TROUT WATER-S 
 
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 WILSON H.ARMISTEAD 
 
A7 
 
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 Cornell University Library 
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 Trout waters management and angling, 
 
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BOOKS FOR ANGLERS 
 TROUT FISHING 
 
 A Study of Natural Phenomena. 
 
 By William Earl Hodgson. Containing a Facsimile in 
 Colour of a "Model Book of Flies" for Stream and Lake, 
 arranged according to the month in which the lures are 
 appropriate. Large cro^vn 8vo, c]oth, gilt top. .^ 
 
 By post, price 11/3. Price 10/6 net. 
 
 "The pictured fly-book at the beginning of the volume is undoubtedly the linest 
 piece of work of the kind that has ever been produced and published in this 
 country, and comes as a revelation of what can be done. The flif.-- stand out from 
 the page with marvellous reality. The illustrations and the letterpress are well 
 matched. . . . Wehavenothadmorepleasurefromabookforalongtime."— i^i^W. 
 
 " This work is in part highly practical and in part delightfully discursive. . . 
 Tt is extremely pleasant, reading. "—rft-e J'all MaU Gazatte. 
 
 " It is an interesting story of the trout and his habits, written by a keen and 
 observant student, and an angler withal who has the inestimable advantage of a 
 thorough understanding of the subject. Mr. Hodgson has the happy Itnack of 
 riveting the attention, and at times betrays a subtle humour. . , . It-is the most 
 valuable book of its kind written within recent years." — The Sporting Chronieh. 
 
 '* It is beyond doubt the most fascinating and original contribution that has 
 been made to angling literature for many years." — Truth. 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE DRY FLY 
 
 By Geobge a. B. Dewar. With contributions by His 
 Grace the Ddke op Rutlaxd and Jlr. J. E. Booth. 
 Containing 8 full-page Illustrations in Colour, 7 repre- 
 senting the most typical Dry-1^1}- Streams of England, and 
 one a selection of Natural Flies. New Edition. La.rge 
 crown 8vo, cloth. 
 By post, price 11/3. Price 10/6 net. 
 
 " A contribntion necessary to the library of the flsherman, and worthy of the 
 place on the shelf of the general reader whereon reposes Isaak Walton."— rort-s7iin> 
 
 " A book of keen insight and wide observation in regard to the trout and the 
 modern art of capturing him. Mr. Dewar is always interesting, and knows his 
 subject too well to be obtrusivi'ly dogmatic."— O^ti^.i/ Heiilleiiian. 
 
 DRY-FLY FISHING IN BORDER 
 WATERS 
 
 By E. Fernie, A.Jl.l.C.E. ^Vitll an Introduction by 
 
 J. Cuthbkrt Haddbn. Large crown 8vu, clolh, illustrated. 
 
 By post, price 3/-. Prige 2/6 net. 
 
 "This is a deliglitiul volume. . . . Altogether it is a' well-written thesis with 
 an excellently written and racy introduction, and is well p.inted and neatly bo md 
 We have perused It with interest, and xviW return to it again and .■." "n and whmi 
 unable to enjoy the pleasures of a day by bnin or stream will t^st^ res? of its 
 contents. "—//awicj; i'^jjrMs. '"lesn oi its 
 
TROUT WATERS 
 
BY SPECIAL 
 MANUFACTURERS TO 
 
 APPOINTMENT 
 HIS MAJESTY THE KING. 
 
 HARDY"PALAKONA" 
 
 SPLIT BAMBOO FISHING RODS ARE LIGHTER, 
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 HARDY'S ARE ACTUAL 
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 HARDY'S SELL DIRECT 
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 THERE IS NO MIDDLE- 
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 RODS AND TACKLE 
 
 FOR ANGLING IN ALL 
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 ANGLER'S GUIDE 
 
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 CORRECT COLOURS. 
 
 1/- 
 
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 (ALNWICK) LTD., 
 
 THE WORLD'S ANGLING 
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 ALNWICK, ENG. 
 
 61 Pall Mall, S.W. 
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 101 Princes Street. 
 
TEOUT WATEES 
 
 MANAGEMENT AND ANGLING 
 
 BY 
 
 WILSON H. ARMISTEAD 
 
 A. & C. BLACK, LTD. 
 
 4, 5, & 6 SOHO SQUAEE, LONDON, W.l 
 
 1920 
 
AT 
 
 First published in Augnsi 1908. 
 
 AGENTS 
 
 America . The Macmillan Company 
 
 64 & 66 Fifth Avenue, New York 
 
 Australasia The Oxford University Press 
 
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 Canada . . The Macmillan Company of Canada, Ltd. 
 
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 Macmillan Building, Bombay 
 
 309 Bow Bazaar Street, Calcutta 
 
TO 
 
 MY FATHER 
 
 I DEDICATE THIS BOOK 
 
 IN GRATEFUL RECOGNITION OP THE TEACHING 
 
 WHICH FROM EARLY BOYHOOD HAS LED ME 
 
 TO TAKE PLEASURE IN THE COMPANIONSHIP OF 
 
 THE LIVING CREa!TUHES OF THE 
 
 GREAT OUTDOOR WORLD 
 
Books for Anglers 
 
 TROUT FISHING 
 
 A Study of Natural Phenomena 
 
 By William Earl Hodgson. Containing a facsimile in colours of 
 a "Model Book of Flies" for stream and lake, arranged according 
 to the month in which the lures are appropriate. Large Cr. 8vo, Cloth. 
 
 By post, price lla. Price 10b. 6d. net. 
 
 SALMON FISHING 
 
 By William Earl Hodgson. With a facsimile in colours of a 
 model set of flies for Scotland, Ireland, England and Wales, and lo 
 Illustrations from photographs. Large Cr. 8vo, Cloth. 
 
 Price 10s. 6d. net. 
 
 LIFE -HISTORY AND HABITS OF THE 
 
 SALMON, SEA. -TROUT, TROUT, AND OTHER 
 FRESHWATER nSH 
 
 By p. D. Malloch. New Edition. Containing 274 Illustrations 
 from photographs. Cr. 4to, Cloth. 
 By post, price IZa. Price 2.23. 6d. net. 
 
 HOW TO FISH 
 
 By William Earl Hodgson. Containing 8 full-page Illustrations 
 and 18 smaller Engravings in the text. Large Cr. 8vo, Cloth. 
 By post, price 6S. 6d. Price 6s. net. 
 
 THE PRACTICAL ANGLER 
 
 Or, the Art of Trout Fishing more Particularly Applied to 
 Clear Water 
 
 By W. C. Stewart. New Edition. Containing an Introduction 
 by William Earl Hodgson, and including coloured facsimiles of 
 the Flies used by Mr. Stewart. Large Cr. 8vo, Cloth. 
 
 By post, price 6S. 6d. Price 68. net. 
 
 Kl<i. ANGLER'S SEASON 
 
 By William Earl Hodgson. Containing 12 pages of Illustrations 
 from photographs. Large Cr. 8vo, Cloth. 
 By post, price 6S. 6d. Price 6b. net. 
 
 Published by A. & C. Black, Ltd., 4, s, & 6 Soho Square, London, W.i 
 
PREFACE 
 
 No merit is claimed by the author for this 
 little book except that it is the result of 
 personal observation, extending over a 
 number of years and a wide area. While 
 it was being written, all books of reference 
 <vere carefully avoided with a view to the 
 preservation of the personal element. 
 
 Omissions and errors there may be, but 
 the work has been conscientiously done, 
 and on that ground must stand for what 
 it is worth. 
 
 To Mr. W. Earl Hodgson my thanks 
 
 are due for his painstaking revision of 
 
 these chapters, which appeared originally 
 
 in the Shooting Times, to which I am 
 vii 
 
vlii TROUT WATERS 
 
 indebted for permission to publish them in 
 book form. 
 
 My thanks are also due to the pub- 
 lishers, Messrs. A. & C. Black, for their 
 advice and help, which have smoothed 
 away many of the difficulties which beset 
 an author. 
 
 WILSON H. ARMISTEAD. 
 
 The Scaur, Dalbeattte, N.B., 
 July 10, 1908. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 The Need for Knowledge . . . 1 
 
 FAOE 
 
 CHAPTER n 
 Balance of the Sexes . . . 22 
 
 CHAPTER m 
 
 The Fry ••..... 34 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 Poison and other Troubles . 4,5 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Enemies •■•... 68 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Providing Food and redeeming Waste . 82 
 ix 
 
TROUT WATERS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 vn 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Lakes ..... 
 
 
 104 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 VIII 
 
 
 Stocking 
 
 
 128 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 IX 
 
 
 Predatory Fish . 
 
 
 152 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 Trout that do not rise . . .164 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 A Size Limit and its Results . . . 177 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 Salmon and Trout . . . . .189 
 
 INDEX 201 
 
TEOUT WATERS 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE NEED FOB KNOWLEDGE 
 
 Anglers' Opportunities — Far-reaching Results of Inter- 
 ference — -A Stream should be considered as a Whole 
 — Spawning Time — Gravel must be clean — Period of 
 Incubation — Are the Eggs fertile? — Eyed Ova — 
 Embryos' Troubles — Influence of Temperature — The 
 Alevins — Their many Enemies — Artificial Spawning 
 Grounds. 
 
 Angling affords insight into the life of the 
 silent places, and the angler is frequently 
 permitted to enter the sanctuaries of the 
 wilderness and witness the doings of its 
 inhabitants in a way which is not possible 
 to those who rend the silence of Nature. 
 Bird and beast are his friends, and the 
 motion of his rod is hardly more notice- 
 able than the swaying of a branch in the 
 
2 TROUT WATERS 
 
 wind. Thus many an angler has an ex- 
 ceptional store of knowledge about the 
 habits of wild creatures. This being so, 
 it is strange that the Hfe- history of the 
 fish should frequently be to them a closed 
 book. 
 
 A thorough study of the life and habits 
 of the trout, with its requirements not 
 only at different stages of its existence 
 but also during each month in the year — 
 a knowledge of the conditions which go 
 to make up a suitable environment as 
 well as of the many influences against 
 which the fish must contend — is of the 
 utmost value to the angler as well as to 
 the owner of a fishery. The patience 
 necessary for the mastering of details 
 is frequently superseded by a restless 
 energy which induces attempts to improve 
 matters by drastic measures, and then the 
 result is unsatisfactory. Even where a 
 certain measure of success is achieved, 
 it is usually of a very temporary nature, 
 and its cost is out of proportion to the 
 gain. 
 
NEED FOR KNOWLEDGE 3 
 
 Any action taken in a trout water 
 must be well considered. The effects 
 are likely to be far-reaching — beyond the 
 ken of those who have not arrived at 
 a knowledge of the interdependence ot 
 living things in the water as on the land. 
 Just as the rings made by a rising fish in 
 still water travel in ever- widening circles 
 till they finally disappear, so any tamper- 
 ing with Nature's methods sets influences 
 to work whose effects will be felt by a 
 circle of living creatures in a way perhaps 
 unguessed at. Before attempting the 
 improvement of conditions in any water, 
 it is necessary to know the chain of 
 circumstances which has led to the con- 
 ditions which exist. 
 
 Many an angler equipped with the 
 best and most expensive tackle has met 
 another with tackle of a coarse and 
 homely kind, whose basket contained 
 more fish than had fallen to the dainty 
 flies on finest gut thrown from a rod of 
 scientific make, and marvelled how this 
 could be. The answer is simple. One 
 
4 TROUT WATERS 
 
 man depended on his knowledge, using 
 such gear as came to his hands at small 
 cost ; the other depended on his excellent 
 gear, but had less knowledge. The man 
 who knows will catch fish, whether his 
 tackle cost pounds or shUlings. Un- 
 doubtedly the better the tackle the better 
 wiU be his success ; but the man without 
 knowledge can never succeed by virtue of 
 tackle merely. The same considerations 
 apply to the maintenance of a stock of 
 trout. The man who knows wiU succeed. 
 He who depends on stocking without 
 thought for the welfare of his fish is not 
 likely to do so. Heavy expenditure will 
 never compensate for lack of knowledge, 
 and, while having to pay dearly, he wiU 
 achieve comparatively poor results. 
 
 One reason we so continually hear of 
 the fishing in certain waters falling off 
 is this want of knowledge, and it is 
 responsible for all sorts of mistakes. It 
 is not sufficient that a stream or a lake 
 should be protected ; its natural resources 
 should be developed if the constant toll 
 
NEED FOR KNOWLEDGE 5 
 
 of fish taken by the rod is to be main- 
 tained. 
 
 There are many difficulties in the way 
 of a complete development of most rivers 
 and streams. Perhaps the chief of these 
 is the fact that whilst a trout stream 
 should be treated as a whole, it is usually 
 divided into sections over which different 
 owners have control. This is a very 
 serious handicap, because it is practically 
 impossible to deal with any section of a 
 stream without having regard to the 
 waters above and those below. It is 
 little use one man clearing out the pike 
 if his neighbours preserve them ; nor is it 
 encouraging to turn down a stock of trout 
 if they immediately leave the place and 
 take up their quarters on some other 
 man's property. It seldom happens that 
 the portions of a water where trout spawn 
 are favourite places for them during the 
 rest of the year, and it is well for the 
 young fish when they hatch out if there 
 are no large trout about ; usually the 
 natural conditions are such that this is 
 
6 TROUT WATERS 
 
 the case. It is a good thing for a trout 
 stream if the various proprietors through 
 whose estates it flows can come to some 
 understanding as to the tactics to be 
 followed on the stream as a whole. 
 Otherwise the best results can never be 
 obtained. 
 
 Suppose you take a stretch of water 
 noted for its fishing : you will have trout 
 which have been hatched in one man's 
 water, reared in a stretch belonging to 
 some one else, and spending their maturity 
 in yours. It is obvious, then, that your 
 fishing depends not only on your own 
 watchfulness and care, but also, and to a 
 much greater extent, on that of other 
 people, who have not the same oppor- 
 tunity of reaping the reward. Usually 
 this is recognised, as it ought to be, for 
 there are very few sections of a stream 
 which are capable of affording spawning 
 ground, good rearing ground, and, finally, 
 the rich feeding ground so necessary to 
 the maintenance of heavy fish. 
 
NEED FOR KNOWLEDGE 7 
 
 It may be said that, as a general rule, 
 the upper waters and small tributaries of 
 a stream are the most suitable places for 
 the spawning beds. The farther up the 
 old fish go, the safer the fry will be 
 when they hatch out, and the small 
 gravelly streams which form the head 
 waters and are too small to contain 
 large trout are the natural nurseries of 
 the fry. 
 
 In swiftly running streams the autumn 
 floods are usually sufficient to clean the 
 gravel on the spawning beds, leaving 
 them ready for the depositing of eggs ; 
 but where this is not the case the gravel 
 should be washed by turning it over with 
 a long-toothed rake until the water ceases 
 to be coloured by the operation. It is of 
 the utmost importance that the gravel on 
 the spawning beds should be clean, if the 
 best results are to be obtained. Nature's 
 somewhat haphazard methods have excel- 
 lent results when she has the management 
 of affairs from start to finish ; but when 
 man steps in and takes a heavy harvest of 
 
8 TROUT WATERS 
 
 trout, he must see that there is no waste 
 among the eggs. 
 
 Dirt in the gravel of a spawning bed is 
 bad in several ways. It prevents a free 
 run of water ; it adheres readily to the 
 outer shell of the egg ; and it produces, 
 in decay, carbonic acid gas, which is fatal 
 to the growth of the embryo. Cleanli- 
 ness, on the other hand, increases the 
 chances of fertilisation, which are amaz- 
 ingly uncertain, and allows a continual 
 flow of fresh water through the gravel, 
 from which the embryo is able to absorb 
 in a marvellous manner a supply of 
 oxygen. The result will be strong and 
 healthy fry, capable of making the most 
 of what chances they have of reaching 
 maturity. When we consider that the 
 delicate embryo must lie for a period 
 varying from 40 days to 120 days (accord- 
 ing to temperature) in the gravel before 
 hatching, it will be seen how important 
 it is that the conditions under which it 
 exists should be as favourable as possible. 
 Trout are so prolific (about 800 eggs 
 
NEED FOR KNOWLEDGE 9 
 
 to the pound weight) that Nature de- 
 liberately sets to work as soon as the 
 eggs are deposited to destroy them, and 
 again she thins out the ranks of the fry 
 and places every obstacle in their way, 
 so that only the very fittest may survive, 
 and only a small percentage of these. 
 This point is too often lost sight of 
 by those who advocate protection and 
 natural methods. When man steps in 
 and reaps a harvest he must remove 
 the obstacles placed in the way of 
 the young trout if the seed-time is to 
 be sufficiently productive to maintain 
 their numbers at such a pitch that the 
 harvest may be reaped year after year. 
 Nature will not do it alone ; it is 
 necessary that we should help. 
 
 When the gravel of the spawning 
 beds has been cleaned and a careful 
 examination reveals no sediment, the 
 next thing to do is to watch for the 
 coming of the spawners. As a rule, they 
 arrive in a body, and in many streams the 
 whole crop of eggs for the season is 
 
10 TROUT WATERS 
 
 deposited in the space of forty-eight hours. 
 This is not always the case ; but it may 
 be taken for granted that the spawning 
 season in any water will not last more 
 than a fortnight, though there will always 
 be fish which are abnormally early and 
 late. As a rule, the farther the fish have 
 to go to their spawning ground the 
 shorter will be the spawning season. In 
 a few well-known streams in the south, 
 which are sluggish and fed by springs 
 rising through gravel, the spawning 
 season is spread out over several months, 
 and, though more trout spaAvn in 
 November than any other month, in 
 these streams they will straggle on tUl 
 March. 
 
 The shorter the spawning season is, 
 the better. There is less danger of early 
 eggs being rooted up by a pair of late 
 fish. Besides, it is well to have all the 
 fry hatching out about the same time, 
 because they will thrive more when 
 they are all one age than if there is 
 a month or six weeks' difference. The 
 
NEED FOR KNOWLEDGE 11 
 
 reason for this is that the older fry will 
 bully the younger ones, and it must be 
 remembered that for some time after 
 hatching they are crowded together in 
 narrow and shallow waters. 
 
 Make a note of the date of spawning, 
 and it will be found that this will not 
 vary more than a day or two each season. 
 Thus you may know exactly when the 
 fish will be on the beds. During this 
 time they need protection from human 
 and other enemies, and their numbers, 
 size, and condition should be noted and 
 compared with the statistics of other 
 years. The chief points to be observed 
 when the fish are on the beds are whether 
 there is enough room, and whether there 
 is the right proportion of males to 
 females. More often than not, spawning 
 goes on at night, and it is difficult to see 
 the actual fish ; but the condition of the 
 beds next morning will tell you whether 
 they have had room or whether the stock 
 of breeders is becoming low. If all 
 the available ground is disturbed and 
 
12 TROUT WATERS 
 
 ploughed into hills and hollows without 
 regular shape or form, you may conclude 
 that there has not been sufficient room 
 for the fish, and that many eggs have 
 been wasted. If, on the other hand, the 
 hollows made by the fish, and known as 
 "redds," are regular in shape and evenly 
 distributed, with a few smooth places left 
 untouched, you may conclude that there 
 has been no overcrowding. If there are 
 fewer redds than there were in other 
 years, there have been fewer fish. 
 
 Now, as to the number of males. If 
 the fish have spawned in the night, it will 
 be impossible to form any idea, because a 
 ripe female will make a redd and deposit 
 her eggs whether there is a mate for her 
 or not. But there is a sure way of telling. 
 A number of redds should be carefully 
 marked (a peg in the bank is a good 
 way), and five or six weeks after the 
 spawning these should be examined. 
 Great care is necessary ; but there is 
 no fear of doing harm if the examina- 
 tion is carried out properly. A piece of 
 
NEED FOR KNOWLEDGE 13 
 
 mosquito netting on a wire ring will 
 form a useful net for the work, and this 
 should be held below one of the redds 
 previously marked, and then the gravel 
 should be gently stirred with a stick. 
 The eggs, being very little heavier than 
 water, will be washed into the net by 
 the current, and when a few have been 
 collected they can be examined. As a 
 rule, when they have not been fertilised 
 they will be white or opaque. This is 
 not always so ; only, even if they are 
 clear when disturbed, they will soon turn 
 white. After lying in the gravel for six 
 weeks, the eyes of the embryo — two little 
 black specks — should be plainly visible, 
 and if the egg is held between the first 
 finger and the thumb against the light 
 the embryo will be seen. If it is not, 
 it may be safely concluded that the egg 
 has not been impregnated. Several redds 
 should be sampled ; but do not disturb 
 them too much — just enough to get 
 to know how things are. It must not 
 be supposed, if one or two eggs are 
 
14 TROUT WATERS 
 
 unfertilised, that there has been no mate 
 for the female at spawning time, because 
 a very large percentage of eggs in every 
 redd are always unfertilised ; but if no 
 eyed ova are found it is probable that 
 the female was alone when she deposited 
 them. A long series of observations, 
 made yearly on the spawning beds of 
 trout, leads me to believe that only amid 
 exceptionally favourable circumstances 
 more than 10 per cent of the eggs are 
 fertilised. 
 
 Owing to the improved system of land 
 drainage, many streams in which trout 
 spawn are either very short of water or 
 in heavy flood. The conditions which in 
 the old days would have been considered 
 normal now only last for a very short 
 time. When a fresh is falling, the stream 
 will run clear and full for a few hours ; 
 but it soon regains the level which may 
 be called normal to-day — that is, very 
 low. I speak of the upper waters of a 
 stream in hilly country. 
 
 This state of affairs means that the 
 
NEED FOR KNOWLEDGE 15 
 
 trout are sometimes prevented from 
 getting to the spawning grounds and 
 have to wait till a flood arrives. When 
 this comes it is sudden and fierce ; but 
 the fish run up, and, being already late, 
 spawn without delay. The fertilisation 
 of the eggs in a swirling, raging torrent 
 is a matter of the merest chance, as is 
 their successful depositing in the gravel. 
 
 If a careful examination of the eggs 
 collected in the net reveals the fact that 
 each redd contains some eyed ova, they 
 should be further examined as to their 
 shape. If the gravel in which they have 
 been deposited is too large and coarse, 
 many of the eggs will be flat -sided or 
 wedge-shaped, and these, though they 
 may contain embryos, are wasters, 
 because when they hatch it will be 
 found that the alevins are deformed. 
 The eggs should be perfectly round. 
 If they have been pressed out of shape 
 the growth of the embryos will have 
 been retarded wherever there has been 
 pressure, and the result inevitably is 
 
16 TROUT WATERS 
 
 deformity. To give an idea of how 
 necessary it is to have a knowledge of 
 the condition of things on the spawning 
 grounds, I may mention that in one 
 stream which I examined very care- 
 fully I found that only one batch of eggs 
 in every seventeen had been fertilised, 
 and that when there had been fertilisation 
 it only amounted to about 8 per cent of 
 the eggs. From many redds I managed 
 to collect 500 eyed ova, which were taken 
 home and laid down in a hatchery. It 
 was then noticed that most of them were 
 mis-shaped, some having been pressed by 
 the stones till they were actually wedge- 
 shaped. During the time they were in 
 the hatchery the loss was not more than 
 one per cent, and when they hatched out 
 I noticed that a great many of the alevins 
 were deformed. Most of these had the 
 spine turned up at right angles to the 
 body, about half-way down the back. 
 These soon began to die, and the net 
 result from 500 eggs was 150 magnificent 
 fry. This little lot represented the fish 
 
NEED FOR KNOWLEDGE 17 
 
 intended by Nature to battle with the 
 difficulties and dangers of life. They 
 were splendid little fellows. All did well, 
 and were liberated when about two inches 
 long. 
 
 When the spawning has taken place 
 satisfactorily and the eggs in the redds 
 have been examined later, the next de- 
 velopment of importance is the hatching 
 out. The time of incubation varies accord- 
 ing to the temperature of the water, and 
 its range is very great. In a stream — 
 whose temperature is affected by the 
 atmosphere only — the eggs are sometimes 
 120 days before they hatch, but in streams 
 fed by warm springs they may take as 
 short a time as 40 days. In water with 
 a mean winter temperature of 40 deg. 
 Fahr., ova wUl hatch bff after about 
 100 days. If just at the hatching time 
 a frost should set in and the temperature 
 of the water fall to 33 deg. or 34 deg., 
 hatching will be postponed till the frost 
 breaks. I once had a batch of 20,000 
 ova, half of which had hatched off" when 
 
18 TROUT WATERS 
 
 a keen frost set in, and the temperature 
 of the water dropped from 44 deg. to 
 34 deg. The frost held for a fortnight, 
 and during that time not another egg 
 hatched; but when it broke there came 
 a mild rain, which sent the temperature 
 up rapidly, and the whole lot hatched off 
 in a few hours. It is a good plan to 
 keep a thermometer in the stream, so 
 that you may be able to form some idea 
 of the time the alevins will emerge from 
 the egg, for during this stage they need 
 very careful protection. The alevins are 
 helpless creatures, almost the only thing 
 about them which is perfect being the 
 eye. Their mouth is only rudimentary, 
 as are also their fins, and their movements 
 are handicapped by the umbilical sac, 
 which supplies them with nourishment 
 for several weeks till they are fully 
 developed little trout ready to feed on 
 their own account. 
 
