Anglers' evenings : papers by members of the Manchester Anglers' Association : third series

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ANGLERS' Evenings.

Papers by Members of the Manchester
Anglers' Association.

THIRD SERIES.

Abel Heywood and Son, 56 and 58, Oldham Street.

JSottion :

SiMPKiN, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., Ltd.,

Stationers' Hall Court.

1894.

INTRODUCTION.

Fifteen years ago the Manchester Anglers' Associa-
tion entrusted to me the pleasant task of editing the
first series of " Anglers' Evenings." They have now a
second time honoured me with the same commission as
regards this, the third series, and, as on the former
occasion, I have been requested to vicariously make
the preliminary bow to that wider circle of brothers
of the angle to whom the volume is offered.

After such an interval, a tendency to somewhat
dreamy retrospection is not unnatural. The book
itself suggests retrospection. Some of the contributors
to the first series have contributed also to the present
series, but at least one is conspicuously absent. The
dear old Colonel who led the way with his exhor-
tation to us to "let patience have her perfect work,"
sleeps well at Irton, beside the salmon river he loved.

Things have progressed since 1879. In the first
volume only one Manchester fisher — the writer on
Norway — described experiences beyond the limits of
Great Britain and the Isle of Man, though many
wrote of Scotland. There is much of Scotland in the
present volume — the Scotch are ever with us — but the

9jSSP>0

IV.

range has been extended to Ireland, Canada, and
New Zealand. May it not be that the members of
the Association have discovered the true method of
establishing the " union of hearts " and " Imperial
Federation ?" The first volume was recognised as
being in its very nature a protest against river
pollution and wanton destruction of natural beauty in
the district from which it emanated ; the Manchester
Ship Canal has since been constructed, a " Joint
Committee" is actively engaged in repressing the
defilement of the Mersey and Irwell and their tribu-
taries, and sea-gulls are said to be nesting at Old
Trafiford. Nor have the Manchester Anglers failed to
advance. In wild and lonely Ribblesdale they have
taken charge of miles of romantic water ; there, like
Caliban, they make dams for fish, and have not only
built a fish-hatchery to replenish the river, but have
established golf links. Lastly, even the fish appear
to have moved with the times, for nearly every writer
in the present volume, he of Norway not excepted,
dwells on the superior education of the finny tribe of
to-day.

There is one recollection not to be erased from
the minds of the Manchester Anglers who look
back on the tremulous anxieties and pleasures of
that first appearance before the public fifteen years
ago, and that is, the recollection of the appreciative
reception given to their un-professional venture. The
volume met with no ungenial critic amongst the
many who deigned to notice it — save one, and he

was evidently a dissecting ichthyologist rather than
a fisherman. Theophile Gautier said that a man
only turns critic when he has discovered that he
cannot be a poet, and Lord Beaconsfield elaborated
this remark into a well-known phrase to the effect
that the critics are persons who have failed in litera-
ture and art The experience of the Manchester
Anglers does not confirm the dictum of either of
these authorities. Their critics hitherto have obviously
been men accustomed to the music of the reel and
able to fill their creels.

It is permissible to express a hope that the critics
of the present volume will not be inferior fishermen
to the critics of fifteen years ago, and that the book
may receive as kindly a greeting as was accorded
then.

The contributors to this volume have not con-
sciously any very ambitious aims; like virtue, they
find their reward in the pleasure of being. They
seek to promote the true spirit of their craft less by
preaching than by recording. Yet it may well be
that the future historian, whether New Zealander or
Perfected Anarchist, will give this volume a leading
position amongst the progressive works of the present
age. True, it does not attempt to compete with the
contemporary novel with a purpose ; for though
traces of passion may be found in its pages, anglers
are not, as a rule, perplexed by spiritual uncertainties
and Gallic heart-yearnings; such troubles they have
left behind with the measles. But who that peruses

VL

these pages and learns that while one fisher, who
loves the Derbyshire waters formerly fished by Walton
and Cotton, prefers "small takes of good fish" to
" larger numbers of smaller fish " and is satisfied with
an average of i lb., another looks on 2 lbs. as only
a respectable average, and a third condescendingly
refers to 2 lbs. as " a nice little fish " will fail to
perceive the relation between angling and economics ?
All that is needed for the solution of the economic
problems of the time is an enterprising and, withal,
cheerful and contented spirit, and this is the outcome
of the angler's art.

While the book has been passing through the press it
has had to be recorded of one of its contributors — the
author of the paper on " Trout Fishing in Otago, New
Zealand," —

"Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages.

Mr. John Ord Mackenzie, who was born at Comrie
in Perthshire, in 1831, died at Palmerston, New Zealand,
in December, 1893. For nearly forty years a merchant
in Manchester, he was also a noted fisherman, and
before leaving England on his retirement from business
he took the Silver Cross Championship of Scotland for
trout fishing in Loch Leven. He appears to have made
a home for himself in the hearts of his neighbours in the
Britain of the South Pacific, as he had previously done
in those of his friends and fellow anglers in the old
country. The reel is now silent, and Loch Leven, the
Ribble, the Shag, and the Waitaki will know him no

Vll.

more. But he lives as a "gentle angler" in the memories

of those who knew him, alike in Manchester and in

distant Palmerston.

F. J. F
Manchester^

March 2Zth, 1894.

ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

DAPPING ON THE IRISH LAKES

BY T. P. W.

S on a balmy day in the merry springtime " I
lay a-thynkynge, a-thynkynge, a-thynkynge,"
a happy vision came to me, A dimpling lake,
embosomed amid the everlasting hills, and gemmed
with many an emerald isle; a drifting boat; a floating
line of floss ; fairy-like May-flies spring to lovely life
from the womb of the waters, and trout arc springing
too, and— ah ! blessed, indeed, is the gift of memory —
again, in imagination, I am dapping on an Irish
lake.

Thus it comes to pass that I have chosen the title
of this paper. My object is to try and give such
accurate information that any angler, who determines to
take what may be, to him, a new departure in angling,

2 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

may start fair, properly equipped and furnished, guarded
against blunders into which I stumbled, and instructed
in the best methods which a five or six years' experience
has taught me.

First find your lake ; for all Irish lakes are not
adapted to this form of sport. What you want is a May-
fly lake. Now of two lakes lying almost side by side,
one may be the May-fly's haunt, whilst on the other a May-
fly is never seen. I do not think that anybody can say
why this is, but so it is. Nature's secrets are not easily
penetrated. I know two salmon rivers which fall into
the sea within a very few miles of each other, running
through much the same country, subject to much the
same influences ; the one fishes well in March, and the
other not till June. Why? It is easy, however, to find
out which are May-fly lakes ; and you will probably be
influenced in your choice of water by readiness of access,
by prospect of sport, and by possibilities of accommoda-
tion. The latter is a difficulty. Hotels are often distant
from the scene of action, are not always good, and are
generally expensive. For the fisherman who is prepared
to rough it a bit the best plan is to get — if he can —
accommodation in some farm-house near the lake.
Cooking is, as a rule, pretty rough, but hunger is a rare
good sauce, and one can always improve matters by
taking stores. A round of Derby beef and a ham make a
sufficiently good stand-by.

There is a fishing song in Cotton's poems (quoted in
extenso as a note in some editions of The Complete Angler)
beginning : —

DAPPING ON THE IRISH LAKES. 3

" Away to the brook,

All your tackle outlook,
Here's a day that is worth a year's wishing ;

See that all things be right,

For 'twould be a spight
To want tools when a man jjoes a fishing."

Wc will follow this good jadvice and deal first with the
tools that a man wants when he goes a dapping. First,
as to rods, I consider three the fewest you can do
with : one for casting the artificial fly, 14 feet ; one for
trolling (better two), for often there are long distances to
row, and there is always a chance of picking up some-
thing, and one for dapping (better two). This should
be 16 or 17 feet long at least, and light, for it has to be
held for hours at a stretch ; but it should be fairly
stiff* and powerful, for big fish have to be dealt
with, and it is always well to kill quickly. Any-
thing does for a reel line that will run and not kink
or break ; and it is well to have from 40 to 50 yards, for
a big fish will rip off" a lot, and there is always the
possibility of a monster. Besides, you can reel up more
quickly if the barrel of the reel is well covered.
To the end of the line must be joined, so that
there is no doubt of its running, a length of floss silk.
This should be from 15 to 20 yards long, so as to leave
some on the reel when your line is at fullest extent,
otherwise the heavy reel-line keeps pulling the light
floss into the most annoying festoons. Your floss should
be knotted every few inches, or it catches in everything,
and quickly frays. Indeed, though I like floss best myself,
some fishermen find it such a nuisance, requiring so much

4 ANGLERS' EVENINGS,

care, that they use only a light line, similar to those used
by Nottingham roach fishers. To this is attached a short
length of gut, say 3 to 4 feet. You cannot be too
particular in your choice of gut ; it must not be very
thick, but it must be round, clear, and strong, and the
knots must be well tied. Your net must be large. To
get a big trout into a small, net is a difficult and
dangerous proceeding. Have it furnished with a long
handle of bamboo or some sort of light wood, and if it be
fitted with a sort of boat-hook arrangement, you will
often find it a convenience. As you are to sit for
hours at a time, and day by day, it is well to provide
yourself with a cushion. And as, when it rains in
Ireland, it rains, and an open boat affords but slight
protection, you must be well macintoshed. The best
plan is to have a thick waterproof petticoat, such as
Cording supplies, to strap round the waist and reach
to the boots. This, with a macintosh jacket, is first-
rate for boat fishing. A hat with a good brim that
will turn down is important, for the glare is very
trying sometimes. The best thing for carrying your fish
is a big flag basket, such as carpenters use ; get the
biggest size. If you have some tongues and buckles
attached you will find it a useful receptacle for boots,
waders, and such like. You must also provide yourself
with a basket for carrying the May-fly, technically
known as " Daps." This can be procured from any
tackle dealer. Have your spare tackle conveniently
arranged in a box which can lie on the thwart beside
you.

DAPPING ON THE IRISH LAKES. 5

I think I can now allow you to step into your boat.
For t/uit you will have to take what the lake affords.
The first boat I had on Loch Erne had been built in the
time of the Crimean War, and leaked all round, in spite
of its being " puttied " up with mortar. Some ferns were
growing freely in it, which are now alive and flourishing
in a Buckinghamshire garden. It was the only one I
could get, and it really did very well ; fishers must be
contented. A much more important consideration is the
boatman. Make a great effort to secure one who is
willing and keen, and knows the lake well. Much
depends on that, until you learn it for yourself. I should
not mind his not being a fisherman himself, in fact, I
should prefer it. If he is, he will want to fish, and I
should recommend you to give him the opportunity only
occasionally. It is all against the best method, which
I will presently explain.

