SALMON AND TROUT POACHING.
Flashes the blood-red gleam
Over the midnight slaughter;
Wild shadows haunt the stream;
Dark forms glance o'er the water.
It is the leisterers' cry!
A salmon, ho! oho!
In scales of light, the creature bright
Is glimmering below.
Most country poachers begin by loving Nature and end by hating the Game
Laws. Whilst many a man is willing to recognize "property" in hares and
pheasants, there are few who will do so with regard to salmon and trout.
And this is why fish poachers have always swarmed. A sea-salmon is in
the domain of the whole world one day; in a trickling runner among the
hills the next. Yesterday it belonged to anybody; and the poacher,
rightly or wrongly, thinks it belongs to him if only he can snatch it.
There are few fish poachers who in their time have not been anglers; and
anglers are of two kinds: there are those who fish fair, and those who
fish foul. The first set are philosophical and cultivate patience: the
second are predatory and catch fish, fairly if they can--but they catch
fish.
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Just as redwings and field-fares constitute the first game of young
gunners, so the loach, the minnow, and the stickleback, are the prey of
the young poacher. If these things are small, they are by no means to be
despised, for there is a tide in the affairs of men when these "small
fry" of the waters afford as much sport on their pebbly shallows as do
the silvery-sided salmon in the pools of Strathspay. As yet there is no
knowledge of gaff or click hook--only of a willow wand, a bit of string,
and a crooked pin. The average country urchin has always a considerable
dash of the savage in his composition, and this first comes out in
relation to fish rather than fowl. See him during summer as he wantons
in the stream like a dace. Watch where his brown legs carry him; observe
his stealthy movements as he raises the likely stones; and note the
primitive poaching weapon in his hand. That old pronged fork is every
whit as formidable to the loach and bullhead as is the lister of the
man-poacher to salmon and trout--and the wader uses it almost as
skillfully. He has a bottle on the bank, and into this he pours the fish
unhurt which he captures with his hands. Examine his aquarium, and
hidden among the weeds you will find three or four species of small fry.
The loach, the minnow, and the bullhead are sure to be there, with
perhaps a tiny stickleback, and somewhere, outside the bottle--stuffed
in cap or breeches pocket--crayfish of every age and size. During a long
life I have watched the process, and this is the stuff out of which
fish-poachers are made.
It is part of the wisdom of nature's economy that when furred and
feathered game is "out," fish are "in." It might be thought that
poachers would recognize neither times nor seasons, but this is a
mistake. During fence time game is nearly worthless; and then the
prospective penalties of poaching out of season have to be taken into
account. Fish poaching is practised none the less for the high
preservation and strict watching which so much prevails now-a-days; it
seems even to have grown with them. In outlying country towns with
salmon and trout streams in the vicinity, poaching is carried on to an
almost incredible extent. There are men who live by it and women to whom
it constitutes a thriving trade. The "Otter," more thrifty than the rest
of us, has purchased a cottage with the proceeds of his poaching; and I
know four or five families who live by it. Whilst our class provide the
chief business of the country police courts, and is a great source of
profit to the local fish and game dealer, there is quite another and a
pleasanter side, to the picture. But this later. The wary poacher never
starts for the fishing ground without having first his customer; and it
is surprising with what lax code of morals the provincial public will
deal, when the silent night worker is one to the bargain. Of course the
public always gets cheap fish and fresh fish, so fresh indeed that
sometimes the life has hardly gone out of it. It is a perfectly easy
matter to provide fish and the only difficulty lies in conveying it into
the towns and villages. I never knew but what I might be met by some
county constable, and consequently never carried game upon me. This I
secreted in stack, rick, or disused farm building, until such time as it
could be safely fetched. Country carriers, early morning milk-carts, and
women are all employed in getting the hauls into town. In this women are
by far the most successful. Sometimes they are seen labouring under a
heavy load carried in a sack, with faggots and rotten sticks protruding
from the mouth; or again, with a large basket innocently covered with
crisp, green cresses which effectually hide the bright silvery fish
beneath. Our methods of fish poaching are many. As we work silently and
in the night, the chances of success are all in our favour. We walk much
by the stream side during the day, and take mental notes of men and
fish. We know the beats of the watchers, and have the water-side by
heart. Long use has accustomed us to work as well in the dark as in the
light, and this is essential. During summer, when the water is low, the
fish congregate in deep "dubs." This they do for protection, and here,
if overhung by trees, there is always abundance of food. Whenever it was
our intention to net a dub, we carefully examined every inch of its
bottom beforehand. If it had been "thorned," every thorn was carefully
removed--small thorn bushes with stones attached, and thrown in by the
watchers to entangle nets. Of course fish-poaching can never be tackled
single-handed. In "long-netting" the net is dragged by a man on each
side, a third wading after to lift it over the stakes, and to prevent
the fish from escaping. When the end of the pool is reached the salmon
and trout are simply drawn out upon the pebbles. This is repeated
through the night until half-a-dozen pools are netted--probably
depopulated of their fish. Netting of this description is a wholesale
method of capture, always supposing that we are allowed our own time. It
requires to be done slowly, however, as if alarmed we can do nothing but
abandon the net. This is necessarily large, and when thoroughly wet is
cumbersome and exceedingly heavy. The loss of one of our large nets
was a serious matter, not only in time but money. For narrow streams, a
narrow net is used, this being attached to two poles. It is better to
cut the poles (of ash) only when required, as they are awkward objects
to carry. The method of working the "pod-net" is the same in principle
as the last. The older fish poachers rarely go in for poisoning. This is
a cowardly method, and kills everything, both great and small, for miles
down stream. Chloride of lime is the agent mostly used, as it does not
injure the edible parts. The lime is thrown into the river where fish
are known to lie, and its deadly influence is soon seen. The fish,
weakened and poisoned, float belly uppermost. This at once renders them
conspicuous, and they are simply lifted out of the water in a
landing-net. Salmon and trout which come by their death in this way have
the usually pink parts of a dull white, with the eyes and gill-covers of
the same colour, and covered with a fine white film. This substance is
much used in mills on the banks of trout-streams, and probably more fish
are "poached" by this kind of pollution in a month than the most
inveterate moucher will kill in a year.
