CATCHING the SEA-TROUT .sx A GAME AND WILY FISH .sx By R. H. Eadie .sx DON'T we all rather envy the angler who , almost as soon as the fishing season opens , stirs us all into activity by announcing that he had " seven nice sea-trout last night ?sx " .sx We may question him closely as to the methods and lures used , or we may pretend to be indifferent to his statement , but if we are fishermen at all evening will see us amongst the rods and tackle , selecting this and that fly , testing lines , looking out waders , and generally preparing to go out and beat the other angler at his own game .sx And how often are we sadly disappointed !sx Different conditions require totally different methods , and the successful sea-trout angler must be able to change from one style of fishing to another and to make experiments unceasingly , if he is to basket these shy fish .sx Sometimes , as was the case in a recent season , March may prove to be an exceptionally open and mild month , and when there is not much snow on the hills to keep the rivers up , the water may become comparatively low and clear .sx Under such conditions daylight fishing is almost a waste of time , as the sea-trout are so timid and quick that any movement on the river bank will scare them into deep water and spoil the angler's chances completely .sx In a moderately full-running stream , however , it will be found that fresh-run sea-trout have a tendency to bunch together in small shoals and move gradually upstream in that manner .sx If an angler is fortunate enough to come upon such a shoal , and can keep out of sight and offer them an acceptable fly , he will be able to take toll of their numbers with a fair amount of certainty .sx Many fishermen make the mistake , however , of sticking to a pool which has yielded two or three fish , after the rises have stopped .sx Such flogging of the water is generally wasted energy .sx If a number of feeding sea-trout suddenly cease to take any notice of daintily-offered lures there is only one explanation .sx They have gone on up to the next pool , and the experienced angler will quickly make tracks for the next resting-place .sx Flies of a slightly larger type than those used for brown trout will usually be the most successful killers , the bolder looking types , such as mallard and claret , teal and claret , teal and red , or teal or mallard and yellow , being the favourites .sx A large butcher will often prove tempting if the water is brightly coloured , while another favourite is a fly tied with a gold tinsel body and cinnamon wings .sx In certain states of the water worm fishing may prove the best or , indeed , the only way to basket sea-trout , but where it is possible to use flies the latter should be fished in preference to the worm - at any rate , early in the season .sx Under suitable conditions night fishing is , of course , by far the most productive of good catches , and as such should not be missed by the keen fisherman .sx One single or double-hooked large fly should be used on the cast at night and thrown with fully as much care and delicacy as in daylight fishing .sx In the evening , especially if the weather is mild , sea-trout drop down the pools to the shallower water over a sand bank or shingle bed , and in such places the angler may hope to tempt them with a skilfully thrown fly , provided always he keeps out of sight of the fish and moves lightly about the bank .sx The greatest care should be exercised in the handling of a big fish at night , the ideal way of tightening on him being the method of pulling the line into coils in the left hand , as the fisher is then in a position to give line immediately and smoothly if a rush is made when the fish is close in .sx Tackle must be sound , and the landing-net must have a reasonably long handle , as the sea-trout is for his weight the most sporting and quickest-fighting fish found in fresh water , and , being tender-mouthed , requires skilful and delicate handling .sx Odd Casts .sx By W. CATER PLATTS .sx THE trout season is now getting well into swing , and the replenishment of the fly-book is a very serious matter .sx I have heard of one North-country dalesman , doing a nice little trade in dressing hackled flies for the fishermen in his district , who stayed away from church one Sunday morning in order to tie a couple of dozens of spider flies - purple snipes , orange partridges , waterhen bloas , and such like - for a man who was going fishing the next day .sx The affair came to the ears of the vicar , who promptly took the offender to task .sx " I'm astonished at you , Ike , " he remonstrated more in sorrow than in anger , for he was a bit of a fisherman himself , " so far forgetting yourself as to do business on a Sunday !sx " .sx " Business , " gasped Ike .sx " Why , bless ye , sir , tying a few flies for a man as is going fishing first thing the next morning , and hasn't a blinking fly in his book good enough to fling at a red herring - why , axing yer pardon , it isn't business , it's pure charity !sx " .sx There are anglers like that , who , at the last minute , have nothing to fish with ; and , then , there are those of the other sort who make a point of disguising themselves as perambulating Woolworths in the infinite variety of their equipment .sx When the unsophisticated observer chances to be in the close proximity of one such generously equipped specimen while he makes a breathless search through two tackle-cases teeming with more varieties of odds and ends and hooks and eyes than a sixpenny bazaar , through a plethoric fly-book harbouring more minced plumage and fancy silks than a feather bed and a lady's workbag , through the compartments of a complicated creel , through the eleven pockets in his