Some Books on Fishing
• _ _ The Tale of a Wire Fisherman:- By H. A. Gilbert. (Methuen. 6s.) Rod -and Stream : MiSeellaneorii; Papers On the Sport of Fishing.
PUBLISHERS who know their business get fishing books out now, when only a few fortunate ones have begun to use their rods, but all who love these weapons are throwing glances towards them. Still, many salmon have been landed already let us begin with Mr. Gilbert's book on the Wye—which thirty years agb was di%paired of, and in 1927 saw over ten thousand Salmon taken_ by the rod. .This means that the fishing rights :are worth'about nfty thousiuid- a -year i and Mr: -Gilbert is probably .right in holding that more men earn a living wage off the water than when it was all net-fished. It seems also that the average• size of the salmon haS inereased, Mr. -Gilbert hin-lielf tali his experience With-lour forty-pounders. Miss Davey's account of her Struggle with the .biggest 'of all, a 59 lb.-fish; is duly given. It was landedby lathplight after two hours of " the sort of strain that will -kill a 20 'lb: fish in seven or eight minutes."
But the Main interest of the book lies in its serious detailed
the means _ . account of the means which hve n used to revive the stock of salmon. For what has been. done in the Wye can be done elsewhere. It is not only a question of, sportsmen's pleasure. Unlimited nef-fishing in confined spaces, that is in any British river, means extirpation of the. stockaiid .conse- quently of the netsmen's livelihood and of the food supply. Mr. Gilbert fully recognizes that the angler's interest is not paramount. Commercial fishing has to be combined with the 'other, and like every real sportsman this angler has studied and sympathized withthe netsman's skill and varying fortunes. There is an excellent description of the various types of net in use on the We and of the waters they work in ' Also there 'is speculation whether the Wye `cannot be cleared of coarse ;fish and made hitotrout-fishing as well as a salmon one- _
for the less opulent anglers. . _ . .
Mr. SharP'S pleaSant little book- is mostly concerned with trout, and -has some useful obseivationi on the ethics of ,wading-Aiow far it Spills Sport for • Others. -There is a good chapter. on dapping 'with the natural fly=though as a rule the difficulty consists, we should have said, in keeping the fly still on the water rather than in making it move: Also there is detail about fishing-no easy- itit=irid for such as have not mountain streams in reach, here are entice- ments to gel• after perch,' dace, chub, tench—and, of course, 'pike: Mr. Sharp is none of your purists: -But he has more sense Of the picturesque accompaniments of angling than -Mr. R. C. Simpson, whose book on " Dry Fly Fishing " is a little too austerely technical—though full of useful information. One thing, however, which he says is worth repeating : under- sized trout should be slipped back into the water—not throWn. This is specially true where fish Of hall' a poiuid or So have to. o back, as_t49,y_. are exhausted by being played. before tkg3tre landed.
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