 The alevins have a fatal propensity for 
 collecting together in the shelter of some 
 stone, where they lie packed, often several 
 
NEED FOR KNOWLEDGE 19 
 
 hundreds in a bunch ; and when in this 
 condition they form an easy prey for any 
 of the many creatures which consider 
 them a bonne bouche. During the 
 three to six weeks when the alevins are 
 thus lying helpless, the shallows should 
 be carefully watched, for all sorts of 
 creatures, which never take fish at other 
 times, and many that do, are ready to 
 feed on them. Their worst enemy in 
 most places is the common farmyard 
 duck. The damage these birds do on a 
 trout stream is incalculable. One duck 
 will gobble up a few hundred alevins in 
 five minutes and then swim off to hunt 
 for more. Water-hens, grebes, water- 
 ousels, kingfishers, and even robins and 
 wagtails, will take the alevins if the water 
 is shallow enough, as it often is. I 
 once watched a robin take seven in five 
 minutes. The various creatures in the 
 water do not do the alevins much damage, 
 because, as a rule, it is so cold at this 
 time that they are either hibernating or 
 very sluggish ; but in a stream fed by 
 
20 TROUT WATERS 
 
 warm springs the destruction from beetles, 
 caddis worms, eels, etc., is very great, 
 and it is indeed a mystery how any 
 manage to survive at all. 
 
 The position of the spawning beds on 
 any stream is important, for if there is no 
 suitable ground in the head waters the 
 fish wUl spawn on gravelly beds in the 
 pools, and when they do this the fry are 
 devoured in the sprmg-time by the larger 
 fish. It is a provision of Nature that the 
 trout shall migrate to the head waters of 
 a stream at spawning time to deposit their 
 eggs in the small runners, and then drop 
 back to deeper waters, for these runners 
 form a safer nursery than could be found 
 in the main stream. The fry do not, as 
 a rule, begin to drop down stream till 
 May or June, and by that time they have 
 acquired much wisdom, and are fairly 
 well able to look after themselves. 
 
 Where there are no natural spawning 
 grounds in the runners and tributaries 
 they can easily be made. The best way 
 to do this is to make a long cut from four 
 
NEED FOR KNOWLEDGE 21 
 
 to six feet wide, parallel to the stream, 
 and cover the bottom with a foot or 18 
 inches of gravel about the size of a pea. 
 Water can be drawn from the stream in 
 such a way that it is always under control, 
 and the outlet from this artificial bed 
 must be allowed to enter the stream 
 lower down. At spawning time a good 
 current should be turned over any new 
 spawning ground, and the fish will find 
 their way on to it. 
 
 Any one who is interested in the work 
 will derive considerable pleasure from the 
 sight of a number of spawning fish on 
 ground which he has prepared for them. 
 There are many beds of this kind, working 
 successfully, up and down the country ; 
 and when one considers that the only 
 things needful are good water, a little 
 labour to prepare the cut, and some 
 suitable gravel, it is a wonder there are 
 not more. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 BALANCE OF THE SEXES 
 
 An Overlooked Consideration — Nature's Waste — Male 
 Trout rasher than Females — The Cannibal Tendency 
 — Scientific Investigations — Important Discoveries — 
 Dearth of Young Males — The Remedy. 
 
 Before proceeding to follow up the life- 
 history of the fry, it will be well to 
 consider a point which is too often over- 
 looked, and has caused a great deal of 
 trouble to many people who have watched 
 the stock of trout in their waters getting 
 less year after year without being able to 
 find the cause. 
 
 It is of the utmost importance that 
 the balance of the sexes in the stock 
 should be maintained. It is thought by 
 most people that Nature will look after 
 this, and so she will in her own way, 
 
 22 
 
BALANCE OF THE SEXES 23 
 
 where the interference of man does not 
 upset her plans. It cannot be too often 
 or too strongly pointed out that Nature's 
 methods, though excellent for their 
 purpose, must not be relied upon to 
 produce a stock of fish which will stand 
 the continual drain of many seasons' 
 constant fishing. When man steps in 
 and takes toll of the mature fish, he must 
 also take pains to lessen the waste which 
 occurs during the earlier stages of their 
 existence. Let me repeat that Nature 
 deliberately sets to work to provide for 
 a heavy percentage of loss from the time 
 the eggs are laid by the parent fish, in 
 order to prevent the overstocking of the 
 waters. If, added to this wholesale 
 destruction, we have a persistent drain on 
 the mature fish at the hands of man, no 
 stock, however heavy, can maintain its 
 numbers for long. It is necessary not 
 only to protect, but also to cultivate. 
 There is abundance of material to work 
 on if attention is given to the frustration 
 of Nature's wasting processes. 
 
24 TROUT WATERS 
 
 Anglers who carefully consider the 
 number of trout which it is safe for them 
 to take from a certain water have, ever 
 since trout fishing became a popular 
 sport, taken it for granted — if, indeed, 
 they ever thought of the matter — that 
 their catch will be, roughly, about half 
 male and half female. This is by no 
 means the case, because the young, lusty, 
 well-grown males are far more readily 
 taken on the fly than the more sedate 
 and quieter females. As a rough estimate 
 — which, however, has been arrived at by 
 considerable experience — I should say 
 that the catch for a season on any water 
 which is fished with the fly only would 
 average about 75 per cent of males. 
 This is likely to be disastrous to the 
 future stock. 
 
 In many trout streams where the 
 feeding is abundant and the fish run 
 large, there is already a tendency towards 
 a scarcity of male fish, for it has been 
 observed that large, well - nourished 
 females produce a larger percentage of 
 
BALANCE OF THE SEXES 25 
 
 female offspring than male. On the 
 other hand, where the feeding is poor — 
 as in many of our mountain streams — the 
 female fish are badly nourished and small, 
 and produce a larger percentage of male 
 offspring than female. Where there is 
 a fierce fight for existence owing to a 
 scanty food supply, the percentage of fry 
 which live to maturity is mostly male. 
 This would seem to be Nature's way of 
 preventing too large a stock of fish in 
 waters which do not contain sufficient 
 food to support them. 
 
 Where males are scarce owing to over- 
 fishing with the fly, it will be found that 
 those which do duty on the spawning 
 beds are mostly old and worthless, and 
 have taken to living in holes and dark 
 corners, where they lurk in wait for 
 smaller fish. The cannibal tendency in 
 all trout becomes much more developed 
 as they grow older, and when they have 
 once taken to regular feeding on smaller 
 trout they seldom or never rise to the fly ; 
 consequently, they remain unmolested till 
 
26 TROUT WATERS 
 
 they die, and are a continual source of 
 loss to the river. As breeders they are 
 very inferior to younger fish, and by 
 means of their abnormally developed jaw 
 they are frequently able to inflict severe 
 wounds and drive away the younger 
 males. They fight fiercely at spawning 
 time, and any one who has had an oppor- 
 tunity of handling wild spawners will 
 have noticed how many of the younger 
 males are wounded, often so that they 
 cannot recover. 
 
 In a certain lake of considerable extent 
 the trout fishing had been falling off year 
 after year. There was no apparent cause 
 for this ; but it became quite clear that 
 unless some steps were taken there would 
 soon be no trout fishing at all. The few 
 trout which remained were big fellows, 
 and the feeding in the lake was all that 
 could be desired. It was resolved to 
 erect a small hatchery, collect the ova 
 from the native fish in the autumn, hatch 
 these out, and turn them back into the 
 lake as fry, thus saving a great deal of 
 
BALANCE OF THE SEXES 27 
 
 the waste which goes on among the eggs 
 under natural conditions. There was 
 only one stream feeding the lake which 
 was of any importance : so we decided to 
 keep a watch on this and net the spawners 
 off the beds when they ran up to spawn. 
 As the time drew near we watched un- 
 ceasingly. Night after night, with a 
 horse and trap loaded with fish carriers, 
 and two men to work the net, I patrolled 
 the stream. The fish were late that 
 season, owing to scarcity of water, and 
 for some time our watch was unavailing. 
 The rain came early one Sunday morning, 
 and at dawn on Monday we were out 
 hunting for spawners. When the first 
 shallows had been netted we knew that 
 the fates had been unkind, for we took 
 three fish which had spawned on Sunday 
 night. We worked away, however, and 
 got a few unspawned fish, and for several 
 days we continued to get odd ones ; but 
 the bulk of the fish had spawned directly 
 they came up — they had been waiting 
 nearly three weeks for water. Only a 
 
28 TROUT WATERS 
 
 few thousand eggs were taken altogether, 
 at a considerable expenditure of labour 
 and money. The hatchery had to be 
 filled with eggs which were purchased at 
 a distance. About the end of January I 
 went out one day to try and collect a few 
 eggs from the redds. I took a fine 
 muslin net on a frame, and two jugs. 
 After carefully stirring up a redd, I 
 managed to collect a few eggs in the 
 net. I was amazed to find that redd 
 after redd contained only infertile eggs. 
 These were carefully examined, especially 
 those which had not turned opaque ; but 
 there was no trace of an embryo in them. 
 Out of many redds examined, only a very 
 few contained eyed ova, and of these 
 we managed to collect a small quantity. 
 The presence of so many redds with 
 infertile ova remained a mystery which it 
 took several seasons to solve. In order 
 that there might be no chance of missing 
 the spawners the following year (1900), I 
 buUt a trap near the lake, so as to stop 
 them as they ran up ; but so heavy a 
 
BALANCE OF THE SEXES 29 
 
 flood came down that I got only ten or a 
 dozen fish, and of these only three were 
 males, and they were great, ugly, old 
 trout with long, hooked jaws. The fish 
 were spawned by hand, and the eggs 
 were all good, 98 per cent eventually 
 hatching off. 
 
 In 1901 my arrangements were more 
 complete, and I managed to catch every 
 fish that came up. I was surprised to 
 find how few there were — not more than 
 sixty, all told, and of these only five were 
 males I I began now to understand the 
 scarcity of fertile eggs found in 1899, 
 and, had I not been able to draw on my 
 own stock of fish, nearly all the eggs 
 taken would have been wasted. The 
 males this year, too, were veterans, ragged 
 and torn ; we had come across no young 
 trout, with the exception of three or four 
 female fish. 
 
 Here we were confronted by a startling 
 fact. The race of trout was dwindling 
 owing to the balance between the sexes 
 having broken down. Every one said 
 
30 TROUT WATERS 
 
 there used to be plenty of trout, and the 
 natives told tales of the fish they saw 
 each season on the spawning beds ; but 
 no one could account for the falling-off 
 in numbers. All sorts of reasons were 
 suggested ; but here it was demonstrated 
 clearly that if all other ills that trout are 
 heir to were eliminated, the decrease 
 would continue slowly, unless Nature 
 restored the balance, which in this case of 
 a breed of fish so far played out would 
 not be likely. 
 
 The spawning season of 1902 was 
 eagerly looked for. Now we might see 
 some of the fish turned in as fry in 1899 
 coming back to spawn, and great was the 
 excitement when we found that the 
 three - year - olds outnumbered the old 
 stagers considerably. For some reason 
 or other, there were more large fish than 
 in previous years ; but the shortness of 
 males was even more striking, and with- 
 out the young stock we should have had 
 to waste much ova. As nearly as I could 
 estimate it, there was only one male to 
 
BALANCE OF THE SEXES 31 
 
 seventeen females among the old stagers. 
 It was interesting, too, to find that we 
 could easUy recognise the males again by 
 some scar or other mark which had been 
 noted the previous year. 
 
 It is evident that no amount of pre- 
 serving would ever have restored the 
 fishing in this lake. Things would have 
 gone from bad to worse, and all sorts of 
 causes but the right one would have been 
 suggested to account for the failure. 
 Although in the hands of the fish-culturist 
 things are worked differently, in a state 
 of Nature a male fish is of service to one 
 female only, so that, unless their numbers 
 are fairly equal, there is great waste. 
 
 There are in this country many 
 heavily-fished waters where the balance 
 of the sexes has already been broken 
 down, and, though I say it reluctantly, 
 the truth must be told — fly-fishing is 
 about the worst method by which fish 
 can be taken, because, as already stated, 
 the young and vigorous males are more 
 easily caught, rising more freely than 
 
32 TROUT WATERS 
 
 females. Where there is a size limit in a 
 heavUy-fished water, the male fish are 
 represented by old pirates on the one 
 hand, which have long ceased to rise to 
 the fly, and young, immature males on 
 the other, so that not only are many eggs 
 wasted, but also those which are fertilised 
 are not of the best quality. A male 
 trout is at its best for breeding purposes 
 from four to seven years of age, and 
 during that time he is a fine, vigorous, 
 sporting fish, rising freely to the fly. 
 After seven years he begins to fall off in 
 condition, to become a bottom feeder and 
 a cannibal, and is altogether useless and 
 harmful to the river. Such fish should 
 be destroyed, and the best way to do this 
 is to allow a certain amount of worm- 
 fishing. Restrict the use of worm to 
 competent hands, by all means ; but 
 occasional bait-fishing is necessary, and 
 any one who has studied any given piece 
 of water will know the places to angle 
 for the undesirable cannibal. The only 
 way, apart from stocking, to counteract 
 
BALANCE OF THE SEXES 33 
 
 the capture of the valuable breeding males 
 is to see that, as far as possible, every egg 
 has a chance of hatching, and every fry a 
 fair run for its life. If this is done, I do 
 not think that any reasonable amount of 
 fishing can ever depopulate a water. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE FRY 
 
 Enemies to be watched — Tit-bits for the Fry — How 
 Nature can be helped — Swamps, Ditches, and Ponds 
 — Poisonous Gases — Effects of Flood — Water Plants 
 — Importance of Head Waters — Ponds overflowing 
 into Stream — Valuable Plants. 
 
 If the spawning beds have been sufficient 
 in area and clean, and if the alevins have 
 been protected from ducks and other 
 enemies, there will be a good crop of 
 healthy young fry in the streams. As 
 soon as the umbilical sac has been 
 absorbed, the young fish scatter and take 
 up positions which are advantageous for 
 feeding purposes. They prefer fairly 
 rapid shallow water to the quieter and 
 more sluggish stretches, and they are 
 healthier and stronger when they have 
 to hold their own against the current. 
 
 31 
 
THE FKY 35 
 
 Their food at this time is necessarily 
 minute, and consists of Daphnia, Cyclops, 
 young Gammari, and small moUusca, 
 together with the larvae of many kinds 
 of flies. 
 
 When safely past the alevin stage, 
 there should be no loss among them 
 except from accident. In a state of 
 nature, disease does not touch them at 
 this age, and if their environment is a 
 favourable one their growth is rapid. 
 Great care should be taken to protect 
 them from enemies. Two of the most 
 dangerous and harmful which can easUy 
 be observed are the kingfisher and the 
 dabchick. There are others in the water 
 which are more destructive later ; but at 
 this time (March and April) the fry have 
 very few dangers to fear when on the 
 shallows of the smaller streams. As the 
 season advances, and the temperature of 
 the water rises, their arch-enemy, the eel, 
 begins to be Uvely, and he is a voracious 
 and untiring enemy, always ready for a 
 meal. The larger trout, too, especially 
 
36 TROUT WATERS 
 
 in waters where food is scarce or late 
 in making its appearance, destroy a 
 considerable number of fry ; but they do 
 not, as a rule, frequent the small runners. 
 
 The most important question to con- 
 sider with regard to the fry is their food 
 supply. This has been sadly diminished of 
 late years in many places in consequence 
 of the draining of swamps and ponds 
 where it was produced. 
 
 The streams in which the young fish 
 spend the first six months of their life, 
 although providing a certain amount of 
 food, do not produce the most valuable 
 kinds. These are bred in more stagnant 
 waters, which either have small outlets 
 running into the streams or periodically 
 overflow after rain. From these ponds 
 and swampy places come the Daphnia 
 and the Cyclops, two creatures which, 
 though exceedingly prolific and invaluable 
 as trout food, do not thrive or multiply 
 to any great extent in swiftly-running 
 water. The fresh-water shrimp, which is 
 so much sought after by trout later, is 
 
THE FRY 37 
 
 too large and tough for the fry to tackle, 
 and until the temperature of the water 
 rises as warmer weather comes, there are 
 no young ones about. The same thing 
 applies to moUusca. The larvae of flies 
 are usually plentiful in the gravel and 
 under stones ; but even these are supplied 
 in greater abundance by the stagnant 
 pools and sluggish backwaters. 
 
 Nature's method with regard to this 
 food supply is most interesting and 
 instructive. It is well worth the careful 
 consideration of those who wish to 
 improve their stock offish. When once 
 it is understood, man can step in and 
 help things along a little, so that great 
 benefit may be derived. It is interesting 
 to note how again and again we come 
 face to face with the fact that Nature, 
 with lavish hand and seeming carelessness 
 of waste, outlines the course to be taken, 
 but leaves man to adjust the details. He 
 who studies closely her methods and 
 weighs carefully the relative values of 
 each move in the game will be able to 
 
38 TROUT WATERS 
 
 increase the yield a hundredfold ; but 
 unless a careful study has been made, and 
 the whole process is understood from 
 start to finish, man's meddling wiU end 
 in disaster. There is a definite reason 
 for each fact we come across, and it is 
 astonishing to find what important issues 
 it leads to. 
 
 The neglected swamp, the stagnant 
 ditch, and the weed-fiJled pond, all of 
 which are utterly unsuitable for the 
 requirements of a trout water, are made 
 to play a most important part. They are 
 the breeding grounds of the aquatic life 
 which forms the most valuable food for 
 the trout. The water they contain is 
 foul and poisonous, and no trout could 
 live in it for twelve hours, but it produces 
 in large numbers many creatures which 
 in the purer waters of the streams could 
 never be so abundant. Many of these 
 nurseries of insect life contain water so 
 charged with carbonic acid and other 
 gases that it would be a serious danger 
 to the fish if they were suddenly run off 
 
THE FRY 39 
 
 into the streams : so Nature, with a wise 
 knowledge of the hest methods, sends 
 plentiful rains and causes them to overflow. 
 In this way two things are accomplished : 
 the foul water is diluted, and a large 
 supply of food is carried to the streaiiis 
 where the trout are waiting for it. 
 
 Now we come to an important point. 
 These natural supplies are only periodical ; 
 but the trout must have a constant supply 
 of food, and in order to accompiish this 
 it is well to see that the streams contain 
 an abundance of aquatic vegetation in 
 which the creatures may take refuge. 
 
 There are very many streams in the 
 country where, after a "fresh," when the 
 stagnant places have given up their 
 food supply, the trout become absolutely 
 gorged. When the water subsides they 
 begin to get hungry again ; but their 
 supply has gone. Such streams are barren 
 and weedless. Often the very stones are 
 polished by a fresh so that no living thing 
 can adhere to them, and a long dry spell 
 means semi-starvation to the trout. 
 
40 TROUT WATERS 
 
 No stream is so swift and barren that 
 this cannot be remedied. There are 
 always the httle backwaters where 
 sediment is deposited and banks com- 
 posed of soil where plants will grow, and 
 in such a stream no corner that will hold 
 aquatic vegetation should be neglected. 
 Wherever there are water plants you 
 will find all sorts of life which is of value 
 as trout food, and the creatures which 
 but for its existence would have been 
 swept away by floods will find a refuge 
 there, and during dry spells of weather 
 they will furnish a steady supply of food 
 to the trout in the stream. 
 
 It will be apparent that the higher up 
 a stream you go the scantier is the food 
 supply from outside sources, just as the 
 nearer you get to the source of a river 
 the smaller is the volume of water. As 
 the head waters of any stream form the 
 most valuable nurseries for the fry, it is 
 important to see that there is an adequate 
 food supply. A very little care and 
 trouble will make a marvellous difference 
 
THE FRY 41 
 
 to them, and, of course, to the stock in 
 the whole stream. 
 
 In the first place, it would be well to 
 see that there are plenty of ponds which 
 overflow into the stream. It has been 
 the custom of late years to drain all such 
 places or to fill them up ; but unless there 
 is a very definite reason for doing so it 
 is a mistake as far as the fish in the 
 stream are concerned. It is not difficult 
 to make a few ponds in waste places, and 
 it is well worth while, for quite a small 
 pool will produce an enormous amount 
 of insect food. These ponds need never 
 be an eyesore : they can be planted with 
 water-lilies and bulrushes, and, indeed, 
 made into an aquatic garden, which is 
 a pleasing addition to the landscape. 
 Remember that every pond which over- 
 flows into a trout stream and which is 
 drained or filled up is a loss, and every 
 one which is made, enlarged, or improved 
 is a gain. No little ditch is too insig- 
 nificant to be of value. 
 
 With regard to the water plants in the 
 
42 TROUT WATERS 
 
 stream itself, it should be pointed out 
 that there are some kinds which are of 
 much greater value than others. For the 
 head waters of any trout stream there is 
 no plant known to fishcultrists of such 
 value as the common watercress. Perhaps 
 next comes Callitriche verna, and then a 
 host of marginal plants, such as Veronica 
 heccabunga and Myosotis aquaticus. 
 
 It may seem to some people un- 
 necessary to bother about all these things 
 if the trout in the lower reaches are large 
 and well fed ; but they must also ask 
 whether they are plentiful. The lower 
 reaches of almost any stream contain a 
 very fair amount of natural food for the 
 fish ; but it does not follow that the head 
 waters do. The point I wish to bring 
 out strongly is this : That it is of the 
 utmost importance that the head waters 
 should be attended to, so that they may 
 provide abundant food for the fry. If 
 the neighbourhood in which a young 
 hungry trout finds himself is destitute of 
 food, he will drop down-stream, and when 
 
THE FRY 43 
 
 he arrives in the middle or lower reaches 
 he is snapped up by the larger fish. If 
 the fry have plenty of feeding, they will 
 remain in the upper reaches till they are 
 sufficiently well grown to look after 
 themselves ; otherwise they will be lost. 
 
 Year by year the food supply is 
 getting less in the head waters of many 
 trout streams. Ditches are being cleaned 
 out ; land is being better drained ; flood 
 water, which used to cause a welcome 
 spate lasting several days, now runs off 
 in a few hours and sweeps the streams 
 clean. Unless all these contrary influ- 
 ences are intelligently counteracted, their 
 effect on the fishing will not be long in 
 making itself felt. There is every induce- 
 ment to be on the look-out, and every 
 scrap of care bestowed on a stream will 
 bring its own reward. Look around and 
 see what the moorland and the waste 
 places produce. Nature is at work there 
 and doing her best, and even on good 
 soil the value of her crop is small 
 compared with what man can accomplish 
 
44 TROUT WATERS 
 
 when he takes her into partnership. It 
 is precisely so with streams and lakes. 
 Nature at her very best cannot do what 
 man can accomplish with her aid ; but 
 man must remember that she is the senior 
 partner, with all the knowledge, all the 
 capital, and most of the directing power. 
 He must follow her directions carefully 
 and conscientiously, always finding out 
 the meaning of this or that, and passing 
 nothing by which is not understood. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 POISON AND OTHER TROUBLES 
 
 Natural Pollutions — ^Their Subtle Action — Three Sourcea 
 of Evil— Methods of Detection— The Deadly Sj^ihag- 
 num Moss — Decaying Matter— Marsh Gas — When the 
 Fry drop down stream — ^Their Enemies : EelSj Pikej 
 and Perch. 
 
 It is often assumed that the only modes 
 of poUution which seriously affect a trout 
 water are caused by foreign substances 
 which are the result of man's industry 
 or enterprise on the land. This is not 
 the case. There are many modes of 
 natural pollution which are detrimental. 
 Even as a district which is invaded by the 
 smoke of some expanding town begins to 
 show signs of its presence in the atmo- 
 sphere, by the disappearance of some of 
 the more delicate forms of plant life — 
 notably lichens — long before the smoke 
 
 45 
 
46 TROUT WATERS 
 
 itself is visible, so a stream may be 
 seriously affected by pollution without 
 any strikingly alarming symptoms being 
 visible. Long before pollution has be- 
 come so bad that trout are killed, some 
 of the delicate creatures which form their 
 food supply perish, and the very first to 
 be affected are those which nourish the 
 fry during the first two months after they 
 have passed the alevin stage. 
 
 It is unnecessary for me to write of 
 unnatural pollution — the remedy for this 
 is obvious ; — but natural pollution is a 
 matter which must be carefully studied 
 and understood. Bear in mind that the 
 fry are in the shallow streams which con- 
 tain a comparatively small volume of 
 water for three months or more, and you 
 will see how easily pollution may affect 
 them. 
 
 There are three ways in which the 
 water may be polluted naturally : (1) by 
 springs discharging water containing some 
 deleterious property ; (2) by water drain- 
 ing from some impure source ; (8) by the 
 
POISON & OTHER TROUBLES 47 
 
 sudden disturbance of a mass of mud and 
 decaying vegetable matter, which may be 
 caused by a heavy shower of rain and 
 sudden spate. The first of these causes 
 of pollution is perhaps the most serious ; 
 the second is the most difficult to deal 
 with ; while the third, though bad enough 
 to be guarded against, is usually tem- 
 porary, cured by the rain which caused it 
 if a sufficient fall occurs. 
 