Well, it is, say, the ist of June, and the first few May-
flies are beginning to rise. I do not think that trout
have long memories. They seem to have to learn how
dainty a morsel, and how feeding, a fine fat May-fly is, and
they have to learn it afresh every year. Anyhow, they
always begin in a tentative fashion, and never get fairly
on to it until it has been on the water some days. This,
then, is the time for artificial flics, and one generally has
some very pleasant days before dapping sets fairly in.
One does not get the biggest fish in this way, but,
certainly, I enjoy it best. I never killed a bigger fish
than silbs. on the artificial May-fly. I like the
flies tied hackle fashion, partridge feather dyed to the

6 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

colour of the fly, and you are lucky if you can
find a yellow dye that will not wash white very quickly.
The usual Irish drake, as tied by local men, is winged,
and, as a rule, on gut that would hold a porpoise. Do
not trouble to fish deeps. Fish where you can see the
bottom, and always cover a rise promptly. To that end,
keep your man at the oars, so that he can put you
quickly to one. And if you get a man — an Irish
boatman — whose notion of covering a rise is not to put
the boat on it, you have a rare jewel ; so prize him
accordingly. It is not worth while to go twice over the
same drift, nor to follow another boat. The passage of
a boat seems to send the fish off the shallows into deep
water. You will find you kill three fish or more on the
first dropper — the " hand " fly they call it — to one
on the tail, and five or six times more than on the
middle. That has been my invariable experience. I
generally use three drakes, but sometimes try an olive
on the middle or tail. Keep your hand -fly on the trickle,
and, as far as you can, travelling down wind. You
will find it necessary to cast well into the wind to do
this ; it is harder work, but it pays.

Not much about dapping yet, you will say. True, but
you will find the first few days of the dapping season
very pleasantly spent without dapping. You see it is in
Ireland, and that makes all the difference. But now the
trout are beginning to take the drake in earnest. A
nice strong wind is blowing from south or south-west,
creating a good, though soft wave, a great desideratum.
You have provided a sufficient supply of daps by the simple

DAPPING ON THE IRISH LAKES. 7

process of picking them off the shore and bushes, and
you proceed to bait your hook. One would think this a
simple proceeding ; and so it is, but controversy rages
long and loud about it. Nearly every man has his own
way of putting the flies on, and each way is the very best.
One will have four or five ; another only one. Some
put on two, one hooked in right side, one in left ; some^
back to back ; there are half-a-score of ways. I do not
think the trout are particular. I know of a case where an
I libs, trout was taken with a dap composed of eight
drakes ! It must have been an error of judgment on the
part of the trout ; he doubtless mistook it for a wasp's
nest, though what he should want with that I hardly know.
The following is my way, and I need not tell you that it
is the very best. I place the point of the hook between
the shoulders, bring it out underneath, and slide the fly
up the shank a little way. I then treat a second fly
in precisely the same way, and gently press them
together. Then snip or pinch off" the body of the top
fly. Viewed from underneath, it looks pretty much like
one drake, but there is more to catch the wind, and more
to help it to ride featly on the water. Your dap being
arranged in this or some other of the best ways, you view
the lake, and you will probably find it streaked with lines
of foam, running pretty well parallel, and fairly equi-
distant. When the trout are feeding they generally rise
in these streaks, where naturally the May-fly get entangled
in the foam. They feed up wind, and often at a great
pace. As a rule deeps are to be avoided, though when the
trout are well on the dap you may kill fish even there.

8 ANGLERS' EVENINGS,

You will, then, choose a streak of foam where you can
just see the bottom, say not deeper than lo or 12 feet,
and begin your drift. You let your line, which is some-
thing longer than your rod, fly away on the wind, and
gently drop the dap into the water as far off as your
length of line permits. The reason why I like floss is
-that it holds the wind better, and so bellies out beyond
the dap ; thus it acts as a kind of sail, drawing the dap
in a natural manner down wind. A thin line does
not catch the wind in the same way, and though it
allows the dap to get fully extended, yet it seems
to have a tendency to hold it back against the wind.
A fine point, I daresay, and perhaps the gain is not
sufficient to compensate for the extra trouble entailed by
floss.

Take care that your dap does not get sodden and
spoilt by the waves. In stormy weather it is impossible
to prevent this, but it does not matter much then. Trout
will often take a well-soaked dap under water with as
much avidity as though it were sailing on the top.

The local way of dapping presents a very curious
sight. There are, as a rule, three men in a boat, all
sitting cross-wise of the thwarts, all with their elbows on
their knees, all with their shoulders well up to their ears,
all crouching forward at the same inclination, each with
a long rod held out at an angle of 45°, the eyes of all
fixed steadily on the dap as it touches the water and
then flutters in the air to settle again on this side or that.
In death-like silence they drift on and ever on until they
are lost in space. Sometimes you see ten or a dozen

DAPPING ON THE IRISH LAKES. 9

boats together. Multiply the above picture by ten or
twelve, and you will realise the quaintness of the effect.
You may be in one of the said boats, yet will it never
occur to you that you are looking ludicrous — only the
others. A better and more sporting method by far is
not to fish in drifts, but row to rises. To this end you
must have your boat to yourself and keep your man at
the oars, ready at once to put you to a rise on either hand
as you drift along. If this is promptly and properly
done, as a rule you take that fish. If fish are not in the
humour, then your boatman can fish a bit. It is well
that his rod should be shorter than your own, for he will
have to use it with one hand while he manages the boat
with the other. If he should hook a fish, change rods at
once, and kill it yourself. But when a real rise is on,
have him at the oars, and make him put you to the big
ones.

When fish are not rising, dapping is most monotonous ;
worse by far than watching a bob-float, for you must
manage your dap, while a float will manage itself.
The great art of dapping lies in the striking. It
looks easy enough, but beginners lose fish after fish. As
a rule they strike too soon, and then not in the right
way. A big fish is leisurely in his movements. He
turns his side and his shoulders and his heavy head like
the sluggard in the song ; though, by the way, a heavy-
headed trout is not exactly what one desires. More-
over, he (the fish, not the sluggard), is feeding towards you,
and your boat is drifting towards him. If you strike too
soon you take the fly from him ; if you wait, and then

10 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

do not strike hard enough, you do not pick up the slack,
and only prick him at the best. If you strike a bit too
hard, and he should be a heavy fish, you will break to a
moral. It is a good rule to treat these heavy trout like
salmon, and not strike until you feel them. The word
strike is misleading. The action should not be that of
striking, it should be a steady, firm, decisive pull on
the fish. Thus you gather up your slack, and draw
your steel into him without anything in the shape of a
jerk. The main thing is to give plenty of time ; but this,
like other rules, has its exceptions. It answers perfectly
when the fish are well on ; but sometimes they are not
feeding well, and there always comes the sad time when
the drake begins to pall upon them, and they are going
off. They rise, but they do not want the fly particularly,
and then it is hard to hook them. And often they will
rise with their mouths shut, and just roll over your dap
and slap it with their tails and drown it. So you must
ever be closely on the watch to detect the different sorts
of rises, and nothing but experience will teach you to
discriminate.

In the case of a drowned dap do not strike at
all, for oftentimes the trout will turn again and rend
it under water. But if you do not feel him in two
or three seconds you may replace your dap, which is
probably spoilt. Again, with splashy, flirty rises, I think
the best way is to strike as if with the artificial.
You will generally miss, but now and again you will
hit. Play him carefully, for he is sure to be lightly
hooked. If you wait with these, my experience is that

DAPPING ON THE IRISH LAKES. ii

you never catch them. Having hooked' your fish, get
him round to the back of your boat as quickly as possible,
so that you drift from it and not on to it. Nothing is more
disconcerting and inconvenient than to get your fish
under the boat. I remember once, in a heavy wind, with
the boat travelling at a great rate, I rose a fish close to
it. I gave him a second or so and struck. Meanwhile
he had shot under the boat, and the boat had drifted
over him, so that when I struck he was well behind me,
and the consequence was that my top piece snapped
in two like a carrot. The wind wrapped the line
round the rod, and it would not run. I quickly
possessed myself of the broken top, and snapping the line
proceeded to play my fish with a rod reduced to about
two feet. It was a queer sensation, but, after much per-
turbation of spirit, I managed to bring him to the net.
He was nearly 3lbs., but fortunately was hooked in the
tongue, and the tackle was sound and stood a strain far
beyond what it was intended to bear. I rejoiced
exceedingly, especially as I was in the midst of a flotilla
of boats, whose occupants took much interest in the
struggle ; and serving out a three-finger grog to the crew,
I called upon him to rejoice with me. Again, I say, get
your fish killed quickly, especially if there is a rise on —
loss of time is often fatal. And as to the actual killing,
a whack on the back of the neck, with a club like a
policeman's baton, irreverently termed "the parson,"
does it directly, as it ought to be done. It is difficult to
hold a 5 or 61b. fish in your hands and knock his head
against a thwart. You are pretty sure either to bark your

12 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

knuckles or merely hit the fish on the snout, and a
stretcher is too long to be handy. Another neat and
instantly effective way is to run your penknife or a brad-
awl into the back bone immediately at the back of the
neck.

When you have come to the end of your drift, and
fish are rising, scoot back as fast as you can ; but if they
are doing little or nothing, out with a minnow on either
side, row back very leisurely, and fish deep. I have
found a small red phantom, say three inches long, kill best.
/ always trail my dap, letting out twenty or thirty yards
of line, and I have very often picked up a fish in this
way. One loses two out of three though, for one is
travelling too slowly for the pace to strike them, and too
quickly to let them hook themselves. This is not
dapping, but it makes you feel virtuous, as one who is
not wasting his time has a right to feel.

Dapping is pleasant enough when the weather is right
and fish moving, but it is not all nuts and wine. Bad
weather comes, when boats cannot venture out, and hot,
bright days with the water like a mirror, when there is
nothing for it but to lie on one's back in the boat, or
lounge with a novel on an island, smoke more than is
good for one, and finish the whiskey. When one's
holiday is short it is not pleasant to say Perdididiein. It
requires all one's philosophy to meet such vexations with
an equal mind. I had two consecutive days once, one
excellently good, the other hopeless. I was philosophical
enough to utilise some of my spare time on the second
day in inditing

DAPPING ON THE IRISH LAKES. 13

THE SONG OF THE DAPSTER,

Obverse.

O, the (lapster's life is a lovely life,

As he rocks on the rolling wave ;

When a southerly wind

IMows freshly and kind,

And fishes feed freely and l^ravc ;

As he puts on his dap,

He cares not a rap

f\u politics, party, or trade ;

And at night o'er his glass,

To his pal or his lass,

He will crack of the havoc he's made.

Reverse.

O, the dapster's life is a loathly life,

As he floats on the stilly mere ;

When the drake flies high

In a cloudless sky.

The water as crystal clear.

When there's never an air

His floss to stir,

As flat to the rod it's stuck ;

O, it must be confessed

That one so oppressed

Is to blame if he don't D his luck.

