June 10, 1893] 
THE EISHING GAZETTE 
411 
sions, those indirectnesses, those cant terms, which 
are at once the condemnation of the work that 
contains them. We have had no writer of verse 
among our ranks with the force, the ingenuity, 
the greatness, to discard them Let not any one 
who shall follow me in this debate say. Why not 
show us the way since you know it so well ? for I 
here protest that I do not pretend to that force, 
that ingenuity, or greatness. 
Appreciation is a faculty distinct from the 
power of expi’ession, and it is a pain to me that 
my taste will not let me approve the fare that 
hitherto has been provided for us by others. 
Angling is a passion as distinct of its kind as 
love or religion, and with an intensity about it as 
inexpicable to the outsider. Like them it ought 
to have its poets and rhapsodists. But with all 
the goodwill in the world I have not the power. 
That, however, is only an additional reason for 
saying that there is no body of angling verse 
worthy of the name of poetry. 
That, gentlemen of the jury, is the case for the 
prosecution. 
MEALWORMS. 
By T. H. T. 
There is a distinct lack of repose about the 
mealworm. Even when he has evolved himself 
from the “best biscuit” there is a want of that 
nameless something which stamps the “ upper 
crust ”; an absence of that cultured calmness 
which should bespeak the best quality; no sign 
of that air of conscious superiority which sits so 
easily and unaffectedly on the shoulders of the 
well-bred. Of course, having no shoulders, 
unless a sort of ring round his body about the 
spot where one might make a rough guess as to 
their probable locality, or which might by an 
extra powerful stretch of a very vivid imagina¬ 
tion be supposed to be shoulders, there is some 
excuse for him in the latter respect, there being 
no place for either superiority or anything else 
to sit on at all, let alone with any degree of ease 
or comfort. But that notwithstanding, there is 
only too palpably a woful want of dignity about 
him which only too plainly suggests “seconds,” and 
unfortunately too often points to a downright, 
unmistakable connection with “ sharps,” which is 
difficult to palliate, and still harder to overlook. 
His gait is of the five-barred order, and his 
motion somewhat eccentric, resembling, when 
there are a number of him together, a lot of 
street urchins scrambling for hot coppers more 
than anything else. His breeding being left too 
much to himself is not altogether of a first-rate 
order, nor can his education be styled finished, 
although some of his near relations exhibit 
undoubted signs of smartness, having been known 
to “ take the biscuit ” many times. 
He is of too active a disposition to ever pass 
for a distinguished personage; besides, his ap¬ 
pearance is rather against his making even a 
pretension to anything of the kind. His abode 
is ordinarily a hollow cylinder of tin, closed at 
one end, and a lid, with a few holes punched in, 
to fit over the other—the whole bearing evident 
indications of an intimate association at no 
distant date with “ Somebody’s ” mustard. He 
is easily heated, though so far as one is able to 
observe, of by no means a pugnacious nature; 
he has even “ gentle ” blood in him, although it 
must be admitted it takes a considerable amount 
of finding. In fact, he has many points in 
common with his friend and relative the Maggot. 
The telescopic mode of locomotion is, perhaps, a 
little more pronounced in him than the other, 
although he has the advantage of a series of 
slight excrescences, something like a double row 
of small warts, to assist him. These warts are 
evidently “ legs in the bird,” and it is interesting 
to see the curious way in which the hind part of 
him wrestles with the front, so to speak, and 
succeeds in undulating it forward. Moving 
along and putting the pace on, he reminds one of 
someone pulling hard in an outrigger, and a lot 
of him propelling themselves in the same direc¬ 
tion is a wonderfully amusing imitation of a 
small regatta. 
The mealworm was always a source of con¬ 
siderable anxiety to me. 1 didn’t like to touch 
him somehow. He seemed so terribly in earnest 
—so horribly energetic; there was always such a 
fierce, hungry look about him, such a scowl on 
his face—what there is of it—that, take him all 
round, he appeared to me to be rather a despe¬ 
rate character. He had, too, or at least I used to 
think so, such an aggressive and resentful manner, 
that getting him on the hook was not very agree¬ 
able. He would NOT sit still, if one may so 
expi’ess it, and the consequence was that, after 
angling for some quarter of an hour with the 
hook for his tail, and pricking him several times 
in the wrong place, I generally managed at last 
to run it into my finger. He wriggled about to 
such an extent that it became a matter of no 
small difficult}' to me to determine which was 
“ him ” and which the hook, and even when I did 
ultimately succeed in landing him, his lowering 
brow and flashing eye (figuratively speaking) 
plainly showed what he would do if he only had 
the chance. The mealworm has an awful temper, 
and would undoubtedly creep off any hook on 
the slightest possible opportunity or most trivial 
excuse, if only out of sheer devilment and spite. 
Of the meal mealy, the mealworm is a great 
eater, and that probably accounts for his name. 
Life, in short, with him is one eternal meal, and, 
like the page-boy, he shows every disposition to 
“ eat till he bursts rather than waste anything.” 
He pegs away with his nose to the grindstone, as 
it were, utterly oblivious to either remonstrance 
or remark. Surfeit is to him a dead letter, and 
greediness has no meaning. His one idea is to 
get his “ grub,” and with that object perpetually 
in view he snaps his fingers, if those warts of 
his have anything that come under that heading, 
at both propriety and decorum, and wriggles and 
scrambles headlong over his brethren just as his 
brethren wriggle and scramble over him, taking 
everything in good part so long as he gets what 
he wants. 
In politics I should say he would be a Radical. 