 There is no need for a careful analysis 
 of the water. All doubt as to its fitness 
 can be determined in a very simple way, 
 and as a rule even the worst cases can be 
 dealt with so as to leave the water in a 
 wholesome condition. If you know of a 
 spring which discharges into the stream, 
 examine the state of the runner which it 
 makes. If neither insect life of any kind 
 nor any aquatic plant life can be found, 
 the water should be regarded with sus- 
 picion, but not necessarily condemned. 
 Test it further by planting some water- 
 plants in it, which are harbouring shrimps, 
 larvae, and moUusca. Be very careful not 
 
48 TROUT WATERS 
 
 to remove these living creatures, and 
 examine the plants in about a fortnight's 
 time. If you find the shrimps, moUusca, 
 and larvae have disappeared, it wiU be 
 well to make a further and final test. 
 Make a small pool, which will be fed by 
 the spring in question, and in this plant, 
 as before, a good supply of water-plants, 
 and see that they are harbouring abundant 
 life. If, after a few weeks, the pool is 
 found to be barren and destitute of 
 aquatic insect or mollusc, the water must 
 be condemned. 
 
 As an instance of how successfully 
 spring water which will not support life 
 can often be dealt with, I may mention 
 the following facts. On a certain estate 
 there were two powerful springs, both 
 coming up out of a limestone formation, 
 and the water in each one was as clear as 
 crystal, so that the fine sand disturbed by 
 the current as it came out of the earth 
 could be seen at a depth of three feet to 
 be continually in motion, reminding one 
 of a miniature volcano. One of these 
 
POISON & OTHER TROUBLES 49 
 
 springs was tapped and turned through a 
 series of ponds in which were placed trout 
 of various ages. They did well and 
 throve exceedingly. A year or two after 
 this it was thought well to make the other 
 spring — apparently exactly the same as 
 the one already in use — do duty in the 
 same way. A series of ponds was made 
 and the water turned through them for a 
 few weeks prior to the introduction of the 
 trout. With the successful experience 
 of the water from the other spring, this 
 one was never doubted for a moment, 
 and a large stock of valuable fish was 
 turned in. Next day there were many 
 of these lying dead on the bottom of the 
 pond. It was thought that they had 
 been injured in transit ; but, unfortu- 
 nately, subsequent events proved beyond 
 a doubt that the water was unsuitable, 
 and the remaining fish, now reduced to 
 about half their number, were removed 
 on the third day. To test further the 
 capabilities of the pond, two dozen trout 
 were turned in. They died within a 
 
50 TROUT WATERS 
 
 week. For some time the pond remained 
 without fish, and a large stock of water- 
 plants was planted. Next spring the 
 raceway at the outlet of this pond was 
 examined, and many fresh-water shrimps 
 were found. This hopeful sign induced 
 the experimenter to try some fish in the 
 second pond of the series, and to his 
 delight they seemed to thrive, though 
 afterwards it became apparent that it 
 was not until the water had passed through 
 three ponds, all well stocked with water- 
 plants, that it became thoroughly whole- 
 some for trout. 
 
 All this goes to show that water 
 cannot be trusted without a test, and 
 that if it is not suitable for trout it may 
 be improved by planting aquatic vegeta- 
 tion, which wUl absorb many injurious 
 properties, and will, above all, give off a 
 supply of oxygen. There are very few 
 springs, not obviously impure, that will 
 not be amenable to this treatment ; but, 
 on the other hand, there are very many 
 whose water is unfit for a trout stream 
 
POISON & OTHER TROUBLES 51 
 
 until it has been treated in the manner 
 described. 
 
 Pollution caused by water which drains 
 from some impure source, such as an 
 almost stagnant pond, need only be con- 
 sidered dangerous when there is a constant 
 flow in dry weather, for, as has been 
 pointed out in a previous chapter. Nature 
 requires such places for the growing of 
 trout food, and her methods of carrying 
 this to the streams in wet weather insures 
 immunity to the fry, because the stagnant 
 water is well diluted. Further, it very 
 rarely happens that water which will 
 produce the various creatures on which 
 trout feed is sufficiently impure to injure 
 the fry when it ceases to be stagnant. 
 Thus it often happens that water running 
 from a pond only capable of containing 
 the lower forms of life is immediately 
 changed when in motion, as it rapidly 
 absorbs oxygen. 
 
 There is, unfortunately, a considerable 
 amount of water continually finding its 
 way into the small streams which is 
 
52 TROUT WATERS 
 
 absolutely poisonous from having perco- 
 lated through some swamp where there is 
 a great deal of decaying vegetable matter. 
 Worst of all is the water which drips 
 through a bed of sphagnum. The most 
 promising little trout stream may be 
 entirely ruined by the growth of large 
 quantities of that moss near at hand. 
 This has been demonstrated again and 
 again. 
 
 Some years ago I knew of a small 
 stream which was an ideal one for 
 spawners. There were long stretches 
 of gravel, and the water supply was 
 regular and good. Each year many trout 
 spawned there and then returned to the 
 main stream. Every spring there were 
 large quantities of healthy fry, which 
 remained till June, and then they, too, 
 dropped down. At the present time not 
 a single spawner runs up, though the 
 gravel beds look as inviting as ever, and 
 it is over ten years since a fish of any 
 kind was seen there at any time of the 
 year. 
 
POISON & OTHER TROUBLES 53 
 
 The reason for this change was for a 
 long time a puzzle ; but eventually it was 
 discovered. Three small ponds were 
 made for propagating Limnea. These 
 were close together ; but the water did 
 not run from one to the other. They 
 depended for their supply on soakage 
 from the hill above. It was soon found 
 that in two of the ponds the Limnea 
 would not live ; in the third they did 
 well. Into the first two the water 
 drained through a bed of sphagnum ; the 
 third drew its supply through gravel. I 
 tried many experiments with the un- 
 successful ponds, and tried to find some 
 creature which would live in them. The 
 water was beautifully clear, and I planted 
 the bottom with quillwort and lobelia, 
 and in each pond I put a large bunch of 
 milfoil, and then introduced quantities of 
 moUusca, larvae, etc. ; but they all died. 
 Even water -beetles either died or flew 
 away, and it was some time before I 
 could discover anything that the water 
 would support. Eventually I turned in 
 
54 TROUT WATERS 
 
 two goldfish, and they lived there for a 
 long time ; but what they fed on I do 
 not know. After carefully considering 
 all the possible reasons for the uselessness 
 of the water, I came to the conclusion 
 that the sphagnum was to blame, and, 
 remembering the stream which used to 
 contain trout, I went and inspected it 
 from source to mouth, and found that at 
 several points neglected ditches had filled 
 up, overflowed, and produced a thriving 
 bed of sphagnum through which water 
 was percolating. 
 
 Not long after this I had the poisonous 
 properties of sphagnum brought promi- 
 nently under my notice. A hatchery 
 which had been working for years 
 suddenly became useless owing to some- 
 thing in the water. This remained as 
 clear as ever, but no sooner were eggs 
 laid down than they began to look 
 unhealthy, and soon died and turned 
 white. An investigation brought to light 
 the fact that a large sphagnum bed had 
 formed near the source of the stream, and 
 
POISON & OTHER TROUBLES 55 
 
 for some distance the water was running 
 through the poisonous moss. The bed 
 was drained, and a cutting made for the 
 water, which soon returned to its former 
 condition. 
 
 Notwithstanding all this it will be well 
 to point out that sphagnum moss pressed 
 in layers to the thickness of stout felt 
 has been used for over forty years in 
 the packing of trout eggs for transport. 
 It seems quite clear that the poisonous 
 properties of the moss are to a large 
 extent neutralised by the air, just as 
 water containing an excessive quantity of 
 carbonic acid gas may be rendered fit for 
 trout by friction with the atmosphere, 
 as in a swiftly running stream. Water 
 in motion absorbs oxygen readily ; but 
 where it is entirely stagnant or moving 
 slowly the purifying process is very slow. 
 
 It was found that sphagnum, though 
 excellent for packing eggs in for short 
 journeys, was not satisfactory when the 
 eggs had to remain in it for several 
 weeks, unless a considerable air-space was 
 
56 TROUT WATERS 
 
 left between the layers. Nowadays eggs 
 are usually packed in shallow trays with 
 muslin stretched across to form a bottom 
 — in this way ventilation is facilitated. 
 When eggs were packed in very wet 
 sphagnum the results were never good. 
 There is little room for doubt that the 
 moss absorbs a large quantity of oxygen 
 and gives off carbonic acid gas. 
 
 All decay, whether vegetable or animal, 
 in the water is bad. Decay means the 
 production of carbonic acid gas, which is 
 a deadly poison ; and the capacity of any 
 given piece of water for maintaining trout 
 is chiefly dependent upon the absence of 
 that gas and the presence of an abundant 
 supply of oxygen. 
 
 There are some kinds of aquatic plants 
 which are very much given to decay, 
 howsoever healthy the growing portion of 
 the plant may be, and these should not 
 be encouraged in or near a trout stream. 
 Possibly the commonest example of a 
 plant of this kind is the oval-leafed pond- 
 weed. It is to be found in stagnant 
 
POISON & OTHER TROUBLES 57 
 
 pools, in ditches, and in the back-waters 
 of a stream. It is of very little use as a 
 food producer, and its long stem, with 
 the oval, surface-floating leaf, is of rapid 
 growth and equally rapid decay. It is 
 a nuisance to anglers, and altogether an 
 undesirable plant. Rushes, bulrushes, 
 and reeds, though excellent in a lake or 
 at the margin of a river whose volume of 
 water is considerable, are not good plants 
 to have in or near the smaller streams. 
 Their roots and stems, besides producing 
 a great deal of decaying matter, harbour 
 all sorts of refuse, which floats in among 
 them, such as leaves, silt, dead water 
 weeds, and other things which should 
 have been swept away by the current. 
 Any one who takes the trouble to examine 
 a bed of these plants will find the soil in 
 which they are growing exceedingly foul, 
 and there is nearly always an unpleasant 
 smell. The water which lodges in a 
 thick bed is held by the mass of stems till 
 it becomes stagnant and rotten, frequently 
 showing the iridescent colours on its 
 
58 TROUT V/ATERS 
 
 surface which are a sure indication of 
 its unfitness for young trout. In their 
 proper places these plants are of great 
 use, but not where fry congregate. 
 Decaying vegetation and silt, when 
 allowed to accumulate, as they often 
 will, in the more sluggish portions of a 
 stream, become exceedingly dangerous. 
 Marsh-gas is generated and escapes in the 
 form of bubbles to the surface of the 
 water, where it mixes with the air and 
 passes harmlessly away. It is not gener- 
 ally known that this gas, which may be 
 observed rising from the bottom of any 
 stagnant pond, is highly inflammable ; if 
 a light is applied to the bubbles as they 
 reach the surface they will explode with 
 a slight report. So long as an accumula- 
 tion of debris is allowed to remain undis- 
 turbed it does not seem to do any great 
 harm ; but if it is suddenly stirred up and 
 mixed with the pure water of a small 
 stream it will poison the fry for a con- 
 siderable distance, especially if this should 
 occur in warm weather. Cattle wading 
 
POISON & OTHER TROUBLES 59 
 
 in a stream on a hot day will liberate 
 large quantities of this rotting filth and 
 send it floating off down -stream with 
 disastrous results. A thunder shower, as 
 before pointed out, will do the same 
 thing. It is worth noting that when a 
 temporary pollution of this kind occurs 
 the fry rush for the nearest cover, and if 
 there are plenty of water plants, such as 
 watercress, Callitriche verna, milfoil, and 
 others of a like nature at hand they will 
 be safe, at any rate, if the pollution soon 
 ceases and the foul water is cleared off by 
 the current. A muddy condition of the 
 water caused by a spate and the washings 
 from wholesome soU is not harmful to the 
 young fish — they rather enjoy it ; but 
 rotting beds of vegetable matter mixed 
 with mud are very different. There 
 have been cases where the lowering of 
 a reservoir for cleaning purposes has 
 destroyed every fish in a stream when 
 the accumulation of filth at the bottom 
 has been washed down with the current. 
 For the welfare of the fry keep the 
 
60 TROUT WATERS 
 
 streams in a clean and healthy condition, 
 allowing only those plants to flourish 
 which are vigorous and healthy and do 
 not continually provide a mass of decaying 
 vegetable matter. Plants which grow 
 luxuriantly aU spring and summer but 
 decay in the autumn do no harm to the 
 fish as they die down, because at the 
 season of the year when this occurs 
 Nature provides two neutralising agencies : 
 the autumn spates and the low tempera- 
 ture of the water. Here it wiU be well 
 to point out that a pollution which would 
 be fatal to the trout in water standinsf at 
 60 deg. Fahr. would not necessarily be 
 dangerous if it took place in water at a 
 temperature of 40 deg. Fahr. 
 
 In shallow lakes the presence of large 
 quantities of aquatic vegetation is a 
 source of danger in severe weather in 
 winter. Ice prevents the necessary 
 contact with the atmosphere, and shuts 
 off^ the supply of oxygen, absorption of 
 which is facilitated by breezes ruffling the 
 surface of a lake. On the other hand. 
 
POISON & OTHER TROUBLES 61 
 
 the increased cold causes a rapid decay of 
 vegetable matter under water, and con- 
 sequently an increase in the output of 
 carbonic acid gas. This explains why 
 one so frequently hears of trout dying in 
 large numbers in shallow lakes during 
 frost. 
 
 I have written somewhat fully about 
 the fiy because I consider that it is a 
 most important subject, and one which 
 is almost always entirely ignored. It is 
 impossible to have a good stock of trout 
 in any water if the fry are not considered 
 and given a good chance. The points to 
 be borne in mind are — That it is most 
 desirable that the fry should remain as 
 long as possible in the shallow waters in 
 which they were hatched, and that, in 
 order that they should do this, the 
 streams must provide food and cover and 
 be free from pollution of every kind. 
 
 We will suppose that all the condi- 
 tions up in the head waters have been 
 favourable to the fry, and that they 
 are now ready to begin the dangerous 
 
62 TROUT WATERS 
 
 journey to the deeper waters. This is 
 at different times in different streams, 
 but usually somewhere between April 15 
 and the end of May. 
 
 The fry are now well-formed, sturdy 
 little fish, with their full markings, 
 though perhaps the colourings will not 
 be so bright as when they come to 
 maturity. They are voracious feeders 
 and keenly on the look-out for danger, 
 but somewhat rash. As they must feed 
 continually, their journey is done in short 
 stages, and they usually drop down- 
 stream tail first, travelling rather slower 
 than the current, if this be swift, but in 
 sluggish water darting off with their 
 heads down-stream, bringing up after a 
 short run in the shelter of some stone or 
 weed bed to rest and feed before pro- 
 ceeding. 
 
 There are many creatures in the water 
 which are aware of this annual migration 
 of young trout, and know how to take 
 advantage of it in their own way. The 
 commonest enemies, and perhaps the 
 
POISON & OTHER TROUBLES 63 
 
 most dangerous, of those which live in 
 the water are eels, pike, perch, and larger 
 trout. 
 
 The eels at this time of the year have 
 only recently recovered from their semi- 
 torpid state, and they are particularly 
 hungry and exceedingly fond of young 
 trout. They know just where to lie in 
 wait during the daytime, and at night 
 they hunt persistently, chiefly in the 
 shallows. 
 
 During May eels are more easily 
 caught (in most places) than at any other 
 time of the year, and in every trout 
 stream they should receive careful and 
 persistent attention. They may be 
 caught in large quantities in eel-baskets ; 
 but there is a better trap on the market 
 made of fine meshed wire-netting. This 
 trap is patented, and can be procured 
 through any fishing tackle dealer, and I 
 know from experience how useful it is. 
 On one occasion I got 36 eels in one 
 trap as the result of one night's fishing in 
 a stream where I had been assured there 
 
64 TROUT WATERS 
 
 were no eels 1 It may be taken for 
 granted that where there is water 
 capable of containing eels they will be 
 there, whether you are aware of their 
 presence or not. The best plan is to 
 get a trap and make sure. Every eel 
 caught is an enemy the less for the trout 
 fry, and for that reason alone they should 
 be captured ; but I may mention in- 
 cidentally that they are worth 6d. a 
 pound wholesale, and they wiU. at any 
 rate pay for the labour and expense of 
 their capture. There are a few places in 
 the country, as I know by experience, 
 where, for some reason unknown to me, 
 eels win not enter the ordinary eel trap ; 
 but I have never found a water yet 
 where it was not possible to catch them 
 on lines. These should be baited with 
 earth-worms, minnows, or perch fry, and 
 the hooks which are best suited to the 
 purpose can be obtained from any tackle 
 dealer at about 4d. per 100. The longer 
 the line set and the more hooks on it the 
 better ; but the droppers should not be 
 
POISON & OTHER TROUBLES 65 
 
 more than eighteen inches long or nearer 
 together than six feet, or there will be 
 trouble. 
 
 With regard to pike, it may be said 
 that they are the very worst enemy the 
 trout has, for pike destroy them from the 
 fry stage right up to maturity, and a 
 20-lb. pike is capable of disposing of any 
 sized trout that one is likely to come 
 across outside Ireland. The destruction 
 of pike in a lake is a well-nigh hopeless 
 business unless it can be drained and all 
 the streams feeding it well poisoned. I 
 am continually asked how to get rid of 
 pike in lakes; but after considerable 
 experience of the matter I feel justified 
 in saying that it can't be done by any 
 method known. Their numbers may be 
 reduced ; but that is all. 
 
 On a trout stream the matter is not so 
 bad. They can be kept down to such an 
 extent that their depredations are not 
 serious among the grown trout ; but it is 
 the little feUows, a year old, which make 
 such havoc among the fry. While the 
 
66 TROUT WATERS 
 
 larger pike can be seen on clear days, and 
 trapped, snared, shot, or otherwise dis- 
 posed of, the smaller ones up to four 
 inches in length are very difficult to see, 
 and worse to catch. Where pike are 
 found in a trout water, the only thing 
 to do is to keep on destroying them by 
 every known method which will not 
 injure the trout. 
 
 Perch should never on any account be 
 allowed in a trout water. They hunt in 
 shoals or lie in wait spread out across the 
 stream for the descending fry, and it is 
 almost impossible for a small fish to 
 escape them. They will cease to feed on 
 any other kind of food when the fry are 
 on the move, and you fish for them in 
 vain with worm or minnow at such times. 
 I have seen a shoal of several thousand 
 perch lying in the mouth of a river which 
 emptied into a lake, and down which 
 trout fry were coming during the 
 last week in May. Day after day this 
 huge shoal remained there, and there was 
 little chance for any small trout to get 
 
POISON & OTHER TROUBLES 67 
 
 past it. The weather at the time was 
 bright and clear, and the perch were in 
 such numbers that they were quite in- 
 different to the presence of human beings 
 on the bank. They would not take a 
 bait of any kind ; but a row of small boys 
 had considerable success snatching them 
 with a bare hook. I spent some time 
 watching the operations of this army, 
 and it was a fine sight to see the 
 ranks of fish, motionless save for the 
 quivering of their pectoral fins, tUl some 
 luckless fry would drift down, and 
 perhaps five hundred perch would swerve 
 in one quick flash in its direction. I 
 never could spot the fish which secured 
 the fry ; but when the ranks resumed 
 their motionless formation it had always 
 disappeared. How could it possibly 
 escape ? By all means avoid maintain- 
 ing a large stock of perch in a trout 
 water, for their food in May and June 
 is expensive. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 ENEMIES 
 Cormorants — Herons — Kingfishers — Otters. 
 
 BiEDS of various kinds are troublesome 
 on a trout water. As far as the mature 
 fish are concerned the cormorants are the 
 worst enemy. These birds do not usually 
 frequent inland waters to any great ex- 
 tent ; but streams and lakes lying near 
 the coast suffer heavily, and I have come 
 across cormorants in considerable numbers 
 as far as twenty miles from the sea. A 
 large sheet of water, even when much 
 farther away, will attract them, and they 
 may be found anywhere in Scotland 
 and Ireland ; it is the comparative 
 scarcity of large sheets of water in 
 England that accounts for their rareness 
 
 68 
 
ENEMIES 69 
 
 away from the coast in that part of the 
 kingdom. 
 
 It is hardly possible to overrate the 
 mischief done by cormorants where trout 
 are found. Their voracity is extra- 
 ordinary, and their skUl marvellous. 
 From careful observation I believe that 
 a cormorant is able to consume at least 
 its own weight of fish in a day. I have 
 seen a bird take twenty-four good-sized 
 fish in less than four hours, and even 
 then it only changed its feeding ground. 
 During the spring, when the needs of 
 a hungry family have to be considered, 
 the daily catch must be enormous. It is 
 fortunate, indeed, that these birds wiU 
 take other and less valuable fish as readily 
 as trout ; but when they are found 
 frequenting waters containing only 
 varieties of salmonidae it is obvious that 
 their needs are supplied by these fish. 
 
 A great many people who are aware 
 that a few cormorants are continually 
 fishing their waters have no idea how 
 many there may be. Otherwise they 
 
70 TROUT WATERS 
 
 would take active steps. When once 
 the hirds have settled on the water they 
 are not easily seen by those whose eyes 
 are not trained to notice the movements 
 of birds. Their black bodies are invisible 
 to any one in a boat or on the shore of a 
 lake, if the bird is any distance off. Only 
 the neck and head shows plainly, and 
 even this part of the bird wUl frequently 
 be unnoticed by the angler. On the 
 wing they are striking objects, but where 
 the feeding is good their flight is usually 
 confined to morning and evening. As they 
 seldom fish in flocks, though frequently 
 in pairs, their numbers scattered over a 
 wide area do not make any great impres- 
 sion on a casual observer. 
 
 One excellent trout lake, lying about 
 two miles from the coast, was frequented 
 for years by cormorants before any one 
 realised what numbers visited it daUy. 
 One evening three anglers took up a 
 position on a small island on which stood 
 a large dead tree. Armed with guns, 
 they waited, and as soon as it was 
 
ENEMIES 71 
 
 dusk the birds began to arrive. Many 
 shots were fired. Owing to the well- 
 known hardness of the feathers of the 
 cormorant, and to the fading light, the 
 bag held only eleven birds ; but this was 
 sufficient to prove that the marauders 
 were frequenting the lake in numbers 
 hitherto unguessed at. From that time 
 unremitting war was waged, and in 
 a season or two the stock of trout in 
 the lake improved in numbers con- 
 siderably. 
 
 Cormorants are very hard to shoot or 
 trap. They are exceedingly wary and 
 cunning, and it is usually found that no 
 method of destroying them, however suc- 
 cessful to begin with, avaUs for long. 
 
 The birds nest in colonies, and this 
 fact affords the best chance for any one 
 who wishes to reduce their numbers. 
 Often their nests on the cliifs are in- 
 accessible ; but usually both old birds 
 and young can be shot during the nest- 
 ing season. However horrible this may 
 sound, it is the only way of successfully 
 
72 TROUT WATERS 
 
 dealing with a pest which destroys much 
 valuable property. 
 
 The heron is usually regarded as 
 destructive on a trout water, and there 
 is no doubt he has earned his reputation ; 
 but his depredations are never at any 
 time so serious as to cause anything like 
 the amount of mischief done by the 
 cormorant. He is handicapped in many 
 ways, and there are frequently times 
 when trout-fishing is out of the question 
 for him. Much of his time is devoted 
 to catching frogs and eels. If frogs are 
 plentiful, he will not trouble the trout 
 while the supply lasts. On one occasion 
 I saw a heron almost frantic with excite- 
 ment because he had discovered amongst 
 a number of trout ponds one which was 
 devoted to the rearing of frogs. It was 
 in the month of June, and the frogs were 
 hopping about on the grass. They were 
 no larger than the kernel of a walnut ; 
 but the bird ran back and forth among 
 them with wings partly stretched, and 
 uttering a discordant croak every now 
 
ENEMIES 73 
 
 and then, while he picked up the frogs 
 round his feet. The trout which were 
 eaping near by were forgotten. 
 
 A large number of herons on any 
 trout water is bad ; but a few are not of 
 any serious consequence. It is easy to 
 form an accurate idea of the number of 
 herons frequenting a stream or lake, for 
 they are visible and striking birds. Where 
 pike and other coarse fish are found in a 
 trout water, herons should not be molested. 
 They destroy many of these fish, which 
 they can procure more easily than trout, 
 and I am not inclined to think they have 
 any preference for the latter. 
 
 The presence of a heron cannot be 
 tolerated at a set of rearing ponds. He 
 wiU, if allowed to do so, continue to come 
 day after day till he has reduced the 
 numbers of the fish to an alarming ex- 
 tent ; but his opportunities where a large 
 number of fish are crowded together in a 
 pond are such as never occur on a stream 
 or lake. 
 
 The kmgfisher, though a tiny bird, is a 
 
74 TROUT WATERS 
 
 destructive one. The number of fry he 
 is capable of taking in a short time is 
 amazing ; but usually waters frequented 
 by kingfishers contain other fish than 
 trout, and they are impartial in their 
 taste. Kingfishers are seldom seen in 
 high-lying districts ; these are the home 
 of the water-ousel. The lower reaches of 
 a river or stream, where the water is more 
 sluggish, or where at any rate the pools 
 are deeper and longer, is the favourite 
 haunt of the bird. Only now and then 
 is one seen on a mountain stream. 
 
