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the farmers of the fisheries connive at them, because the
grey trouts prey upon the small trouts and char, upon which
their profits depend; and so voracious are they, that I have
seen two trouts, near a pound weight each, taken out of the
belly of one of the large ones. They are taken with nets,
but will sometimes rise at the fly: their strength, however,
makes them very difficult to kill. One indeed I killed by
accident, for it had taken the fly as my rod was lying over
the edge of the boat; it dragged the rod into the water, and
there struggled with it till weary. The fish weighed upwards
of seven pounds, and was the only one I ever caught with a
line. They are a very fine fish when caught in proper
season, and even those killed in the streams are by some
much relished, when pickled or dried.
The char of this Lake are smaller than those of
Winandermere, but in my opinion equal in flavour to the best
of them: There is indeed one species of char in
Winandermere, called Red-bellied Char, which is far inferior
to the Ulswater char: these are the kind usually sent to the
metropolis, but as they have the name, it is enough.
The skelly is remarkable for this, no bait has ever
been found which they will take: they seem to be a species
of fresh water herrings, as they resemble the sea
herring both in size and shape. Like the herring, they
assemble in vast numbers during the harvest months, rippling
the surface of the water, and are called Schools, or,
(in the country dialect,) Skyuls. of Skellies.
When they lye in water not too deep, vast numbers are taken
at one draught, sometimes ten or twelve thousands. Sometimes
the schools lye so near together, and the fishermen
take such numbers, that carts are employed to carry them to
the adjacent market towns. They weigh about five ounces
each, and 800 are commonly reckoned as many as one horse can
draw: they are at these times extremely cheap, generally a
penny a pound; but I have seen two Winchester pecks of them
sold for a shilling.
The smaller trouts, perch, and eels, have nothing peculiar
in them: the trouts go up all the small streams,
(particularly Sandwich-Beck,) to spawn, and are caught with
a fly. The perch lay their spawn in the months of May and
June among the tall weeds which grow in the water; they are
taken with a worm, but never rise at a fly. The skellies
spawn in the Winter among the mud at the bottom of the Lake,
and, (as I said before,) take no bait whatever. The eels
differ in nothing from those in other waters, and may be
caught in the same manner as perch.
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There are only two kinds of nets used in Ulswater for the
taking of fish, the Drawing Net and the Driving
Net. The drawing net is generally about thirty yards
long, and four deep; the upper edge floated with cork, and
the lower edge weighted with lead. The method of using it is
thus: They put the net into the water, and let the ropes,
(fastened to each end of it) run to a length proportional to
the depth of the water; they then by the help of these ropes
drag the net to the shore, and take out the fish. It is
evident, however, that this net cannot be used where the
shore is stony: to remedy this, therefore, the driving net
has been contrived, and has only been lately introduced
here. The driving net is made of fine, small, bleached
thread, and has only one short rope to it, to the end
whereof is fixed a float that enables the fishers to find
the net. This net they place parallel to the shore, at the
depth of two fathoms, or less, and usually have several of
them in the water at once. When they take up one of them,
they first row the boat between the net and the shore,
disturbing the water as much as they can: this affrights the
fish, (who are generally near the shore,) and makes them run
for the deeps, when they are intercepted by the small, and
almost invisible net, placed to receive them: the fishers
then haul the net into their boat, and take out the fish,
(which are generally caught either by their gills or
middle,) without being obliged to go ashore: it is, however,
plain that by these nets neither very large nor very small
fish can be taken.
Before the invention of driving nets the greatest part of
the Lake was protected by its stony bottom, so that the
angler might, in five or six hours, catch from sixteen to
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