Part 12

The Derwent is also another nice fly-fishing stream for trout and fine greyling; the best places to proceed to fish would be Baslow and Rowsley Bridge, my list of flies will suit it well.

THE RIVERS WANDLE AND COLN.

These rivers are convenient to London, and are famous for fly fishing: they are in general private property, but the owners are very civil in granting one or two days' angling on application and sending your card. There are two or three places on the Wandle that may be angled in at will, about the neighbourhood of Carshalton, and Ackbridge; and on the Coln, at Watford and Rickmansworth. The flies to suit the Wandle are generally well known, which are--the Carshalton cocktail, dark hare's ear, blue and pale duns, little peacock fly, furnace fly, small soldier fly, and little black red palmers, the little brown midge and the March brown made very small, small black gnat, and red ant, these flies may be seen in my list for the season, they cannot fail to afford diversion.

The flies to suit the river Coln, are--the brown Caperer, large cinnamon fly, brown-red palmer, and Orl fly with a dun hackle and yellow body, the stone fly, March brown, brown grouse hackle, wren-tail fly, large red ant, black gnat, and dun drake, a red hackle fly made full with the red and grey tail feather of the partridge mixed, bronze peacock harl body. Hook No. 8.

The Great Whirling Dun, Red Spinner, the Coachman, and the Large Governor flies will be found with those good for the evening, with a nice ripple on the water.

The river Itchen, at Itchen Abbas, Hants, is a very nice stream for fly fishing, and the Avon at Salisbury Plain, the Kennet, at Hungerford, Berks, is also good, and the river Mole at Leatherhead, Surrey, is a beautiful stream for fly fishing, in the vicinity of Randal's Park. It has been preserved in the park for years, and abounds with large trout.

Whitchurch and Stockbridge are also good places for the fly, in Hampshire; and the famed "Lea" at Ware, the resort of many a good London angler; the river Stour is another fine trout stream, it receives the rivers of Wilts in its course, waters Hampshire, and falls into the sea at Christchurch. My list of flies will kill here.

There are many very beautiful rivers in Devonshire for trout fishing, which are, the Ex at Exeter and Tiverton, the Ax at Axminster, and the Tamar which separates Cornwall and Devon, a very considerable river, in which there are salmon and fine white trout in the spring of the year, March and April. Launceston would be the most convenient station for the tourist angler to fish this fine river.

The salmon in it take small flies, with claret and dark brown bodies, ribbed with gold, mallard wings mixed with a little tipped feather, and tails of the same; at high water they rise and take more gaudily dressed ones, made on B and BB hooks.

I sent the colours to a gentleman to suit this river some time ago, who told me it would be an excellent one for salmon, were it well taken care of. He made his own flies.

I have also sent fishing colours, hackles, and flies, to suit every river, or nearly so, in Great Britain, to gentlemen residing on their banks, which has been a great advantage to me in obtaining the knowledge of the local flies, but in general my flies have succeeded best in the hands of those Fly fishers who have made it their study and practice.

It will be seen that I have not withheld the local flies for each river from accompanying my own, and those great anglers who visit Norway will find the Salmon flies in the plates most killing, and it will be a great advantage to them to have this book in their possession, to give them a knowledge of fishing colours, and the various modes of dressing both salmon and trout flies, the delineation of which they will see I have given to a nicety, having studied from my youth, and learned from my own observation.

I have been all my life too fond of fishing, which has been sometimes to my disadvantage, but I loved the scenes of woods, green hills, of singing birds, meadows, and fresh air, rushing rivers, and above all, to look at the beautiful fish jumping to catch the fly on the surface of the water.

BAIT FISHING.

THE RIVER THAMES.