 It would seem that the kingfisher does 
 not prefer a trout stream to one contain- 
 ing coarse fish. I know several districts 
 where there are, not many miles apart, 
 streams in which only trout are found, 
 and streams in which trout, pike, perch, 
 and minnows thrive. On the former the 
 kingfisher is seldom seen ; on the latter 
 he is fairly common. Nevertheless, it 
 must be admitted that when a set of fry 
 ponds is made in any district kingfishers 
 will come from far and near. I am 
 
ENEMIES 75 
 
 inclined to think it is the size of the fish 
 rather than the kind which attracts him. 
 There is little doubt that ponds containing 
 minnows would prove as favourite haunts 
 as those containing trout. 
 
 Not long ago I placed twelve fine 
 minnows in a small shallow tank out 
 of doors. ^ These were unusually large 
 minnows. Not many yards away were 
 several ponds in which were many 
 thousand young trout about an inch and 
 a half long. Next day I went for the 
 minnows, and on approaching the tank 
 saw a kingfisher fly away. There were 
 only three left. Close at hand; were 
 any number of young trout, which could 
 have been had as easily ; but apparently 
 the minnows were just as acceptable to 
 the kingfisher. This bird is such a 
 beautiful creature that few people would 
 destroy it for the sake of the few trout 
 it takes from a stream ; but in connection 
 with rearing ponds it becomes necessary 
 to take the life one would gladly spare if 
 the bird could be kept off. Wire-netting 
 
76 TROUT WATERS 
 
 is not always feasible ; in the case of a 
 large set of ponds it is out of the question. 
 
 Another enemy is the otter, which 
 is much commoner than most people 
 suppose. So cunning are otters, even in 
 a district where they are fairly numerous 
 they are seldom seen. It is hardly correct 
 to say they are shy, because frequently 
 they live close to populous districts, 
 going and coming unsuspected by the 
 people in the neighbourhood. 
 
 It may, I think, be safely said that 
 wherever there is a stream or river 
 containing fish otters will be found 
 frequenting it at some time or other 
 during the year ; at night they will even 
 pass down or up a river running through 
 a town. 
 
 In some districts they are fairly 
 common, even though they may never 
 be seen ; but nowhere can they be called 
 plentiful. Except to those who have 
 studied their habits, their presence is 
 almost sure to be unknown. An ordinary 
 observer would probably mistake their 
 
ENEMIES 77 
 
 footprints for those of a dog, and many 
 of their depredations are put down to 
 foxes. Their habits are well understood 
 in many parts of Ireland, and the farmers 
 lose many a duck on the rivers and bogs 
 at night. 
 
 If an otter only killed for food things 
 would not be so bad ; but, unfortunately, 
 he frequently takes to killi ng for sport. 
 I once gathered twenty-two trout, aU 
 over two pounds, from the grass near a 
 well-stocked pond. Only a few of them 
 were partially eaten. That very night 
 an otter was caught ; next night, another ; 
 on the third night, a third. After that 
 it was a year or two before the pond was 
 visited by otters again. 
 
 These animals are remarkable in many 
 ways, and perhaps the strangest thing 
 about them is their marvellous power of 
 keeping out of sight. I have lived in 
 districts where they were fairly common 
 and kept a sharp look-out for them, but 
 very rarely managed to catch sight of 
 one. 
 
78 TROUT WATERS 
 
 Once I hunted three or four youngsters 
 in an iris bed growing in the middle of 
 the river. The bed was not large, and 
 I beat it through carefully ; but always 
 when I reached the end I heard behind 
 me the peculiar windy whistle of the 
 otter. 
 
 On another occasion, whUe fishing in 
 the dusk, I saw a duck in a flock at the 
 other side of the river suddenly begin to 
 flap its wings, and heard it quacking 
 loudly, evidently in distress. The light 
 was dim ; but the duck was white, and I 
 saw it being dragged off" right before me 
 in the open — but never saw the otter 1 
 
 In 1901 I tracked an otter to an 
 opening in a frozen lake, where its tracks 
 ended ; as there was a light covering of 
 snow on the ice, it occurred to me that 
 I might be able to discover where it 
 came out. After a long hunt I found 
 its tracks again, where a stream ran into 
 the lake, two miles away. I cannot be 
 certain he did not have a breathing spell 
 somewhere on the way ; but I do know 
 
ENEMIES 79 
 
 that there were only the two sets of 
 tracks round the whole lake. Is it 
 possible he could have taken advantage 
 of the large air bubbles which form under 
 the ice ? 
 
 I have never been convinced that 
 otters do a serious amount of harm on a 
 river. I have, at long intervals, found 
 odd salmon which they have killed and 
 partly eaten ; but these evidences were 
 too rare to make much impression. That 
 an otter runs amok in a pond well stocked 
 with large trout is understandable ; but 
 I am inclined to think this unfortunate 
 tendency is not frequently exercised, for 
 there is so little evidence against the 
 otter on a river, and certainly they are 
 most numerous on some of the best 
 salmon and trout rivers in the country. 
 I may say with the exception of heavily 
 stocked ponds I never came across a dis- 
 trict where it has been necessary to kill 
 the otters on account of their fish-eating 
 propensities ; but, on the other hand, I 
 have known several cases of their depreda- 
 
80 TROUT WATERS 
 
 tions among the poultry bringing down 
 the wrath of the farmers on their heads — 
 this too, in a district where there were 
 no foxes ; so there could be no mistake. 
 
 Otters are easily caught once you 
 know their runs. They keep very much 
 to the same path, often using one side of 
 a river for the upward journey and the 
 other for the downward. The best place 
 to trap them is on a shallow where they 
 are in the habit of landing, or in a 
 water-course up which they are known to 
 travel. 
 
 The most successful plan, I have 
 found, is to use from six to a dozen good 
 strong traps slung on one chain and laid 
 near together across the stream in about 
 three inches of water. When the otter 
 gets' a foot in one trap he is not long 
 before he is caught by another, and 
 usually he wUl be found with three legs 
 fast. I never caught one with all four 
 legs trapped. In adopting the above 
 method ordinary strong rabbit traps may 
 be used. If only one or two traps are 
 
ENEMIES 81 
 
 set they require to be much stronger. 
 As a rule, any one catching an otter hears 
 about it, especially if there are hounds in 
 the neighbourhood. On the occasion 
 before alluded to, when the three otters 
 were caught, I was recommended to keep 
 fires burning round the ponds at night to 
 keep the wild beasts off 1 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 PROVIDING FOOD AND REDEEMING WASTE 
 
 Demasad and Supply — Importance of Statistics — Useful 
 Vegetation — MoUusca — What may be made of a Brook 
 — Engineering — Mill -races — Mill - dams — Poacher's 
 Harvest — Mountain Streams — An Example of Success. 
 
 Those who have studied a trout stream 
 closely are aware that, as a rule, the grow- 
 ing fish and the mature fish are not on the 
 feed at the same time. It sometimes 
 happens that the result of a day's fishing 
 is a basket of undersized trout, whereas 
 at another time only the large mature fish 
 are caught. It would seem that this was 
 a provision of Nature for the protection 
 of the young fish ; at any rate, it is a 
 happy coincidence which tends towards 
 their safety. 
 
 A plentiful food supply means not only 
 
 82 
 
PROVIDING FOOD 83 
 
 that the young trout keep to their own 
 quarters, but also that the larger fish keep 
 to theirs. The old stagers love to have a 
 corner to themselves, in which they can 
 find both bottom and surface feeding in 
 abundance. 
 
 If the supply in the stream is scanty, 
 the older the fish get (up to a certain 
 point) and the larger they grow, the more 
 widely they must forage for their food, 
 for each season they require more nourish- 
 ment. When this state of affairs exists 
 the danger to the small fish is great, and it 
 will be found that the older trout leave 
 the pools in the dusk of summer evenings 
 and pick up a meal of youngsters on the 
 shallows. 
 
 The question of supply and demand 
 in a trout water is one which requires the 
 utmost care. Too much feeding is bad 
 from an angler's point of view, for the 
 trout get lazy and will not rise to the fly. 
 Too little feeding means that they will be 
 keen risers, but not large, and when they 
 get old and cease to rise they must become 
 
84 TROUT WATERS 
 
 cannibals or starve. It is frequently 
 thought that only large trout become 
 cannibals in their old age, but this is far 
 from being the case. Our mountain 
 streams, which contain small, poorly- 
 nourished fish, produce as many cannibals 
 as, and probably more than those where 
 the feeding is better, and, as almost the 
 only food they can procure is small fish, 
 they are more destructive. 
 
 To strike and maintain an exact balance 
 between the food supply and the stock of 
 fish is difficult, and the difficulty is in- 
 creased when the fishing is haphazard, and 
 no record is kept of the season's catch each 
 year or the numbers of spawners on the 
 redds in the autumn. Even if this is only 
 done approximately it is a valuable guide. 
 Possibly it may be thought too much 
 trouble to keep in touch with the import- 
 ant facts bearing on the welfare of a trout 
 water, and if this is so it only remains to 
 be said that he who neglects his stock 
 will lose it. 
 
 Of the two evils an excessive food 
 
PROVIDING FOOD 85 
 
 supply is less to be dreaded than a scanty 
 one, because, unless there is some serious 
 obstacle in the way, this will right itself 
 in time, as the number of young fish 
 which survive will be large enough to 
 stock the water fuUy, 
 
 When the supply is scanty there are 
 two ways of dealing with the water — 
 either by reducing the number of trout, 
 or turning special attention to the propa- 
 gation of those creatures which the fish 
 feed on. The latter way is much the 
 more satisfactory, though perhaps the 
 former is easier. 
 
 The nature of the stream under con- 
 sideration will decide the question of 
 ways and means. If it be a stream flow- 
 ing through a district where the conditions 
 are such that sudden and violent floods are 
 unknown, it will be most convenient to 
 utilise the stream itself for the work. If, 
 on the other hand, heavy floods and 
 swiftly-running water are the conditions 
 periodically prevailing, it will be necessary 
 to construct auxiliary food nurseries near 
 
86 TROUT WATERS 
 
 at hand. This may sound a formidable 
 undertaking ; but it is not really so, and 
 usually there are many places where small 
 runners or springs, too insignificant to be 
 of value as spawning waters, may be used. 
 For example, let us suppose that a 
 flood-scoured river is winding its way 
 along a valley, its shifting gravel beds 
 allowing no resting-place for aquatic 
 vegetation, or even the larvae and moUusca 
 which feed upon confervoid growths on 
 the stones. The fierce tumult of the 
 winter torrents prevents any useful 
 growth of shrubs or trees along its banks, 
 those which are there being stunted and 
 barked by pounding ice. A river which 
 is periodically scoured clean and is 
 destitute of the delicate forms of aquatic 
 life on which fish feed — are there trout 
 there ? Yes : thousands of them, but so 
 small that ten average fish scarcely turn 
 the scale at a pound 1 There are many 
 such streams in the wilder portions of the 
 country, and you may on certain days 
 take from sixty to a hundred in an after- 
 
PROVIDING FOOD 87 
 
 noon's fishing. These homes of the 
 fingerling are usually considered hopeless ; 
 but in a few places the conditions have 
 been much improved. Never can one 
 expect to increase the size of the fish in 
 such a stream till they rival the trout 
 in quieter waters ; but an increase from 
 an average of two ounces to one of a 
 quarter of a pound, with a fair sprinkling 
 of half-pounders, is worth trying for — is 
 it not ? There are few streams so hope- 
 less that this cannot be attained, and 
 frequently, as before pointed out, with 
 little difficulty. 
 
 Though the river itself is unruly and 
 violent, this very fact goes to show that 
 there are innumerable feeders which con- 
 tribute to the flood, and it is these which 
 must be made use of Many of them dry 
 up entirely in hot weather ; but even 
 these, unless on loose gravel, are useful. 
 Fortunately, food can be grown in still 
 water, even in greater abundance than in 
 a stream, and for this reason a very small 
 runner will suffice. 
 
88 TROUT WATERS 
 
 A series of dams or pools should be made 
 on any suitable water-course, and these 
 should be stocked with aquatic plants. 
 As no fish should be allowed to enter the 
 pools, there will be no fishing, and con- 
 sequently some of the most luxuriant 
 plants can be used. Of these the best, 
 from a food-producing point of view, are 
 water-cress (for the margins and the runner 
 itself), Lochleven weed, milfoil, and 
 starwort (for the bottom of the pools). 
 There are many other very useful plants ; 
 but a good stock of these will be all that 
 is required. 
 
 A great quantity of life will soon make 
 itself manifest among the plants in the 
 pools, for Nature in a marvellous manner 
 makes use of corners like these, producing 
 an infinite variety of creatures which in 
 some mysterious way appear of them- 
 selves. To supplement Nature's stock a 
 quantity of mollusca should be turned 
 into each pool, and the very best and 
 most prolific kind is Limnaeus peregra, 
 next in usefulness being Planorbis and 
 
PROVIDING FOOD 89 
 
 Pisidium. These will all multiply with 
 exceeding rapidity, and in wet weather a 
 continual supply will be taken to the 
 river, where for a time those which escape 
 the trout will find places to lodge, and in 
 this way a certain amount of food will 
 always be available, besides the supply 
 from the floods. 
 
 Most useful of all foods in such a river 
 as has been described is the fresh-water 
 shrimp. The shrimps will thrive and 
 multiply in the pools with the plants and 
 the Limnea, and they are more able than 
 most creatures to escape from the destruc- 
 tion caused by furious floods. Where 
 the gravel is of a fair size and Ues in great 
 banks, as is usually the case in a mountain 
 stream, they will in times of flood pene- 
 trate many feet down among the stones, 
 and so escape from danger. 
 
 A careful study of the formation of a 
 trout stream will reveal a number of 
 places which may be turned to account 
 for growing food ; they are frequently 
 waste places, producing nothing of value 
 
90 TROUT WATERS 
 
 in their present state. Of these, back- 
 waters out of the main current are the 
 most common, and here the cultivation 
 of aquatic plants will be easy and very- 
 beneficial to the stream. Wherever the 
 bottom of a pool is soft, it may be taken 
 for granted that the floods wUl not 
 disturb a growth of plant-life, and such 
 places should be made to produce food. 
 
 A little experimenting on the part of 
 those anxious to improve the food supply 
 will result in the discovery of countless 
 opportunities and places to be utilised 
 which had never been noticed before. 
 Plant -life is the secret of success in 
 growing food, and, having due regard to 
 the angler's requirements, no place where 
 it is possible to cultivate this without 
 hindering the fishing should be allowed to 
 remain barren. It is hardly necessary 
 to point out that in some waters the 
 difficulty is not to produce aquatic plants, 
 but to get rid of them. Such streams 
 come under a different category from the 
 type we have been discussing. 
 
PROVIDING FOOD 91 
 
 Attention has been called again and 
 again to the wasted waters aU over the 
 country. It does not seem to occur to 
 many people that a small stream a few 
 feet wide, with an inch or two of water 
 running over a stony bottom, can be of 
 any use as a trout water ; yet a few 
 experimenters have accomplished great 
 things under apparently unpromising 
 conditions. 
 
 A small stream or brook will not yield 
 much if left to itself ; but every owner of 
 such a water should carefully examine it 
 to see whether there is not a possibility 
 of making it do service as a supply for 
 a dam or series of dams, or perhaps an 
 artificial lake. The lie of the land should 
 be studied with regard to levels. Though 
 an unpractised eye might not see oppor- 
 tunities plainly apparent to the expert, a 
 general idea may be formed and an expert 
 can be consulted before any outlay is 
 made. 
 
 A stream running through very level 
 country is not easy to deal with if it is 
 
92 TROUT WATERS 
 
 desired to form a dam or a lake ; but, 
 though opportunities under these con- 
 ditions are not great, it is always possible 
 to improve matters. Such a stream will 
 not be liable to violent floods, and if the 
 water does rise in wet weather to any 
 great extent it wiU do so gently. This 
 fact makes the work much easier than in 
 a swift stream, where the current during 
 the winter months would obliterate any 
 but the most substantial work in its bed. 
 Even though, owing to the levels, it is 
 not possible to raise the water in the 
 stream to any great height, it should 
 always be kept at its utmost depth. This 
 can be done by a barrier placed across 
 the stream. A wooden one is very 
 satisfactory, if care be taken to sink it 
 sufficiently to prevent the water working 
 underneath. A small stream with two 
 or three inches of water in it is not 
 likely to afford suitable places for trout 
 to take up their abode ; but if the depth 
 can be increased to fourteen inches, or 
 even a foot, it will alter things for the 
 
PROVIDING FOOD 93 
 
 better considerably. There are very few 
 small streams which will not stand raising 
 as much as this. 
 
 The next thing to consider is whether 
 the banks cannot be cut away in places 
 in order to widen the stream. Wherever 
 there is a bend this can be done with 
 advantage, or even if the banks are 
 straight. Suppose the stream is three 
 feet wide, and that here and there six feet 
 is cut away from each bank for a few 
 yards, a pool fifteen feet wide and a foot 
 or eighteen inches deep is the result. It 
 may not seem much ; but it is better 
 than the original stream, and these pools 
 can be multiplied at will. The barrier 
 across the stream will keep the water at 
 the right level, and if necessary other 
 barriers may be constructed. Even in 
 very flat districts opportunities will be 
 found for making the pools larger and 
 deeper than those described ; but it is 
 astonishing what good fishing may be had 
 in eighteen inches of water, provided 
 there is a current. 
 
94 TROUT WATERS 
 
 A pool having been made, it will not 
 do to leave the bottom bare. Cover of 
 some kind must be provided ; if stones of 
 a suitable shape and size can be had, these 
 form the best and most natural cover. 
 Drataing tiles have been used with 
 success, placed so that the water runs 
 through them. They are unsightly ; but 
 this objection can be got over by plant- 
 ing aquatic vegetation round them. The 
 growths, of course, must be kept under 
 control— not allowed to block the entrance. 
 
 Even of more importance than suit- 
 able cover is the presence of an abundant 
 supply of food. We have already seen 
 how this may be ensured. 
 
 A small stream treated in the manner 
 described will provide good sport. If 
 trout do not frequent the stream in any 
 great numbers, and do not (though they 
 probably wUl) collect from other places, 
 the pools may be stocked. If there are 
 fish about and you provide a suitable 
 environment for them, it will not be long 
 before they find it out. 
 
PROVIDING FOOD 95 
 
 There are hundreds of mill-races m 
 the country, often disused, which could 
 be made into capital trout preserves with 
 very little trouble. They are often of 
 considerable length and well worth pay- 
 ing attention to. Where a mill has been 
 abandoned screens may be placed at each 
 end of the race, and the supply of water 
 regulated by sluices. In this way the 
 fish are entirely under control, and a few 
 hundred two-year-olds turned down will 
 yield excellent sport. 
 
 Mill-dams are frequently neglected, un- 
 less there is a wily poacher in the neigh- 
 bourhood who understands their value. 
 To such a man they are a small gold- 
 mine if it happens that they are supplied 
 with water from a trout stream. In a 
 dam food is usually more plentiful than 
 in the stream itself, and so they form 
 regular traps for the trout. The poacher 
 knows this, and once or twice a year he 
 chooses a dark night and runs the water 
 off, collects his fish, turns the water on 
 again, and next morning the trout are 
 
96 TROUT WATERS 
 
 in the market and the dam is full or 
 filling rapidly, and no one is the wiser. 
 It is impossible to keep up a good head 
 of trout in any stream from which miU- 
 races lead to dams which are treated in 
 this way. The cleverest hands at manipu- 
 lating a mill-race are the small Irish 
 mill -owners. They get three crops in 
 the year — trout, salmon, eels. An Irish 
 mill-owner on a good river often makes 
 more in this way than his mill brings 
 him. I have seen the whole process, 
 and am able to form a fair idea of what 
 this sort of thing means to any river. Of 
 course, it is illegal ; but in Ireland, and 
 to a less extent in England and Scotland, 
 the risk of detection is slight, and the 
 remuneration considerable. All disused 
 mill-races should be controlled by those 
 who have the fishing rights, and where a 
 water-mill is stiU working a sharp look- 
 out should be kept. There are many 
 mill-owners who have nothing to do with 
 this poaching, but frequently they wink 
 at what is done by those in their employ. 
 
PROVIDING FOOD 97 
 
 A small stream running down a 
 mountain side is even more difficult to 
 deal with than one on the level. Any 
 dams constructed would not be of great 
 extent, and the winter floods not only 
 make work difficult, but also bring down 
 quantities of gravel, stones, and debris 
 of various kinds, which would soon fiU 
 a dam if made on the main stream. 
 There is always a chance of the lie of 
 the land permitting a hoUow near at 
 hand to be made use of. When this is 
 the case the stream must be tapped and 
 a race-way cut to carry the water to 
 the place selected. By doing this the 
 supply can be controlled, and the debris 
 brought down by floods passes down- 
 stream without entering the race. There 
 are many places where water has been 
 taken from a stream along a hillside to 
 some suitable place for the making of a 
 pond or lake, and the results have been 
 very satisfactory. 
 
 It is not necessary to have a large 
 supply of water if the pond is a fair size. 
 
98 TROUT WATERS 
 
 A small pond requires more running 
 water to maintain a stock of trout than 
 a large one, and if there is an oppor- 
 tunity for making a pond of an acre or 
 more, only as much water as wUl keep it 
 full will be required. The wind which 
 ruffles the surface keeps it sweet and 
 fresh ; it provides an unfailing supply of 
 oxygen, which is absorbed by the water. 
 A pond sheltered from the wind by trees 
 wiQ not hold as heavy a stock of trout 
 as one in the open, and if it is very much 
 enclosed the water becomes so stagnant 
 that trout will not thrive in it. 
 
 The only cure, short of cutting down 
 the trees, is to turn a good current of 
 fresh water through the pond from some 
 neighbouring stream. 
 
 When a place has been found which 
 wUl make a pond or lake by constructing 
 a dam and diverting a water supply from 
 a stream, it will be well to consult some 
 one who is accustomed to this kind of 
 work, for there have been many bad 
 accidents owing to dams being too lightly 
 
PROVIDING FOOD 99 
 
 made. If the sheet of water under con- 
 sideration requires a dam over ten feet 
 in height and thirty yards in length, 
 a competent engineer should he em- 
 ployed. 
 
 There are many places in the country 
 where, owing to advantageous levels, 
 waste land can be turned into a lake 
 with very little labour and expense, and 
 a sheet of water properly managed is of 
 far greater value than poor land. 
 
 For this kind of work a small stream 
 is reaUy more satisfactory than a large 
 one ; it can be more easily controlled. 
 In all cases where an artificial sheet of 
 water is made and supplied from a swift 
 mountain stream, the sUt and rubbish 
 brought down must be carefully con- 
 sidered. If it is not convenient to tap 
 the stream, and the dam has to be made 
 across its course, a small dam should 
 be constructed at the inlet ; it will form 
 a settling pond, and the collected debris 
 can be cleaned out periodically. I knoTv 
 of at least two large sheets of water, 
 
100 TROUT WATERS 
 
 constructed at enormous expense, which 
 are fed by streams from the hills, and are 
 gradually filling with stones and gravel. 
 A comparatively small stream wUl, amid 
 certain conditions, bring down many tons 
 of stones and silt during one freshet 
 lasting only twenty-four hours. After 
 the break-up of a frost the amount of 
 soil and gravel carried away by the 
 mountain streams is enormous, if it 
 should happen that heavy rain falls at 
 the time. 
 
 Quite a small stream or even a tiny 
 spring on a hillside forms an excellent 
 source of supply for an artificial lake. 
 
 Undulating country, with fairly level 
 stretches between the hUls, usually 
 affords more opportunities for the con- 
 struction of lakes and ponds than either 
 flat or mountainous districts. In the 
 latter chances do not occur so often, 
 but when they do it usually means 
 the making of very large sheets of 
 water. 
 
 No dam should ever be constructed 
 
PROVIDING FOOD 101 
 
 for the purpose of forming a trout lake 
 without providing a bottom outlet, so 
 that if necessary the water may be run 
 off. Sometimes repairs are needed on 
 the embankment, particularly one which 
 has been made only a few years. An 
 embankment well made to begin with 
 gets stronger as it gets older, but after 
 a few years there is nearly always a 
 fault somewhere in a new dam, — owing 
 to a variety of causes, chief among which 
 is the settling of the dam itself. Where 
 concrete of proper strength is used, there 
 is not much fear of a leak breaking out ; 
 but one cannot be absolutely certain of 
 this if the pressure is very great, for 
 sometimes water finds its way through 
 the bottom of the lake a long way from 
 the embankment, and comes up as a 
 spring somewhere lower down — perhaps 
 half a mile away. With embankments 
 holding back only ten feet of water 
 there should not be any serious difficulty, 
 and this depth is an excellent one for a 
 trout preserve. 
 
102 TROUT WATERS 
 
 It would hardly be worth while going 
 to the trouble of constructing a dam un- 
 less a depth of six feet or more could be 
 assured. The water would heat up too 
 much in summer, and become too cold in 
 frost. On the other hand, if a powerful 
 stream runs through a dam, four feet 
 will do nicely. Shallow stagnant water 
 is always hotter in summer and colder 
 in winter than deep water ; but a stream 
 running through tends to keep the 
 temperature more even. 
 