sporting suit bulging with smallware of infinite variety , through his bait-box containing a ten-course menu of epicurean delicacy from succulent lobworms to lusciously juicy maggots , in the frenzied effort to discover the whereabouts of that spare leger bullet he is carrying in his mouth all the time , so that he will know exactly where to find it when he wants it , the said unsophisticated observer is apt to exclaim in amaze- .sx " My hat !sx Is it absolutely necessary for an angler to cart about a marine stores and the British Museum in order to catch two or three small misguided fish ?sx " One of the minor irritating mishaps the fly-fisher is ever liable to experience is the hooking , probably by a playful gust of wind , of himself in the back of his jacket in that one particular small area which he cannot reach with either hand .sx He is loath to smash his cast - perhaps the last he has with him - and there is not another human being nearer than the next parish to render him first aid .sx For pure pathos his predicament is only equalled by that of the knight in complete armour with a frolicsome flea tickling the small of his back .sx Frantically the hooked angler reaches over his right shoulder with his left arm , and then over his left shoulder with his right arm .sx He screws his hands behind him under his armpits .sx He puts a crick into his neck and a kink into his spine as he contorts himself into the hundred complicated wriggles of an amateur boa constrictor .sx He chases himself round to the right , and then to the left .sx It is all of no avail ; the case is hopeless ; that hook is as secure from his clutching fingers as if it were in a safe deposit .sx So he eventually goes home with the fly still pinned to that inaccessible spot between his shoulder blades - goes home sadly and sorrowfully , yearning for tender sympathy in his grievous luck , and his wife meets him with a sniff and a sneer , as she giggles contemptuously - .sx " Silly ass !sx Why didn't you take your jacket off ?sx Just like a man !sx " .sx Chronicles of a Salmon Angler .sx CATCHING SALMON FASTER THAN ROACH !sx By " WHITE WINGS .sx " DIDN'T I say in the last issue of The Angler's News that the Tweed is excelling itself ?sx Last week we saw that General Trotter had 19 salmon to his own rod at an outing .sx This week two other anglers have done the like .sx On the same water as General Trotter had his big catch , Mr. Horn had 19 springers in a day , while Mr. Denne killed the same number at South Wark .sx Thus in the opening month of the year , the Tweed has given 57 in a day to three salmon anglers .sx And the weather is very wintry .sx A wind of the East has a keen razor edge , and snow has fallen on two or three days this week ending March 7 .sx Vigorous anglers are unable to stand the cold and the blinding blizzards .sx One's hands grow so numb that feeling goes , and angling has no pleasure in it .sx Duncan was telling me to-day that he has seen this week what he never saw in a long life on the Tweed , namely , a line so frozen that it refused to unroll itself from a Malloch reel .sx COLD WEATHER AND " FUNGUS .sx " .sx There is a rumour of disease appearing in the lower stretches .sx By disease I mean the so-called fungus , which seems to thrive in very cold weather .sx Should this be true , and should it spread , it will soon put an end to big bags for a time , for fish get sick before the fatal white spots appear generally on the head and near the adipose fin , and will not take .sx What we need is a melting of snow right up to the hills , followed by a rain flood , and then sport will be brisk again .sx Big bags cannot continue in so severe weather , but milder days must come again , and if the horrid disease does not invade the river , there is no fear of this season being a record one for the Tweed .sx THE SPORT OF KINGS AND COMMERCIALISM .sx One fears that there is now a commercialism entering into the sport of kings .sx Rents have gone up and up , and now they are going down and down .sx And it is said that some stretches are now let by the day , a very unusual occurrence on some of our majestic rivers .sx Some of these days anglers may make material profit out of their sport .sx There is nothing wrong in so doing , but one knows ordinary working men , when successful , go out with a slice here and there that others may share in their success .sx MORE COMMERCIALISM .sx One dislikes the commercialism which has been entering into the noble sport .sx I'm not thinking of fishers selling trout and grayling and eels .sx We need men to catch eels , for they are more numerous than we think and do much damage to the young of salmon - " Midnight assassins " is the phrase I think Sir Herbert Maxwell uses when he writes of eels .sx The only objection one makes against selling trout is that the opening season begins too soon , and does not end soon enough .sx Trout in shop windows on the afternoon or evening of March 1 present a pitiable sight , yet many buy them , and pay far too much for them .sx Lean , soft creatures these trout are , and in their hunger , fall an easy prey to the salmon-roe fisher , who is in league with the salmon poacher .sx On the other hand , one knows a few who , out of work , get a shilling or two by the sale of trout in time of need .sx NETTING IN THE SEA ONLY !sx There is a commercialism which is fair to everybody in the capture of the noblest and most beautiful fish that swims .sx There are and ought to be salmon nets , but they should be only in the sea , and never in a river .sx The harvest of these nets is the nutritious food of the people .sx While these nets are out of the river Tweed no angler can legally sell a salmon - that is , from mid-September to mid-February .sx