You may imagine how sorely I was exercised when
I was forced to employ such a naughty, but capital letter.
But even under such untoward conditions as these, the
really gluttonous angler can have sport of a sort, if he be
prepared to descend to circles of piscine society lower
than that in which moves the aristocratic saltuo fario. On
one such day I had landed in order to stretch my legs
by a bit of a walk. A native had just hauled his boat

14 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

up hard by, and I entered into conversation with him.
He condoled with me on the hopelessness of the weather,
but promised me, of course, a speedy change and the
best of sport. He would not have been an Irishman it
he had done otherwise. I asked if he had done
anything. Yes, he had got a fair lot of eels, and going
to his boat he showed me a squirming, inextricable tangle
of slimy sinuosities, fifteen or twenty, I daresay, or more,
some of considerable size. I inquired how he had
managed to catch them. It appears, from his statement,
that the eel is partial to warmth ; that in such weather
as we were then suffering under they come into some-
what shallow water and expose themselves to the heat,
even as the ordinary Englishman stands with his back to
the fire with his coat tails well apart, but with the difference,
that the eel presents another part of his person to the
comforting warmth. He lies on his back with his silvery
belly turned up to the rays of the sun. The sportsman
(or assassin) crouches in the bow of a boat propelled with
the utmost gentleness, so as to avoid creating the
slightest ripple. He is armed with a long, straight stick,
to the end of which is whipped a large cod-hook. As he
glides stealthily along, he peers down into the water
immediately beneath him, and it appears that the
basking eel is easily seen lying at the bottom like " a
white shtick." The gaff is then slid gently into the
water, and the wretched eel clicked with the cod hook.
I fancy this is not so easy to do as it sounds, as the boat
is moving, and depths vary, and the skin of the eel is
tough and slippery. It must require considerable adroit-

DAPPING ON THE IRISH LAKES. 15

ness and much practice to make a sure stroke. My old
friend was evidently a past- master.

If you disdain such a poacher-like proceeding, you can
turn your attention to perch. In the lake which I know
best there are plenty, and they grow to a great size.
The local way of fishing is simplicity itself. A length
of strong gut, a hook, a worm, and half a soda water
cork, and there you are. You fish in very shallow water,
with not more than a foot to eighteen inches or so
between float and hook. In addition to the above
requisites, a shoal or two of perch are necessary.
Perhaps I should be more accurate if, instead of shallow
water, I recommend you to fish in shoal water. You
may sometimes — if you have the luck to drop on the
right place — catch them freely. With strong tackle one
stands on no ceremony with them — they don't expect
it — but just throw them into the boat. No fish
seems to resent capture more than the perch. As
you yoick out a pounder, and he comes hurtling
through the air with his red fins distended and a-quiver,
his back up, his eyes starting, mouth agape, the
whole fish has an air of amazement and indignant
protest almost human, and wholly comical. Every
one knows that perch roam about in shoals, seek-
ing what they may devour. In these shoals the
fish are of assorted sizes. I do not think one ever sees
big and little ones mixed. If, after catching a few small
ones, you get a big one, you may be sure that one shoal
has passed on and another taken its place. The big
fellows hold themselves haughtily aloof from the smaller

i6 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

fry ; they seem to observe an attitude of supercilious
tolerance such as the third year man assumes towards
the verdant fresher. This being so, the studious fisher
of perch endeavours to fish always in that shoal where
the big fish are. A friend of mine accomplished this
apparently difficult feat in a very ingenious way. Find-
ing himself among big ones he marked the shoal thus
Between his float and reel line he introduced a few inches
of fine silk. The next bite he had he struck, and, of
course, broke, and away went the perch with the float.
Wherever that float was he knew the big ones were, and
by always fishing near it he had a wonderful catch —
seventy perch weighing over 4olbs. — in two hours ;
nothing over 2lbs. As an instance of the free biting
quality of the perch, I may remark that he caught the
standard-bearer himself three times.

It is good for man to be alone when he is dapping.
But on still, hot, hopeless days, or when you have been
driven by stress of weather to land, or to He for hours in
the lee of some island, waiting for the gale to moderate,
you feel the want of a comrade, if only to quarrel with ;
and, failing one, you turn to your boatman. And it is
odds that you find him able to wile away these dree
times and afford you entertainment if not instruction.
If these men fish at all it is generally by rule of thumb,
fishing as they always have done and their fathers
before them, rarely exercising their powers of observa-
tion, or, if they do, observing the wrong thing, or
drawing the wrong deductions. One man I had — " Wee
Johnnie" — was a capital angler after a fashion. His

DAPPING ON THE IRISH LAKES. 17

theory was that trout roamed about in shoals, or
" bunches." For, he said, if you catch one you often
catch two, or three, or more directly — the true deduction
being that here you were crossing a shallow where the
depth was right. These are places to mark and to
remember, until you have a good working model of the
lake's bottom in your head. You may not learn much
from your boatman, but his queer sayings and exaggera-
tions, anecdotes and beliefs are sure to amuse you. If he
speaks of a big fish, he will probably call it " an ojous
fish," or a " holy terror." Once, while I was lying by, a
big fish rose some little distance out. " Did ye see him,
yer honour ; did ye see him now ? Holy jabers — he was
as big as a dog ! he was as big as a big dog ! ! he was
as big as a big black dog!!!" A fine climax! If he
wants to tell you there is good fishing in such a river
or lake, he will say, " Is it fish now ? Sure the water's
shtiff wid 'em ;" or "Your honour's rod could stand
upright in the wather, and faith, it's truth I'm telling ye."
One good friend of mine, Paddy Quin by name, told
me of a monster pike he caught. After a prolonged
contest he got his gaff into it, but could not lift it into
the boat, as its weight brought the gunwale so low that
he was afraid of swamping, so he toted round to the
stern. " But faith, yer honour, when I tried to lift him,
the boat fair tipped up wid me, and that's the holy
truth." So he lashed the gaff to a thole pin and towed
the monster home — five miles — when "by God's blessing,
I dragged him on to the beach." " What weight,
Paddy ?" *' Divil a know I know, but he was an ojous

i8 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

baste." " Was that the biggest you ever saw, Paddy?"
No, he had seen, but not caught, a bigger. An Ennis-
killen man hooked a veritable monster of the deep one
day. He had fought him fair for some hours (or days, I
really forget), but it broke him at last. Some few days
after there arose a great storm, insomuch that this fish
was washed up dead upon the shore, and people went
from all parts to view him, Paddy among them. " What
weight, Paddy?" " Sorra a bit I know — he was a
terror." "How big, Paddy?" "Sure I can't tell to a
fut or two, but a man could walk down his throat !" I
suppose my face must have betrayed some incredulity,
for at once he clinched the matter and silenced all
controversy by adding " wid his hat on ! "

After some such statement of his I asked him once,
" Now Paddy, can you speak the truth ?" " Sure and
I can do that same," apparently implying that he
preferred fiction. One day — one hopeless day of
blazing sun and brazen sky — such a day as must have
inspired that poet who told of the fishes breaking out
into perspiration beneath the sun's perpendicular rays —
I asked his opinion of the weather, and, I daresay, I
manifested a certain truculence of manner as who should
say " Prophesy unto me smooth things, or prepare to die
the death." Paddy was quite equal to the occasion.
He considered the problem gravely and then said,
" Indade, yer honour, and it is hard to spake the truth."
And to this day I do not know whether he meant
to say it was hard to tell what the weather would be ;
or whether the truth would have been unbearable; or

DAPPING ON THE IRISH LAKES. 19

whether his usual habits made it difficult for him to utter
anything but the unveracious.

The poor boy got into trouble once and had to " do
his bit." It appears he had a difference of opinion with
another gentleman of his profession as to the right of
fishing on a certain piece of water. The controversy
waxed high and hot, and winged words flew from boat
to boat. At last Paddy's temper gave way, and finding
his adversary impervious to reason, he gaffed him in the
neck, hauled him out of his boat, and nearly drowned
him. Even in Ireland this was considered too forcible an
argument, so he had to go into temporary retirement.
This formed an epoch for him, and though he never
cared to refer directly to his abode in Her Majesty's
prison, he would often fix a date by " The year that I
gaffed O'Reilly ;" or " About two years after O'Reilly
came out of his boat wid a gaff in him."

He was a firm believer in fairies — " sure he'd seen
'em, and seein' was believin' " — and had many tales to
tell of adventures with them. Before the Franco-German
war broke out, he had seen the whole matter fought out
by fairies on a certain hill side, and could have predicted
the issue. When I diffidently hinted that I understood
that poteen was an admirable medium through which to
view the tricks and manners of the good folks, he would
declare, with strong asseveration, that he was " black
fasting from everything but sin." Wild swans are,
according to Paddy, enchanted birds ; to kill one is to
bring certain disaster upon yourself or anyone who
becomes possessed of the body. If, in killing a fish, it

20 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

bled much, it was a sure sign of a good fishing day, and
we should have great sport.

It seems to be a point of honour with this race never
to drink a nip of the " cratur " without a toast. " A tight
line to your honour;" "Well, here's good luck and
better;" "May he come," or such like. By the way, it
will be found that the Irish boatman's taste in the matter
of whiskey needs cultivation. I believe they prefer
poteen to the finest ten-year-old Glenlivat; if they know
it is illicit I am sure they do.

One lake which I have fished divides two counties,
and is dotted with islands innumerable, evidently
expressly designed by nature for the practice of illicit
distillation. Often have I seen at late hours the glow of
fire on one or other of these islands. Doubtless the
police and revenue officers see it too. But careful watch
is kept, and if the enemy attacks from the right shore
the distillers simply slip off to the left, where the police
may not follow. One day the schoolmistress of that
parish, who lodged with our landlord, was walking by the
edge of the lake close by the house. Suddenly the earth
appeared to open and swallow her up quick ; when she
had scrambled up, she looked for the cause of this catas-
trophe, and found that a large barrel of poteen, in its
fermenting stage, had been hidden there, sunk in the
ground, and covered with a sack, over which was strewn
the shingle of the shore, until the whole was hidden.
Mr. Kerr, our landlord, was alarmed, for, had it been
found there, on his land, the revenue officers would have
dropped on him. The funny thing was that he knew

DAPPING ON THE IRISH LAKES. 21

quite well who the dehnquent was, and sent to him
humbly requesting him to remove it off his land, which
the said delinquent was graciously pleased to do. I
suppose it would have been as much as his life was
worth to put the revenue officers upon it.

I thought I should like to taste this stuff. Paddy
next day produced a bottle with much display of
mystery and many a warning wink. Of the two, I prefer
methylated spirits !

But I have kept you under the lee of this island long
enough, and the lake is calmer now ; so let us be off.
How about daps ? It is a great nuisance to run short, so
always replenish when you can, and never throw away at
night any store you may have left ; they are not good
for much in the morning, but they do to make a start
with. Once I had arrived at the fishing ground which I
intended to exploit that day, and everything looked most
promising, but I had no daps. We landed to search for
some. Now, I am not a jealous fisherman — one of those
who like to have all the fun to themselves ; so as I had
to do all the hard work — all the fishing — I thought "Wee
Johnnie" should have the fun of hunting for and stooping
incessantly to pick up the necessary ephemert-E.
Moreover, mine would be the post of danger, for I
undertook to see that no one stole the boat. After a
prolonged absence Johnnie returned with empty basket,
and said he had searched everywhere, but " there's divil
a dap to be had." I told him to go at once and search
the other places, for he should see my face no more
unless the daps were with him. Then I lit another pipe

22 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

and kept watch on the boat, but Johnny's phrase kept
jingling in my head, and presently shaped itself thus : —

THE DAPSTERS LAMENT.

The wind's from the southward, the sky overcast,

The fishes are feeding like mad ;
I'm early afloat, for this day is my last.

But divil a dap's to be had.

Charles Farlow purveyed me my tackle so fine.

And Hardy of Alnwick my gad ;*■
America sends me a patented line,

But divil a dap's to be had.

My boat's clinker built— the sculls are the best,

And Johnnie's a handy wee lad ;
My skill would suffice, were it put to the test —

But divil a dap's to be had.

My basket will hold, at the least, sixty pound.