 Many an estate has been improved by 
 the addition of an artificial sheet of water, 
 and in not a few cases the lakelet has 
 been made to pay. The first instance of 
 this kind came under my notice about 
 fifteen years ago. Three embankments 
 had been made across a sloping valley 
 through which a small stream ran. A 
 concrete drain up the middle of the 
 bottom of the two lower lakes and through 
 the embankment of the first, enabled the 
 owner to run off any one of the three 
 independently of the others. Each year 
 
PROVIDING FOOD 103 
 
 one was let off, and the trout sold ; then 
 the dam was filled and stocked with fiy. 
 In this way an annual crop of three-year- 
 old fish was ensured, and the venture was 
 profitable. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 LAKES 
 
 Controlling the Stock — A Trap for Spawners — How to 
 Work it — Information Gained — Saprolegnia — Risks 
 to be Foreseen — Incubation and After — Nature's 
 Exactions among Pry — Helping young Fish from 
 Stream to Lake — Trout Farms. 
 
 Any one who gives time and thought to 
 the welfare of a trout stream will find 
 that it is not very difficult to become 
 acquainted with the conditions, adverse 
 or favourable, which prevail ; and methods 
 to be adopted for maintaining or improv- 
 ing these conditions are, when under- 
 stood, not very difficult to undertake. 
 Each step may be watched and the re- 
 sults noted with ease and accuracy. 
 When dealing with a lake it will be found 
 much more difficult to determine — first, 
 the cause, and, secondly, the effect. The 
 
 104 
 
LAKES 105 
 
 conditions prevailing in a lake must be 
 largely a matter of conjecture unless the 
 trout are under complete control. This 
 may strike one at first sight as being 
 impossible. As a matter of fact, it is 
 not, for the natural movements of the 
 fish enable us to keep them under control 
 to the same extent as cattle or horses on 
 a large ranch. 
 
 When we remember that each autumn 
 every mature trout, with the exception 
 of a small percentage of barren or very 
 old fish, leaves a lake to spawn in the 
 streams which flow into it, we can see 
 the opportunity given for taking stock. 
 
 There are a few lakes where trout 
 appear to do fairly well which have no 
 inlet or outlet, and where the fish spawn 
 on gravel in the shallows. Such waters 
 are exceptional, and difficult to deal with, 
 and they seldom hold a large stock of 
 fish. The conditions are abnormal, and 
 the trout are handicapped at spawning 
 time by the absence of running water, so 
 necessary to the welfare of the eggs. 
 
106 TROUT WATERS 
 
 Generally, a lake has an inlet (often 
 several) and an outlet. If spawning 
 ground is scarce in the streams flowing 
 into the lake the fish will go down-stream ; 
 but as a rule they do not do this to any 
 appreciable extent. 
 
 The inlet streams are the important 
 ones, and if it is desirable to make the 
 utmost of the angling, these should be 
 given a good deal of attention. At a 
 suitable place a trap should be built 
 which will catch every spawning fish as 
 it runs up. Usually the best site for 
 such a trap is just where the stream enters 
 the lake. Its construction is not very 
 difficult ; but the method must be modi- 
 fied to suit the particular conditions. I 
 have always used a large wooden tank, 
 built into the stream, taking care that the 
 bottom is so laid that the current cannot 
 in flood-time work its way underneath 
 and make a hole up which the spawning 
 fish can run. This is a most important 
 point. The tank is composed of a wooden 
 floor and two wooden sides, with screens 
 
LAKES 107 
 
 at each end through which the stream 
 flows. The screen at the up-stream end 
 may be a fixture ; but it is better to have 
 it so arranged that it may be removed 
 when the spawning season is over. The 
 screen at the lower end should be made 
 in halves and hung on hinges so that it 
 may open inwards. 
 
 When the trap is set, the two lower 
 screens are slightly opened up-stream, so 
 that there is an opening of about a foot 
 between them. To this opening and 
 inside the trap is fixed a net funnel ex- 
 tending from top to bottom, and about 
 two feet into the trap, reducing the 
 aperture to about three inches. Through 
 this the trout wiU find their way when 
 running up-stream ; but once inside they 
 will be stopped by the upper screen — 
 their return through the narrow opening 
 of the net funnel is a very remote con- 
 tingency. Should an odd one happen to 
 find its way out, it would be back again 
 in an hour or two, so strong is the instinct 
 to travel up-stream. There are several 
 
108 TROUT WATERS 
 
 ways of keeping the net funnel extended ; 
 but I found the most satisfactory was to 
 have an iron rod hinged to the screen 
 reaching from top to bottom, with one 
 or two arms projecting horizontally up- 
 stream, to which the net was laced. One 
 of these on each screen made a very 
 satisfactory framework for the net, and 
 they enabled one to widen or diminish the 
 entrance to the trap at wUl. 
 
 Unless the tank is built sufficiently 
 high out of the water to prevent the fish 
 from jumping out, it is well to have 
 movable lids. The screens are best made 
 of wooden bars well supported by cross 
 horizontal pieces behind. For all ordinary 
 conditions these bars may be cut five- 
 eighths by one inch and fixed with the 
 narrow edge up-stream. The distance 
 apart will, of course, depend upon the 
 size of fish which wUl be caught ; but as 
 spawning trout are usually a fair size, it 
 will seldom be necessary to place them 
 closer together than one inch, and in 
 many waters an inch and a quarter will 
 
LAKES 109 
 
 not be too wide. Screens of this kind 
 do not block readily, and if any rubbish 
 should coUect they are easily cleaned 
 with a rake. A screen with a square 
 mesh made of wire is very bad for block- 
 ing, and extremely difficult to clean, as 
 leaves and grass cling tightly to it under 
 the pressure of the current. 
 
 When a batch of spawn ers have 
 entered the trap, after tiring themselves 
 out by jumping at the upper screen, they 
 will lie quiet with their noses close to 
 the bars. During the time the fish are 
 running they should be overhauled fre- 
 quently, the ripe ones spawned and re- 
 turned to the stream, the unripe ones 
 being allowed to remain in the trap until 
 they are ready. The question of what to 
 do with the eggs wUl, of course, have 
 been decided beforehand : they will be 
 taken away either to a hatchery or to 
 artificial spawning beds. 
 
 It takes two people to overhaul the 
 fish in a trap of this kind, and the way it 
 is done is as follows : — 
 
110 TROUT WATERS 
 
 Two nets must be provided, one on a 
 square wooden frame, which just fits 
 inside the trap, and one landing-net on 
 an iron frame, square or oblong. When 
 the lids have been removed the hinged 
 screens at the lower end of the trap are 
 closed, and the square net on the wooden 
 frame, which is known as the stop net, is 
 lowered perpendicularly until its lower 
 edge is resting on the wooden bottom, 
 care being taken to keep the sides of the 
 frame close to the sides of the trap. The 
 stop net is then gently worked up-stream, 
 without letting any fish past, till it is 
 within about four feet of the upper 
 screen. Then, by means of wedges, it is 
 held firmly in position. AU the fish are 
 now in the narrow partition between the 
 stop net and the screen, and may be lifted 
 out and sorted by means of the square 
 landing-net. A couple of good sized 
 tubs containing water should be placed 
 handy, and into these the ripe females 
 and a sufficient quantity of males may 
 be put ; the rest of the fish (unripe 
 
LAKES 111 
 
 females and males) may be returned to 
 the trap below the stop net. When a 
 sufficient number of fish have been put 
 mto the tubs they can be spawned, the 
 eggs being taken into basins and the fish 
 returned to the stream. Then the sort- 
 ing continues ; and so on till all the fish 
 have been handled. The stop net makes 
 a partition which keeps the sorted and 
 the unsorted fish apart till all is finished. 
 The eggs must be taken away and laid 
 down in the place set apart for them, and 
 the fish in the trap, together with any 
 fresh arrivals, may be sorted over the 
 next day or whenever it may be thought 
 desirable. As a rule, every alternate 
 day is quite often enough to go over 
 them. 
 
 The whole business, when once in full 
 swing, is simple and satisfactory. So far 
 as I am aware, it has no disadvantages, 
 and the advantages are very great. 
 Besides the enormous saving of eggs, 
 owing to perfect fertilisation and sub- 
 sequent care, the opportunity afforded 
 
112 TROUT WATERS 
 
 for observation and regulation of the 
 stock is invaluable. The operator be- 
 comes thoroughly acquainted with the 
 condition of the fish, and gets to know 
 many of them by sight, even if he is 
 handling thousands of them. He can 
 tell whether the food in the lake is 
 sufficient ; he can note any increase or 
 decrease in numbers from year to year ; 
 he can see whether the stock of young 
 spawners is as large as it ought to be ; 
 and, perhaps most important of all, he 
 can deal with the old and useless males 
 in a way which, if not strictly legal, is 
 certainly beneficial. He can carry out 
 the most careful and intricate experi- 
 ments as to rate of growth per annum, 
 or other important and interesting facts, 
 by means of marks on the fish — either 
 the usual tiny silver label or by cutting 
 the adipose fins in certain ways. In fact, 
 he can farm his lake with the same care 
 and precision that he does his cattle or 
 sheep. Another important advantage 
 gained by this method of dealing with 
 
LAKES 113 
 
 the spawners is that he can vastly improve 
 the breed by selection. 
 
 The second time the trap is overhauled, 
 the presence of a large percentage of the 
 fish spawned previously wUl show beyond 
 all doubt that there need be no fear of 
 the method employed scaring the fish so 
 that another year they will not enter the 
 trap. This possibility has been suggested 
 frequently ; but experience shows it to 
 be a groundless fear. The same fish go 
 in year after year, very often on the 
 same day ; it is no exaggeration to say 
 that after a season or two they seem to 
 know all about it, and submit quietly to 
 man's dealings with them. 
 
 Spawned fish should be put into the 
 stream above the trap, if there is no fear 
 of poachers. Most of them will journey 
 up to the spawning beds and deliberately 
 go through the whole performance of 
 making redds, etc., as though they were 
 quite unaware of the fact that their eggs 
 had been taken from them. When the 
 spawning season is over the screens can 
 
114 TROUT WATERS 
 
 be lifted, and the spent fish will then find 
 their way back to the lake. 
 
 There is one danger to be carefully 
 guarded against. This is an epidemic of 
 saprolegnia. I have never known it 
 happen with trout in a wild state ; but I 
 have seen some gruesome times among 
 the salmon. If an epidemic does break 
 out, lift your screens and let the fish go ; 
 you will save more in this way than by 
 attempting to fight it. There will nearly 
 always be odd cases of fungus on fish 
 which have been wounded — particularly 
 the males ; but this is not necessarily 
 epidemic, and may be treated successfully 
 with an application of salt. Saprolegnia 
 is, I am satisfied, the result of disease 
 rather than a disease itself, and when it 
 occurs in an epidemic form it is because 
 the fish have something else wrong with 
 them which leaves them an easy prey to 
 the fungus. Any healthy trout or salmon 
 will throw off fungus caused by a wound 
 as easily as a healthy man throws off a 
 cold. 
 
LAKES 115 
 
 The successful working of a trap for 
 spawners is not always accomplished 
 during the first season after it is erected. 
 It may indeed be several seasons before 
 anything approaching perfection is arrived 
 at. There are a great many points to 
 consider, and, even when all dangers seem 
 to be guarded against, experience wUl 
 show weaknesses which require attention. 
 I well remember how carefuUy my plans 
 were laid, and what an amount of thought 
 was expended over the first trap I erected ; 
 yet the very first year a flood bored its 
 way through underneath the structure 
 and allowed the spawners to pass on up- 
 stream. Only a few were caught that 
 season. The next year a long speU of 
 heavy rains had so raised the level of the 
 lake that if the lids had not been securely 
 fastened they would have floated away ; 
 once or twice the trap was under water. 
 By the third season we had everything in 
 thorough order, and after that no trouble 
 was experienced. 
 
 If the screens are allowed to choke so 
 
116 TROUT WATERS 
 
 that the stream is dammed up, the pressure 
 is almost sure to make a hole somewhere, 
 and it was not until we had discarded the 
 strong galvanised wire of which the screens 
 were made, and substituted wooden bars, 
 that we could rely on their not clogging 
 with leaves. 
 
 Ice, too, must be considered. It is 
 not likely that this wiU come down-stream; 
 but a strong wind may drive it up from 
 the lake and do much damage. A stout 
 plank laid across the stream, and floating 
 on the surface, fastened by short lengths 
 of chain to the banks, is a very great pro- 
 tection. If the trap is not close to the 
 lake (the most convenient place, usually), 
 the ice will not be likely to interfere 
 with it. 
 
 A tree washed down by a flood and 
 charging the screen will probably burst 
 it, and even smaller things are liable to 
 do damage. A row of stout posts driven 
 into the bottom of the stream a few yards 
 above the trap is a safeguard. 
 
 Each locality will have its own particu- 
 
LAKES 117 
 
 lar dangers, and, as far as possible, these 
 should be ascertained, for it is annoying 
 to have to learn by experience how many 
 things there are which will wreck a trap. 
 
 It is not necessary to have the trap 
 near a hatchery, or even artificial spawning 
 beds, for the eggs wiU bear moving for 
 forty -eight hours after they have been 
 impregnated, and they may during this 
 time be sent off to a hatchery at some 
 distance or moved to another locality if 
 desired. It is, however, more convenient 
 to have the hatchery near at hand, or to 
 construct beds on the stream above the 
 trap. 
 
 After successful incubation an enor- 
 mous gain over Nature's methods will 
 have already been accomplished ; but if, 
 when the fry are hatched out, their welfare 
 is not carefuUy attended to, this may be 
 lost. Suppose you have a hatchery full 
 of fry which are destined to improve the 
 stock in a lake ; which is the best way 
 to dispose of them ? In most cases the 
 answer to this question is : Take them 
 
118 TROUT WATERS 
 
 up to the head waters of the stream which 
 feeds the lake and liberate them. Though 
 you relinquish them into Nature's some- 
 what merciless hands, and though there 
 will be a considerable loss, it must be 
 remembered that by taking charge of the 
 spawning operations and the incubating 
 you start with at any rate 50 per cent 
 more fry than if these operations had 
 been left to Nature, and it is more than 
 likely you are 75 per cent to the good. 
 If nothing more is done, therefore, your 
 work will have been well worth while; 
 but you can do much more than this if 
 you wish. 
 
 When the small streams are destitute 
 of fish — that is, usually from December 
 to the middle of February — you can either 
 place a screen at the mouth where they 
 enter the lake or build an obstruction 
 which will prevent the trout returning 
 when the warm weather comes. In this 
 way the stream is left a secure nursery 
 for the fry until they drop down to the 
 lake. In many of the smaller streams 
 
LAKES 119 
 
 which empty into lakes the entire stock 
 of trout drop down to the deep water 
 before the end of the year ; but in some 
 cases only the largest fish go, and a 
 number of half-grown trout lurk under 
 stones and shelving banks. When this is 
 the case it will be a good plan to net the 
 pools as soon as the fish begin to show 
 in the spring, and transfer them to the 
 lake, for the fewer trout in the water 
 which are larger than the fry the safer 
 the fry wUl be. By means of a series 
 of small traps a stream may be kept 
 absolutely clear of large fish, and used as 
 a nursery only. No reasonable amount 
 of netting or other work in the . stream 
 will harm the fry. 
 
 Perhaps the most difficult task which 
 confronts those who are anxious to improve 
 their stock is to get the fry safely from 
 the streams to the lake. They must make 
 this journey themselves, and, all unsus- 
 pecting, they are sure to come to grief on 
 the very threshold of comparative safety. 
 Every angler familiar with trout lakes is 
 
120 TROUT WATERS 
 
 aware that wherever a stream enters he 
 will find trout. If these will not rise to 
 the fly, they will invariably take a minnow. 
 The reason they are there is simply to be 
 on the look-out for small trout coming 
 down-stream. Like well -trained watch- 
 dogs, they guard the entrance to the lake, 
 and if they are caught to-day others will 
 be there to-morrow. These tiny estuaries 
 are very favourite feeding grounds, and 
 the best positions are fought for by the 
 larger trout. Under these circumstances 
 even comparative safety for the fry seems 
 impossible. At this point, where one is 
 liable to be so perplexed, we may learn 
 a lesson from Nature's methods. She 
 allows a tremendous number of fry to be 
 consumed ; but she must see to it that 
 some escape. Her favourite way of 
 accomplishing this is by sending a dis- 
 coloured flood, in which the tiny trout 
 slip past unseen by the keen eyes of their 
 lurking enemies. Once this well-watched 
 barrier is passed there is plenty of room, 
 and the fry have a chance of surviving. 
 
LAKES 121 
 
 The migration of the fry from the 
 shallow streams to deeper water is a 
 definite movement, at a definite time, 
 and when this has been ascertained (for 
 it varies in different localities) much may 
 be done to safeguard them. Nature's 
 fioods are not always well timed, and are 
 only intended to be partially effective ; 
 but it is possible with very little trouble 
 to supplement these by artificial ones, 
 which wiU sweep the fry into the clear 
 lake in a cloud of muddy water. 
 
 A stream which has been reserved as a 
 nursery may be dealt with in the following 
 way, provided there is a fair amount of 
 fall, as is usually the case. As near the 
 lake as possible a dam should be con- 
 structed which will hold back the water 
 and form a pool — the larger the better ; 
 but quite a small one will do. This pool 
 must be so arranged that it has a bottom 
 outlet which can easily be opened. The 
 migrating fry will drop down and rest 
 in the deeper water, so that all that is 
 necessary is to draw the outlet and let the 
 
122 TROUT WATERS 
 
 pool off periodically — say every morning 
 during the chief migration, — by letting 
 the water go with a run it will become 
 discoloured and carry with it quantities 
 of fry into safety. If after this has been 
 done a few times the bed of the stream is 
 scoured so clean that it will not discolour 
 the water, a barrow load or two of soil 
 placed opposite the outlet pipe will make 
 a cloud which will spread far out into the 
 lake. If it can be arranged so that the 
 pool takes twenty-four hours to fill, and 
 is emptied every twenty-four hours, every 
 one of the fry may be transferred safely 
 from the stream to the lake. It will prob- 
 ably be found that the migration does 
 not last more than a fortnight, usually the 
 latter half of May or the first half of June, 
 so that the undertaking is not such a 
 serious matter as it might appear. An 
 important point is to have a large outlet 
 to the pool, so that it may run off quickly. 
 By the time the fry have dropped 
 down-stream they will be nicely grown 
 little fish, able to look after themselves if 
 
LAKES 123 
 
 they have any chance at all, and once in 
 the deep waters of the lake they will not 
 be much molested, because at that season 
 of the year food is plentiful for the older 
 trout, or ought to be, so that, with the 
 exception of the hardened cannibals who 
 guard the streams, the fish in the lake 
 are not particularly on the hunt for fry. 
 
 Perhaps some one may ask : Why not 
 turn the fry into the lake straight from 
 the hatchery, and so save trouble ? The 
 answer is that if the lake already contain 
 trout, it is the worst plan possible. The 
 fry at this stage are very young and 
 helpless, without any idea of danger. 
 They will lie about unconcernedly in the 
 shallows or sink to the bottom if turned 
 out in deeper water from a boat, and the 
 first prowling enemy which comes along 
 has them at his mercy. There are not 
 only trout, but also eels, caddis-worms, 
 and beetles — to say nothing of birds and 
 other creatures — which wUl devour them. 
 The fry need running water for their 
 development and for their safety. Though 
 
124 TROUT WATERS 
 
 all sorts of dangers exist in a stream, 
 they are at home there and soon on the 
 alert ; whereas turned adrift in a lake 
 they are lost — the still water affects them 
 badly, and they remain sluggish. Indeed, 
 it is questionable whether fry turned into 
 deep, still water ever do any good at aU. 
 To take them from the hatchery to the 
 lake is to miss out a stage in their develop- 
 ment which Nature has ordained. 
 
 With regard to rearing the fry by 
 hand, it must be said that, except in the 
 hands of an expert, this method is sure 
 to prove disastrous. Fry hatched from 
 eggs taken from wild parents are, though 
 strong and healthy, difficult to rear on 
 account of their inherited wildness. Only 
 experience can teach a man to get such 
 fry to feed, and he will be lucky indeed 
 if he succeed in bringing 30 per cent to 
 yearlings. Except amid exceptional cir- 
 cumstances, it would be cheaper to buy 
 yearlings than to rear them. There is no 
 reason why any one undertaking this 
 work should not succeed eventually ; but 
 
LAKES 125 
 
 any one undertaking to rear a quantity of 
 fry must give his whole time to it, 
 
 I have purposely avoided, up to the 
 present, saying anything about stock- 
 ing with bought fish, for the object of 
 these papers is to show how the natural 
 resources may be made the most of. 
 Many people have neither inclination nor 
 opportunity to develop their fishings in 
 this way, and for these there is always 
 the fish-culturist to fall back on ; he wiU 
 be able to remedy deficiencies in stock — 
 at any rate, where the depletion is caused 
 by over-fishing. For the guidance of 
 those who are thinking of purchasing 
 trout to turn down, a few remarks on this 
 subject may be useful. 
 
 There are now trout farms scattered 
 over the country, and any intending 
 purchaser need only look up the nearest 
 fish-culturist's address and apply to him. 
 It is not advisable to turn down in a 
 northern stream or lake trout which have 
 come from a southern water, where the 
 conditions of temperature and feeding 
 
126 TROUT WATERS 
 
 are different. For this reason alone 
 the nearest trout farm is likely to be 
 able to supply the best trout for your 
 water. On the other hand, though the 
 inadvisability of turning down trout bred 
 from heavy South-country fish into barren 
 northern waters is ob\dous, it is quite 
 safe to turn down the hardy northern 
 trout in southern waters, particularly if 
 the native fish are bad risers. The 
 northern fish will for a time prove freer 
 risers than the native ones ; but before 
 long they will faU into line with them, 
 and become quite as sulky. The natural 
 environment determines the size and habit 
 of the fish in the long-run, and even their 
 markings and other characteristics will be 
 influenced by their surroundings, so that 
 if not the first, at any rate the second, 
 generation will be much the same as 
 the indigenous trout. Even Lochlevens, 
 perhaps the most distinct variety of 
 British trout, will eventually become un- 
 distinguishable from others where they 
 have been a generation or two removed 
 
LAKES 127 
 
 from Lochleven or some of the adjacent 
 waters. Gillaroo trout and one or two 
 other varieties become lost after a year or 
 two in strange waters, so quickly do they 
 return to the parent stock from which 
 they spring. 
 
CHAPTER VIIT 
 
 STOCKING 
 
 Importance of Environment — Change of Blood — Mongrel 
 Trout — Heart of the Problem : food supply — Trans- 
 planting Larvse and other creatures — The Dangerous 
 Minnow — Rainbow Trout — American Brook Trout. 
 
 It is never wise to stock any water 
 without first finding out as much as 
 possible about the particular conditions. 
 Frequently no beneficial results have 
 followed a considerable outlay of money 
 on yearlings or two-year-olds. In some 
 cases the results have been actually harm- 
 ful owing to haphazard and impulsive 
 stocking. Just as a farmer or a gardener 
 considers the suitability of soil, climate, 
 and a number of other things before 
 planting his crops, so must those under- 
 taking the improvement of a trout water 
 
 128 
 
STOCKING 129 
 
 study the natural environment. A mistake 
 often made is to buy fish from a breed 
 which has earned itself a good name in 
 some part of the country, without finding 
 out if the water into which they are to be 
 turned is in any way like the water which 
 has produced them. It cannot be too 
 strongly impressed upon the minds of 
 those who cultivate their fishings that to 
 a very large extent, if not entirely, the 
 environment will determine the nature of 
 the trout in any lake or stream. I do not 
 wish it to be inferred that it is not possible 
 to improve a breed of trout ; but I do 
 say emphatically that this can only be 
 accomplished by having a thorough know- 
 ledge of the why and wherefore of the 
 existing conditions, so far as the fish are 
 concerned, and then by mixing the breed 
 with fish which have somewhere developed 
 into a better variety amid conditions as 
 nearly similar as possible. There is a 
 great deal of nonsense talked about change 
 of blood and the buying of fish to do this 
 
 from trout farms ; whereas it ought to be 
 
 9 
 
130 TROUT WATERS 
 
 clearly understood that, unless the water 
 in question is capable of maintaining the 
 bought trout at the same standard of 
 excellence as the breed at that particular 
 fish farm has attained to, instead of the 
 native breed being improved it will be 
 injured. As a general rule, it may be 
 said that hand-reared fish which are the 
 young of hand-reared parents, perhaps for 
 many generations, are of no use whatever 
 for changing the blood, though they may 
 considerably improve the stock of trout 
 numerically. A very great deal of harm 
 has been done in this country by the 
 mixing of some of our finest breeds of 
 fario with nondescript fish. If your trout 
 are not of any particular excellence, there 
 is no reason why they should not be mixed 
 with other breeds ; but if they are excel- 
 lent trout as regards size and gameness 
 do not on any account turn in trout 
 merely to increase their numbers without 
 first learning whether they are worthy and 
 suitable. 
 
