Part 5

From the second week in JUNE, to the second week in AUGUST, a very certain killer in hot days.

No. 18.

A good fly from the second week in JULY to the end of the season. A superior bob on the moors.

A black fly with silver twist may occasionally be substituted for No. 13. They are sold at all tackle makers.

The white moth is sold at all tackle makers, and is a good fly on moon-light nights in JUNE and JULY.

Although Eighteen sorts are enumerated, it is by no means necessary that the occasional fisherman should be provided with the full complement.

It will generally be found that Nos. 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 13, 17, are certain killers. The others, however, must be procured by the more indefatigable sportsman; especially if he is undaunted by wind or weather.

Every thing being now in readiness for a start, be careful to commence fishing with the sun in your face, and if possible, keep it so during the day. By adopting this precaution, the shadow of yourself and rod will not be cast upon the water, and your presence consequently is less likely to be observed by the fish than if a contrary position were adopted. Let me urge the great importance of keeping out of sight of your prey as much as possible. If the banks are high and open, crouch down, and if needs be, creep on, as you would if a duck and mallard were the object of your pursuit, until you find you can command the pool in your prostrate position. If bushes intervene, of course you may approach with boldness: less caution is also needed when the banks are nearly even with the surface of the water.

As a general rule, I am in favour of fishing up the stream for trout; the heads of the fish being always against the current, their eyes are pointed in the same direction, looking for flies, &c., which may be floating down on the surface; your approach therefore is not so readily perceived, and your fly when taken is pulled against the jaw, and not from it as is often the case when fishing down the stream. The casting the fly well and lightly is a knack which can only be acquired by experience. The spring of the rod should do the chief work, and not the labour of your arms. To effect this, you should lay the stress as near the hand as possible, and make the wood undulate from that point, which is done by keeping the elbow in advance, and doing something with the wrist which is not very easy to explain. Thus, the exertion should be chiefly from the elbow and wrist, and not from the shoulders.

A little practice will enable you to determine the length of line required to reach a given spot: until this knowledge is acquired, rather throw too short than too long a line. In the latter case, it will bag in the water and scare the fish, or if per chance one rises, it will most probably escape, before you have power to strike.

The stream fly should fall lightly on the desired spot, and the line, being just of sufficient length to allow of the exact point being reached, the bob fly will rest on the surface of the water, and by imparting to the rod a slight tremulous motion, from right to left, the stream fly will appear to be struggling in the stream, whilst the bob will occasionally bob up and down, (from which circumstance its name is derived) exhibiting the movement of the natural fly, when it alights, rises, and again alights.

After some experience, the eye will apprize you when the fish rises to seize the hook; you are doubly prepared to strike, if your line is on the stretch, in which case, you feel, as well as see your prey.

Striking, signifies a sudden jerk of the rod, at the instant the fish has taken the hook, and forms a very important feature in the art of fishing. If the jerk is too violent, the hook will probably be torn from its hold, or if it be too slight, the hook will not enter the jaw, and the fish escapes. The happy medium must be aimed at, remembering that our small fish require gentler treatment, than those of greater weight, whose capacious mouths afford a firmer hold, and may be treated with less ceremony.

Commence by throwing the fly across the tail of the stickle, thus:--A. is the fisherman, B. B. the banks of the river, C. the tail of the stickle, D. its commencement. A. first throws his fly across to E. then draws it with a kind of tremulous motion to F. then to G. and back to H. A. then moves on, and takes up his position at J. casts over to K. and across to L. tries again at M. and hooks a fish. If it is small, as too many of our West Country fish happen to be, it may be raised instanter, gently out of the water, and deposited in the basket. A. then advances a few paces, and finishes the pool between M. and D.

If by good luck a large fish is hooked, don’t attempt to jerk him out of the water, which frequently snaps the gut or tears the hook from its hold; but to use a technical term, “play him,” that is, let him swim about with your fly well embodied in his jaw, until he is sufficiently exhausted to enable you to take him out, either by lifting him over the bank, by taking the casting line in your hand, or by drawing him upon the sand or gravel. Whilst the fish is engaged in endeavouring to rid itself of the disagreeable customer in its mouth, be careful to maintain a steady, uniform strain, upon the line; don’t jerk at one time and slack at another. If the fish is unusually large, the butt of your rod must be held forward, which throws the point back; and thus the line presses against the entire length of the rod, and offers greater opposition to the fish than if the top were kept down and the butt up. The following hints, from the pen of an experienced fisherman, are deserving special notice.

“If your fish misses the fly in making his offer, wait awhile before you throw a second time, and if he rises at all, he will come more greedily for this delay. When he returns to his seat, after the unsuccessful sortie, he will say mentally, ‘What a donkey I was to be so awkward! By St. Antonio, if he comes again, I’ll smash him!’ But if you keep lashing away at him immediately, he will probably treat you with contempt, and will have no intercourse with your gay deluders for the rest of the day. It is some time, perhaps, since he has taken up his seat in the water, without ever having seen an animal like that which you are so obliging as to tender him; all of a sudden come a swarm of locusts, as it were, one after another over his nob, which astonish and alarm him exceedingly. Thus, it is apparent that you do not do justice to his sagacity, or instinct, or whatever you please to call it, if you set to work in such an intrusive manner.”

The preceding hints on trout fishing may with some exceptions, be adopted by the salmon and salmon peal fisher; before I proceed however to offer a few observations on the mode of fishing for these fish, a brief notice of the natural history of the trout may not be unacceptable.

The common trout is an inhabitant of most of the rivers and lakes of Great Britain. It is a voracious feeder and is vigilant, cautious, and active. During the day, the larger sized fish move little from their accustomed haunts, but towards evening and during the night, they rove in search of small fish, insects, and their various larvæ, upon which they feed with eagerness.