There is whiskey to make the heart glad ;
A fisher was never more thoroughly found —

But divil a dap's to be had.

Ah ! pity a man in so woeful a plight.

Shed a tear o'er a fortune so sad ;
Wind, weather and water, and everything right,

But divil a dap to be had.

This brought the luck, I think ; for wee Johnnie
turned up with a plentiful supply, and I killed 14 fish.

The dapper must think less of numbers than of
weight. My best day was 24 fish, weighing 47 lbs., but
I have made bigger averages with fewer fish. One day
I killed six fish only, which weighed 20 lbs. There was
one over 7 lbs, another over 6 lbs. I have killed in my
dapping experience three trout over 7 lbs., and one which

* Scotch for rod.

DAPPING ON THE IRISH LAKES. 23

turned the scale at 8 lbs. and yet I am not happy, for I
have seen fish that these would make a bait for, as
Paddy said. I give here a record of a few takes by
certain friends of mine, which I guarantee to be
absolutely trustworthy as to numbers and weight : —

Fish lbs.

Four rods ... 42 ... 86

25 ... 52

52 ... no

» » - 33 ... 66\

Grand total for 1 1 days in Jubilee year : —

Three rods

397

6o9i

One rod

161

.. 269i

Single rod, one day : —

—

32

51

—

16

40*

— ... 7 ... 22

In 2\ hours one rod killed 13 fish, 31^ lbs. One
friend of mine has killed 3 fish between 8 and 9 lbs.

In the dapping season the lake almost invariably
settles to dead calm as the sun goes down. Then
the surface is seen to be covered with innumerable
sloughs from which the pretty May-fly has emerged, and
lots of spent drake float dead upon the water with out-
spread wings ; often a rise will come on, and you will
see them quietly engulfed in a most tantalizing manner.
A friend of mine has had sport even under these circum-
stances, fishing the spent drake (artificial) after the
Test fashion. It is difficult to do ; it wants the perfection
* 5 of these weighed only 5 lbs in alL

24 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

of casting, for you must be fine and far and light as
gossamer. But the striking is the crux with such fine
gut and such heavy trout.

We have pretty well played this day out, so let us
turn the boat's nose homeward. The quarters that
formed my home were most comfortable, the people
kindness and goodwill itself. The farmer who was our
landlord is a young man, well connected, well educated,
energetic, capable, and thriving, quite different from
what one expects an Irish farmer to be. I mention him
in order to relate a curious experience he had ; I believe
I was able to explain how it came about, and thus
destroyed a promising plant of superstition which was
already taking root. He was working in a field
immediately above his house on the hill side. The lake
below him was like a sheet of glass. As he looked upon
it he saw to his amazement and terror a railway train,
engine, carriages, and van all complete, slowly proceeding
down the middle of the lake. He rushed to his house
and called out his wife and servants, and some five or
six besides himself distinctly saw this curious portent.
Thinking, of course, that it was diablerie in some shape
or form, which ought to be put a stop to, he brought
out his gun to shoot it ! But his wife hung on his arm
and besought him not to venture upon such a deed of
derring-do, and presently the train vanished from their
sight. There is no doubt that this was seen ; there
were too many witnesses to admit of its being a mere
hallucination or a case of temporary insanity, or what
not. Mr. Kerr himself looked upon the incident with

DAPPING ON THE IRISH LAKES. 25

much gravity, not knowing whether it presaged ruin to
himself or only the end of the world. The idea pre-
vailed that it was certainly prophetic. Within a few
years the lake would be drained or otherwise dealt with,
and a railway line be laid along the bottom.

My explanation may be as mistaken as theirs. On
the opposite side of the lake there is a low range of hills,
and at the other side of them a railway. I imagine that
a train was passing along at this time (as I ascertained
was probable). By an effect of mirage, owing to
some peculiar atmospheric conditions, this train was
mirrored in the sky, upside down, as is usual in mirage.
Whether this could be seen or not would depend upon
the angle at which it was regarded. It certainly was
not seen by Mr. Kerr. But the absolutely calm bosom
of the lake reflected the mirage, and, in doing so, of
course, restored the train to its normal position.
Whether this is rational or not, I really do not know.
Anyhow, it sufficed to quiet my friend's alarm. I shall
be glad to hear if anyone can solve the mystery in a
more scientific fashion.

THE FIRST LESSON: AN ANGLER'S
REMINISCENCE.

BY JOHN MOSCROP.

s!^^

|OSSIBLY some of you may remember John Just.
He was botanical lecturer at Pine Street
Medical School, Manchester, about the end of

the forties. He was a thorough-going fly-fisher, tied his
own flies, and selected his own horse-hair. This was, if
not a pre-gut era, yet an era in which hair was the rule.
I remember that he preferred the tail of a thorough-
bred colt. I need scarcely remark to this audience that
he was a right good fellow, loyal, gentle, and game to
the backbone, as all good anglers are. Among his many
accomplishments he was a fair mathematician, and of
such a persevering turn that he came two hours each
week to my father's house to try to drive binomials and
the calculus into my thick head. I think I was one of
his most distinguished failures. One evening his eye
alighted on a fishing rod in the corner of the room.
" Ho-ho ! Master John, and so you are a fisherman." I
pleaded guilty to catching perch on Saturday afternoons.
" Never caught a trout with fly, John ?" " Never." This
was said most emphatically, for in those days I looked

AN ANGLER'S REMINISCENCE. 27

on fly-fishing for trout as something too awfully divine
to be hoped for. The outcome of this conversation was
that my dear old friend (and very proud am I to call him
such) obtained my father's consent, no doubt very gladly
given, to my spending the summer holidays with him.

Where was there a happier or a prouder lad than I as
I walked into Macintosh's shop in Piccadilly to be
measured for a pair of waders ? To this very day the
smell of naphtha is to me a delightful fragrance, so
powerful is the influence of old associations ; and I believe
that of all our senses the sense of smell is the most
powerful in presenting to the mind old associations. I
was fifteen or sixteen years of age ; it was my first trip
from home without my own people. My mother said,
•' John must have a portmanteau of his own ;" it was
duly purchased and as duly stored by her own hands
with the many things necessary for a month's outing.
Mr. Just provided fishing materials ; a rod with rings all
the way down, and a reel. Till then my line had been
tied to the end of the rod. As I have said, his flies were
soundly made. They would be scouted by the average
angler of to-day as being too rough, and not an
imitation of the natural insect ; and yet, although they
differed much from the spick and span shop article of
the present time, my heart goes out to them yet. They
had to my eyes a look as if they meant business. Their
very roughness added to their value — there was method
in it, as in a blot-in of Anderson Hague's — and, again,
they were fished in north country streams, fished down-
stream as sunk flies, and for aught I know they may

28 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

have been the truest imitation of the insect in its
transition from the larva stage. Anyhow, I will contend
that the rig-out, simple as it was, was not to be sneezed
at even when compared with these advanced days.

Our destination was in the neighbourhood of Lower
Bentham, the residence of a relative of Mr. Just's. It
was a typical old farm-house half hidden by a rookery,
stretching away into a grand cover of sixty or eighty
acres where I had permission to shoot jays, stock-doves
and rabbits, but no pheasants — "Mind, no pheasants,
John." The recollection of the month spent there
makes me long to be young again. We were twenty
minutes' walk from the Wenning, a tributary of the
Lune, and my friend had the privilege from Pudsey
Dawson of fishing the Hornby water, from Tatham
Bridge downwards. Our route to the water was by
footpaths through the fields, and in crossing one I was
led off the track to see an old friend of Mr. Just's, who
lived in the corner of the field. I was quite curious, for
I could see no house. " Take care, or you'll be treading
on him or some one of his youngsters. Ah, there he is.
Allow me to introduce Master John Moscrop to " — (here
he gave the botanical name of a scarce plant whose
habitat he had discovered years before) — " I always look
up my old friend when I am this way to see how he is
getting along, and to assure myself that he has not fallen
among thieves. Only to a few would I give the
privilege of acquaintance with him in his own home, but
I know you are no Vandal." And then he stooped
down, and had a good look at the plant, and then trod

AN ANGLERS REMINISCENCE. 29

daintily about on account of the seedlings, with an
almost chivalrous reverence in his bearing. Oh, he was a
grand sample of God's highest work was " Old Just," as
we used to call him, and a fitting companion for either a
cultivated gentleman or the young school-lad I then was.
Well, we arrived in due course at the roadside inn,
by Tatham Bridge, where I donned my waders for the
first time, and rigged up my rod and flies. It was
decided that I should begin operations at the head of
the first stream, below the bridge. After a few instruc-
tions about casting, I was left to my own resources.
A few minutes only passed when there was an
unmistakable pull, a tight line, a wriggle, followed by a
fish flying over my head. Down went the rod on the
gravel bed, and I pounced on my first catch. My
enthusiasm was somewhat damped by my hearing from
the next pool " Nay, nay, that sort of thing won't do,
young man. Where would you have been if it had been
a trout?" " It is a trout, sir, and such a beauty, all the
colours of the rainbow on it ;" and I took it to him so
that he might see it with his own eyes, for I was very
proud of my trophy, and had many a gloat over it for
the next hour as it lay in my pannier. Alas ! for
human nature ! Before the week was out I caught
myself saying " Only a penk." I showed my friend the
victim of my prowess.

" Why, John, man, you've caught a salmon."
" But," said I, " it isn't such a very little one," for I
imagined he was poking fun at mc just as if he had said
I had caught a whale.

30 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

" I tell you it's a salmon, a young salmon ; if it had
had the luck to live a couple of years it would have
been a six or seven pound grilse ;" and then he pointed
out the distinguishing marks of the salmon penk (the
local name for parr).

" But, sir, how did you know at that distance that it
was not a trout?"

" Well, you'll find out one of these days that trout
have not learnt the trick of flying like a swallow, and
you'll discover at the same time why you have been at
the trouble of trailing that landing-net about all day
long."

And so I did about the third day. I had been care-
fully fishing the rough stream, paying particular attention,
as per instructions, to those places where there was a
good-sized boulder among the gravel, with a well-worn
hollow round its base, when there was a golden glint, a
break on the surface, a tremendous pull returned by me
with interest, in spite of instructions to be cool and
gentle. Cool and gentle, indeed ! A terrible but alas !
only momentary struggle at the surface of the water (no
flying like a bird this time) ; and then all was quiet, my
rod straight, the snipe and yellow stretcher gone — gone
to glory. The reaction was fearful. I was too old to
cry, too young to take refuge in a hearty big D, and
" better luck next time." I had not learnt that the
satisfaction of success is equalled by the despair of
disappointment, nor do I know that the knowledge of
that philosophy even to-day brings with it much solace.
You see it was so aggravating; it was my first trout,

AN ANGLER'S REMINISCENCE. 31

and oh ! such a whopper ; it must have been pounds
and pounds. I don't know whether any gentleman
present has ever missed a " big un," but if he has done
such a thing I am sure I shall have his sympathy.

