The earlier acts of parliament were designed with a view to
discourage rod-and-line fishing, anglers, who, according to
Holinshead ranked third among the rogues and vagabonds, being subject
to a fine of £5; and although recent legislation has been intended to
encourage this harmless amusement, and to increase the growth of
fish, the best efforts of both legislators and conservators have been
frustrated hitherto by the Navigation Company, whose locks and weirs
turn back the most prolific breeding fish seeking their spawning
grounds. The first of these were erected in 1842; and four more have
since been added. By the 158th and 159th sections of the Severn
Navigation Act the Company were to construct fish passes; and
although attempts have been made at various times to do this, no
efficient means have been adopted. Not only salmon decreased since
their erection but shad, flounders, and lampreys, never now visit
this portion of the river. Formerly Owners of barges and their men,
when they were unemployed, could spend their time profitably in
fishing, and could half keep their families with what they caught.
Of the one hundred and fifteen tons of salmon taken in the Severn in
1877, 16,000 fish were supposed to have been taken in the lower or tidal
portion of the river, and 1.800 in the upper or non tidal portions; but
the latter proportion was larger that year than usual. Salmon in the
Severn have been still further reduced by the too common practice of
taking samlets, on their downward course to the sea, and we are glad to
find that more stringent measures are being taken by the conservators and
the water-bailiffs to prevent this. Amateur fishermen, gentlemen of
intelligence, have not only contributed to this by their own acts but by
encouraging others to do likewise under the pretence or excuse that they
were not the young of salmon. It is a well ascertained fact, however,
not only that they are young salmon, but that when grown to a proper size
they come up the river they go down. We heard the Duke of Sutherland
say, in his grounds at Dunrobin, where he rears hundreds of thousands of
young salmon to turn into the Brora and other rivers, that he had marked
their fins and found that they invariably came up the same river they go
down, and the author of “Book of the Salmon,” says:—
“Take a salmon bred in the Shin, (one of the duke’s salmon rivers) in
Sutherland, and set it at liberty in the Tweed, at Berwick, and it
will not ascend the Tweed, but will if not slain in transitu, return
to its native river, the Shin, traversing hundreds of miles of ocean
to do so. Is this wonderful! No more wonderful than,—
“The swallow twittering from its straw-built shed,”
migrating, on the first appearance of winter from these shores, to
the warm atmosphere, yielding insect food, of Africa, and returning
to its natal locality in the spring, to live and give life in the
temperate summer of a temperate zone.”
It is owing to this unconquerable instinct we are indebted for the few
salmon we get in the upper Severn. At the spawning season they make
their appearance in the estuary, and, so long as they meet with no
insurmountable obstruction to their progress, will traverse miles for the
deposition of their ova. Slight obstacles in the way will not deter
them, and it is only after repeated failures they give up; they swim
through rapids, leap from seven to ten feet high, and push on to their
destination through powerful floods of descending water; and it is only
at insurmountable barriers to their progress that they fall a prey to the
rapacity of poachers, who have been known at one time to have taken cart
loads with spears.
Since the above was in type Mr. Frank Buckland and Mr. S. Walpole, as
Inspectors of Salmon fisheries, have issued their report, wherein we
learn that the Severn is much polluted in its upper waters by refuse from
mines, and in the middle and lower waters by the refuse from
manufactories and town sewage; and that out of the 290 miles of spawning
ground which the Severn possesses, only 75 are accessible to the fish.
Mr. Willis Bund, the chairman of the Severn Board, supplied Mr. Buckland
with the following figures as to the value of the Severn salmon
fisheries. The figures show the value of the fish caught:
1869 £8,006
1870 13,000
1871 11,200
1872 8,000
1873 10,000
1874 10,500
1875 10,590
1876 14,560
1877 12,880
1878 8,978
As regards the future prospects of the Severn, Mr. Buckland confesses he
does not feel quite happy, but adds that the exact cause of the
non-increase of the produce of the river during recent years may possibly
depend upon the peculiar conditions of the river between the first
navigation weir and the sea. The fish having such a long estuary to
traverse before they can get beyond the tidal nets are often unable to
pass the lower weirs, and being obliged to fall back with the tide, run a
_second chance_ of being caught by the nets. The fish taken in the
Severn are usually very large. For the last five years the average has
been over 14 lbs. each; last year a great many varying between 30 and 40
lbs. were captured, and some even exceeding the latter weight. The
largest recorded, weighing 50 lb., was taken in a draft net on the 18th
March, 1878, by Mr. Browning, of Longney, Gloucestershire. The fish
spawn in the Severn as early as, if not earlier than, in any other river.