After jumping over old "tower'd" Thames on our way to the south, we now return to him to wind up this little chapter on rivers; there cannot be a better river for the purposes of trolling, spinning, or bait fishing in general, than the Thames, there is not a town on its banks from Richmond to Oxford, that does not afford capital angling with the bait, and in many places large trout may be caught with the fly in the evening, these large trout are very delicious and grow fat on the quantities of minnows and gudgeons which they prey upon, and of which there are an inexhaustible supply. I have taken a few of them with large size blood red flies, brown flies, and large palmers of the like colours. The flies Nos. 4, 5, and 7, in the plates, are just the sort made a size or two smaller; Hampton Court, Sunbury, Weybridge, and Pentonhook, are likely places to rise a fish about seven in the evening, and early in the morning from six to eight. A light general rod with spare tops for fly fishing, about sixteen or seventeen feet long, with reel, and line of sixty yards, would be about the sort I would recommend, made of good hickory, or split cane; this sort of rod would suit any purpose, either for trolling, spinning, or for barbel fishing with the lob worm, &c.

Mr. Stoddart in his "Work on Angling" speaks very highly of worm and bait fishing in general.

And "Mr. Salter's Book," is a very good authority for trolling and spinning. The greater part of the fishermen and punt men on the Thames are capital hands at using the trolling and spinning tackle, so that the young angler who desires to become expert at this sort of fishing, can easily gain instruction from these civil men; they are also good barbel and trout fishers with the lob worm.

There are many good trout caught by spinning, and when bait fishing with the lob worm for barbel in places where they would rise and take the fly were they let alone, this is the cause of their being so scarce, as trout from half-a-pound and upwards will take the worm.

The Thames produces many kinds of fish--trout, perch, barbel, pike, roach, dace, carp, chub, gudgeons, minnows, eels, &c. As all these fish take the bait in general, I will here give the proper sorts for each, with the tackle to suit the purpose, and will show the angler which to use to his best advantage in every river he fishes in.

PERCH.

The Perch is a very handsome fish, and is best taken with the worm or live minnow, the larger size ones take the latter bait well and the smaller ones take the brandling and red worms best, using a No. 7 or 8 hook, and put on two worms at a time; use a small cork float, and as many shot on the line as will keep the bait steady about a foot from the bottom; use fine tackle in clear deep water, and keep as much out of their view as possible; the Paternoster is an excellent tackle for taking them, baited with live minnows in rapid waters near the sides of weirs, roving with a small live minnow, having a shot on the line of fine gut to keep it in mid water. If you know there are pike in the place, use fine gymp instead of gut, as these fish are taken in the same manner.

BARBEL.

The Barbel are strong fish, and require strong tackle to catch them, a No. 4 or 5 hook tied on stout single gut, and have a small bullet with a hole through it on your line, and a shot about a foot from the hook to be stationary, to prevent the bullet from running down on the bait; when you have a bite he draws the line through the bullet gently at first let him do so for a little, and then strike not too hard. The best bait for him is the lob worm well scoured.

I consider this a famous plan for catching salmon, when they will not rise at the fly, in deep running streams. If you can find out where there is one lying drop it into the water above him and let it fall towards his nose, and he will be almost sure to take it. In low water you can throw the lob worm, if well scoured, on a gut casting line, like the fly, on a No. 6 hook; moving up the river, throwing it in before you, and allowing it to fall gently with the current till you feel a bite, raising your hand after allowing time, the same as if it had taken the fly; you may wade up the river at convenient places with your boots, try Cording's waterproofs, in the Strand.

There is good trout fishing after rains, with the running line, with shot attached; use gut hooks No. 7 or 8, and let the bait run with the stream gently, keeping the line taut, and when it stops rise your hand a little to free it, allowing it to move on again, and when you feel a bite wait a little till he takes it, and then strike gently, if a small fish pull him out, if a large one play him. The best places to throw in are at the sides of streams, in the smooth parts, in eddies, and where the current of the pool is breaking off at the foot into another stream, and when the flood is subsiding after rain, are the best times, using brandling worms and small lob worms. This was my favourite way of catching trout when a boy.

PIKE.