That was my first engagement with a lusty trout ;
short, decisive, and instructive. I had had my first
lesson from the best of teachers — experience ; and it was
thoroughly learnt. It was a negative lesson — it taught
me what not to do. The second lesson was positive.
One day, I heard a shout from Mr. Just. " Here, John,
quick !" Down went the rod, and I was off like a
greyhound. There he was with bent rod, closely
following the movements of a fish he had hooked. " Is
it a big one, sir?" " It's a mort," said he, "a fresh-run fish.
The beginning of July is early for Wenning. I did not
expect one so soon." I can now call to mind how closely
he kept in attendance, the reel only giving out line when
the ugly rushes were made, to be quickly recovered as
he followed up, and at the end of what appeared to me
hours, but was probably not more than ten or fifteen
minutes, he put the net under a silvery mort of two
pounds, no little feat for single hair. That practical
lesson of ten minutes was worth a library of books on
the subject.

It was a glorious month for mc, full of intense
interest, pure enjoyment, fresh air, exercise, and charming
scenery, for Wenning is a model trout stream. I had a
good digestion and a clear conscience. I was in bed
about ten, and was not troubled with insomnia till six
o'clock the following morning. Before my return I was

32 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

taught to tie my own flies, to make up my cast lines,
and was fairly initiated in the thousand and one little
dodges that go to make up the stock-in-trade of a
fisherman, as well as in the outside incidents that are
associated with the fisherman's sport. For instance, on
the mort day, on our return, we made a detour in order
to cross a certain pasture, for I learned that when the
morts are up, the mushrooms are not far off. The end
of the month left me a sworn life member of the craft,
and an untold and untellable debtor to the truest
gentleman I ever knew, I visited Wenning two or three
times afterwards in his company, but he went on his
long journey while I was yet in my teens, and I and
Wenning parted company.

In October, 1889, an old gentleman and a friend were
enjoying the privilege of trying for a salmon in the Lunc.
The quarters were at Wennington, and, as usual, the
water was out of order, low and clear ; plenty of fish
showed themselves in the pools, but they were evidently
only coming out for a lark, Saturday was to be the
last day, and again, as usual, rain came ; not a
shower, but rain that kept it up ; and before dark
Lune was stirred, and looked like a salmon water for
Monday, Is it a wonder that the train did not take
away two disappointed anglers, but left a couple
of expectant ones who requisitioned the telegraph
instead of the train ? On the Sunday afternoon this
present "old party" might have been seen strolling along
the high road towards Tatham Bridge. He called at the
little roadside inn, which did not seem one bit altered

AN ANGLER'S REMINISCENCE. 33

during the forty years that had passed since last he saw
it. There was the identical oaken bench where I sat
when I donned my waders for the first time on that
memorable morning. I sat down on it again and my
memory was very busy. Where was the smooth-faced lad,
guileless, ingenuous, trustful, knowing no deceit and sus-
pecting none ^ Were these the qualities to get through
this world with? Alas, there was very little of that lad left.
I could even view him in my mind's eye as some one else.
I strolled on to the Bridge and looked on the stream.
The course of the water was changed very little. I could
pick out to within a yard or so the spot on the gravel bed
whereon that unfortunate penk pitched ; but the stream
was overgrown with trees ; I could scarcely have put a
fly on it now. I leaned over the parapet, and seemed to
see that young lad make his first catch. My thoughts
rambled along to my dear old friend, and his horse-hair,
his hackles, his cheery laugh ; and to my old father who
took me to Macintosh's, and to my mother and her
solicitude about the " things in the portmanteau." In
short, I had a reverie, not altogether sad — indeed, not sad
at all — but which left me with two tear-drops trickling
down.

NORWAY REVISITED.

BY ABEL HEYWOOD, JUNR.

WENTY years ago it was an undertaking to go
to Norway, and before making my first visit I
made my vvill, as was only proper. There was
a steamer from Hull then, a small one, to Bergen once a
fortnight. I do not think the number of passengers
carried was more than forty, and the voyage took
up nearly three days. Now you may get to Bergen
three tirnes, at least, per week from Hull and Newcastle,
in steamers carrying about 150 passengers, and making
the passage in about 36 hours.

Nowadays, when we land at Bergen, what changes
we sec ! In the old days, Hotel Scandinavie, perched up
aloft, where it still stands, was the chief hotel of the
place, and there was, I think, only one other. Now
Scandinavie is nowhere in the race, but it is in a quiet
part of the town, close by the points from which the best
views of the place and the fjords can be got, and so, on
every one of my many visits, I have stuck to Scandinavie,
and I think I shall stick to it still, if I go again. It was
in Scandinavie that I ventured on the first Norwegian
words I ever spoke. " Et glas vand," I said when I sat
down, and lo ! a handy maiden brought me a glass of

NORWAY REVISITED. 35

water ; a thing natural enough, no doubt, but one which
made me think I had found a talisman, as indeed native
speech is in a foreign land. Since that day I have
added bit by bit to my stock of Norwegian, and now
the tongue has no terrors for me — until I hear a native
speak it.

In the old days you must leave Bergen by steamer
or by carriole ; now you have a little railway which will
take you right into the heart of the country in four or
five hours, as far as you could travel before in two days.
But the two days were better than the railway ride,
for the journey could not be surpassed for beauty. At
Vossevangen, even in this old time, Fleischer was chief
of the hotel-keepers, with a house not a quarter the size
of his present magnificent establishment. Old Fleischer
himself was not half his present size either, and he had
not the air of business and care that now sits on his
broad shoulders. He could even go a-fishing, which, if
you will ask him, you will find he has not done for many
a long day, and he had much more time to talk and
laugh with his visitors than he has now. Then you
might have half a dozen men in the house at one time ;
now you may have forty or fifty, and as many ladies —
more's the pity — for I would rather have the old wild
Norway — free from ladies — than the new.

There were some disadvantages, though. For example,
you could get no food to speak of between Voss (where
even in the distant past you really could get something
to eat), and Gudvangen. At Twinde there was a bit of
a station where I do not think you could stay at all. At

36 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

Vinje, the next station, there were several hovels perched
up far and far above the present high road, so far that
modern travellers do not see or suspect the existence of
the old Vinje, and in these hovels the only beds were
boxes of straw, and the only food was what you brought.
Here it was, on my first visit, that I saw the old hag
who cooked for us, cleaning the cooking-spoon, pre-
paratory to putting it in the milk she was boiling for us,
by sticking it in her mouth and licking it. Now, in
place of that primitive simplicity, you have a fine airy,
pleasantly placed hotel, with nice clean little bed-rooms,
and nice clean little girls to wait on and attend to you.
But they don't let you go into the kitchen, and perhaps
it is as well so.

I have mentioned that the old place is perched far
above the new. This is a peculiarity common to the
whole route we are now travelling on. Just about the
time I made my first journey a reformation set in. The
roads used to go, as the lemmings are said to do,
straight ; if a hill was in the way the road went right
up it, and of course right down it, and on this account
only, one would hardly know the roads now to be
passing through the same country, everything is so level
and so easy.

By this road to Vinje runs a very, very beautiful
river, and twenty years ago it used to contain very
fair trout, which is not the case now. You may fish
at Vinje and catch trout by scores, but not one of
them will weigh three ounces. Why this is I cannot
say.

NOR WA V RE VISITED 37

Vinje to Stalheim is still as of old; but the old
Stalheim is gone. There was a bit of a place there, but
now there is a huge establishment as big as a barracks.
It is very nice, no doubt, but I am glad to have seen it
before the barracks came. You will have to dine here, or
say you won't ; then go on to Gudvangen, by the road
that can never change, and so reach the Sogne Fjord, or
at least the branch of it called Noero Fjord. It will be
seen by those who know the country that I am skipping
along pretty fast, and not attempting to expatiate on
the beauties of the situation. But I am contrasting old
and new, and Noerodal old, or Noerodal new, is, thank
God, the same and for ever the same — ever the most
stupendous and overwhelming landscape the eyes can
look upon.

Gudvangen reached. What changes ! What im-
provements ? No ; degradations. The place is full of
hotels and touts and people ; female tourists and male
tourists ; carrioles and carts, carriages and diligences,
and even bicycles. Oh, it is terrible ! There is a steamer
too every day now, sometimes twice a day, and in the
old time there was one once a fortnight sometimes, but not
always, and my friend and I had to row in a small boat
for half-a-day to get to the main fjord, and thus waylay
the steamer. Perhaps that's not a sign of grand old
days, and I won't argue that it is. But the fjord is not
less magnificent nor less mysterious when seen from the
level of the water from a little boat, than from a fast
steamer with a lot of frivolous women and vapid men
around you.

38 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

Just see the contrast here. Pass along that glorious
fjord now, a region of grandeur and beauty so over-
whelming that if you had eyes all over your head like a
butterfly, every one of those eyes would be filled with
wonder and amazement if you had any soul behind
them. And what do you see ? Travellers, female and
male, pushing and " thrutching," or indulging in their
wearisome gossip ; reading Comic Cuts or some such stuff,
and positively dead and stupid as to where they are and
what is before them. They are even asking how long
they will be on the journey, while they ought to be on
their knees thanking God for the privilege of being
where they are. They might just as well be at Black-
pool ; and why, why did they ever leave that happy
pandemonium ? That's the Noero Fjord of to-day. Now
look back through my time's telescope, and what do
we see ? A little boat, as I have said, slowly, slowly
pulling its way along, now hugging the shore, now in the
midst of the waters ; every object passed at a leisurely
speed, so that we have time to make its acquaintance
and to love it. In sober earnest there is no comparison
between the two methods. And then look at the company !
I have said what sort of companions you often find now ;
see what we had then. We had one passenger, and he
was our guest, but then our passenger was Bjornstjerne
Bjornson, and for those five or six hours we had him
all to ourselves. That we were not able to say much to
him doesn't matter. The influence of the poet and
novelist lives with one of us still, for I have read nearly
all his books, which I probably should never have done

NORWAY REV/SITED, 39

but for this meeting. And then we had the delightful
adventure at Fronningen which any one who likes may-
read about in "Anglers' Evenings" in the first paper
ever read before the Manchester Anglers' Association,
always excepting the good Colonel's presidential address.
Notwithstanding all this, tve shall, next time we pass
along this fjord, no doubt travel by steamer ; I fancy
Mr. Ruskin goes home to Brantwood by rail.

Next we come to Laerdal ; not so much altered, for it
was always, within my recollection, an important place ;
but it is bigger, of course, and rejoices in a glass-fronted
hotel of really colossal size, where you will meet at
dinner seventy-five ladies and twenty-five gentlemen, all
dressed up in their utmost finery.

The road from Laerdal onward (there is no chance of
going wrong, for there is only one way) is only to some
extent as it was. It has the same ultimate tendency
as before, but it goes a different way about it. It used
to be up and down just like a switchback railway, but it is
now very fairly on the level, at least so far as the inland
rise will allow of its being. The road has certainly
changed, and it enables us to see that we have changed
somewhat too. There is more to be seen along the
road than there used to be ; that is, we can see more,
and the natural history of Norway may be taken in at
a glance in a few hours' drive along that Laerdal road.
One can see now how the whole land here has been
under ice ; it is as clear as that some of the land is now
under water. The signs of it are on every side. Here
we pass along by the foot of a huge moraine almost as

40 ANGLERS' E VEN/NGS.

fresh as when it was formed; now we mount another;
now we see glacier-carried heaps on both sides of the
river, sometimes high above, sometimes at the water's
edge ; and the first day's drive up the valley of the
Laerdal will enable us to see how all this beautiful
Norway has come into existence. Dr. Nansen, in his
journey across Greenland, estimated that the ice-mantle
covering that land is occasionally thousands of feet
in thickness. If you have ever seen a glacier that
is in active work, the Buarbroe for instance, and observed
how, like a huge plough, it rips and delves up every-
thing except the solid rock that it comes in contact
with, how it scrapes and gouges even the rocks, you may
form some small idea of the work of a plough of this kind
whose cutting edges have a weight of a few thousands
of feet of ice above them. That is how the Norwegian
valleys have been scooped out, how the fjords have been
formed ; and if you climb to the top of the hills that
encompass you on either hand as you pass along the
valleys, you find how it is that wherever you go in
Norway you have waterfalls continually in view, some-
times three or four at a time. The great part of
southern Norway is a high table-land with deep grooves
scraped in it, and the fosses plunge down every here and
there, because the groove has cut the river's course. All
this you can see as plain as print as you drive up this
valley.