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It is only poachers of the old school that are careful to observe close
times, and they do their work mostly in summer. Many of the younger and
more desperate hands, however, do really serious business when the fish
are out of season. When salmon and trout are spawning their senses seem
to become dulled, and then they are not difficult to approach in the
water. They seek the highest reaches to spawn and stay for a
considerable time on the spawning beds. A salmon offers a fair mark, and
these are obtained by spearing. The pronged salmon spear is driven into
the fleshy shoulders of the fish, when it is hauled out on to the bank.
In this way I have often killed more fish in a single day than I could
possibly carry home--even when there was little or no chance of
detection. There is only one practicable way of carrying a big salmon
across country on a dark night, and that is by hanging it round one's
neck and steadying it in front. I have left tons of fish behind when
chased by the watchers, as of all things they are the most difficult
to carry. The best water bailiffs are those who are least seen, or who
watch from a distance. So as to save sudden surprise, and to give timely
warning of the approach of watchers, one of the poaching party should
always command the land from a tree top.
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The flesh of spawning fish is loose and watery, insipid and tasteless,
and rarely brings more than a few pence per pound. In an out-lying
hamlet known to me, poached salmon, during last close time, was so
common that the cottagers fed their poultry upon it through the winter.
Several fish were killed each over 20 lbs. in weight. Than netting,
another way of securing salmon and trout from the spawning redds is by
"click" hooks. These are simply large salmon hooks bound shaft to shaft
and attached to a long cord; a bit of lead balances them and adds
weight. These are used in the "dubs" when spearing by wading is
impracticable. When a salmon is seen the hooks are simply thrown beyond
it, then gently dragged until they come immediately beneath; when a
sharp click sends them into the soft under parts of the fish, which is
then dragged out. As the pike, which is one of nature's poachers, is
injurious to our interests as well as those of the angler, we never miss
an opportunity of treating him in the same summary manner. Of course,
poaching with click-hooks requires to be done during the day, or by the
aid of an artificial light. Light attracts salmon just as it attracts
birds, and tar brands are frequently used by poachers. A good, rough
bulls-eye lantern, to aid in spearing, can be made from a disused salmon
canister. A circular hole should be made in the side, and a bit of
material tied over to hide the light when not in use. Shooting is
sometimes resorted to, but for this class of poaching the habits and
beats of the water bailiffs require to be accurately known. The method
has the advantage of quickness, and a gun in skilful hands and at short
distance may be used without injuring the fleshy parts of the fish. That
deadly bait, salmon row, is now rarely used, the method of preparing it
being unknown to the younger generation. It can, however, be used with
deadly effect. Although both ourselves and our nets were occasionally
captured, the watchers generally found this a difficult matter. In
approaching our fishing grounds we did not mind going sinuously and
snake-like through the wet meadows, and as I have said, our nets were
rarely kept at home. These were secreted in stone heaps, and among
bushes in close proximity to where we intended to use them. Were they
kept at home the obtaining of a search warrant by the police or local
Angling Association would always render their custody a critical
business. When, upon any rare occasion, the nets were kept at home, it
was only for a short period, and when about to be used. Sometimes,
though rarely, the police have discovered them secreted in the chimney,
between bed and mattrass, or, in one case, wound about the portly person
of a poacher's wife. As I have already said, the women are not always
simply aiders and abettors, but in the actual poaching sometimes play an
important part. They have frequently been taken red-handed by the
watchers. Mention of the water-bailiffs reminds me that I must say a
word of them too. Their profession is a hard one--harder by far than the
poacher's. They work at night, and require to be most on the alert
during rough and wet weather; especially in winter when fish are
spawning. Sometimes they must remain still for hours in freezing
clothes; and even in summer not unfrequently lie all night in dank and
wet herbage. They see the night side of nature, and many of them are as
good naturalists as the poachers. If a lapwing gets up and screams in
the darkness the cleverer of them know how to interpret the sound, as
also a hare rushing wildly past. I must add, however, that it is in the
nature of things that at all points the fish poacher is cleverer and of
readier wit than the river watcher.
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Looking back it does not seem long since county constables first became
an institution in this part of the country. I remember an amusing
incident connected with one of them who was evidently a stranger to many
of the phases of woodcraft. We had been netting a deep dub just below a
stone bridge, and were about to land a splendid haul. Looking up, a
constable was watching our operations in an interested sort of way, and
for a moment we thought we were fairly caught. Just as we were about to
abandon the net and make off through the wood, the man spoke. In an
instant I saw how matters stood. He failed to grasp the situation--even
came down and helped us to draw the net on to the bank. In thanking us
for a silvery five-pound salmon we gave him he spoke with a southern
accent, and I suppose that poachers and poaching were subjects that had
never entered into his philosophy.
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