The Pike is a rough customer (if large) to come across, and the tackle which is required to catch him is as rough and as terrible as himself; he will take almost anything that is thrown to him if moved in the water he haunts. Roving with the minnow using a float, is, I think, the nicest way of fishing for him in deep places, but he is oftener taken by spinning, or trolling the gorge bait, tackle which is well known to every angler.

The pike take the larger double hook gaudy fly, in deep running places, beyond the weeds, when there is a stiff breeze blowing and small close rain falling, and at no other time will he look at a fly; it is useless to try unless in a rapid stream, which is an unusual place for him to haunt in general. Autumn is the best time for these fish. When you prepare the trolling bait for jack or pike, have a needle to draw the gymp through the bait, say a minnow, gudgeon, or dace, putting it in at the mouth of the fish and out near the root of the tail; sew up the mouth of the bait, and tie the tail part to the end of the hooks, which has been often explained before. Throw it in sideways into deep places, letting it sink a foot or two, and draw it in pretty quick towards you, and when the fish makes a run to take it, give him a little time; when your line begins to shiver and shake and he moves off, raise your hand and anchor the hook in him; if he is a small one whip him out of the water with your stiff and patent line at your feet, if a large one play him as you would a salmon, keep his head well up and draw him through the weeds if any and gaff him quickly.

The best rods to use for trolling are made of the toughest hickory, as the cane often gives way with a large fish; upright rings, and prepared silk and hair line, with reel to suit the rod, forty yards, if the place you angle in is not very broad, will be sufficient; and when fishing in a boat with a salmon rod, if there is a chance of pike fishing in lakes when the salmon will not take the fly, using the short top would be found stiff enough, that is, when you have not a trolling rod with you in the boat.

The large flexible minnow would be a capital bait for jack in lakes or deep rivers; and the glass minnow is also good. These fish rush at very bright imitations of the natural fish bait best, and a good size white trout would be a valuable little fish to throw for him--a large size dace is also good. These baits could be preserved in whiskey for weeks. They preserve fry and sprats in Scotland in this way for salmon or pike fishing. The old fishermen in the north say that "sprats" are the fry of the herring. I am persuaded that they would be excellent bait for salmon, preserved so as to keep their brilliancy. The Paternoster Tackle cannot fail to suit the purpose of those who prefer angling in a punt for jack at the sides of large streams near the bank where there are alders or willows growing, overhanging the water, with a gravelly bottom. Nice plump bright minnows are the best, or large size gudgeons; the hooks No. 4 or 5, mounted on gymp.

_Note._--The best trolling rods, spinning, and bait rods, with trolling tackle of the strongest sort; minnow tackle, gut hooks, gymp hooks, treble and double hooks, gorge and snap hooks, and every sort of the best hooks and tackle to suit trolling, spinning, and bait fishing, to be had at my shop, 54, Dean Street, Soho, London. Try my spinning trace, half twisted and half single salmon gut, mounted with swivels and large shot, for large trout or salmon.

ROACH.

The Roach is a handsome fish, and when taken of the size of half a pound or a pound, are not such bad eating as is said of them. They are very bony, it is true, but particularly wholesome. These fish do not thrive so well in ponds where they are exceedingly numerous, but in deep running rivers, with sandy and gravelly bottoms. They excel in both flavour and size. Let the place to angle for them be about four or five feet deep, plumb the depth, and allow your bait to be very near the bottom. The baits are paste, or gentles. When you begin, throw into the place you angle in some ground bait, to bring them together; keep your eye to the float, which should be a quill one, and the gut line with as many shot attached to it as will carry the float about a quarter the length of it out of the water, and strike smartly, but gently when you see it move downwards. They bite best in mild dark days. Work the paste between the hands (bread without wet), and when rather tough, mix a little vermilion with it, they like this best. Let the shot be about half a foot or so from the hook, which should be a No. 10 or 12, and where there are large ones, No. 8, tied on gut. When I was a little boy this sort of angling used to be my favourite amusement, with the running bait for trout after a flood.