The young trout fry may be seen throughout the day, sporting in the shallow gravelly scours of the stream, where the want of sufficient depth of water, or the greater caution of larger and older fish prevent their appearance. Though vigilant and cautious in the extreme, the trout is also bold, and active. A pike and a trout put into a confined place together, had several battles for a particular spot, but the trout was eventually the master. This fish varies considerably in appearance in different localities; so much so, as to induce a belief that several species exist. Lord Home, however, who has paid much attention to the subject, remarks, “I am much inclined to think there is but one kind of river trout; the large lake trout may be different.”

Sir Wm. Jardine, in a paper on Salmonidæ, has described at considerable length, the variations observable in the trout of some of the lakes of Sutherlandshire. The fish in these lakes are reddish, dark, or silvery, according to the clearness of the water.

Mr. Neil, in his tour, notices the black moss trout of Loch Knitching, and Loch Katrine, is said to abound also with small black trout; an effect considered to be produced in some waters by receiving the drainage of boggy moors. In streams that flow rapidly over gravelly or rocky bottoms, the trout are remarkable for the brilliancy and beauty of their spots and colours. Thus, in our immediate neighbourhood, we find that the trout caught between Shaugh Bridge and Plym Steps, on the river Cad, are generally very dark, approaching in some instances almost to a black; whilst on the Tavy, below Denham Bridge, they will be found of a light silvery hue; so also on the Yealm--those taken below Lee Mill Bridge, are of a bright sparkling appearance, whilst others caught in Horns and Dendles, or on the moor above, are generally very dark, and in some of the pools which seldom enjoy the rays of the sun, are almost black.

The author of the “Wild Sports of the West of Ireland” remarks, “I never observed the effect of bottom soil upon the quality of fish so strongly marked as in the trout taken in a small lake, in the county of Monaghan. The water is a long irregular sheet, of no great depth: one shore bounded by a bog, the other, by a dry and gravelly surface. On the bog side, the trout are of the dark and shapeless species peculiar to moory loughs, while the other affords the beautiful and sprightly variety, generally inhabiting rapid and sandy streams. Narrow as the lake is, the fish appear to confine themselves to their respective limits: the red trout being never found upon the bog moiety of the lake, nor the black where the under surface is hard gravel.”

Sir H. Davie gives the following account of their spawning; and his remarks on some of the flies upon which they feed will be found interesting.

“Trout spawn or deposit their ova and seminal fluid in the end of Autumn or beginning of Winter, from the middle of November till the beginning of January: this materially depending upon the temperature of the season, their quantity of food, &c. For some time (a month or six weeks) before they are prepared for the sexual functions, or that of reproduction, they become less fat, particularly the females, the large quantity of eggs and their size, probably affecting the health of the animal, and compressing generally the vital organs in the abdomen. They are at least six weeks or two months after they have spawned before they recover their flesh, and the time when these fish are at the worst, is likewise the worst time for fly fishing, both on account of the cold weather and because there are fewer flies on the water than at any other season. Even in December and January there are a few small gnats, or water flies on the water in the middle of the day, in bright days or when there is sunshine. These are generally black, and they escape the influence of the frost, by the effects of light on their black bodies--and probably, by the extreme rapidity of the motions of their fluids, and generally of their organs. They are found only on the surface of the water, where the temperature must be above the freezing point.

“In February a few double winged water flies, which swim down the stream, are usually found in the middle of the day--such as the willow fly, and the cow-dung fly is sometimes carried on the water by winds. In March there are several flies found on most rivers, and in April, the blue and browns come on--the first in dark days--the second in bright. These lay their eggs in the water, which produce larvæ that remain in the state of worms, feeding and breathing in the water, till they are prepared for their metamorphosis, and quit the bottoms of the rivers, and the mud, and stone, for the surface, and the light and air.

“The brown fly usually disappears before the end of April--but of the blue dun there is a succession of different tints, or species, or varieties, which appear all the summer and autumn long. The excess of heat seems equally unfavorable, as the excess of cold, to the existence of the smaller species of water insect, which during the intensity of sunshine seldom appear in summer, but rise morning and evening. Towards the end of August the ephemera appear again in the middle of the day. To attempt to describe all the variety that sport on the surface of the water at different times of the day, throughout the year, would be quite an endless labour. Some of them appear to live only a few hours, none have their existence protracted to more than a few days. Of the beetle, there are many varieties fed on by fishes.--These insects are bred from eggs, which they deposit in the ground, or in the excrement of animals. The cock-chafer, the fern fly, and gray beetle, are common in our meadows in the summer, but there is hardly any insect that flies, including the wasp, the hornet, the bee, and the butter-fly, that does not become at sometime, the prey of fishes.”

Mr. Stoddart mentions an interesting experiment made with trout some years ago, in the South of England, in order to ascertain the value of different food. “Fish were placed in three separate tanks, one of which was supplied daily with worms, another with live minnows, and the third with those small dark coloured water flies, which are to be found moving about on the surface, under banks, and sheltered places. The trout fed with worms grew slowly, and had a lean appearance; those nourished on minnows, which it was observed they darted at with great avidity, became much larger; while, such as were fattened, upon flies only, attained in a small time, prodigious dimensions, weighing twice as much as both the others together, although the quantity of food swallowed by them was in nowise so great.”

In the new Sporting Magazine for Nov., 1840, a writer on fishes says, “An acutely-observing friend of mine, who has paid great attention to the growth of trout, states that they are rarely visible the first year, that they congregate with minnows and other small fry; the second, are found on shallows; the third summer, about seven or eight inches long; and subsequently increase rapidly to a pound or a pound and a half, dependent on the quantity and quality of their food, the season, and other circumstances.”