The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-06-15
THE WHIM OF THE TROUT.
WHERE TROUT GO IN WIN
 TER.
Why it is That Only Small Fish are Taken on One Day. and Only Large Ones on Another-Trout That Play WitH Flies.

WitH Flies.
 Trout in the streams of Hampshire. as White of SeIborne noticed, begin to
 rise' shortly after the middle of March. This implies that they have returned to the places in which they were dur ing the summer before. In autumn, when running up the waters to the spawning grounds. they would take worms greedily, if these were offered and would evSn rise at flies, real or ar tificial; but, as any honest pOacher could vouch, they do not rise at flies, or bite at mors substantial baits, when on the way back to the places which they occupy in spring and summer. h. deed, their habits for a few months af- , ter spawning are rather mysterious. Even in Hampshire, the streams of
 which are not so large as to render a pretty exhaustive scrutiny impossible, any person not highly skilled in the lore of the naturalist would be pug zled If he went forth to catch few be- fore the middle of March. He might cast his flies in vain over some attrac- tive stretch on which in summer he was ! wont to make heavy baskets. Then, if he had curiosity, he might peer into the 1 water to see whether the fish were real ly there and find that they really wera not. He would almost be disposed to l conclude that the trout had quilted the 1 stream.
 If that evening, or next day, he went I to study the problem by the banks of | one of the great running waters in l Scotland, the mystery would deepen. During the whole of March there seems
 to be scarcely trout in such river as
 tha Dee or the Fay. Not a rise is seen by the persevering salmon-fshers; nei- | ther with fly nor with worm does l the man with trout-rod meet with a
 success worth mentioning. There is no sign of trout in any of the places where
 they swarmed six months before.
 Where are they?
 They have long felt the spawning 1 grounds, and they do not seem to ba
 anywhere else. One might be tempted | to suspect that they must be hiberna- l ting in the mud. A Yorkshireman, at
 any rate. might make that conjecture
 readily. In his part of the country a
 great wonder is sometimes witnessed. l There is a long drouth, and the becks
 cease to run, and it may be supposed | that all the trout have perished; but 1 the rains descend and the floods come, and To! the trout are as plentiful and as blithe as ever. In the Ba6minton
 Magazine about year ago there was
 an account of a similar marvel in Hert- | fordshire. It is supposed, by way of explanation, that trout are able to re-
 main alive in fluid mud.
 l That, however, is not the solution I
 would propose It is not in the mud
 that the trout, either of the Test or of
 the Fay, hide until March is nearly over. They are, think, resting at the
 bottom of the river in peace where the
 water is deep and slow. This surnise
 springs less from experience than from
 analogy. Both in Hampshire and in
 the Highlands, during March, I have l f1shed In such pools as we'll as in shall low waters, and that In vain; but any
 one who seeks the March trout in a
 lake, instead of seeking him in @ l stream, will have a different requital.
 All along the north shore, where the i sun is warming the lake, the fish will
 rush at his flies eagerly. Before the enactment of a close-time many a bas-
 ket of trout was taken from the Scotch lakes in February, and the capture of 1 fish in January was not unknown Perhaps our analogy will commend it.
 self. Lake trout. return to the still wa l ter very soon after spawning, in tha l streams. It is, therefore, reasonable to
 suppose that river trout, which usually l spawn in tributaries, seek, on return l ing, those parts of the river in which 1 the, process of recuperation is least
 arduous The fact that the river trout
 do not rise, while the lake trout do, is not against this suggestion. The watch | of the shore of a ake is shallow as a l rule, and the fish there readily see a l fly thrown over them; but the pools in l which the river trout take refuge are the deepest they can find, and they
 may fly well pass unseen.
 Whq, then, it may be asked, does any poacher seek them earlier in the year l than the law allows? If trout are not I to be caught, why does such a practi-
 cal person go forth to try for them? l Why, indeed, does the writer himself, l not yet convicted of having poached, l show a certain intimacy with the ways
 of trout at a time when they are not to
 be caught? These are cogent queries. l The last of them may be settled by the l remark that, although many trout are
 not to be expected from a larger river in March, the law does not forbid ar1- gling them. The others must be an-
 swered effectively.
 Flowing into the North Sea on the
 coast of Scotland there is fine trout
 stream on which the fburgessSs or a little county town are free to fish Be-
 fore the recent act regulating the sea- sons, this right was exercised in no stingy spirit. Many of the beneficiaries | fished not only through spring and summer, but also through autumn and l winter. The burgesses seemed to in- ] clude the boys of a school in the little 1 town, some of whom spent Saturdays
 and other holidays by the waterside.
 There, late in November, met fa- miliar figure. It was that of an an-
 cient gipsy who haunted the stream
 night and day. It was believed that he
 made his livelihood by selling trout to
 a fishmonger in a large town not far I off, the inhab abitants of which, not be-