DACE.

The Dace is a lively brisk little fish, and affords much amusement in catching him, particularly with very small flies, which he will rise at from May to October. They like the rapid streams, along the sides of them, and in the middle, they may be seen in shoals. The vicinity of Richmond is a very good place to go for a day's Dace fishing with the fly. They haunt the same places as the Roach, are taken with the same baits, and angled for near the bottom. Hooks No. 12 or 13.

CARP.

It is a very difficult matter to catch Carp with the bait, as they are most cunning fish to detect at once the deception, and swim away on the least sight of the rod or the shadow of the fisherman. The Carp haunt the deep parts of gently running streams, and those caught in rivers are the best; those that are very numerous in ponds are lean and soft in the flesh, and rather insipid. The best plan to angle for them would be with a very fine gut line, a No. 9 hook, baited with a couple of small red worms or two gentles, thrown into the water where they are, very cautiously, and keep well out of sight. Let the bait sink a short way from the surface, and draw it gently towards you, using at the same time a very long rod, rather stiff. Strike immediately they take the bait, gently, and play them as you would a trout on the fly.

CHUB.

The Chub is rather a handsome fish when in season, and those caught with the artificial fly in many parts of the Thames, are very brilliant and pretty to look at; but, unfortunately, they are full of very small bones, when cooked the roe is wholesome.

They haunt the deepest pools and rivers under shaded banks overhung with trees, the sides of weirs, and in ponds where a small spring runs in and out of them, with rather a rocky or gravelly bottom. Autumn is the best season for them, although I have caught them with the fly in the Thames in summer in good perfection, when fishing for trout. The way to angle for them would be to use a quill float, with a No. 8 hook, or larger, a gut line, and some shot about ten inches from the bait to sink the float, bait the hook with bread paste made red, and made tough in clean hands, put on a piece of it the size of a nut, throw in gently, and keep out of sight. Good cheese, well worked to make it tough, is also good. They will take gentles turned inside out on the hook one over the other, and when you have a bite strike rather quickly. They will also take grasshoppers, blue bottles, cadbait, and cockchafers; and with red or yellow flies, and black and brown palmers in the ordinary way of fishing for trout.

GUDGEONS AND MINNOWS.

These are very beautiful little fish, and most wholesome food; they are the best bait for perch, jack, and large trout, that can be, as I mentioned before. The way to angle for them is to have a couple of very small hooks tied on hair or fine gut, with a shot or two to carry the float off the bottom, say a small quill float, bait your hook with a very small red worm, or a piece of a brandling worm; they may be seen very numerous in the Thames, along the sides of streams, and in smooth running water with gravelly bottom; they afford nice amusement to the young angler, and when taken out of the water are remarkably handsome to look at.

BAITS.

To scour worms:--put them in clean damp moss, changing it in two or three days, place them between two layers of it, and choose those that are free from knots. The lob worms are found in gardens; brandlings and red worms are scoured with the lob worm in the same pot covered at top; those found in old tan yards are the best, and may be used without scouring. When you use the worms, dip them in cream, which will refresh their colour.

The cadis worm or cad bait is excellent for trout fishing, placed on the hook double, and cast gently with the wind into the stream, or dropped into the water beneath bushes that grow on the banks of pools where large fish lie, and are the most likely places. In rivers clearing off after floods in the summer they do well, and are also good for perch in deep running water. These cad worms produce many of the flies for the season after remaining during the cold weather at the bottom rolling about, and when the spring and summer appear they change into these beautiful insects; before the change takes place, during the winter, they form themselves a cover to protect them from the inroads of their enemies. Their instinct[H] prompts them to incase themselves like a snail in a piece of hollow reed, open at each end, and covered with small gravel and little shells, which they attach with a kind of glutinous substance to resist the force of the water; they creep on the bottom with six legs, and having their little house on their backs draw into it at pleasure, and settle amongst the stones like a piece of rotten branch or stick. The Trout and other fish feed upon them in the winter, when the winged insects are nowhere to be seen.