During the past year, 1878, Mr. Buckland says fishing was not prosperous,
and he gives the number of salmon taken as 12,450, and the weight as 86
tons, against the 16,000 fish, weighing 115 tons, given on a former page,
as being the take in 1877. Mr. Buckland adds that the Severn is the
largest salmon river in England, and he enumerates the weirs which
greatly obstruct the lower part of the river.
Shad were formerly taken in considerable numbers at the fords, by
bargemen chiefly, who caught more than they could consume, and sold them
to others; and in a commercial point of view, in this portion of the
river, they were even more important than salmon. They were caught at
night, generally by moonlight, by men who stood at the fords, watching
for them as they ascended the river. Their approach was marked by a
phosphorescent light, or “loom” in the water. They were difficult to
catch in the daytime, as they would either go over or under the net, and
fix themselves with their heads in the bed of the river, tail upwards.
When in proper condition they were well flavoured fish, and attained a
large size, sometimes two and three feet in length.
The flounder was another fine fish, and was as abundant as any in the
Severn, affording good sport to “bottom fishers,” with rod and line.
Since the locks and weirs were made they have, like the shad, ceased
altogether. Lampreys too, which formerly were considered even of more
importance than salmon, and which also were caught in this part of the
Severn, are fish which have altogether ceased to visit us since the
erection of the first weir in 1842.
Again, the rich and oily flesh of the eel formed the staple diet of
dwellers along the river banks; and even the well-to-do, whose roomy
chimney corners were hung with salted swine flesh, and on whose tables
fresh meat appeared only at intervals, esteemed eels a luxury. Eels,
like shad, were migratory, and before locks and weirs were placed upon
the river myriads of minute eels in spring made their way from the
brackish waters of the estuary of the Severn, keeping close to the shore.
They formed a dark dense mass, like a sunken rope, and were called
Elvers, a word said to be of Saxon origin, and a corruption, it is
supposed, of Eelfare, meaning to travel, as in wayfare, thoroughfare, and
seafaring. In this state they were caught, bushels of them, and sold at
a small sum, whilst the remainder were used for manure or pig-wash. Vast
numbers of these eels, when left to their instinct, found their way into
the upper Severn and its tributaries.
An Act of the 30th of Charles II. for the preservation of fishing in the
river Severn, imposed a penalty on all persons taking elvers; an Act of
George III., but repealed so much of the former, as related to the
penalty on persons taking elvers for their own use only, and not for
sale; whilst the Salmon Act of 1861, repealed the 30th of Charles II.
altogether; and left no law to prevent the destruction of young eels,
which was carried on in Gloucestershire in what was called the elver
season on a large scale.
The Severn Board of conservators, under the powers granted by Mr.
Mundella’s Fresh Water Fishing Act, (41 and 42 Vic. Cap. 39) passed a
resolution in March, 1879, making it the duty of eel fishermen to pay a
sum of ten shillings for an annual license to use their lines.
Considerable opposition was offered to this on the part of the Ironbridge
and other fishermen; a memorial was drawn up and signed at a meeting of
these and others from Bridgnorth and Shrewsbury, and a deputation
appointed to present it to the Severn Board of Conservators at their
meeting at Shrewsbury.
Mr. Yale who presented the memorial said: One complaint was in regard
to the license put upon the rod-and-line. It was only 1s., it was
true, and that was not much, but it involved a principle which they
thought might be carried further at some future day, and to a very
oppressive extent. The greatest grievance, however, was the
imposition of licenses upon the use of night lines. He did not
believe that the scarcity of fish was owing to the anglers or to the
netters, for it was a matter of experience that when men were allowed
to go and catch as many as they thought proper there were plenty of
fish, but it was not so now. He used to think it a very bad day if
he could not catch 20 lbs. of fish, and now, perhaps he would not
take 10 ozs. That was not caused by the rod-and-line, or by the use
of nets, upon which it is now sought to place these restrictions. He
believed, as Mr. George had told him the other day, that the scarcity
of fish was owing to the pollutions, and not to the taking of fish.
