And if it be not the quantity of feed, I know no clear reason why
chalk and limestone trout should be so much larger and better
flavoured than any others. The cause is not the greater swiftness of
the streams; for (paradoxical as it may seem to many) a trout likes
swift water no more than a pike does, except when spawning or
cleaning afterwards. At those times his blood seems to require a
very rapid oxygenation, and he goes to the 'sharps' to obtain it:
but when he is feeding and fattening, the water cannot be too still
for him. Streams which are rapid throughout never produce large
fish; and a hand-long trout transferred from his native torrent to a
still pond, will increase in size at a ten times faster rate. In
chalk streams the largest fish are found oftener in the mill-heads
than in the mill tails. It is a mistake, though a common one, to
fancy that the giant trout of the Thames lashers lie in swift water.
On the contrary, they lie in the very stillest spot of the whole
pool, which is just under the hatches. There the rush of the water
shoots over their heads, and they look up through it for every
eatable which may be swept down.
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