ANGLING NOTES

Evening Star, Issue 18173, 13 January 1923, Page 15

ANGLING NOTES

A GAEL FOR GLEAN FISHING.

[Bv A Scottish Avgleu.J

“Let us draw upon content for The deficiencies of fortune.” Ho was a wise man who first penned! this text. Often have I wondered how far tho proper spirit of sport pervades our ranks in this countryside. Who is the fisher who goes a-fishing in the right frame of mind? Isn’t ho such a man as would turn aside and lay down his rod when ho sees a brokenwinged bird or when he slants a. lark from Dio bent? On such chanoo happenings even the trout take a secondary place until tho lark’s nest has been found, a cosy, grass-lined nook, with its four shining eggs. H the trout are not doing, why shouldn't wo draw upon content and take a quiet turn up to the head waters of some woo lookers, and when w© got a glint of sunshine got down/ at some of the stiller little .pools and see the trout fry? I have Been lots. And how they dart out of eight at the least movement/1 Nor is that all we might see. Tho good tilings shown on .the bottom of the brooks are a delight to our eyes as well as to the birds and fishes. Stick bait or caddis fly larva) aro there by the thousands. Stone fly creeper and such like, which will hatch out in due time, .to further delight our eight in the evening flights ot stone flics, cinnamon and 'buff sedges, duns, spinners, crano flies, and all the summer hosts which aro tho prey of swallow, martin, gull, hat, as well as trout. Those of us who look and find tho like may have fewer trout, hut how much more pleasure than the alleged' angler who monopolises a pool to tho exclusion of his brother anglers, or one who witholds any information as to fish tailing or moving, or tackle to he employed, which might tend to increase the sport of his friends! Again there emerges that question as to tho interpretation of conditions under which privileges aro issued. When a permit is granted for fishing, and fly only is stipulated, it seems to roe that that is very plain and unequivocal. Fly is fly, and no man can call a maggot, or a worm, or a minnow anything other than what it is, no matter in what maimer they may bo fished. But, again, fly only ia a little more elastic a term than at first appeal's. I don’t read that it means artificial fly only; so in due season I don’t see tbait wo are restricted from taking suitable tackle and fishing with tho stone fly or (tapping with a bluebottle or n daddy longlegs, or, in faict, any other form of live bait we may care to employ. But a maggot hasn’t arrived at the fly stag© of its Rfe, and how far it might be correct even to bait with any kind of beetle which was, or is, or will be, at any stage 9! life capable of flight, I am not prepared to say. ’Without doubt tho most objectionable abuses of such privileges as we talk of are fishing with a rod set on a crutch, with the hooka baited either with a worm or minnow. It) occurs to mo that the “crutch” is absolutely essential, because it is such a lamo way of fishing. It Is hard to get such fehera to believe that, even when using these baits, much more sport and fish could bo secured by judicious manipulation of them rather than leaving them inert. Brut fly is fly and 1 bait is bait. ThaL- is tho first thing to be borne in mind. At tho same time be it understood that bait fishing Isn’t had, oven in a/ loch or reservoir where such is permitted, for has (not an angler bettor chances of clearing tho waters of bottom feeders, which flatly refuse to rise to the fly; and also his services are not to he lost sight of in keeping down tho numbers of porch and eels, which are a great enemy of (ho trout.

Now we com© to another type of angler, a class wMdh occupies the lowest depths. They ore not anglers; they are hardly even fishora, which is a much mane comprehensive term. They are -but moral lepers who traffic In. trout. I refer to those who lime the pools, dynamite tho linns, killing great numbers of mature and- destroying much greater numbers of immature those who not tho streams and nighst-lme the lochs. Such a case as is last referred to lias oomo to my knowledge recently, when a gang was caught red-handed cross-lining a lodh in the shire somewhere in the hinterland. The utmost penality for a first offence was, I think, imposed, with confiscation of tho abominable gear. The other day I saw in. a paper a half-column on tho Labor Party ana the game laws. The impression was that if it could it would make a clean, sweep of some of the good laws governing our land and game. I don’t say that tho game laws couldn’t bo improved; but laws, I hope, will never give way to license, and it matters not what [party may ho running tho affairs oif the country. I think they could quite profitably employ same of their time .in looking after the conservation of the game of our laud and water, and might turn (heir attention anudh more whole-heartedly than heretofore to tackling 'tire problem ef river pollution in order to make our streams and waterways health-giving instead of remaining, as ini many cares, carriers of sewage, useless by-products of factories, and refuse of towns. They might (and ought also) tacklo tho weir and obstruction nuisance, and sco that proper fish passes ore constructed and kept in order .where such weirs exist, so that migratory fish could have free access to tho upper waters of the streams. A further development of the fishing resources of the country inland, as well as deep sea and. coastal, and an, opening up of more waiters Ibr the general public, would also bo beneficent.