Obviously
that bailiff, honest man, could not report a breach of the law which had
never come under his observation!
Of various forms of netting which in olden days were legal, but now,
happily, are forbidden, there was that by means of the Cairn net, a most
destructive form, and that by the Stell net, which was worse; but to
describe these obsolete instruments is unnecessary, and might be
tedious. There was also the Pout net, an implement somewhat like a very
large landing-net, wherewith a man might readily whip many a fish out of
flooded water. That, however, need not be considered as in these days a
serious form of poaching.
Of all poachers of salmon, perhaps that one with whom one is least out
of sympathy was the man--is he now extinct, one wonders?--who, fishing
with trout-rod and fly, and bearing on his back the most modest of trout
creels, instantly, when he came to a likely cast for a fish, was wont to
change his trout fly for a salmon one. If he hooked a salmon and a
watcher appeared on the scene, invariably the fish "broke" him. If no
watcher put in an appearance, generally the angler found that he had
sudden and pressing business at home, and that fish left the riverside
snugly smuggled inside the lining of a coat, or in a great circular
pocket made for the purpose.
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