on the smaller flies, and fishing, 
which as a rule is very little use immediately 
after the May-fly, will he able to be pursued now 
with some hopes of success; and the large bags 
made usually by the May-fly will be distributed 
over more fishahle days. U. N. 
THE .MAV-FLY OX DARFNTH. 
By C. W. Gedxey. 
Within the memory of that historical personage, 
the oldest inhabitant of the Darenth Valley, the 
May-fly has never before risen so early as it 
has done this season. On May 13 fish were killed 
with the artificial, fished wet, and there had been 
fly up in small numbers for some days previous 
to that date. The rises of fly have occurred 
from one o’clock until five, but the trout have 
taken the artificial very badly—worse, in fact, 
than I ever remember them. Not only have they 
come short, but they have flirted at the fly, flick¬ 
ing it with their tails, or bulged at it and then 
refused. There never has been anything so 
exasperating in their conduct in my experience, 
and, as only about one in a hundred rises came 
to anything, the difficulties attending the catch¬ 
ing of a basket of trout, up to the end of last 
week, were very great. I worked like a slave for 
ten hours on a well-stocked portion of the river, 
and only scored three and a half brace ! Things 
have somewhat improved this week, and I yes¬ 
terday (Tuesday) managed to get five brace, 
weighing 131b. There have been no evening 
rises; the fly has gone off between five and six 
o’clock, and the river has been lifeless when the 
sun declined. The cold northerly winds are no 
doubt responsible for this state of things, for the 
evenings have been quite chilly with the wind in 
that cold quarter. Taken altogether, the stock 
of trout in the Darenth was never greater than 
at present, and their condition and fighting 
powers are splendid. Some of those two-pounders 
which fell to my lot yesterday gave splendid 
sport on a 7oz. split cane rod. Yes, Mr. 
Editor, I know you will shake your head 
at this, and declare it to be wrong to go a May- 
flying with a 10ft. toy split cane weapon. But it 
is quite big enough for our queen of Kentish trout 
streams, provided the man who wields it is not a 
duffer, and the pleasure of killing a big fish is 
much enhanced by the use of a delicate rod and 
fine tackle. Judging by present appearances, I 
should say that the rise of May-fly will go on for 
another three weeks, for the fly has been hatching 
out in very small quantities, and we may thus 
anticipate that the trout’s feast of sweetness will 
be long drawn out. As to the killing patterns of 
artificials this season, there have been grievous 
complaints of the deterioration in the (juality of 
old favourites, but much of the blame attached to 
the flies is really attributable to bad rising of the 
fish. Early in the season my most killing pattern 
was a very small hackle, and I enclose you a 
specimen on which 1 killed eighteen fish, and you 
will see that it is still very little the worse for 
wear. This week winged flies have done best, 
and large patterns have scored better than small 
ones. Borne of my best fish were yesterday killed 
on flies with wings as large as a cabbage butterfly I 
Again you shake your head at my departure from 
approved methods, but the angler who adheres to 
“ approved methods ” when fish will not take 
deserves to go home with an emj^ty creel. 
IMSF AXl) FKOGUESS OF THAMES 
FHFSKKVATIOX. 
The secretary of the Thames Angling Preser¬ 
vation Society (Mr. W. H. Brougham) has just 
written a little brochure entitled “ Rise and 
Progress of Thames Preservation; being the 
Records of the Past, from I’ersonal and Practical 
Experience.” The “T.A.l’.S.” and “AV. II. 
Brougham ” are almost synonymous in the minds 
of London anglers. In this little work the 
experiences of thirty-five years are related in a 
ehatty and instructive manner; and although 
there are many who may look upon the work of 
the T.A.P.S. under Mr. Brougham’s long reign 
as ancient history, we feel sure that there must 
be many thousands of anglers in this great 
metropolis who will hail with delight this latest 
addition to our angling literature. 
It may be as well to state at once that the 
pamphlet has been printed gratuitously by the 
Fishing Oaeelte for the benefit of the funds of the 
Thames Angling Preservation Society,and may be 
obtained from the publishers (Messrs. Sampson 
Low, Marston & Company, Ltd.), price fid. There¬ 
fore it is obvious that in proportion to the sale so 
will the funds of the T.A.P.S be benefited. 
As an incentive to lovers of preservation who 
may care to adopt this latest scheme of increasing 
the fund at the disposal of Mr. Brougham’s com¬ 
mittee, we mention the following subjects :— 
Commencement of Thames Preservation; First 
Introduction of Grayling and In-Spawn Trout; 
Start of Pisciculture; Extension of Preserved 
River at Staines; Abolition of Netting; Slaughter 
of the Innocents; Making and Protection of 
Preserves; Staking and Sinking of Punts; 
Increasing the Stock of Pish; Prohibition of 
Night Lines; Snatching of Fish made Illegal; 
Gross Weight Competitions ; Steam Launches ; 
Anglers’ Privileges, &e. 
We strongly advise anglers to possess them¬ 
selves of a copy of Mr. Brougham’s “ Rise and 
Progress of Thames Preservation,” so that when 
the year’s records come to be published it will be 
found that in addition to “ Preservation Saturday,” 
“ Preservation Sunday,” and “ Preservation 
Week,” Mr. Brougham’s labours have been appre¬ 
ciated—and, what is more important, that the 
sale of “ Brougham’s Brochure ” has been the 
means of still further adding to the stock of fish 
in our beloved Thames. 
The great fight with the conservators over the 
fishery bye-laws draws very near its conclusion. 