By-and-bye we come to Husum, a large and
important station now, but a very poor place when first
I slept in it. But before we reach the place, we pass

NORWAY REVISITED. 41

the spot on the river where my old friend and I first
threw line in a Norwegian stream. Shall I ever forget
it ? Every feature of that charming stretch of water is
photographed on my memory ; it is twenty years ago,
but is just as though it were yesterday. I don't think
that the fishing can be now what it was, and you will see
by-and-bye that I have, from my experience of other
places, some reason for this belief. At this particular
place I only had that one far-away evening's fishing
while the " skyds gut " waited for us, and laughed and
danced, as trout after trout came out of the water. I
have never had such a time as that first time, never such
weather, and never such fish. We must go on to
Husum, where we find a house that might hold fifty
people or so. Before, three of us filled all the beds. But
in the yard, as though pushed into the corner, jammed
up against the rocks, there still stand two little out-
houses of the " stabbur " style that are unaltered, and
that show us the " Gammle Norge " my heart seems to
turn to.

It is not far from Husum to Borgund, and the road
is a great change from the old one — a great improvement,
I am fain to confess. The old one, of course, went
straight up and dropped straight down ; the new follows
the course of the river, often under rock ledges hanging
far and far over you. What a torrent the river is !
boiling and rushing and tearing, not a bit of smooth
water, but every drop urging along at express speed.
You can nowhere have a better view of a fine Norwegian
torrent than here. Now we come in sight of the Borgund

42 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

Old Church. Mysterious building ! But what changes
have come about ! That horribly ugly new church,
that hotel, and — oh misery! — a dozen men flogging the
stream. Ah, what a fishing we had that first time !
Nobody else there — probably never had been. How
well I remember fishing from close by that cottage
door, where just within my throw a great wide stream
entered a spreading pool, and the dimpling waters were
all within my reach. How, without stirring a foot, fish
after fish (those bright beauties which no one knows the
glory of who has not seen Norwegian trout) came to my
net ; more than once two at a time, until I had my
basket full. Ah ! that time is gone for ever, and last
year when I drove down to Borgund with another friend
to renew our old and delightful acquaintance, we found
every pool and every stream occupied ; and without a
trout — without trying for one — we drove back again
dejected and forlorn.

We are going further up the river to the little place
I met with on my first visit, and with which I have kept
up an acquaintance ever since. It is not so far from
Maristuen ; but before we get there, let me recall my
meeting with Ole Ericsen Eggum, that is to say, Ole
who lives at Eggum. I picked up Ole on the first visit,
and he stayed with me all day while I fished, telling me
where the river was best, and rejoicing every time I
got a trout He declared he had never seen such a
fisher, which I dare say was true, for he had probably
never seen another. However, Ole and I became good
friends, and he was with me a second, and, I think, a

NORWAY REVISITED. 43

third day, when I had to leave him. He told me all his
history ; how he had been a sailor, been to California,
made a little money, had come back, and having his pick
of the girls in the village had married the prettiest of
them ; and I promised that if ever I returned I would try
to find him out. At last, fourteen or fifteen years after, I
found myself fishing below Eggum, in the very pool to
which Ole had introduced me. The boy who was
carrying my pannier was an Ole too. " Isn't that
Eggum," I asked, " and is Ole Ericsen here yet ?"
Yes, he was, said little Ole, should he go and find
him ? " Yes, do, and tell him an old friend wants to
see him." So off Ole ran, and I fished away. Presently
man and boy came down together, tramping through the
long grass, but I had forgotten Ole's face and he had
lost mine. The recalling of a few incidents of our
triumphs together made him remember everything,
however, and he said, " Ah, yes, and I will go up to
Breistolen again with you, if you will go." I had not so
many fish to give him as I used to have, though they
were not a bad lot either, and then we had to say good-
bye. " Well," he said, " if I never see you again, I hope
we shall meet in the good place." I have not seen him
since, and the poor fellow sickened soon after — and has
left Eggum.

Now, let us get on to this place near Maristuen. I
had written to say we were coming, four of us, and that
we should arrive about midnight. I had written, too, to
our friend Jonas, to meet us at Lxrdal, and drive us part
of the way over, and all our appointments were kept,

44 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

except that it was one o'clock before we landed, instead
of twelve. As we turned Jonas' corner we saw that the
valley was illuminated in our honour. There was a
candle in every window, and the house stood out like
a lighthouse in the twilight. Then when we drove up
to the door, what excitement ! How all the inhabitants
welcomed us; Sylla — and Charybdis I was going to
say, but I mean Kari, Jertrude, Johanna, and Knut,
and all the " piges " of the place, and even the old man
himself! They expected us to begin with a feast at
that time of night, and were disappointed, I think, that
we had to decline their hospitality. Then we chose our
bed-rooms. But I am forgetting what this place near
Maristuen used to be. Well, I think it's better now, but it's
biggerand dearer — though, goodness knows, cheap enough.
It used to be only that little house over the way, where
they managed, at a pinch, to make up five beds. Now,
at the same pinch, they might manage a dozen, I dare-
say; so it's not so big yet, though it is quite a fine white
building, which has blossomed out with a "svale"; this
is what they call the porch that runs from top to
bottom, which, having a coloured lamp hung in it,
and having stencilled ornaments on it to counterfeit
elaborate fretwork, is quite imposing in appearance. The
whole route from Laerdal to Christiania has blossomed in
the same way, every "svale" being evidently produced on
the same plan, and I should fancy that some enterprising
builder has put up the lot at an annual charge, for the
people could certainly not afford to lay down money for
such ornamentation.

NORWAY REVISITED. 45

Now, to describe the fishings of day after day for a
fortnight will entertain you no more than it would be
possible for me; let me then take one day, made up,
perhaps, of bits from several, and that shall summarise
the way in which we four Englanders spent our time.

The first to rise in the morning are B and

myself; we sleep in contiguous rooms, separated by
boards as thin as a hat-box, so that a whisper from one
chamber can be heard in the next. " Are you getting

up?" says B at six o'clock or half-past, or on wet

mornings at seven. " Yes, I've been reading and waiting
for you for an hour." So up both get, slip on tennis
shoes, take a towel and sponge, and without much
clothing on we go downstairs, cross the yard, turn in at
the gate into the field, pass the flad-brod bakery and the
wash-house, and there we are at our bath, a huge pool,
swirling in a quick torrent by the rocks on which we
stand. They are very convenient places these rocks — no
end of little ledges to put the soap, sponge, etc., upon,
and they run nicely into the water, so that you can stand
up to the ankles or the knees ; or, if you prefer it, you
can take a header into the swirl and be just carried down
to the corner, where you must at once get out, or I will
not answer for the consequences. We always have this

bath, B and I, rain or fair, and as we come into the

house again, the chances are that w« shall meet our
G.O.M. in a long macintosh and a hat, and he will make
a long round, across the bridge to the other side of
the pool where no prying eye shall discover him.
B and I are soon dressed, and till breakfast is ready

46 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

we sit, often in a glorious bath of sunshine, in the "svale,"
trimming our flies, chaffing Knut, or addressing playful
remarks to Jertrude. Then the G.O.M. comes down,
smiling an untroubled smile, but I think he is not quite
so rough and unkempt as we are ; then comes Sylla with
" Voer saa god," and we march into the large uncarpeted
" Spise Sal " to breakfast. What an airy, delightful room
that is! Clean as a pin, and completely our property
while we are here. Indeed we may say we " bossed that
show " altogether for that fortnight. Enter at the front
door — those are all our macintoshes and landing nets;
those things on the porch are our waders and socks and
things; there inside are our boots; in the drawing-room
our books and maps and papers are littering everything ;
in the "Spise Sal " our rods, which are never taken down,
are all lying on the floor ; and if any stranger should
happen to come into the house while we are there, Sylla
at once lets him see that we are proprietors, and he
alone is a visitor.

Now, what will the neat-handed Sylla give us for
breakfast to-day ? First coffee, real good coffee, such as
I, for one, never get at home ; then fried trout, as well
cooked by Kari as ever you had or could have them ;
then eggs and a bit of inferior bacon perhaps, and as
many kickshaws as you like in the way of sausages
of every hue and flavour, anchovies, sardines, cheese,
marmalade, and so on. For bread we have white bread,
rye bread and biscuits ; so we don't starve here.

Breakfast over, we order " lit mad " to take with us ;
our boys who are going to carry our creels and water-

NORWAY REVISITED. 47

proofs appear, and, after the necessary arrangements, we
sally forth. There are several courses open to us ; there
is up-water and down-water, left bank and right bank,
and nothing to choose between them. We generally go

in pairs for company, and on this particular day B

and I are going down on the opposite bank. I put in at

the top of the water and B goes a considerable

distance down. The top pool, in which we have our
morning bath, used to be a fine place for fish ; it isn't
now. I got one there this summer, and that's all, though
I fished it as far as it could be reached many a time.
Downward we go, through long grass for a time, and now
we are at a long swift run, three or four feet deep, but
too rapid to fish. Still, walking along, and casting as I
go, I raise one in the rapid water, but the force of the
stream is too great and he gets away. Then the water,
reduced to forty yards or so in width, makes over to my
side, and is deep at the edges, running under grassy
banks. Here, if I have luck, and we have not harried
the water too much, I shall get one or two. After a
hundred yards or so of this there comes a stream which
might serve for a day's fishing ; but there is a charm in
moving along, so that we do not, while we stay, bring
that stream to too much harm. I have got one fair fish,
which the G.O.M., who is on the other side a bit lower
down, has observed me engaged with, and by the time I
get nearer to him he calls out, " Is it a pound ?" " No ;
about three-quarters," I reply, but then in a moment,
"but this one is; or will be, if I get him." Then he
shouts something which I cannot hear, but at last I

48 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

make out that he wants to know what he'll weigh if I
don't get him, to which I reply, " two pounds," and I am
sorry to say that that fish was a. two-pounder.

A little lower down there is a huge round pool, as
blue as the sky, and as deep as the sea. There is an
eddy below me, where the water runs the wrong way,
and is deep under a steep bank ; there must be a fish
there ; yes, there he is ! away into that deep, deep pool
with my fly in his cheek. There is no chance for him ;
in due time he is in my net, and I have got my pounder.