SAMUEL SANDALS, made a statement to the effect that he worked all the
hours he could at his usual work and spent the rest in fishing, and
he thought it very hard to put a license upon the night lines. As to
the trout taken with night lines, it was very rare indeed that they
could take a trout in that way, except in the spring when the water
was muddy: he believed the ducks destroyed “a sight” of the spawn on
the fords.
Mr. WATTON said he did not for a moment dispute what the last speaker
had said with respect to his not catching trout on night lines.
There might possibly be some very good local reasons for his
non-success, but, speaking from his own observation, he knew well
enough that the night lines were the destruction of the trout. They
were laid zig-zag fashion for a great distance down the river, and
swept every trout off the fords at night, and they were most
destructive engines.
Mr. H. SHAW said he quite agreed with what Mr. Watton had said, and
he could bring evidence to prove that an immense quantity of trout
was taken upon night lines, and a very large number of small fish
were destroyed in baiting the lines. To take these baits stones were
rooted up and the young salmon were frequently disturbed and got
devoured by large fish. No less than 3,000 or 4,000 bait were caught
each day in and around Shrewsbury to supply the night lines, and that
must be a very serious drawback to the stock of fish in the river.
The CHAIRMAN said it seemed to him that the gentlemen who had
attended the meeting of the Board objected to the principle of
issuing licenses, and if it was so, so far as he understood the
matter, that Board could do nothing.
Petitions were also presented to the Home Secretary; one from the
fishermen themselves and another from the inhabitants. Of course these
were from fishermen’s point of view. Those who are anxious that fish in
the river should be increased, who think the protective provisions of the
Act favour such increase, and who follow fishing more by way of sport and
pastime, take very different views; they naturally look upon professional
fishermen, men who lay night lines, and fish as a means of obtaining a
livelihood, as enemies of legitimate sport. The object of protection is
a laudable one, namely, that the means of innocent recreation, and the
food of the people, may be increased; and eels are, there is no question,
a more important article of food, so far as the people on the banks of
the Severn are concerned, than Salmon, and that ten times over. Salmon
can never be multiplied so as to come within the reach of the people
generally. Eels, on the contrary, are an article of food with the poor,
the middle classes, and the rich themselves. Moreover, they will bear
comparison with any well-flavoured fish the Severn produces.
It is chiefly for eel fishing, by means of night lines, but sometimes
also for fly-fishing for trout and other fish, that the coracle, that
ancient British vessel, is still retained on the Severn. The men go down
with the stream to lay their lines, and then carry their coracles over
their heads and shoulders; so that looking at them from behind they look
like huge beetles walking along the road.
Of fish unaffected by the obstructions enumerated may be mentioned the
river’s pride—
“The crimson spotted trout
And beauty of the stream.”
But it must be sought for higher up or lower down the river, generally at
the fords, and the embouchers of streams which come down to join the
Severn, as Cound and Linley brooks. In deeper parts of the river too,
near these places, good sized chub are found. But the chub is not much
esteemed, although a fine fish, and, according to Izaak Walton, “proves
excellent meat.” It grows to a large size, and may be caught in holes
near Sweyney, where the bushes overhang such holes. Pike too are found
here, but are more common about Buildwas and Cressage.
That handsome fish the roach, known by the dusky bluish green on head and
back, with lighter shades on sides, its silvery white belly, and dorsal
and caudal fins tinged with red, is also to be caught.
Dace, grayling, and perch, are met with, the latter congregating in holes
of the river, or seen herding together hunting its prey. As Drayton says
of—
“The dainty gudgeon, loche, the minnow, and the bleak,
Since they are little, I little need but speak.”
The former makes up for its small size by the daintiness of “meat.” Its
favourite haunts are the swift flowing portions of the river, with pebbly
and sandy bottoms. It is a ground feeder, greedy, and rushes at once to
seek its prey, if you stir up the bed of the river. The bleak is about
the size of the gudgeon, and is a quick biter.
From the peculiarities of its watershed the Severn is subject to sudden
and unlooked for