AVe have now succeeded in preventing any in¬ 
crease of netting and other privileges being given 
to the owners or claimants of fisheries. As to 
that point matters will remain as they were in the 
bye-laws of 1883. Whether anglers will go 
further, and ask that netting, except for bait, be 
abolished altogether, remains to be seen, but in 
any case we may congratulate ourselves on the 
result of our efforts. _ 
One of the principal items of news this week is 
the formation of a Thames Public Rights Associ¬ 
ation, which will have its head((uarters at 
Maidenhead. 11 is to deal with all those matters 
in which the public are interested—free tow- 
paths and ferries, obstructions in backwaters, 
preservation of the beauties of the Thames, Ac , 
and I shall be very much surprised if it does not 
do all in its power to protect the angling interests. 
1 was very glad to find Sir Geo. Russell, Q.C., 
M.P., giving it his support, because it was he 
who, at the meeting of the Berkshire County 
Council, when Col. AJan de Weyer, a conservator, 
was explaining that the conservators were quite 
sure the fishery bye-laws were altogether in the 
interest of the public, quietly said : “ Certainly 
and unquestionably the new bye-law is highly 
prejudicial to the angling interests as compared 
with the bye-law it seeks to replace.” 
Thebe is always some little bit of scandal or 
other cropping up in connection with the Thames 
Conservators, and the latest is connected with the 
last meeting of the Berkshire County Council to 
which I have just referred. A very strong 
resolution was moved by Mr. AM. IT. Russell, of the 
Maidenhead Angling Association, condemning 
the bye-laws, and he was supported by Sir George 
Russell and other member.s of the County 
Council, including more than one riparian owner ; 
so that you see all riparian owners are not 
against us in this matter. Col. \’an de AVAycr 
gave the meeting a very definite undertaking 
that when the conservators had received the 
report of their sub-committee on the bye-laws no 
action would be taken upon that report in the 
way of sending the bye-laws to the Privy Council 
until Mr. Russell and his friends had had ample 
opportunity of considering them and making 
comments upon them. At the last meeting of 
the Upper Thames Association, a body which is 
working more or less in the interests of 
the conservators, Air. AVitherington, of Sonning, 
and Sir Gilbert East, utterly threw Col. A"an de 
AVeyer overboard, saying he had no authority 
from the conservators whatever to give such an 
undertaking to the Berkshire County Council. 
It will be very interesting to see now what 
action the Berkshire County Council will take in 
the matter. I do not myself suppose that Col. 
A'An de AMeyer intended to deceive them, but 
that probably ho himself was misled by some of 
his brother conservators or some official. 
I HAVE all along held to the opinion that in 
our fight with the conservators over these 
wretched bye-laws, we have had a considerable 
amount of sympathy from many riparian owners. 
I believe the proposition about the netting origi¬ 
nated with a few narrow-minded and foolish 
individuals who know nothing whatever about 
Thames fisheries, but in the matter of claiming 
privileges for themselves are exacting and un¬ 
reasonable. The reception which the subject met 
with at the Berkshire County Council, which has 
among its members many riparian owners, clearly 
proves that I was right in this view. How 
bitterly the conservators must regret that they 
ever lent themselves to this little scheme of 
enlarging the privileges of riparian owners, for 
nothing that they have ever done has struf'k a 
greater blow at their own constitution. 
A FEiEND who was fishing on the Kennet 
below Newbury writes that three fish, fijlb., hlb., 
aud 41b., have been caught in private water, but 
that fly-fishers generally are on the grumble 
owing to the rise of fly being small, and not 
making its appearance till late in the afternoon. 
Gne day no fly were seen until about 6 o’clock in 
the evening, which was rather remarkable. One 
of the best bags was made by a clever angler 
who, after trying many of the usual patterns 
without success, put up an extra large fly, at 
which the fish came without hesitation. On the 
whole I am inclined to think that this May-fly 
season for its earliness and other features will be 
unique. _ 
In less than a fortnight we shall have the 
coarse fish season with us again, and anglers who 
have not done so should look to the whippings, 
lappings, and ferrules, and give their rods a coat 
or two of varnish. In one or two angling books 
shellac varnish is recommended for rods, but 
the advice given is bad. Shellac and spirits of 
wine or naptha makes a very useful quick drying 
varnish for the lappings of hooks, whippings, and 
other small matters, but it is quite unsuitable 
for wood or bamboo. For that purpose you 
require a more or less elastic varnish and one 
which drys slowly. The best coachmakers’ 
varnish is capital stuff for rods of all kinds, hut 
it has, of course, the objection common to all 
varnishes, of being very shiny. However, it is 
easy to take off the gloss by rubbing the rod 
lightly down with some very fine sandpaper. 
One of the contributors to the Citizen has 
among his acquaintances a sort of Mrs. Harris, 
whom he terms my conservator friend,” and 
‘‘ my conservator friend ” gives him from time to 
time little bits of news, true or otherwise. The 
last item gleaned from that source is that London 
anglers were really quite mistaken in thinking 
that the fishery bye-laws were in anyway harmful. 
Counsel's opinion had been taken, and it was 
quite clear that they were nothing of the kind. 
This is the old story hatched up again which was 
attempted to be imposed upon us some months 
ago. I wish the writer in the Citizen would 
inform his ‘‘ conservator friend that the opinion 
of four members of the bar, two of them being 
Queen's Counsel, have been given on this point, 
and that they are all adverse to the views held, 
or said to be held, by the conservators. 
TE.MrLAK. 