Just below, we pass through a sort of stile, and
the river divides, part of it going straight on, but the
greater portion going off at right angles for one or two
hundred yards, and then turning, almost at right angles
again, into a course parallel with the stream by which
we are standing. It is just possible to wade over this
smaller stream to the island, and to your right you have
a fine long run, which, somehow, never produced me
anything ; but by the time it gets to the corner, before
taking the turn at right angles, there is some delightful
water which yielded two or three fine fish every time I
got to it. This place I kept a profound secret, but the
G.O.M. saw me there one day fast for about ten minutes
in a fish, which I did not get, and I was no longer
sole proprietor of the choicest bit of the river.

Returning to the left bank, we get a united stream
again, which by-and-bye spreads out into a deep glassy
water, where a ferry goes across it. There is not a puff

of wind, but here I come up with friend B , who is

positively fishing this clear but heavy water, where " you

NORWAY REVISITED. 49

sees the fish a-swimmin'" in plenty. " You just go down
there," he says, " and you'll get one sure enough," and
scarcely believing such a thing possible, I do go just
down to where there is a mere dimple, caused by a deep-
down stone. The flies fall over the smooth water, there is
a splash, and " sure enough " I have him. Get a ripple
on this place, as I got it one evening when I was coming
home to dinner, and you have fish and fishing indeed.

There are two or three houses on a glacier mound
just here, for the accommodation of which the ferry-
boat plies. We cannot keep by the river, but must
mount the mound, pass the houses and skip a few
hundred yards, coming down to another break in the
rocky bank, where we can reach the water and are sure
to get fish again. Then there is a higher hillock to
climb, a rocky, tree-covered one, below which are two
pools and streams that surpass belief for beauty and
power of yielding fish. The lower of them is difficult to
cast over on account of the trees which come close to the
water's edge, but it is just shallow enough to enable you
to wade along by sticking to the trees with your left hand
while you fish with your right, and it will go hard if you
do not, before you get to shoal water at the foot, take
half-a-dozen fish. Below this there is fishing for a couple
of miles or so, but I have only been down once ; it was a
bad day, and I only got a few trout, but there is some
splendid water. There is, though, more fishing than
can be got through in a day in the upper water. Dinner
is at seven, and it is five now, so quite time to turn. The
boy shouts out every time a fish goes into the pannier

50 ANGLERS EVENINGS.

how many he has got : femten, sexten, and so on, and
by we get to " tyve " I feel at the pull of the basket and
thank my stars that I have a boy to carry it He is
worth his shilling a day indeed. After a rest we go on

our way, taking a cast now and then, and at last B

comes in sight, and we have time to sit down and chat
before walking home together. Is there anything more
delightful in a day's work of this delightful sort than this
chat and this rest ? I do not think there is ; there are not
many of those pitying fools who "cannot stand such idle
work as fishing," who ever feel the joyful lassitude that
a day's hard work on the river, such as I have briefly des-
cribed, produces. And that crack on the leisurely walk
home; what could be pleasanter or happier ? We shall be
obliged to take a cast or two as we pass the choicest
spots, and we shall add a fish or two to the baskets.
Now we are in sight of the house, now reach the grove
where the nesting field-fares attack us every time we
pass. Ole and Olaf are chattering and comparing notes
behind us, and so we go on, full of glee and health and
happiness. Now we cross the little bridge, and at last
stand in the courtyard true to time, at five or ten
minutes before seven. We are all there and greet
fraternally. Then comes the show up. " Give us four
dishes, please," and we each pile up a great dish
from our creels, and weigh in as well as we can. Then
comes the grand wash in the river before our waders are
removed, and at last we are ready for dinner just as the
bright, good-natured Sylla comes once more with her
** Veer saa god." They feed us very well : soup, boiled

NORWAY REV/SITED. 51

trout or salmon (the trout are best), meat of some kind,
sweets, always novel and interesting because unknown,
cheese, and the coffee to finish off. And all this taken
in the healthiest of situations, in the best of all good
company ! What cou/d man wish for more?

In such fashion as the above the days pass by.
Sometimes it is up-water, sometimes down, then an
excursion to the mountain streams 2,000 feet above us,
then the lakes a few miles higher up stream, or, perhaps,
a bootless journey into the snowy mountains in the
south, where we are told the big ones are to be found.
The days of our holiday are soon spent and our fishing
is soon over.

One incident that happened to one of our friends
must be told, as it has an important bearing on the
difference between the present and the past in Nor\vay.
One evening, when we met at dinner, the above-mentioned
gentleman told us that while he was fishing in the very
pool down the water which I have more than once
spoken of, an irate farmer set upon him, storming and
shouting, and apparently demanding money, and ended
by throwing stones at the visitor's line. This was im-
portant and sad news to hear, and next morning B

and I drove down to interview the farmer. We soon
found him, and under our skilful treatment he proved
himself not such an unreasonable man as we expected.
I poured out on him all the wealth of Norwegian I was

possessed of, Mr. B helping by a timely " hear,

hear" (in the Norwegian tongue) as occasion required;
and Jacob was "overcame." What he advanced was

52 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

this : — That we trod down his grass, or, at any rate, our
gillies did, and that we were so skilful that we should
catch all the fish, and there would be none left for him.
Both these views we combated successfully, pointing
out that we were generally in the water, and that we
would look well after the boys; that as to catching all
the fish, that was impossible ; also, that we had come a
thousand miles to visit him, and deserved a bit ot
fishing; that we and other travellers were a benefit to
the whole district, and that if we were met by incivility
instead of kindness we should come no more; that I had
been coming for twenty years, and had fished that place
without hindrance all that time; that Ole Ericsen had
himself brought me to it ; and that, finally, if he wanted
some fish he was welcome to them, for it was the fishing,
and not the fish, that zue wanted. That fetched him ; he
cared nothing about Ole Ericsen, who was away now,
but he had never heard such eloquence before, and so
we might fish as much as we liked. Later in the day we
took him a nice dish of trout, and photographed his
house, his wife, his child, and himself, and he was
thoroughly pacified.

This event, I fear, marks an epoch in the history of
the tourist's Norway. The peasants are learning to look
on Englishmen as things to make money out of; the old
simplicity of the people is waning.

And now for the final comparison between old and
new. Well, the fishing was better the first time I saw
this river than it is now ; no doubt it will be worse still,
and before my sons are my age, they may read in

NORIVAV REVISITED. 53

" Anglers' Evenings " ot angling feats quite unattainable
in their time. So we agreed, as we talked over the stone-
throwing incident after dinner that evening, sitting in the
" svale," while the ruddy glow in the sky grew deeper ;
but, as the G.O.M. said of me, I have had my whack out
of the river, whatever comes, and ought to be content.
So I am. I would not part with my recollections of
that valley and my love for it, for any price. Blessed
Norway ! If I live, and am able to do it, I hope that
year after year I may return to experience the delights
of its dancing waters ; to feel the soul-inspiring influence
of its lovely landscape ; and to partake of the healthful
life of its honest, simple people.

NOTES ON SEA FISHING.

BY STANLEY KNEALE.

LTHOUGH I do not compare sea-fishing to
the more scientific pursuit of salmon, trout, or
grayling, yet it has charms quite its own ; the
bracing sea-breezes, the glorious sunrises and sunsets
throwing dark brown shadows of the rocks on the water ;
the waves glancing up and down, catching and reflecting
all the beautiful and gorgeous colouring of the sky,
the blue glare of mid-day, the quiet purple shadows of
late evening. And not only to the artist, but to the
sportsman, does sea-fishing make itself attractive. There
is the "glorious uncertainty." When luring the lusty
trout you expect to catch trout — and generally do if they
are in the humour and you are an adept in the art of
deception — but in sea-fishing, at least generally, you do
not know what you will catch ; it may be a codling, a
conger, a mighty halibut, or any one of the hundreds of
different species and varieties which inhabit the deep (or
mostly the shallow) ; it may be an ounce, or it may be a
fifty or sixty-pounder which makes it a question whether
you have caught the fish or the fish has caught you;
whether you go overboard or he comes on board. Not
only in the weight and size have you variety, but in the

NOTES ON SEA FISHING. 55

methods of capture, whether with rod and fly, whiffing,
long-lining, bottom fishing, or even netting. One of the
most beautiful scenes pictured on my mind is a still, clear
moonlight night, the water just lapping the sides of the
boat ; in the distance the bright line of phosphorus marking
the ripple made by the nets as they were slowly wind-
lassed in (not the snorting steam windlass breaking the
calm of the scene, but the hand-worked capstan revolving
to some rhythmical air), and the glorious gleam and glitter
of the silver-scaled herring as the nets were taken into
the boat. This was not sport, but once seen it was never
to be forgotten ; and, after all, fish have to be caught to
feed the hungry man, and it would take a good many
anglers to fill a boat with them by rod and line as was
done by one sweep of the nets on that particular
evening.

In Ramsey Bay, where most of my sea-fishing ex-
perience was gained, if you want a big day, long line
fishing does it, especially in winter, when the cod is in its
prime. You want four or five lines of about eight
hundred hooks each, a smart stiff sailing-boat of about
twenty-five feet keel, not too high in the gunwale, so that
the lines may be taken in more easily, plenty of beam and
ballast, and three or four men who know what they are
doing; for, at that time of the year, you may see some
nasty weather between the start to Bahama Bank (the
best cod ground) about seven miles distant, and the return
to harbour. As the cod-boats there are not decked, or
only partially so, they require very careful handling ; in
rough seas very often one man steers and three bale. It

56 ANGLERS' E VENINGS.

is man'ellous how some of the regular fishermen manage
those boats ; going out in all kinds of weather, they
handle them with a skill which only comes from long
experience and knowledge of boats, tides, currents, and
winds. They are good companions, can spin long yams
and tell good fish stories, and are always ready to
instruct an amateur. There is something very fresh and
exhilarating on a bright winter's morning in starting off
with a nice breeze, bounding from crest to crest of the
short curling waves, everything light and buoyant,
dancing in the sunlight, with your lips salt with the
showered spray from your boat's rude contact with
some large wave.

Arrived at the bank, down comes the sail, and mast
too, if there is much sea or ground swell on ; and over go
the lines, shooting across the tide, and buoyed at the
ends. Then comes two or three hours' waiting, which
can be filled in by pollack, bream or bass fishing, the
tide carrying out a lightly-leaded line and trace, to which
are attached flies, spinning-baits, or, best of all, sand-eels.
If the fish are in the humour, and the tide right, which
is the most important thing (neap tides are the best), you
may have some capital sport with pollack, although they
are not quite so large here as in other parts of the bay.
The bass and bream are scarcer and more uncertain.
Then comes the time for lifting the long lines; cod,
skate, flounders, plaice, halibut, red and grey gurnet,
congers, dog-fish, and many other kinds come tumbling
into the boat, but, of course, principally cod. Occasionally
a halibut or skate bigger than usual requires two or

NOTES ON SEA FISHING. 57

three gaffs to bring him over the side. I have seen
haHbut five or six feet long brought in by the cod boats.
Buckland mentions one caught in Ramsey Bay as
among the biggest captured round the coasts of the
British Isles. With two or three cwt. of fish in the
bottom ot the boat, the Hnes neatly coiled in the baskets,
off you start home again with a freshening breeze, and
generally a good bit of beating, as the prevailing winds
are off shore, westerly or sou '-westerly ; and, unless you
have a good suit of oils on, you will not have many
dry garments by the time you get back to the harbour.

