ON LANDING TROUT

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trout the more rash and reckless does the angler's attendant become. Instead of dipping the net below the surface and waiting, he makes wild scoops at the fighting fish: to see the fly knocked from its mouth is not uncommon. When the fish is safe upon the bank the angler may well vow that he will never again let another man use the landing-net if he can possibly avoid it. The secret in landing a trout is to remain calm and sink the net. The fishermen should then bring the fish over the net. With a big trout and a small net it is wise to get him in head foremost. Yet we cannot avoid being anxious with a heavy fish on a small hook for sooner or later the hold must give. So we do not wait for the trout to cease struggling and turn on its side, but try to net him as quickly as we can. On the whole I am for netting at the first apparently safe opportunity. There is much to be said on landing and losing fish. A Fellow of the Royal Society has left the following among some maxims which he composed for anglers.*

* Richard Penn, F.R.S., "Maxims and Hints for an Angler, and Miseries of Fishing." London, Murray, 1833.

12mo.

These Maxims are extracted from the commonplace book

"XXXV.-Lastly, when you have got hold of a good fish which is not very tractable, if you are married, gentle reader, think of your wife, who, like the fish, is united to you by very tender ties, which can only end with her death or her going into weeds. If you are single, the loss of the fish, when you thought the prize your own, may remind you of some more serious disappointment."

The reader who is not a fisherman will probably think that there is some exaggeration here. But the pang of losing a really big trout, perhaps the only fish hooked after toiling all day, perhaps the prize of a life-time, is so great that hardly any words can describe it. There is a sensation of despair, when the fly comes back and we perceive that we have lost touch with our fish, that makes us feel as though we could almost burst into tears. It is hard to believe under such circumstances that some mocking demon is not intending to remind us that all is vanity: omnia vanitas.

of the Houghton Fishing Club. The author, whose name is appended to the third edition, was a great-grandson of William Penn, of Pennsylvania.

THERE is now, fortunately, a close-time for trout in Scotland from October 15 to March 1. Between those two dates no one may legally catch them. In the South of England the angler's season does not really begin before April, and on chalkstreams it is soon enough to begin fishing in May. In the West-country men open the season much earlier, for the trout are small and recover their condition quickly. But chalkstream fish are not fit to kill, as a rule, before May. In Hertfordshire the trout rise well in April and sometimes on quite cold days one has good sport. With the mayfly the Hertfordshire season reaches its height. Unfortunately, my days on the famous Lea and celebrated Mimram have always been after the mayfly was over. One had the melancholy satisfaction of seeing monstrously big trout who would not look at a fly. On southern streams, where there is no hatch

By

of mayfly, I think the fishing goes on improving
through May and June into July, provided that
the water has not been too much or unfairly
fished. I have had a few days of great enjoyment
in August on the Kennet; but the big trout
had become lamentably gut-shy. They were, I
verily believe, as difficult to delude as any fish
that one comes across on private water.
July the haunts and habits of most of the excep-
tionally big trout have been marked down and
noted. Each receives an undue share of attention
and becomes shy and cautious in proportion.
Very often there are one or two big fish who
rise regularly at well-known spots which each
angler passes on the way to and from the fishing.
These trout are tried for by every one and are
fished for every day that any one is fishing.
The knowledge and caution that such trout
acquire are above the average.

July is generally a bad month on the Hertfordshire trout streams; and on a cold day with a high wind you have July at its worst. strong down-stream wind makes any weather unpleasant. There is often hardly any hatch of

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fly. The trout themselves, which one can see, lie for the most part at the bottom, indifferent alike to the few duns which appear, and to the various artificial imitations which are floated over them. The Hertfordshire trout, as every one knows, are large and numerous; but they do not rise at all freely in July. The water is clear and shallow. There are rough parts which look, to one who is not a dry-fly purist, as though they were worth trying with a wet-fly when one cannot find a rising trout; but a wet-fly fished at random down-stream is seldom productive of big fish.

When Hertfordshire trout do not rise in July the explanation always put forward is that they are glutted with mayflies. But this is doubtful and in the evening there is sometimes a good rise. Hertfordshire is ugly on a grey, cold, cloudy day, such as one gets in July; the sleepy dulness of the foliage is at its height, the grasses have gone to seed, and few sounds of birdlife come from the meadows. Only one bird

is still in song, and that, it is needless to add, is the yellow-hammer, which never ceases all day. But the worst thing is a bad wind,

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