 Many fish - culturists nowadays have 
 
STOCKING 131 
 
 stock fish which are almost, and in some 
 cases entirely, wild, and their yearlings 
 and two-year-olds are in ponds so arranged 
 that the fish can procure natural food in 
 abundance. Such trout are much more 
 likely to do well and improve matters 
 when turned out among wild fish than 
 the purely hand-fed ones. The latter are 
 well enough where it is simply desired 
 to maintain a stock of fish for angling 
 purposes ; but they wUl probably be worse 
 than useless if a change of blood is desired. 
 Indiscriminate stocking is disastrous to 
 any breed of trout ; but stocking carried 
 out with a full knowledge of the require- 
 ments of the water will invariably be 
 successful. By indiscriminate stocking I 
 mean turning out trout of no particular 
 breed amongst a well-bred variety which 
 has become scarce through excessive 
 angling. The best thing to do amid such 
 circumstances is to develop the natural 
 resources, as I have endeavoured to show 
 in previous chapters, and not to import 
 a mongrel breed. The average mongrel 
 
132 TROUT WATERS 
 
 trout is not a bad fish, and is often capable 
 of affording excellent sport, besides being 
 hardy ; but it is a great pity to turn him 
 into waters where trout of a recognised 
 and excellent breed already thrive. As 
 an extreme example I would suggest that 
 it would be a thousand pities to introduce 
 mongrel trout, or even pure-bred fario, 
 into Lochleven. On that lake the right 
 method of maintaining the stock has 
 been adopted. The indigenous trout are 
 spawned and their eggs cared for, so that 
 a large percentage of Nature's waste is 
 saved to counteract the depletion of the 
 water through excessive angling. 
 
 Though there are a great many waters 
 in the country where the breed of trout 
 is of such excellence that it would be 
 difficult to purchase fish equally weU-bred, 
 there are many streams and lakes where 
 the indigenous trout are of such poor 
 quality that the trashiest mongrel breed 
 would be a vast improvement on them ; 
 but it is always better to stock with a 
 well-bred variety. 
 
STOCKING 133 
 
 Nowadays fish-culturists are fully 
 alive to the importance of breeding care- 
 fully, and any purchaser should satisfy 
 himself as to the quality of the trout 
 he is getting rather than trouble about 
 the size. 
 
 No doubt it is desirable to have large 
 trout ; but you cannot get a stock of 
 these by purchasing them. Their size 
 and condition depend upon your water, 
 and not upon how large they were when 
 you bought them, and it is a fact that 
 there are more disappointments through 
 stocking with large trout than are caused 
 in any other way. Would a man turn 
 short-horns to graze on a mountain, or 
 put Southdown sheep on the Grampians 1 
 If he did he would learn a sharp lesson. 
 Yet a man wiU buy magnificent two year- 
 old trout from a Hampshire or Surrey 
 trout farm and turn them into a moun- 
 tain tarn full of two-ounce trout, expect- 
 ing to improve matters. Is it likely to 
 be a success ? 
 
 In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred. 
 
134 TROUT WATERS 
 
 when people talk about a change of blood 
 being beneficial among wild trout, it will 
 be found that an improvement in their 
 environment wUl have more satisfactory 
 results. 
 
 Given a fairly good breed of wild 
 trout, even though they are small, an 
 intelligent and careful man should not 
 have much difficulty in improving both 
 their quality and their numbers. The 
 whole question of quality hinges on one 
 important point — the food supply. This 
 is a study in itself. The requirements will 
 vary according to temperature, geological 
 formation of the bottom of the lake and 
 surrounding country, the depth of water 
 and nature of the bottom — whether it is 
 soft or hard, weedy or bare. 
 
 Let us consider a typical lake contain- 
 ing a fair stock of trout averaging from 
 a quarter to half a pound. Their 
 numbers have been increased by means 
 of a trap for the spawners, and the laying 
 down of the eggs in artificial spawning 
 beds ; but their size and quality have 
 
STOCKING 135 
 
 deteriorated since their numbers increased. 
 A careful consideration of these facts 
 leads one to suppose the food supply to 
 be inadequate to the maintenance of a 
 large stock. What is to be done ? The 
 first step is to examine the contents of 
 the stomachs of many fish and make a 
 note of the various items which go to 
 make up the feeding of the trout. It 
 will be found that, whatever the trout 
 are feeding on, the bulk of their food is 
 comprised of three or four kinds, with a 
 dozen or two rarer specimens. The next 
 thing to find out is whether the creatures 
 which are forming their chief diet are 
 plentiful, and, if so, whether they are of 
 such a kind as to produce large, well- 
 flavoured trout. As the trout are not 
 large, it will surely be found that these 
 creatures are scarce. The next question 
 is : What conditions are favourable for 
 their production in large numbers, and 
 what do they feed on ? Trout food 
 cannot be plentiful unless it in turn has 
 plenty of food : so this must be seen to as 
 
136 TROUT WATERS 
 
 well. Next, are the creatures on which 
 the trout have been feeding prolific ? If 
 not, the question arises : Would it not be 
 well to introduce a prolific kind of food, 
 and the necessary plant life for it to thrive 
 on if not already plentiful ? Having 
 regard to the fact that the trout were 
 never very large, and that they have been 
 falling off in size since their numbers 
 increased, you wiU probably find it 
 advisable to introduce fresh varieties 
 of food which reproduce themselves 
 abundantly. The most satisfactory kind 
 of food for the angler to turn his 
 attention to is the larvse of various flies. 
 These should be encouraged and given a 
 good chance before turning one's atten- 
 tion to what may be called purely bottom 
 feeding. As the trout eggs are carefully 
 looked after, there will be no disadvantage 
 in introducing large quantities of the 
 various forms of caddis-fly larvas. These 
 are most satisfactory, as they are hardy 
 and thrive in most waters, producing 
 during the summer months a large crop 
 
STOCKING 137 
 
 of flies which are eagerly taken by the 
 trout. 
 
 In introducing larvae into any water 
 it will be found that the geological 
 formation of the neighbourhood will 
 determine to a large extent not only the 
 kinds that will thrive there, but also the 
 rate at which they wUl increase. The 
 temperature of the water is another very 
 important point, and in collecting larvse 
 of various kinds to turn down it wiU 
 be well to procure them from lakes and 
 streams where the conditions are as nearly 
 as possible the same as those in the lake 
 under treatment. Certain plants will 
 thrive in certain districts and not in others. 
 So it is with flies ; yet it must be borne 
 in mind that, even as many plants will 
 thrive in places where they are not 
 indigenous, so will many creatures useful 
 as trout food. It is quite safe to turn 
 down any kind of larvae into a water, 
 though perhaps an exception might be 
 made in the case of the dragon-fly. 
 
 Never turn down any creature likely 
 
138 TROUT WATERS 
 
 to destroy other creatures which are of 
 value as a food for the fish ; and do not 
 turn down very prolific creatures which 
 will encourage the trout to become 
 bottom feeders, except where food is 
 very scanty and the water unusually 
 barren. 
 
 Water -beetles of various kinds are, 
 from a sporting point of view, the next 
 best food to flies, and some of these — 
 the Corixa, for example — are extremely 
 prolific. 
 
 Fresh-water shrimps and various kinds 
 of moUusca are excellent food and 
 amazingly prolific ; but if other food is 
 plentiful they are better avoided, as there 
 is no doubt they tend to make bottom 
 feeders, though it must be said in their 
 favour that they immensely improve the 
 quality of the trout as a table fish. In 
 all waters where food is scarce and difficult 
 to cultivate, the shrimps and shell-fish are 
 invaluable, and in such waters the trout 
 will keep them under sufficiently to 
 prevent any enormous stock being pro- 
 
STOCKING 139 
 
 duced, which might, and probably would, 
 make them entirely bottom feeders. To 
 make sure that your trout wiU rise freely, 
 provide them with an abundant fly diet, 
 and see that the stock is sufficiently 
 heavy to keep down any undue amount 
 of bottom feeding. Trout that are well 
 fed and not overfed usually rise freely, 
 whatever food they are accustomed to. 
 
 The worst kind of food to introduce 
 into a lake is the kind that consumes 
 creatures which are of value to young 
 trout, and of this class I am inclined to 
 think the minnow is the worst example. 
 There are many fine sheets of water in 
 this country which have been ruined by 
 the introduction of minnows. Scotland 
 has suffered very much in this way, for a 
 few years ago some one started the idea 
 that the simplest way to increase the size 
 of trout in the hiU lochs was to turn 
 down some minnows. In many places 
 this was done with disastrous results. 
 Lakes which used to yield fine baskets 
 of trout are now useless sheets of water. 
 
140 TROUT WATERS 
 
 crammed with minnows, and having a 
 few large trout which never rise. 
 
 Minnows destroy the food of the trout 
 fry ; they are very proUfic, and in waters 
 which really suit them they wUl almost 
 take charge. I know there are many 
 lakes where trout and minnows live 
 happily together, and the latter do not 
 increase unduly ; but when introduced 
 into waters where there are none, they 
 seem to multiply beyond all reason. 
 Possibly this state of affairs will improve 
 in time, owing to the minnow food giving 
 out ; but this means a scarcity for the fry. 
 
 If you would successfully stock a lake 
 so that its yield is in every way satis- 
 factory, and have not time to go into 
 the matter thoroughly, it wUl always be 
 safest to take whatever fish-culturist you 
 buy from into your confidence, and let him 
 find out what fish are best suited to the 
 water. He, as an expert, is soon able to 
 see how things are, and will send trout 
 which will give satisfaction. A mere 
 order for trout of a certain size is not 
 
STOCKING 141 
 
 giving the lake, the fish-culturist, or the 
 trout, a fair chance. It is not wise to 
 treat the stocking of your waters as you 
 would the stocking of your larder. One 
 larder is much the same as another, 
 depending chiefly on the means of its 
 owner ; but the stocking of a lake or a 
 stream is a matter for careful study and 
 individual attention. 
 
 The Rainbow trout, introduced into 
 this country from America some years 
 ago, created excitement in angling circles. 
 Fish-culturists, too, were enthusiastic about 
 them. A few voices were Ufted in warn- 
 ing, but the success of the fish itself 
 from a sporting point of view almost 
 silenced the cautious ones. That this fish 
 was a brilliant success, hardy, free-rising, 
 and game, no one who had tried them 
 could deny ; but, in spite of aU its fair 
 promise, it must be classed as a failure 
 so far as the majority of lakes and 
 streams in Great Britain and Ireland are 
 concerned. 
 
 Now that we have abundant facts to 
 
142 TROUT WATERS 
 
 found our judgment on, culled from a wide 
 area, we are able to understand why this 
 splendid fish is of little use to anglers. 
 
 It may be said that in all its habits 
 and instincts it is an exaggerated fario. 
 It has hardness, it is a keen feeder, a free 
 riser, and game, of extraordinarily rapid 
 growth ; but it has a tendency after two 
 years of age to stop rising, a strong 
 tendency towards cannibalism, and a 
 strong migratory instinct. Every one of 
 these characteristics is shared by the in- 
 digenous trout, but to a much smaller 
 extent. In comparison we might say of 
 the fario that it is moderately hardy, a 
 fairly keen feeder, a free riser, and a game 
 fish of rapid growth amid favourable con- 
 ditions, with a tendency after some years 
 to rise less freely, which ultimately ends 
 in non-rising habits, a tendency towards 
 cannibalism, which grows stronger as the 
 instinct to rise to the fly grows weaker, 
 and a latent migratory instinct. 
 
 Not only do these descriptions of the 
 two fish tally, but also all that has been 
 
STOCKING 143 
 
 said of the fario applies to the Rainhow 
 with regard to cultivation, stocking, etc., 
 if the exaggerated character of the fish is 
 continually borne in mind. 
 
 There is, after all, nothing very strange 
 in the fact that after two years of age, or 
 at the latest three, Rainbows cease to rise 
 and become bottom feeders. At that age 
 they have grown to a size which fario in 
 the same water would not attain in double 
 the time or more. Their keen feeding 
 habits would alone account for their 
 migratory instinct, even if there were no 
 other way of accounting for it. When 
 they have culled the cream of the feeding 
 in any water (and it does not take such 
 voracious fish long to do this) they make 
 off if they can to find fresh ground. Once 
 they arrive in salt water the food supply 
 is inexhaustible, and they have no inclina- 
 tion to return. What becomes of them 
 it is hard to say ; but I ana convinced that 
 if they returned to fresh water for a period, 
 no angler would be able to tell them from 
 salmon or sea trout. 1 have seen in fresh 
 
144 TROUT WATERS 
 
 water specimens of this fish so like a sea 
 trout in appearance that no casual observer 
 would have noticed any difference. I do 
 not wish to be understood as saying that 
 this is what happens to them ; but, unless 
 they return to fresh water at regular 
 intervals it is most probable that they 
 do not remain long alive. This is not the 
 place, nor have I the knowledge necessary 
 to enter upon a discussion of the probable 
 origin of the Rainbow trout ; but enough 
 has been said and written to make me 
 think that they are not far removed from 
 salmon, and that in a favourable environ- 
 ment they very likely return to the 
 original type. 
 
 It took many years for fish-culturists 
 and anglers to modify the favourable im- 
 pressions of this fish derived from the 
 extraordinary results obtained in the 
 nurseries and afterwards in lakes. The 
 first blot on its character was its migratory 
 tendency ; but long after this had been 
 established beyond a doubt, it was 
 thought that in waters from which escape 
 
STOCKING 145 
 
 was impossible it would prove a much 
 better sporting fish than fario. Little by 
 little evidence against the Rainbow ac- 
 cumulated. Owners of angling waters, at 
 first delighted with this new variety, found 
 that after a time the sport fell off. In 
 most cases the first results had been so 
 satisfactory that it was thought advisable 
 to turn down more Rainbows. These in 
 turn gave good sport and then disappeared. 
 For a long time no one knew for certain 
 what became of them ; but in a few 
 instances it was possible to let off the 
 water in which they had been liberated. 
 This was done. If the outlet had been 
 well screened the fish were found there 
 all right — huge fellows, several pounds in 
 weight, but useless as sporting fish. Where 
 no screen had kept them in they had 
 vanished. This experience was the in- 
 variable result where a water stocked with 
 Rainbows could be run off. 
 
 The reason why it took so long to 
 realise the nature of the fish lay in the 
 contradictory reports which came from 
 
 10 
 
146 TROUT WATERS 
 
 all over the country. In the journals 
 devoted to sport it was not an unheard- 
 of thing to see two letters side by side 
 giving entirely different accounts. One 
 would condemn the Rainbows emphatic- 
 ally, and one would praise them with 
 warmth. 
 
 The following instance, which is typical 
 of experiences all over the country, will 
 show how this state of affairs came about. 
 
 A certain lake in a mountainous district 
 which contained only char very hard to 
 catch was stocked with a few thousand 
 yearling Rainbow trout in spring. The 
 outlet to this water was not large, and, as 
 the lake did not rise much in wet weather, 
 was easily screened. As it was anticipated 
 that the Rainbows would not migrate till 
 they were larger, the bars of the screen 
 were not placed sufficiently close to pre- 
 vent the little chaps from getting away ; 
 but they would not allow a quarter-of-a- 
 pound fish to pass. During the rest of 
 the summer and autumn the Rainbows 
 were seen on calm days rising all over the 
 
STOCKING 147 
 
 lake, and it was the opinion of those who 
 saw them before the winter set in that 
 they had grown considerably, but no fish 
 were angled for. One evening in June 
 the proprietor went down to the lake to 
 see if he could land a fish or two, so that 
 he might know how they were getting on. 
 He had no thoughts of them being takable 
 fish at that time. Arriving at the lake he 
 found that a gentle breeze was ruffling 
 the surface, and a rise was noted not 
 far away. The first throw over the place 
 was successful. A trout was hooked, 
 and it soon became evident that it was 
 a fish of considerable size. After a 
 splendid fight it was brought to bank, 
 and, to the amazement of the angler, 
 weighed just over 2 lb. Within an hour 
 five fish were caught, all over 2 lb., the 
 largest being 2 lb. 11 oz. ! The experi- 
 ment had proved a glorious success. 
 These fish were only twenty-six months 
 old, and what beauties ! The news of this 
 catch spread like wild-fire, and the repu- 
 tation of Rainbow trout was established in 
 
148 TROUT WATERS 
 
 that neighbourhood. Unfortunately, before 
 the season ended there was a very marked 
 falling off in the sport. The fish did not 
 rise so freely and only on rare occasions. 
 Next summer, though odd fish were seen, 
 not one was caught, though the lake was 
 well tried, and after that no sign of these 
 mysterious fish was ever seen. The 
 screen was undamaged — had never over- 
 flowed — and was sufficiently high to 
 prevent any fish jumping over. They 
 simply took to bottom feeding and kept 
 to the deeper water. 
 
 One other instance. A shallow arti- 
 ficial lake provided with a bottom outlet 
 and containing no fish, was stocked with 
 Rainbow trout. The water being only 
 from four to six feet deep and entirely 
 stagnant, besides being surrounded by 
 trees, it was judged advisable to turn in 
 only a few. These were never seen again 
 for a year, and it was thought they had 
 died. The water was run off to make 
 sure, and there were the fish — practically 
 the entire number — some of them weigh- 
 
STOCKING 149 
 
 ing four pounds I They were only two- 
 year-olds ! 
 
 There were, and are still, some waters 
 where Rainbows have given satisfaction 
 and continue to do so year after year, and 
 they have one strong claim to favour — 
 they will thrive amazingly in water where 
 fario could not live. 
 
 Though these fish are of such rapid 
 growth, and though they are, compared 
 with fario, very hardy, they are subject 
 to mysterious diseases which occur in an 
 epidemic form. I have more than once 
 seen large numbers die. They are sus- 
 ceptible to cold, too, particularly the 
 youngsters ; during a long frost the loss 
 is sometimes very heavy. 
 
 Though I have been as hard to con- 
 vince as any of the Rainbow enthusiasts, 
 I am bound to admit, after experiences 
 entailing much loss and disappointment, 
 that they are not as a rule suitable for 
 stocking a water in this country. 
 
 There is another species of trout which 
 has been introduced to this country from 
 
150 TROUT WATERS 
 
 America — the brook trout, S. fontinalis. 
 This fish, too, has fallen into disfavour. 
 Its appearance in this country dates back 
 to the 'seventies. There is little doubt 
 that if it had come to us at the time 
 when the Rainbow did, its popularity 
 would have been greater. As it was, it 
 had quite a "boom," but in those days 
 there was not the same amount of stock- 
 ing done as now. 
 
 The fontinalis is in many ways a 
 much more satisfactory fish than the 
 Rainbow. Its usefulness as a sporting 
 fish is not so quickly over. Indeed, there 
 are a good many waters in the country 
 where they have been giving sport for 
 years. The migratory tendency, while 
 not so strong as in the Rainbow, makes 
 them undesirable for stocking streams, 
 though 1 know of one or two places 
 where they have remained for years in 
 a water emptying into the sea at no 
 great distance away. 
 
 I am strongly of opinion that it is a 
 mistake to introduce either of these fish 
 
STOCKING 151 
 
 into waters containing fario where the 
 feeding is not particularly abundant. 
 They are such keen feeders that they will 
 rapidly diminish the already scanty supply 
 and the fario will have a poor chance. 
 
 A male fontinalis is a fearful cannibal. 
 I have on more than one occasion seen 
 one tackle a fish of nearly his own 
 size. He will seize a fish by the head 
 and hold it with gill -covers pressed 
 close till it is dead, or nearly so, and then 
 swallow as much of it as he can, head 
 first. As he is unable to get a fish 
 approaching his own size more than a 
 third swallowed at a time, he will lie, 
 with body and tail of the prey projecting 
 from his mouth, till the head is digested ; 
 then swallow a little more, till in time 
 the whole disappears. This sort of thing 
 is not an uncommon occurrence in a 
 pond at spaAvning time, but I have never 
 noticed it at other seasons. It is also 
 possible that in a wild state they are 
 not so outrageously unreasonable in their 
 feeding habits. ' 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 PREDATORY FISH 
 
 ■ Pike — Method of Killing them— Pikes' Feeding Habits — 
 Delicate Flavour in May — Perch a favourite Prey — 
 Pikes' Long Fast — Their Marvellous Agility — Eels : 
 the worst Enemy of Trout. 
 
 During three or four years' war against 
 the pike in a large lake, it was my good 
 fortune to be able to collect a great 
 quantity of interesting data concerning 
 this fish. The work was undertaken 
 with a view to stocking with trout, so 
 that every means of killing the pike 
 which could be thought of was adopted, 
 short of djnaamite and poison. These 
 were not employed, because there were 
 already a considerable number of trout 
 in the lake, which we did not wish to 
 destroy. All the captured pike which 
 
 1S2 
 
PREDATORY FISH 153 
 
 passed through my hands were opened 
 and the contents of their stomachs 
 examined, so that valuable information 
 was obtained as to their feeding habits at 
 different seasons of the year. 
 
 The lake contained, besides a few 
 trout and an enormous number of pike, 
 quantities of perch, a fair number of 
 rudd, a great many very large eels, and 
 innumerable crayfish. Before proceed- 
 ing further, I should like it to be under- 
 stood that the following facts refer only 
 to this one lake, and there is no reason 
 to suppose that pike all over the country 
 behave in exactly the same way ; a long 
 experience of fresh -water fishes leads 
 me to believe that it is most dangerous 
 to draw sweeping conclusions from a 
 limited amount of evidence. At the 
 same time, the facts here recorded may 
 be a help to those who are wrestling 
 with a similar task, and to pike fishermen, 
 for a knowledge of a fish's feeding habits 
 is a great help to those who wish to angle 
 for him. 
 
154 TROUT WATERS 
 
 Of the many methods employed to 
 catch the pike, the three principal and 
 most effective were drift-nets, trimmers, 
 and fishing from a boat with that excellent 
 contrivance known as an " otter," which 
 allows one man in a boat to fish with a 
 dozen or more baits covering a strip of 
 bottom from 100 to 200 yards wide. It 
 is true that a first attempt to use an 
 " otter " will result in nothing but 
 profanity, in all probability ; but a little 
 practice soon enables one to make light 
 work of what appeared to be hopeless 
 difficulties to begin with. 
 
 We soon discovered that these three 
 methods were seldom all effective at the 
 same time. When the trimmers were 
 working the " otter " was of very little use, 
 though the nets would catch a few large 
 pike deep down. When the " otter " was 
 successful there would be plenty of 
 medium-sized pike in the nets fairly high 
 up ; but the trimmers were doing very 
 little good. The most curious discovery 
 was that often for several consecutive 
 
PREDATORY FISH 155 
 
 days " otter," trimmers, and nets were alike 
 failures. On these occasions we used 
 always to get a few trout in the nets and 
 quantities of perch. It soon became 
 evident that the pike varied their 
 methods of feeding considerably, and 
 apparently abstained from food at certain 
 times for several days. The contents of 
 the stomachs led to the same conclusion, 
 for it was found that when the trimmers 
 were catching fish, they, as well as those 
 taken in the nets, were feeding on the 
 bottom — chiefly on crayfish and perch. 
 When the "otter" was successful the 
 stomachs showed that the pike were 
 feeding on perch only, with a trout very 
 rarely. Out of many thousands of pike 
 taken during four years, not a hundred 
 had trout in them, and not in one single 
 instance did we find a rudd. When 
 neither " otters " nor trimmers were suc- 
 cessful, and there was only an occasional 
 pike in the nets, its stomach usually 
 proved to be empty. 
 
 Operations were begun in February ; 
 
156 TROUT WATERS 
 
 but it was not until the middle of March 
 that many pike were takep, and then 
 chiefly in the nets. Towards the end of 
 the month the trimmers caught a great 
 number, and after the beginning of April 
 all three methods were successful. In 
 May we were amazed to find neither 
 trimmers nor " otters " of any use, and the 
 number caught in the nets was less ; and 
 the autopsies showed that the pike were 
 feeding on the fresh-water shrimp. Not 
 only the small jack, but also great fellows 
 up to twenty pounds, were gorged with 
 them, and during this time they were 
 more delicate in flavour than at any 
 other. The shrimp diet made such a 
 difference to their table qualities that 
 they compared favourably with trout. It 
 seemed to me a very remarkable thing 
 that such fish las pike, possessed of 
 powerful jaws, a huge mouth, and armed 
 with countless teeth, should condescend 
 to feed on such trifling morsels as fresh- 
 water shrimps. This diet satisfied them 
 all through the month of May each year ; 
 
PREDATORY FISH 157 
 
 but at no other season did we find a trace 
 of shrimps among their food. 
 
 During June they returned to a perch 
 diet, and they kept to this untU the end 
 of July, varied only by an occasional 
 crayfish. In August the young perch 
 which had been hatched out in May 
 began to occupy their attention, and the 
 larger perch were left alone. These 
 small fish were barely two inches long, 
 and were just beginning to show the dark 
 stripes on their sides. They kept chiefly 
 to the shallows, and were fond of stagnant 
 pools among the tall reeds. Under my 
 boathouse they swarmed, and when we 
 required any for bait we used to dip them 
 out with a fine -mesh net on a ring. It 
 was easy to drive them into a corner and 
 scoop up scores at a time. The pike did 
 not seem to bother them during the day ; 
 but in the cool of the evening, all night, 
 and in the early morning they hunted 
 them in the shallows with much splashing. 
 From this time the pike gave up eating 
 the larger perch, only occasional ones 
 
158 TROUT WATERS 
 
 being found in their stomachs, and con- 
 fined their attentions to the youngsters. 
 In December and through the winter 
 months they took to large perch again. 
 