Showery windy days are generally best for fly fishing, blowing from the south, south-west, west, and north; there are but few fish take in east winds. When the wind blows warm in the beginning of the season it is good for bait fishing, and in autumn mild days are best. In days when there is no likelihood of constant rain after clear nights, and a nice grey cloud covers the sky, with a good cool breeze blowing to ripple the water, this is the time to rise the large trout, and which afford the best sport.

"Full nature swarms with one wondrous mass Of animals, or atoms organized, Waiting the vital breath, when parent heaven Shall bid His spirit blow." THOMSON.

FOOTNOTE:

[Footnote H: Given them by the Great Author of nature.]

THE ART OF

DYEING FISHING COLOURS,

WHICH ARE

PIG'S HAIR, MOHAIR, FUR, & HACKLES, COMMONLY CALLED DUBBING.

The great advantage the fly fisher must derive from a knowledge of dyeing his colours and hackles is obvious. It affords amusement to the enthusiastic fisher to be acquainted with the various shades required for making his flies to suit the rivers, and the flies become valuable when made of good colours and hackles. Every hackle and colour that is used for making a salmon fly must be of the richest dye imaginable, that they may show brilliant and good to the fish's eye at the bottom of the water, and entice them to rise and take it at the top. The hackles must be taken from old cocks, both the neck and saddle ones, as they hold the dye best. Wool is not good for the fly, as it soaks the water, and is dull and heavy. Pig hair, that next the skin, with the stiff and coarse bristles picked and cleared away, and mohair, which is Spanish goat hair, a most beautiful brilliant substance for fly making when dyed well; white seal's fur, and furs of different kinds of a white colour. White hackles are best for yellows, oranges, gold colours, blues, greens, &c.; red hackles do best to dye claret, red, or fiery browns, olives, and cinnamon browns, &c., and black hackles for sooty olives, and tawny colours. When the angler sees a white old cock he should buy him to procure his hackles, or a black cock, a grey cock, and old red cocks of every hue, all of which are good for dyeing. These also must be washed in soap and hot water before being dyed, and the flue stripped off, tied in bunches (see the bunch of white hackles in the Plate of Feathers, ready for the dye) of proper sizes, and when about to be put into the dye-pot, wet them and the hair in hot water.

Provide a small crucible or earthen pot, glazed inside, with an earthen handle, to hold a quart of soft water, and before you put in your hackles or hair, wash them well, as I said before, in soap and hot water. The five principal colours to work upon are blue, red, yellow, brown, and black. From the combination of two or more of these may be produced every shade required, from the lightest to the darkest, so that it only requires some practice, to know the different ingredients to use, to become a Dyer of Fishing Colours.

TO DYE YELLOW.

I will begin with yellow, the most useful colour in general for the gentle craft. Put your crucible on a slow fire nearly full of water, or say half full, for the first trial. Take a tea cup, and into it put a table-spoonful of the best turmeric, pour over it some warm water, and stir it well with a clean piece of fire wood; when the water begins to simmer in the pot, put in the ingredient out of the cup, and stir it well with a piece of stick; have a second crucible, about half full of soft water, and boil it, into this put two table-spoonfuls of ground alum and one tea-spoonful of crystal of tartar, while these are boiling and perfectly dissolved, put into it your hackles or hair, and boil gently for an hour or half an hour; take off your pots and enter the hackles into the yellow dye out of the liquor into which you put the alum and tartar, and boil them very slowly for an hour, taking them out at intervals to see the shade you require; if too pale you must put more turmeric in, and if too heavy in shade the next trial, put in less, and do the same with all colours till you please your own eye. When they are the proper colour, take them out and wash them in soap and hot water. Draw them evenly through your fingers in the bunch, and let them dry, as this keeps them in shape.