He has all the elements of that particular creed 
in his character, and it seems a pity that he is 
not in a position to properly express himself on 
such matters I say he has a Radical tendency 
because so long as ho has his nose well fixed in 
the meal it is evidently a matter of the most 
profound indifference to him where other 
people’s noses are. He means to have what he 
wants, and promptly elbows everybody else who 
is likely to interfere with him out of the way— 
that is to say, he would do if elbows were part of 
the mealworm construction. As it is, he simply 
uses whatever portion of himself happens to be 
most conveniently available for leverage at the 
moment, is perpetually on the “ work,” and 
makes it his business to keep everyone about him 
in just the same state of feverish unrest and 
excitement. 
The general angling season will commence 
before another edition of “ Waltoniana ” sees the 
light. Prophecies are in vogue, and I will be in 
the fashion if I die for it, so here goes ! In the 
first place, it is going to be a very remarkable 
year indeed. Rain will come just when it is 
wanted, and the fish on June 16 will be found in 
prime condition. July is going to be a wet 
month, which will bring about abundance of 
water in the rivers during holidaying August. 
The takes of roach will be enormous, perch will 
feed as they have not done for many years, and a 
considerable number of those beautiful tench 
which are found in the Thames will be landed. 
Trout and salmon fishers will be benefited by the 
rainfall, and sea-trout and salmon will be taken 
galore. _ 
Hurinh August and the early days of Septem¬ 
ber, some very large bass will be caught, but sea 
fishing generally will not be particularly good on 
account of the somewhat stormy weathei’. It 
will be a year of surprises in the matter of speci¬ 
men fish, and if the right angler goes to the right 
place and uses the proper bait, the 401b. jack will 
be taken in October or November. It will unfor¬ 
tunately happen that all the largest fish will be 
lost, and when such unpleasant events occur, the 
air will grow thick with the swear words of dis¬ 
appointed anglers. So sulphureous and overcast 
will it become that old womeu living in the neigh¬ 
bourhood will foretell the end of the world. In 
the parlours of fishing inns, some extraordinary 
tales will be told by anglers, which tales will be 
believed by few. The combinations among anglers 
for their mutual protection against attacks of 
conservators, fishery boards, and poac’ners, will 
increase in number. The circulation of the 
Fishing Ornette will be one and a half million 
copies, the editor will be made a peer of the 
realm, while I shall receive a baronetcy, and the 
printer’s devil will be knighted. That is about all 
I care to prophesy at present. It should be ob¬ 
served that there is no extra charge for this 
number. 
I HEAR that the Central Association of London 
Anglers, while thankful to find that they and 
their brothers in arms have defeated the attempts 
of the conservators to increase the netting privi¬ 
leges of owners of fisheries, are very dissatisfied 
to find no protection given to the fish from swans, 
ducks, and steam launches. Like most old- 
fashioned people, the conservators probably think 
they have done enough for the Thames fisheries 
when they have passed a few bye-laws, intended 
to prevent poaching and place a number of restric¬ 
tions upon anglers. But this is an age of gnat 
straining and camel swallowing. The angler 
returns his half dozen fish in the day, while the 
duck or swan devours a couple of million fish 
eggs. The launch or steam tug dislodges cluster 
after cluster of spawn from the weeds, and the 
gamekeeper of the riparian owner night lines the 
river up and down. More probably will be heard 
of this matter before the bye-laws are approved 
by the Privy Council. 
I DO not at all like the new little addition in 
the bye-laws permitting persons to net an un¬ 
limited number of tmdersized fish of any hind (be 
it observed) for the purpose of baiting their eel- 
traps. Here we have another little riparian 
owners’ addition, which is both unnecessary and 
improper. The recognised live baits for eel- 
traps are gudgeon, but under this bye-law baby 
trout, roach, pike, perch—in fact any small fish 
may be caught and used for baiting eel baskets. 
If the conservators had only kept their word and 
consulted the angling associations before pub¬ 
lishing these new additions and alterations, they 
could have had the matter explained to them, 
but as usual they have been led by the nose by 
one or two riparian owners who, although living 
by the river, know very little about the fisheries. 
We have had the usual June frost in the south 
of England (it came on the I5th last year), and 
the May-flies are very much upset in consequence. 
For one whole day they abstained from putting 
in an appearance, and many were the statements 
made that the season was over; but, with a return 
of mild nights and sunny days, up they came 
again, and the season lingered on, both trout and 
flies rising fitfully. Looking at the season as a 
whole it is full of contradictions. From some 
rivers one hears nothing but complaints, while on 
others exceptional sport has been enjoyed. The 
only point of similarity is that almost everywhere 
the fly rose a fortnight or so before its proper 
time. 
The chief characteristic of coarse fishing at the 
beginning of the season is the position of the fish 
in running water. The chub will still be in the 
streams, and so will jack, roach, perch, &o. Of 
course these fish are not partial to dead w’ater at 
any time, except during the winter, but at the 
beginning of the season they are found in much 
shallower water and sharper streams than they 
dwell in from the middle of June onwards. I 
have caught roach in June in many streams 
which most anglers would deem only suitable for 
trout and dace. Two of the best baits for chub 
in June are minnows and small frogs. Roach 
often take a well-scoured worm early in the 
season, as also do perch. Temelar. 
The largest salmon of the present season has 
been on view at a Bond-street fishmonger’s in 
London. It came from the Shannon, and turned 
the beam at 591b. This fish may be safely put 
down as a veritable 60-pounder (no doubt when 
landed it was considerably over this weight). It 
measured 51in. length and 32in. girth. 