 It will be seen that perch formed the 
 staple article of diet except during May. 
 I never found an eel in a pike's stomach, 
 though there were any quantity at hand, 
 and I know that in many waters they 
 make an excellent bait. I find in several 
 books dealing with pike that there is a 
 doubt as to whether they take perch 
 freely, and in some cases it is recom- 
 mended that the back fin be removed 
 before they are used as bait. As pike 
 always swallow their prey head first, the 
 back fin simply folds down, and does not 
 inconvenience them at aU. It is quite 
 clear that perch are the favourite food 
 of the pike even in water where trout 
 and other fish are to be found. 
 
 From careful observation I am satisfied 
 that pike kill their prey before swallowing 
 them, and they do this by holding what- 
 ever fish they have secured crossways in 
 
PREDATORY FISH 159 
 
 their powerful jaws for some time before 
 bolting it. I once watched a pike hold 
 a perch in this way for twenty minutes, 
 and then he moved off out of sight ; but 
 from five to ten minutes is the usual time. 
 
 Though pike wUl eat an enormous 
 quantity of food at a meal, they do not 
 repeat this until a long interval has 
 passed — often several days — and all the 
 pike in a particular piece of water seem 
 to feed or abstain from food at the same 
 time. When those caught in the nets 
 were examined, it was always found that 
 they all contained food, or that they were 
 all empty. Of course there were excep- 
 tions in each case ; but it was clear that 
 whatever affected their feeding affected 
 practically all alike. 
 
 That pike can stand a long fast with- 
 out, apparently, being inconvenienced or 
 losing weight I proved conclusively by 
 keeping one in a tank in a hatchery 
 which was supplied with fresh water only 
 — by drippings from a spout. During 
 that time the fish had no food ; yet when 
 
160 TROUT WATERS 
 
 it was weighed it did not seem to have 
 lost in any way. It is true that during 
 the whole three months the fish took no 
 exercise ; it lay like a log, with only a 
 slight occasional movement of the fins. 
 It was lively and in perfectly good health 
 when I finally removed it. Not only 
 large pike, but also the fry, have this 
 faculty for fasting. I once kept some 
 pike fry, which were hatched out in a 
 small ditch, for three years. At the end 
 of that time they were only an inch and 
 a quarter long, but quite healthy and 
 well formed. Their- only food had been 
 infusoria. They did not seem able to 
 tackle larvEe or water -beetles, and the 
 amount of food they could get was 
 evidently not sufficient to enable them 
 to grow. During the dry weather there 
 was hardly any water in the ditch ; but 
 they seemed quite comfortable, and used 
 to spend most of their time buried up 
 to the eyes in mud. Their movements 
 when three weeks old were exactly like 
 those of larger pike, and it was very 
 
PREDATORY FISH 161 
 
 interesting to watch them dart forward 
 with a speed which rendered them almost 
 invisible for a few feet, and then stop dead. 
 Often when hunting about in shallow 
 water I have disturbed a pike which has 
 made off with such a rush that one would 
 expect it was going far away, and then 
 discovered it lying motionless not two 
 fathoms off. The power of doubling 
 which the hare possesses is not nearly so 
 marvellous as this. 
 
 Although there were many creatures 
 which the pike in the lake seemed fond 
 of, such as young birds and frogs, I 
 never came across any of these in their 
 stomachs, though I did find a good many 
 stones ; and I have in my possession a 
 stone weighing four ounces which I took 
 from the stomach of a 12-lb. fish. 
 
 At the end of four years' hard work 
 
 there was no appreciable difference in 
 
 the number of pike in the lake. As large 
 
 numbers of trout had been turned in, and 
 
 the result was but partially satisfactory, 
 
 it became apparent that there was another 
 
 u 
 
162 TROUT WATERS 
 
 enemy at work. This we soon found, 
 and quite by accident. I had got an eel 
 one evening on a line, and discovered 
 that it was full of young perch and one 
 small Rainbow trout. As I had turned 
 out a few thousand of Rainbows the day 
 before, I began to think I might be on 
 the track of the real enemy. I mounted 
 600 eel-hooks on a long Hne, and baited 
 these with ordinary earth-worms. This 
 line was set at five o'clock one evening 
 at the end of May. Next morning at 
 six o'clock we lifted it, from a boat, and 
 got 163 lb. of eels — the largest being 
 6 lb., and the average over 3 lb. A few 
 of these were opened, and the result 
 showed us clearly that we had been 
 fighting the wrong enemy. The eels 
 were the destroyers, and from one I took 
 a trout just under six ounces in weight. 
 Several tons of eels were caught during 
 one summer alone ; but the supply seemed 
 inexhaustible. The stocking with trout 
 went on all the time ; but their increase 
 in the lake was very slow. The result 
 
PREDATORY FISH 163 
 
 of this experience showed us that we had 
 two serious difficulties to face. On the 
 one hand, if we turned in trout which 
 were too large for the eels to destroy, 
 they were, by reason of their upbringing, 
 partially tame, and too easy a prey to 
 the pike ; if, on the other hand, yearlings 
 or fry were turned in, they were picked 
 up by the eels immediately. 
 
 Any one undertaking to transform a 
 large lake containing eels and pike into a 
 trout preserve may reckon on from seven 
 to ten years' ceaseless work before it is 
 accomplished. My advice would be to 
 make the destruction of the eels the 
 chief work. They are greater enemies 
 to trout than pike. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 TROTTT THAT DO NOT RISE 
 
 A Depressing State of Affairs — In some Waters Temporary 
 only — The Explanation there — In other Waters 
 Chronic — Pike Drive Trout to Bottom — Gulls also to 
 blame. 
 
 One frequently hears of lakes containing 
 large quantities of trout which afford very 
 indifferent sport, owing to the fish not 
 being free risers. Here again the remedy 
 often applied is a change of blood ; but it 
 is questionable whether there ever was a 
 breed of fario which were such bad risers 
 that a little manipulation of the feeding 
 conditions would not very soon give satis- 
 factory results. There is no doubt that 
 in waters where bottom feeding is so 
 abundant that the trout become lazy 
 there is a tendency in the direction of a 
 
 164 
 
TROUT THAT DO NOT RISE 165 
 
 breed of non-risers ; but, on the other 
 hand, it is possible even with such a breed 
 to force them to become surface feeders. 
 In a previous chapter it has been pointed 
 out that hungry trout are invariably good 
 sporting fish, and it is not necessary by 
 any means that they should be half-starved 
 and ravenous, like the trout in some of 
 the hUl lakes. When the balance between 
 food supply and stock is maintained, there 
 need be no fear that the fish will not rise. 
 Only overfed or abnormally large trout 
 are entirely bottom feeders when in their 
 prime ; but old fish in any water are 
 almost sure to become lazy. 
 
 Some lakes contain trout which are 
 good risers for a portion of the season, 
 and at other times never come to the 
 surface at all. When this is the case it 
 will usually be found that March, April, 
 and May are the best months, and that 
 after June fly-fishing is hopeless. 
 
 The cause of this unfortunate state 
 of affairs is the production of some form 
 of food in large quantities during the 
 
166 TROUT WATERS 
 
 spring months, which affords the fish an 
 abundant supply right on to the autumn. 
 To ascertain what this food supply is, it 
 may be necessary to net a number of 
 trout and examine the contents of their 
 stomachs. In most cases it will be found 
 that the young of some other species of 
 fish is at the bottom of the trouble. For 
 example, a trout lake which contains perch 
 is almost sure to be badly affected. These 
 fish spawn in April and May, and their 
 eggs hatch off rapidly. By the middle 
 of June the water is teeming with shoals 
 of perch fry, on which the trout gorge. 
 This supply lasts them aU through July 
 and August, though by September the 
 smaller trout begin to find the perch fry, 
 now from two inches to two inches and a 
 half long, rather large for them. The 
 older fish continue to feed on perch right 
 up to the time when they leave the lake 
 on their way up to the spawning grounds. 
 It cannot be too strongly urged that perch 
 are not fish to be allowed in a trout water. 
 Their sins are many, and they are not of 
 
TROUT THAT DO NOT RISE 167 
 
 sufficient value as sporting or food fish 
 to compensate for the mischief they do. 
 We have seen how the old perch guard 
 the inlets to the lake in huge shoals, 
 patiently waiting for the luckless trout 
 fry on their way down-stream to deeper 
 water. This is alone sufficient reason for 
 their destruction ; but the fry wUl ruin 
 the chances of sport during the summer 
 months. There is nothing, so far as I am 
 aware, that can be urged in their favour 
 in a trout water unless there ate also pike. 
 If these terrible fish live in the lake with 
 the trout, then, and then only, are perch 
 valuable. They serve as a foU for the 
 trout. In spite of all that has been said 
 to the contrary, pike are very fond of 
 perch, and particularly of the youngsters. 
 As soon as the fry begin to show the dark 
 bands — usually at the end of July — the 
 pike, large and small, feed on them. I 
 have caught pike over 12 lb. on an eel line 
 baited with a small perch not over an inch 
 and three-quarters long, and have found 
 their stomachs fuU of fi-y. After a 
 
168 TROUT WATERS 
 
 considerable experience of pike and their 
 ways, I am of opinion that they have no 
 decided preference for trout, but will take 
 a perch as readily. This, probably, is not 
 so in all waters ; but where I have tested 
 the matter it has invariably been the case. 
 It wiU be seen, then, what a valuable foil 
 the perch are ; but a trout water which 
 contains both pike and perch is in a bad 
 way, for these fish are both amazingly 
 prolific, and their influence on the trout 
 preserve is very harmful. 
 
 It is well to remember that it is not 
 possible to lay down hard-and-fast rules. 
 Though certain adverse conditions may 
 in the majority of cases produce bad 
 results, there will usually be found waters 
 where these conditions prevail without 
 detrimental effects being apparent. I 
 know of one or two lakes where pike 
 and perch and trout thrive together ; but 
 where this occurs it is usually because the 
 stock of trout is well maintained by caring 
 for the welfare of the young or by heavy 
 stocking. 
 
TROUT THAT DO NOT RISE 169 
 
 Pike in a lake not only do an immense 
 amount of harm by feeding on the trout, 
 but also they tend to make them bottom 
 feeders. Any trout feeding on or near 
 the surface is plainly visible to the lurking 
 pike with their upturned eyes. Well the 
 trout know this I Their best chance for 
 safety is to keep near the bottom, where 
 they are near cover, and less likely to 
 attract the attention of the pike. 
 
 It may happen that neither perch nor 
 pike, nor any other kind of coarse fish, 
 live in the lake, and yet for a month or 
 two months, perhaps longer, the trout 
 will not rise to the fly. When this is the 
 case it will be found that some creature 
 is specially abundant in the water at that 
 time, and the simplest way to find out 
 what this is is to net some of the trout 
 and examine their stomachs. A careful 
 autopsy is at all times of service in yield- 
 ing knowledge of under-water conditions, 
 which otherwise may only be guessed 
 at, and it is strange that this method of 
 investigation is so seldom employed. 
 
170 TROUT WATERS 
 
 Having ascertained what is causing 
 the trout to be sluggish, a remedy may 
 very often be found, and in nine cases out 
 of ten the best remedy is to increase the 
 stock of trout. Once again we may learn 
 from the agriculturist. Grazing land 
 which is not sufficiently stocked gets 
 out of hand, and if overstocked will 
 not maintain cattle or sheep at a normal 
 standard of excellence. The same prin- 
 ciple applies to a trout lake : only, as the 
 conditions are more difficult to ascertain 
 and control, a ceaseless watch must be 
 kept. If the signs are neglected and no 
 steps taken till very apparent results 
 indicate the necessity for action in any 
 direction, the labour will be much greater, 
 and the time occupied in restoring the 
 water to its former condition much longer 
 than if the first signs had been accepted 
 as a warning. 
 
 For many years gulls of various kinds 
 have been getting more numerous on our 
 coasts, and the colonies of black-headed 
 gulls which nest inland, often a consider- 
 
TROUT THAT DO NOT RISE 171 
 
 able distance from the sea, do a great 
 deal of harm in certain districts to our 
 fresh -water fisheries. A trout lake on 
 which a colony of these birds takes up 
 its abode during the spring and summer 
 months can never yield as good sport as 
 it would if they were not there. There 
 are two reasons why this is so. The one 
 which concerns us at present is that they 
 destroy the valuable flies on which the 
 trout should feed. May-flies, caddis-flies, 
 stone -flies, and moths are all greedily 
 snatched by the birds. On some lakes 
 the crop of May-flies has been entirely 
 ruined by the black -headed gulls. No 
 sooner does one of the beautiful insects 
 emerge from the larva and unfold its 
 wings to the sun than it is pounced on 
 by a gull. I have watched the guUs on a 
 fine day in June " hawking " over a lake 
 and taking every fly before it was fairly 
 on the wing. This, of course, means that 
 no eggs are laid, and in a few seasons the 
 May-flies are as scarce as hornets, and a 
 valuable food for the trout is lost. The 
 
172 TROUT WATERS 
 
 caddis-fly meets with the same fate, and 
 where black - headed gulls abound the 
 opportunities for the trout getting the 
 flies are few. These birds seem never to 
 sleep. I have watched them flying back- 
 wards and forwards over some favourite 
 beat all day, and change from that to the 
 meadows after dusk, when they snap up 
 the ghost moths and no doubt any others 
 which are about, and still they have 
 been busy in the early hours of the morn- 
 ing screaming and wheeling, welcoming 
 another day of destruction. The law 
 does not allow any interference with these 
 birds, and the County Councils have 
 placed them under their special protec- 
 tion, though no one is able to say what 
 good they do which will compensate for 
 the mischief. 
 
 While on the subject of black-headed 
 gulls, I may say that it is amazing how 
 any observant people can declare that 
 they do not take fish. An inquiry has 
 been set on foot in the north of England 
 into this matter, and evidence has been 
 
TROUT THAT DO NOT RISE 173 
 
 taken from every available source, and 
 nearly every witness declares this bird to 
 be innocent so far as catching fish is con- 
 cerned ; yet there must be thousands of 
 people in the country as well aware as I 
 am that whenever they get a chance at 
 a fish they take it, and that they are 
 remarkably clever at catching fish. I 
 have fi*equently seen these birds drop on 
 to the water with such force that they 
 have disappeared below the surface, and 
 in most cases they emerge with a fish 
 in their bills, usually held by the head. 
 With this they fly round for a consider- 
 able time, dangling their prey for all eyes 
 to see before they swallow it. 
 
 The amount of harm done to our fresh- 
 water fisheries by gulls of various kinds 
 — and the black -headed gull is perhaps 
 the most insignificant sinner of its kind 
 — is enormous. There seems to be a 
 determined conspiracy on the part of 
 those who know to hush up the depreda- 
 tions of these birds, which do more harm, 
 on a salmon river, for example, during 
 
174 TROUT WATERS 
 
 May and June than any other creature 
 which preys on fish. 
 
 There are many fine lakes in the country 
 — in Ireland particularly — where large 
 trout are plentiful, which are entirely 
 ruined for angling by the pike, perch, eels, 
 and black -headed gulls. But it is a 
 significant fact that, though the pike, 
 perch, and eels have always warred against 
 the trout, angling has not been hopeless till 
 the black-headed gulls became numerous. 
 
 The time will come when people wiU 
 realise the mischief done by gulls, and 
 then perhaps the County Councils will 
 see fit to allow a fishery owner to keep 
 them off his water. 
 
 One lake I have known for years is 
 cursed with an increasing colony of black- 
 headed gulls, which, when I saw them 
 last, numbered about four thousand. It 
 is about twelve years since they came. 
 Before that time there was every year a 
 strong rise of May-flies in June, and the 
 trout fishing during that month was 
 excellent. The last two seasons I was 
 
TROUT THAT DO NOT RISE 175 
 
 there (1903 and 1904) I did not see two 
 dozen May -flies altogether, though I was 
 on the lake every day. In previous years 
 I had watched them being devoured by 
 the guUs, and when they failed the caddis- 
 flies took their place in the diet of the 
 beautiful but destructive birds. 
 
 Any one who has had an opportunity 
 of studying the effect of black-headed 
 gulls in large quantities on a trout lake 
 cannot fail to have been struck with three 
 important points which make them most 
 undesirable neighbours. Their activity 
 is tremendous, apparently unceasing, and 
 they have regular beats over which they 
 fly, usually in pairs, backwards and for- 
 wards, allowing no opportunity for a meal 
 to escape them. They feed chiefly on 
 flies, while during the night they hover 
 ghost-like over the grass lands, seeking 
 moths. Failing a fly diet, they will take 
 fish up to an inch and a half long, or 
 take to the land, where they find worms, 
 beetles, etc. 
 
 It may seem too bad to give these 
 
176 TROUT WATERS 
 
 birds such a character. I have written 
 strongly, because there is a tendency to 
 protect them, from some sentimental 
 motive, in spite of the injury they 
 do. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 A SIZE LIMIT AND ITS RESULTS 
 
 Trout at Various Ages — When the May-flies are out — 
 Is a limit Harmless ? — An Instructive Experiment — 
 Many returned Trout Die — Risk of Handling Pish 
 — Precautions — Alternative to a Limit. 
 
 As we have considered some of the 
 natural causes which tend to produce a 
 stock of non-rising trout, we may now 
 look into another matter which frequently 
 has similar results. 
 
 It would seem at first sight as if 
 the fixing of a size limit beneath which 
 all trout must be returned to the water 
 would have only good results. The 
 angler does not wish to take undersized 
 fish from lake or stream, and so diminish 
 the growing stock ; but it is very doubtful 
 
 177 12 
 
178 TROUT WATERS 
 
 whether a rule compelling their return is, 
 in the end, beneficial. 
 
 It must be borne in mind that there 
 is a tendency for trout to become 
 sluggish risers as they grow older. This 
 may be taken as a general rule in all 
 waters ; but where feeding is plentiful 
 this influence is felt much earlier than 
 in less favoured lakes or streams. Also, 
 it may be said that as a general rule 
 lake trout cease to be free risers earlier 
 than river fish. A trout lives for about 
 fourteen years, and sometimes as long as 
 twenty years ; but its value as a rising 
 fish is practically gone after ten years of 
 age in any water, and in most cases seven 
 to eight years is the limit. As two- and 
 three-year-olds trout are better risers 
 than at any other time, and each year 
 after this there is a falling-off in their 
 keenness to come to the surface. This 
 falling-off may be almost imperceptible 
 each year ; but by the time a trout has 
 arrived at eight years of age the number 
 of days in the year when it is feeding on 
 
A SIZE LIMIT & RESULTS 179 
 
 the surface are very few. There are 
 exceptions to this rule. For example, a 
 rise of May-flies will cause old stagers 
 which have not made a ring on the 
 surface for more than eleven months to 
 come up like three-year-olds. This state 
 of affairs may last a fortnight — in some 
 cases even a month ; but after that they 
 return to their lurking-places till the 
 same thing occurs the following year. 
 Many a man has been astonished at the 
 size of the trout caught when the 
 May-flies are on, and has admitted that 
 such trout are never seen at other times. 
 This is particularly noticeable in lakes. 
 
 The fixing of a size limit tends to 
 hasten the time when trout lose their 
 inclination to rise to the fly. Though 
 they may be slow at learning a lesson, 
 they do learn it. If you know of a small 
 trout frequenting a particular place and 
 take the trouble to experiment with it, 
 you will learn how easily a fish may be 
 taught not to rise at a fly. Take a rod 
 with tackle sufficiently strong to secure 
 
180 TROUT WATERS 
 
 your fish (for he is a small one) without 
 exhausting him unduly. Catch him 
 every day until he has learned his lesson. 
 You will find, as I have, that after being 
 hooked three times he will be very 
 difficult to catch again, and if you persist 
 it will not be long before he will avoid 
 all flies and content himself with other 
 food. If you take him on light tackle, 
 which necessitates his being thoroughly 
 exhausted before being brought to the 
 net, he wiU learn his lesson much more 
 quickly ; but probably, unless you are 
 accustomed to the handling of trout, he 
 will not survive this treatment long. 
 
 I do not think it is generally known 
 that a considerable percentage of the 
 undersized trout returned to the water 
 die. If they have been feeding heavily 
 and have full stomachs at the time, the 
 risk is much greater than when their 
 stomachs are empty ; but in any case 
 they are liable to be very badly injured. 
 The reason is that nowadays such light 
 tackle is used that a trout is frequently 
 
A SIZE LIMIT & RESULTS 181 
 
 played till it collapses altogether ; then, 
 with the handling necessitated by the 
 removal of the hook, often very clumsily 
 done, the fish is in a sorry state when 
 returned to the water. It will sink to 
 the bottom and lie on its side in a state 
 of coUapse for a considerable time. It 
 may die without a further struggle ; but 
 should it show signs of recovery the 
 chances are against it in most cases. 
 The first sign of returning life is a gentle 
 movement of the gills, and if these are 
 not obstructed recovery wUl be fairly 
 rapid; but a sick trout usually lies on 
 its side, which means that one giU cover 
 is closed. Even this handicap may be 
 overcome iL the bottom is clean ; but if 
 the fish has fallen among weeds or on a 
 muddy place its recovery is doubtful. 
 In the former case, the weeds impede 
 respiration ; in the latter, the first con- 
 vulsive struggle of returning life stirs up 
 the mud and the fish is choked. 
 
 All this may be the result follow- 
 ing the return to the water of a fish 
 
182 TROUT WATERS 
 
 fairly played and skilfully handled ; but 
 how many men are there who are so 
 accustomed to the handling of live trout 
 that they can do it without risk of 
 injury ? A trout is a very much more 
 delicate creature during the spring and 
 summer months than during autumn and 
 winter. In cold weather it will stand 
 a good deal of rough usage ; in warm 
 weather, none. A little pressure on the 
 gills or too hard a grip across the stomach 
 and the mischief is done. A man 
 accustomed aU his life to the handling of 
 trout would not undertake the risk which 
 the novice cheerfully incurs. I do not 
 think any one who has worked among 
 trout will contradict me when I say that 
 to remove a trout over eight inches long, 
 which has food in its stomach, from water 
 at a temperature of 58 degrees or over, 
 and keep it till it is sufficiently quiet to 
 handle before replacing it, is an operation 
 attended with grave risk. 
 
 Even the trout restored to the water 
 after having a hook removed, which will 
 
A SIZE LIMIT & RESULTS 183 
 
 dart off as if nothing had happened, 
 is not necessarily safe. It is badly 
 frightened, and makes for shelter, and 
 then frequently the collapse comes, from 
 which it may never recover. The water 
 of a lake at summer temperature is far 
 from being stimulating to a sick fish, and 
 the loss among returned trout in lakes is 
 undoubtedly greater than in a stream. 
 In the latter, if the fish is only slightly 
 sick, the revivifying current will do 
 wonders ; but if it is in a state of coma 
 the chances are that the slightly open 
 giUs will cause it to rest on the bottom 
 with its head down -stream, in which 
 position it will as surely drown as a man 
 with his head under water. 
 
 To nurse a trout back to life, the best 
 thing to do is to prop it up between 
 stones in a natural position, with its head 
 up-stream, in a place where there is a brisk 
 current. If this treatment will not bring 
 him round, no other will — at any rate, 
 no other which is likely to be at the 
 command of an angler on the banks of 
 
184 TROUT WATERS 
 
 a stream. The position of the current 
 is an important point. For example, a 
 current caused by a shallow at the end 
 of a long pool would not possess the 
 restorative power of a similar current at 
 the head of a pool and at the foot of a 
 long rapid. Water is quickly influenced 
 by the air, and swiftly-running, broken 
 water is very different from water flowing 
 sluggishly. 
 
 There are, then, two important points 
 to be considered when discussing the 
 desirability of fixing a size limit : 
 
 The undoubted tendency to teach fish 
 while they are young to regard a fly with 
 suspicion. 
 
 The grave risk of loss following on 
 the return of the fish to the water 
 (particularly where the size limit is over 
 eight inches) in warm weather. 
 
 We have now to consider the fish, 
 which, as a result of a size limit, have 
 early learnt to avoid flies. What are 
 they doing, and in what way are they 
 useful ? I am afraid the answers to these 
 
A SIZE LIMIT & RESULTS 185 
 
 two questions are not very reassuring. 
 In the first place, they are feeding on the 
 bottom, and a considerable amount of 
 their time as they grow older is taken up 
 in hunting for small fry and lying in wait 
 where the youngsters are likely to be 
 found. They will not be caught unless 
 bait -fishing is allowed, and while they 
 yield no sport they are for many years a 
 source of loss to the water. In the next 
 place, they are only of doubtful use as 
 breeders, for it is more than likely that 
 their non-rising habits may in a generation 
 or two become hereditary, and, further, 
 after they are eight years old, although 
 they have still a long life before them, 
 their yield of eggs gets rapidly smaller, 
 till finally they become barren fish, so 
 that they are of little value to the 
 stock. 
 
 It has been already pointed out that a 
 successful way of ridding a water of these 
 undesirables is to erect a trap, which will 
 catch them on their annual migration to 
 the spawning beds. 
 
186 TROUT WATERS 
 
 Instead of a size limit, which is, after 
 all, an admission of the fact that the 
 stock is inadequate, I would suggest the 
 careful preservation and cultivation of 
 eggs and fry. To begin to safeguard 
 the trout when two years old or more is 
 late in the day, and if this care for the 
 fish dated farther back there would be no 
 need for a size limit, for a certain amount 
 of thinning out would then be necessary. 
 
 If a size limit is necessary — and I 
 admit that under certain conditions it 
 may be — then make it a small one. By 
 having (say) a ten-inch size limit the risk 
 is run of educating the fish so thoroughly 
 before he reaches that size that when he 
 has attained it he will no longer rise. 
 In an average water, an eight- inch fish 
 is a two-year- old, and I would make that 
 size the limit — all smaller fish to be 
 returned. In a water rather better than 
 the average, nine inches would be a good 
 limit, and in a first-class water ten inches. 
 There are very few waters where a ten- 
 inch limit should be necessary. 
 
A SIZE LIMIT & RESULTS 187 
 
 I consider that a trout ought to be 
 takable when he is two years and a half 
 to three years old, and I should fix the 
 size limit accordingly. If a limit is fixed 
 so high that the trout are not takable 
 till after they are three years old, the 
 prospects of sport are not so good as they 
 might be. To recapitulate : A trout 
 wiU never rise again so freely as during 
 the two- and three-year-old stages ; after 
 that there is a slight annual falling off. 
 If the size limit does not admit of the 
 trout being taken till after they are three 
 years old, there is a great probabiUty 
 that many of them will have been scared 
 so thoroughly by that time that they 
 will not rise, and so they are not only 
 lost to the angler, but also in the ranks 
 of undesirables. 
 
 While making this suggestion I am 
 aware that it will not fit every case ; but, 
 as an indication of the lines upon which 
 to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion, it 
 may be of service. Wherever possible — 
 and in most cases there should be no 
 
188 TROUT WATERS 
 
 difficulty about increasing the stock — a 
 size limit should be avoided. 
 
 Where there are pike in the water, a 
 size limit would be of little service, for, 
 though anglers would adhere to it, it is 
 quite certain that pike would not. 
 
 In many waters it would be of much 
 greater service to restrict the capture 
 of young males than to turn back 
 indiscriminately all fish under a certain 
 size. As has been shown, the males are 
 at all times freer risers than the females ; 
 but after the middle of August this is 
 more marked than earlier in the season. 
 It is extremely difficult — often, indeed, 
 hardly possible — during spring and early 
 summer to distinguish between males and 
 females in their prime ; but after the 
 middle of August the shape of the fish 
 will indicate their sex. Old males can 
 be recognised, as a rule, at any time of 
 the year by looking at their lower jaw, 
 which is curved upwards, and they should 
 always be killed ; but these fish are 
 seldom caught on the fly. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 SALMON AND TROUT 
 
 Conflicting Interests — Lower Reaches and Upper Readies 
 — ^Trout Suffer more than Salmon — Exceptionally 
 Fortunate Streams — Agricultural Drainage — Putting 
 Two and Two Together — Bewildering Variety of 
 Crosses. 
 
 Though there are many lakes and 
 streams containing trout only, there are 
 many waters which contain both salmon 
 and trout. Unfortunately, the interests 
 of the two species are rather conflicting. 
 It is not possible to cultivate both in any 
 water with unqualified success. To make 
 the most of the fishing in any river or lake 
 it is necessary to decide whether trout or 
 salmon are to be fostered. 
 
 It is not unusual to find the middle 
 and the lower reaches of a river devoted 
 
 189 
 
190 TROUT WATERS 
 
 to salmon, while in the upper reaches 
 trout are of the greatest value to the 
 angler. This state of affairs is bad ; but 
 there is a definite reason for it, which 
 will be readily understood. Though 
 salmon generally run right up to the 
 head waters of a river to spawn, in many 
 cases they do not arrive there until the 
 close season. In this way they are 
 of absolutely no value to the community 
 of anglers who fish the head waters, and 
 they naturally turn their attention to 
 trout. 
 
 As the spawning seasons of the two 
 fish seldom coincide, there is a great 
 destruction of eggs on the beds. Usually 
 the salmon spawn later than the trout, 
 in which case the eggs of the former 
 are rooted up by the late-comers and 
 washed away. It often happens, also, 
 that the trout spawn later than the 
 salmon ; in which case it is the latter 
 fish which sujBfer. At any rate, it may 
 be taken for granted that where both 
 fish spawn on the same beds one or other 
 
SALMON AND TROUT 191 
 
 suffers ; which it is, depends on local 
 conditions. 
 
 On the whole I am inclined to think, 
 in spite of much that has been said and 
 written to the contrary, that the trout 
 suffer most all through. When the two 
 lots of eggs hatch off and the alevins 
 have come on the feed, it is the salmon 
 fry, not the trout, which put up the best 
 fight for existence. The young salmon 
 are much keener feeders, and if food is 
 scarce it is the trout which have to go 
 short. This applies right up to the time 
 when the smolts go to sea, as trout 
 anglers know to their cost. The young 
 salmon are a nuisance ; they are so keen 
 that it is not an uncommon thing to hook 
 two at a cast. No doubt they are a 
 trouble, too, to the young trout, taking 
 the best of their food before they have 
 a chance ; it is fortunate indeed for the 
 trout that they do not require such a 
 large supply as their greedy cousins. It 
 is, nevertheless, a fact that salmon parr 
 will thrive where the native trout is 
 
192 TROUT WATERS 
 
 hardly able to exist — simply because it 
 is such a much keener forager. 
 
 The proprietors of the upper reaches 
 of a salmon river have rather hard luck. 
 They have the salmon during close time 
 only ; their trout fishing, if sufficiently 
 good to be worth anything, is an injury 
 to the stock of salmon, and is at the same 
 time injured by them. 
 
 There seems little doubt that a salmon 
 river should be as free from trout as 
 possible, and that it is hardly possible to 
 maintain a really good stock of trout 
 where salmon parr are numerous, unless 
 there happens to be a very good food 
 supply. 
 
 There are some rivers in the country 
 which have an abundant area of spawning 
 ground as well as a plentiful food supply 
 for both the trout and the young salmon. 
 Where such conditions exist the harm 
 done to either species by the other is 
 very small. On . the other hand, the 
 majority of salmon rivers are not pro- 
 vided with a very large area of spawn- 
 
SALMON AND TROUT 193 
 
 ing ground, and. each year what there is 
 is getting less in many districts owing 
 to two increasing evils — pollution and 
 a more perfect system of agricultural 
 drainage. The latter difficulty is very 
 hard to overcome or counteract. While 
 the land is very much benefited, the 
 rivers suffer, for floods rise rapidly to a 
 great height and fall rapidly to a very 
 low level. Gravel beds in which eggs 
 are deposited are often washed away, and 
 appear again in other places, and it also 
 frequently happens that eggs spawned 
 during a flood are left high and dry when 
 the river falls. Disastrous as aU this is 
 to the ova, it is equally hurtful to the 
 food supply, and the young of both 
 salmon and trout when they come on the 
 feed are compelled to drop down-stream 
 to find food. The result is that very 
 many of them are snapped up by large 
 trout. 
 
 The normal level of most of our rivers 
 is lower than it used to be, owing to the 
 rapid way in which water is nowadays 
 
194 TROUT WATERS 
 
 drained away, and in the upper reaches — 
 particularly in a mountainous country — 
 the conditions are such that it is not 
 possible for Nature's rearing grounds to 
 turn out anything like the number of fish 
 they did a hundred or even fifty years 
 ago. 
 
 Where the conditions are so much 
 against the production of a large number 
 of young fish it is important to decide 
 whether the small crop produced annually 
 is to be largely trout or salmon. It is 
 only natural that anglers at the head 
 waters should vote for trout ; these they 
 can fish for throughout the season, 
 whereas salmon come during the close 
 time only, and the young salmon destroy 
 the food of the trout, besides being a 
 nuisance to the fly-fisher. 
 
 The other day I noticed in a column 
 devoted to angling reports, that on a 
 certain salmon river — one of world-wide 
 fame — trout had been on the increase for 
 several years, until now there is a better 
 stock than any one can remember. This 
 
SALMON AND TROUT 195 
 
 was in the head waters, too. The cause 
 was not even hinted at ; but probably 
 the increase in trout is due to a decrease 
 in the numbers of young salmon. 
 
 Anglers as a rule are not very good 
 hands at putting two and two together 
 when matters concerning fish, outside the 
 actual fishing for them, are concerned ; 
 but they have a considerable knowledge 
 of isolated facts, which only need string- 
 ing together in proper order to make 
 many points clear which affect them 
 closely. 
 
 Here is a case in point. No angler 
 whose knowledge of waters containing 
 trout and salmon dates back for more 
 than a year can fail to have been im- 
 pressed by the voracious manner in which 
 parr and smolts will take his flies without 
 regard to size or kind. He puts it down 
 to the fish's gameness and puzzles no more 
 about it. Nevertheless, it means a great 
 deal besides. A young salmon requires 
 and actually procures about three times 
 as much food as a trout of the same age. 
 
196 TROUT WATERS 
 
 The excessive vitality of the fish enables 
 him to do this easily, and on account of it 
 he is bound to do so. It follows that in 
 a water where food is scarce — and this is 
 more often the case than not — even if the 
 absence of young salmon would not mean 
 that there would be three times the 
 number of trout, at any rate they would 
 be better fed and larger fish. When 
 trout improve in size or numbers in a 
 salmon river the cause, unless there is 
 some other definite reason for it, will 
 usually be found to be a decrease in the 
 number of salmon. These remarks con- 
 cerning salmon apply equally to sea 
 trout. 
 
 The lower reaches of a river are not 
 much affected from the trout angler's 
 point of view by the presence of salmon, 
 except in so far as mischief going on in 
 the head waters will affect the number of 
 trout. During April, May, and June 
 there will probably be a large number of 
 smolts migrating to the sea, and there is 
 no doubt they will temporarily affect the 
 
SALMON AND TROUT 197 
 
 food supply ; but this migration is at a 
 time of year when insect life is abundant, 
 and by the end of June these fish wUl 
 nearly all have arrived in the brackish 
 tidal waters. 
 
 One very curious fact regarding the 
 migratory salmonidas is that they wiU 
 and do continually cross with the river 
 trout. This occurs more frequently 
 between brown trout and sea trout than 
 between salmon and brown trout ; but I 
 have more than once seen a male brown 
 trout doing duty on the salmon redds. 
 
 The result of this crossing is bewilder- 
 ing in the extreme, and most of the dis- 
 putes which arise concerning what is and 
 what is not a salmon parr are due to it. 
 As the law stands the trout angler is 
 liable to a fine if he is found with young 
 salmon in his possession ; yet so various 
 are the markings of parr, half-breeds, and 
 true trout, that in many cases no one can 
 say definitely what they are. The water- 
 bailiff is supposed to know, and he is 
 usually prepared to swear one way or the 
 
198 TROUT WATERS 
 
 other, when an expert might be quite at 
 a loss. 
 
 It frequently happens that the young 
 of pure-bred fario at a trout farm show 
 all the markings of a parr, and again it 
 frequently happens that young salmon 
 show no parr marks at all. In the smolt 
 stage the difficulty of identification is 
 much less ; still, as regards the half- 
 breeds one is at a loss, for some will put 
 on the silvery coating and never go 
 farther than the brackish waters, while 
 some will lose their parr marks and 
 develop into ordinary fario. The diffi- 
 culty of identification is increased when 
 one has to deal with quarter-breeds or 
 with the progeny of a half-bred trout 
 and salmon and a fuU-bred salmon. 
 
 In a water which contains salmon, sea 
 trout and brown trout, there will be 
 found fish which are the result of three 
 forms of crossing — salmon and trout, sea 
 trout and trout, salmon and sea trout. 
 To make identification more difficult, the 
 result of a cross between a male trout 
 
SALMON AND TROUT 199 
 
 and a female salmon produces fish with 
 quite a different set of markings from 
 a cross between a male salmon and a 
 female trout. The same may be said of 
 the other two crosses. Thus, besides the 
 pure-bred fish, we have at least six other 
 kinds which no one except a water-bailiff 
 can identify. 
 
 There is one other point to be noted 
 concerning salmon and trout in the same 
 water. It frequently happens that salmon 
 on their way up to spawn keep to the 
 main river, or at any rate to the larger 
 tributaries, while the trout more often 
 run up small streams which do not tempt 
 the salmon. In this way there is a certain 
 provision for separating the two species, 
 and when this occurs they do not dis- 
 turb each other's eggs. Unfortunately, as 
 before pointed out, there is frequently 
 not a large enough area of suitable 
 ground to accommodate both. 
 
 So far as it is possible to speak gener- 
 ally, it may be said that, though the 
 presence of trout in a salmon river is to 
 
200 TROUT WATERS 
 
 a certain extent harmful, on the other 
 hand the salmon do the trout much 
 greater injury. There is continual war- 
 fare between both species ; but the salmon 
 almost always comes off best. 
 
LIST OF FISHERIES 
 
 (i.) Howietown Fishery, Stirling. 
 
 (2.) Solway Fishery, Dumfries. 
 
 (3. ) Rigmaiden Fishery, Kirkby Lonsdale. 
 
 (4.) Wyresdale Fishery, Garstang, Lanes. 
 
 (j.) Oakenclough Fishery, Garstang, Lanes. 
 
 (6. ) Welham Park Fishery, Malton, Yorks. 
 
 (7. ) Earl of Denbigh's Fishery, Holywell. 
 
 (8. ) T. Ford, The Fishery, Caistor, Lines. 
 
 (9.) Chirk Fishery, Chirk, North Wales. 
 (10.) Cleobury Fishery, Bridgenorth, Shrops. 
 (11.) Arrow Fishery, Pembridge, Hereford. 
 (12.) Col. Custance, Weston Fishery, Norwich. 
 (13.) Kennet Valley Fishery, Hungerford, Berks. 
 (14.) Norton and Bradwell Fishery, Herts, 
 (15.) Chess Trout Farm, Chorleywood, Herts. 
 (16.) Wye Valley Fishery, Monmouth. 
 (17.) Bibury Fishery, near Fairford, Gloucestershire. 
 (18. ) Gloucestershire Trout Farm, Andoversford, Gloucestershire. 
 (19.) Brimpton Fishery, Reading. 
 (20.) Buckland Fishery, Braunton, Devonshire. 
 (21.) Surrey Trout Farm, Shottermill, Haslemere, Surrey. 
 (22.) Test Valley Fishery, Stockbridge, Hants. 
 (23.) Itchen Trout Farm, Chilland, Hants. 
 (24.) Exe Valley Fishery, Exbridge, Tiverton, Devon. 
 (25.) Beaulieu Fishery, Hants. 
 
 IRELAND 
 (i.) F. Stenning, Bandon Fishery, Co. Cork. 
 
 SKETCH MAP OF FISHERIES IN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND 
 
BRIMPTON FISHERY 
 
 TROUT FOR STOCKING 
 
 Ova fry yearlings, two and three year old Brown and Rainbow 
 trout, best varieties, and at moderate prices. 
 
 THIS old-established Fishery is situated on the River Enborne (a 
 tributary of the Kennet), and for many years has been noted for 
 the fine trout it has supplied, owing to careful selection of healthy 
 stock and the purity of the water, which is pro\-ed by the fact that the 
 \alley through which the river flows has been selected for the proposed 
 scheme to supply London with water. 
 
 The water is full of natural food of all kinds, and is one of the few 
 ri\-ers in which craj'fish still exist. 
 
 Disease is unknown at the Fishery, and the stock is always healthy 
 and in the pink of condition. 
 
 The two and three year old fish are kept in a screened mill sU'eam, 
 through which a large volume of water fiows, and it is shaded on both 
 sides by alders and willows, which produce a large quantity of insect 
 life, on whiclvthe fish mainly feed, making them practically wild fish. 
 
 Safe arrival of the fish is guaranteed, and the size fully up to the 
 standard quoted. 
 
 When an order permits of it, a competent man is sent to plant the 
 fish free of charge. 
 
 To a\oid disappointment, 'particularly in the case of the larger fish, 
 it is well to book the orders early in the season, in which case the fish 
 will be retained until they are required. 
 
 Advice given, waters inspected, improved, and managed. 
 
 Fish foods, carriers, and all apparatus connected with fish^ culture 
 supplied. Write for price list to — 
 
 P. GASCOIGNE FREEMAN, 
 
 BRIMPTON FISHERY, 
 BRIMPTON, nr. READING. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Alevins, deformedj 16, 16 
 emerging from eggs, 18 
 sheltering of, 18 
 
 Black-headed gulls, 171, 173, 
 
 174 
 Bottom feeding, fish take to, 
 
 138, 139, 148 
 Breeders, old trout as, 26 
 
 Cannibalism, tendency to, 
 
 25, 142 
 Cannibals, male fontinalis as, 
 151 
 male trout &a, 32 
 old and large trout as, 84 
 Corixa, the, 138 
 Cyclops, 36, 36 
 
 Daphnia, the, 36, 36 
 Disease, in alevin stage, 35 
 Drainage, system of land, 14 
 
 Eggs, alevins emerging from, 
 
 18 
 depositing of, 7 
 examination of, 15 
 fertilisation in swirling 
 
 torrents, 16 
 fertilised, 16 
 in a lake, 106 
 in gravel beds, 193 
 in redds, 17 
 
 Eggs- 
 infertile, 28 
 
 moving of, 117 
 
 packing of, 65, 56 
 
 preservation and cultiva- 
 tion of, 186 
 
 saving of. 111 
 
 scarcity of fertile, 29 
 
 unfertilised, 13, 14 
 
 waste of, 8, 27, 32 
 
 weight of, 13 
 Enemies, commonest, 62 
 
 in spring-time, 20 
 
 of fry, 123 
 
 protection from, 11, 36 
 
 worst, 19, 66 
 Eyed ova, 14, 28 
 
 Feeding, difference of, 126 
 Females, proportion of, 11 
 
 quantity of, 31 
 
 quantity of offspring, 26 
 
 sorting of, 110 
 Fertilisation, chances of, 8 
 
 in swirling torrents, 16 
 
 saving of eggs owed to per- 
 fect, 111 
 Fish-culturists, 31, 126, 130, 
 
 133, 140, 141, 144 
 Floods, 15, 40, 92, 193 
 
 winter, 97 
 Flood-scoured river, 86 
 Fly, the, 32 
 
 gOl 
 
202 
 
 TROUT WATERS 
 
 Fly-fishingj harm of, 26, 31 
 Fontinalis, the, 160 
 as a cannibal, 161 
 Food, 81-103 
 
 advisability of prolific, 136 
 agricultural drainage 
 
 harmful to, 193 
 Corixa as prolific, 138 
 Cyclops, 35, 36 
 Daphnia, 35, 36 
 flies, 35, 37 
 for trout food, 135 
 Gammari, 35 
 grown in stiU water, 87 
 insect, 41 
 larvae, 37, 47, 48 
 moUusca, 36, 37, 47, 48 
 natural, 42 
 nurseries, 86 
 of young fish, 34, 35 
 of young salmon, 196 
 scarcity of, 36 
 shrimps, 47, 48 
 streams with plenty of, 82 
 the best, 38 
 trout taken by young 
 
 salmon for, 191 
 water plants as producers, 
 
 40 
 worst kind of, 139 
 Fresh, a, 14 
 
 stream after a, 39 
 Fresh-water shi-imps, 36, 60, 
 
 89, 138, 156 
 Frost, eff'ect of, at time of 
 
 hatching, 17 
 
 Gammari, 35 
 
 Gravel beds, eggs in, 193 
 
 Gulls, 173 
 
 Hatchery, a, 16, 26, 28, 64 
 
 Hat.hing, 17, 18 
 
 Hilly country, stream in, 14 
 
 Incubation, time of, 17 
 
 Lake, falling off of fish in a, 
 
 26 
 knowledge of conditions 
 
 prevailing in a, 106 
 Larvae, 36, 37, 86 
 Limnea, 63 
 
 Males, breeding, 33 
 caught by fly-fishing, 31 
 dealing with old and Tise- 
 
 less, 112 
 proportion of, 11, 12 
 quantity of offspring, 25 
 restriction in capturing 
 
 young, 188 
 shortness of, 30 
 sorting of, 110 
 
 Mollusca, 36, 37, 86, 88, 138 
 
 Oxygen, 8 
 
 Poison, 46-67 
 
 Poisonous moss, result of, 65 
 
 Pollution, causes of, 47 
 
 from water drained by im- 
 pure sources, 51 
 
 increase of, 193 
 
 modes of, 45 
 
 stream affected by, 46 
 
 temporary, 69 
 
 Rainbow trout, 141, 143, 146, 
 
 146, 148, 149, 160 
 Redds, containing eyed ova, 
 16 
 eggs in, 17, 28 
 sampling of, 13 
 shape of, 12 
 
 Salmon, food required by 
 young, 195 
 
INDEX 
 
 203 
 
 Salmon — 
 
 fostering of either trout or, 
 189 
 
 fry, 191 
 
 importance of choice be- 
 tween trout or, 194 
 
 in waters containing, 198 
 
 migration of, 197 
 
 reaches devoted to, 190 
 
 saprolegnia among, 114 
 
 trout harmed by, 200 
 
 in upper readies, 192 
 Saprolegnia, epidemic of, 114 
 Sea trout, 197 
 Size limit, in heavily fished 
 
 waters, 32 
 Spate, a, 69 
 
 autumn, 60 
 Spawners, coming of the, 9 
 
 trap for, 104 
 Spawning, date of, 11 
 
 development after, 17 
 Spawning beds, artificial, 21 
 
 dirt in, 7 
 
 laying of eggs in artificial, 
 134 
 
 points to be observed, 11 
 
 position of, 20 
 
 suitable places for, 7 
 Spawning ground, eflFect of 
 distance, 10 
 
 importance of condition of, 
 16,17 
 
 Spawning season, length of, 
 
 10 
 Sphagnum, bed of, 62, 63, 
 
 64 
 eggs packed in, 66 
 moss, 66 
 Springs, fed by streams, 10 
 Stagnant ditch, uses of, 38 
 Stagnant places, after a fresh, 
 
 39 
 Stagnant ponds, pollution 
 
 caused by, 61 
 Stocliing, harm of haphazard 
 
 and impulsive, 128 
 with knowledge, 131 
 
 Temperature, a neutralising 
 agency, 60 
 affected by atmosphere, 
 
 17 
 difi'erent conditions of, 
 
 125 
 effect on eel, 35 
 importance of, 137 
 requirements according to 
 134 
 Trap, for spawners, 104 
 Trout farms, 126, 126, 198 
 
 Waters, poisonous, 38, 39 
 
 stagnant, 36, 41, 43, 102 
 Worm-fishing, necessity of 
 32 
 
 THE END 
 
 Printed by R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, Edinbztr^Ji, 
 
CUMMINS' TACKLE 
 
 MAS MAFiy FINE PBiriTS. 
 
 MANUFACTURER OF HIGH-CLASS RODS & FISHING TACKLE. 
 
 ESTABLISHED OVER HALF-A-CENTURY 
 
 W. J. CUMIVIINS, 
 
 North of England Rod Works, 
 
 BISHOP AUCKLAND. 
 
THE 
 
 WELHAM PARK FISH HATCHERY 
 
 LIMITED 
 
 MALTON, YORKSHIRE 
 ^ ^ ■^ 
 Brown Trout, 
 
 Loch Leven Trout, 
 
 and Rainbow Trout. 
 
 * * * 
 
 WATER PLANTS 
 
 NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FOODS 
 
 WILSON H. ARMISTEAD 
 
 *Piifeieuitura{ Expert 
 
 Has been employed by Home and Foreign 
 Governments, and is prepared to inspect 
 waters and report on their development, to 
 erect Hatcheries, construct Artificial Spawn- 
 ing Beds, or undertake any branch of fisherv 
 work. Life experience. 
 Write to :— 
 
 WILSON H. ARMISTEAD, 
 
 The Scauf, DALBEATTIE. 
 
 Telegrams: ' ARMISTEAD, KIPPFORD,' 
 

 
 BOOKLET entitled " Angling in North-Eaatern England," a Guide for Sea and 
 River Anglers, by F. G. iflalo and F. M. Walbran. Profusely Illustrated. 
 Full Information as to Baits and Flies. Price 3d. at Bootstalls, or by post 4d, 
 from the Chief Passenger Agent, Dept. A 30, North-Eastern Railway, York; or 
 North-Eastern Railway To ur^t Barea u, 87 Gracechorch Str eet, E.G. 
 
 The district served by tlie North- Eastern Railway system is of special 
 interest to both salt and fresh water fishermen, covering as it does not only 
 the whole of the coast=>Iine from the Number to Berwick, but the country 
 through which the Ouse Derwent, Wharfe, Nidd, Ure, Swale, Tees, Tyne, 
 and Tweed not to mention their numberless tributaries, flow. An angling 
 holiday, with many other attractions, may be spent here at moderate cost.