But from a sportsman's point of view, by far the most
fascinating fishing is with rod and fly or spinning tackle,
for pollack, cod-fish, codling, and, occasionally, mackerel.
This sport was ably and charmingly described in the
first series of "Anglers' Evenings," in a paper entitled,
" Rod Fishing off the Isle of Man," where the whole art
of pollack fishing is so fully discussed that there remains
little to say. The most important thing is to get the
right tides, weather, and time. I have always found the
flood tide much the best, the fish coming in with it
closer to the rocks, except when the sea is rough. Then,
of course, they keep to the deeper water, are more
scattered, and have to be fished for with much heavier
leads. The best time for pollack fishing, as for most
sea-fishing, is in the early morning about sunrise, or in
the evening after sunset ; they come nearer to the surface
then and rise more readily to the fly. The autumn is the
best season, although in some years I have known them
to be very plentiful in May and June.

58 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

As in any other kind of fishing, the finer the tackle
the better the sport. Single salmon gut is quite -strong
enough for your traces or flycasts ; you may lose some
flies or spinning tackle now and then (generally in the
weed) but in the long run it will repay you. The tackle
sold on the spot is made of twisted gut or gimp, and
would pull a whale out ; as a rule, the tackle used by the
boat fishermen is very clumsy, but of course they do not
use it with a rod, but simply a hand-line. They very
rarely fish for pollack, as it is not a good eating fish and
there is no market for it ; and they consider you are rather
idiotic to waste your time on the "kelleig," as they call
them, when you might be more profitably employed long
lining, bottom fishing, or mackerel fishing. Undoubtedly,
the heaviest fish are taken by trolling with the sand-eel
with a fairly heavy lead, say three or four ounces, so as
to sink the spinning sand-eel two or three fathoms below
the surface, according to the tides and time of day. The
fish always lie nearer the surface in the evening.

On a fine calm night, as you are rowed in and out ot
the little bays, overshadowed by the great towering
rocks looking dark and mysterious against the sunset
sky, with the quiet dip of the oars, or a disturbed
cormorant slipping into the water from his resting-place,
or now and then the splash of a fish as he rushes to
the surface in pursuit of some small fry, breaking the
quietness of the scene — suddenly there is a tug and a
splash, followed by the delightful screech of the reel, as
away goes a good pollack to his home among the weed.
You follow, giving him all the butt you can to prevent

NOTES ON SEA FISHING. 59

his going down — their tendency is generally down ; they
scarcely ever rush to the surface, as salmon or trout
sometimes do when first hooked, but seem to know by
instinct that their safety lies in the long dark tangle, in
and out of which they endeavour to thread your line.
They often take eighty or ninety yards of line off your
reel, and you have to follow them with the boat. I
remember one day, after a long rush, following up in a
boat, winding in as I came along until I got right over
my fish with a big strain on all the time, as much as a
strong salmon gut would bear ; but not an inch would it
budge; however, patience hath its reward, and knowing
the sulking habits of my friends the pollack, I continued
to keep a steady strain on, fearing all the time that he
had fastened me in the long brown weed at the bottom.
After about ten minutes I felt a slight stir, and he came
to the surface quite played out; the gaff quickly trans-
ferred a good pollack of fifteen pounds into the boat.
It is a fish that caves in very quickly after the first
rush or two; very unlike the mackerel, which, for its
size, is the hardest fighting fish I know, either in salt or
fresh water. But if the fights in pollack fishing are not
very hard or long they are frequent. On a good day
you have not to be content with one fish, as in salmon
fishing, but can count them by the dozen. Then there is
the delightful pull home — if the evening is chilly you
are only too pleased to take a turn at the oars ; if not,
comfortably settled in the stern, puffing away at your
favourite pipe, a goodly array of shimmering fish lying in
front of you, and, in the distance, the town and harbour

6o ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

lights guiding you home to a good supper to which you
feel you can do full justice, you begin to think there are
many less enjoyable sports than pollack fishing. Of
course there is another side to the picture, when, minus
fish, a stiff wind off shore and a choppy sea making it
rather difficult and dangerous work, you are glad to pull
into the friendly shelter of a headland, beach your boat
on one of the little gravelled bays, high and dry out of
the reach of the tide, and tramp home trying to dry your
soaked clothes in the five or six miles between you and
a good fire and refreshment for the inner man.

When fishing for pollack along the rocks you often
have some good fun by bringing a rook rifle and thinning
the cormorants which line the coast. Although in the
Isle of Man they are protected all the year round by the
" Sea Birds Protection Act," they are of no service to
the fishermen, as are the gannet and gull in guiding them
to the fishing grounds ; and in thinning them down you
are doing good service, especially to the river fishing.
On some of the Manx streams I believe they do more to
destroy the salmon and trout than all the fishermen and
poachers put together. In the spring I have seen dozens
of them right at the entrance of the harbour, when the
white trout (as they are called there) are about, destroy-
ing them wholesale. One cormorant can very quickly
dispose of two or three dozen of those small fish which
Mr. Day has pronounced to be young sewin. They
are a greedy bird, and to use an old expression, " their
eye is very often bigger than their belly," or rather throat,
as up the Sulby river one day I picked up a cormorant

NOTES ON SEA FISHING. 6i

choked with a four-pound salmon. These birds also go
up several miles inland to the fresh water, the trout and
samlets having little chance against them.

The biggest day's sea-fishing, in point of numbers, that
I ever had was a fine day in June, a good many summers

ago, in Ramsey Bay. L , who was not a rod

fisherman, but was very keen and always worked hard
and successfully with the hand lines, two cousins, myself,
and the boatman made up the crew of the Snaefel, a
small open schooner of about twenty-five feet keel ; a
very handy fishing boat, and much more convenient than
the larger, partly-decked, sailing boats you now get there
for hire. She was also a fast boat in her time, and many
are the races we have had going or returning from the
fishing ground with the lug-sail or cutter-rigged fishing
boats. On this particular afternoon we had not much
chance of trying her sailing powers, as it was almost a
dead calm. Starting about three, we drifted out to the
whiting ground, about a mile from the end of the pier,
where the whiting come right into the bay. They are
generally very numerous, although perhaps not so large
as those caught off Manghold Head, which is about five
miles from the harbour mouth, and, taking it all round, is
much the best ground for whiting and other bottom
fishing. As the tides run strong, and the water is deep,
you require heavy leads, about 3lbs., to keep your line on
the bottom. This evening we had not wind enough to
take us out there, and since it is no joke rowing two or
three tons of ballast along, we dropped our anchor in
about five fathoms of water, so clear that we could sec all

62 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

the fish on the sandy bottom. Whiting, unlike the
pollack, are never found on a rocky bottom, and are
generally enticed inshore by the sand eels or other small
fry. To lower the sails and make ready the lines was the
work of a very short time. The whiting lines generally
used have a cross-bar of whalebone or stiff wire about
a foot above the lead, to the ends of which the hooks are
attached by a couple of feet of fine water cord. As the
hooks and snooding are coarse, we used to put on a large
trout hook, say No. 9, and a couple of strands of fairly
strong gut, the greater penetrating power of the fine-
wired hooks and invisibility of the gut telling a
tremendous tale at the end of a day's fishing. Having
our supply of fresh sand-eels on board, we cut them up
in small pieces and bait our hooks, taking care to leave
the point of the hook uncovered ; over go the lines, and
we begin in real earnest to pull in the fish. They were
so thick that we very often had a couple of whiting on
before the line reached the bottom. You generally find
the bottom with your lead, and fish about a foot or two
off, but this evening it did not seem to make much
difference where, or how, we fished — up came the lines
with two fish on each time, until it really became hard

work lowering and drawing in. At last L , who

was very keen on a big catch, noticed that the boys'
lines were down twice as long as ours. The fact was
that they had got tired of bending over the gunwale pulling
fish in, so they let their lines remain on the bottom,
knowing that there were sure to be two fish on each
line ; after that L kept a sharp eye on them and

NOTES ON SEA FISHING. 63

held them steadily at work. The bay was literally alive
with fish that evening; we caught whiting, cod, skate,
sand-soles, plaice, mackerel, red and grey gurnet, dog-
fish, and even herrings. It is a very rare thing for the
latter fish to be taken by line in Ramsey Bay ; however,
that evening we had about a dozen of them, and finished
up by catching a fine lobster on a hook which had got
entangled in its claws.

About eleven o'clock, after seven hours' fishing, the
bottom of the boat was so thick with fish that it rather
hampered our movements, and we thought it time to
start for home. Then began the business of counting
our spoils, and we found we had six hundred fish of one
kind and another. The local paper referred to the catch
afterwards as not the charge, but the death of the six
hundred. I think it was the record catch by hand-line
that season.

But, of course, there are blank days in sea-fishing as
well as in river-fishing. There are many agents at work
to make the day good or bad — tides, winds, fish moving
in shoals over a very extended water, shoals of dog-fish
chasing and frightening them out of the usual fishing
grounds, and dozens of little things which make sport
uncertain. But if you are on the spot and have plenty
of fishing time, winter and summer, as was my good
fortune some ten or eleven years ago, you are bound to
find the right day sometimes and have big catches which
you remember, while the blank days are forgotten.
Lately, in my brief visits to the Island, I never seem to
get the big days I used to have, either on the river or on

64 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

the sea. On the rivers, or rather streams, the trout are
getting great epicures, and much more particular about
the way the flies are presented to them, as they are more
fished for ; but on the sea it is harder to account for.
I think the only solution is that you are not on the spot
at the right time, or it may be that the continual
scraping and disturbing of the breeding beds by steam
dredgers and other trawlers has something to do with
the scarcity of fish. Again, the beating and churning of
the sea by the largely increasing number of steamers
which pass in and through the bay, no doubt scares
them to other feeding grounds.

Mackerel fishing is best in the months of July,
August, and September. These fish vary very much in
size, and round the coasts of the Isle of Man are, as a
rule, much smaller than on the south coast of England
and Ireland, In Ramsey Bay they are fished for almost
entirely by whiffing or railling. One fisherman, sailing
and managing his boat and a couple of lines with heavy
leads of about 3^ lbs., often gets thirty to forty dozen of
mackerel in a good morning's fishing ; but, as you may
imagine, it means very hard work, and non-professional
anglers are, as a rule, contented with a few dozen. The
biggest catch I ever had was twenty-five dozen. This
kind of fishing, although very much followed and enjoyed
by visitors, to me gets rather monotonous; the slow
sailing through the water at about four knots an hour,
and the constant heaving and drawing in of the line,
with a mackerel or simply your spinning bait at the end,
lacks the variety one gets, for instance, in bottom fishing.

NOTES ON SEA FISHING. 65

The leads also are heavy, and the strain caused by the
lines being dragged through the water often makes it
difficult to decide whether one has a mackerel on or
not, especially with a lumpy sea, when the motion of the
boat gives the line sharp jerks very easily mistaken for
the tugging of a fish. I have tried numbers of different
kinds of spoon and spinning baits, but have found
nothing equal to the bait generally used over there — a
thin strip of skin cut with a very sharp knife from the
under side of the mackerel. It is very bright, and if
properly cut and put on the hook three or four dozen
fish may be killed without changing the bait.

In pollack fishing in Ramsey Bay the mistake most
people make is in fishing along the rocks. They are of
course nearer at hand, and not so far from the harbour if
bad weather comes on, and occasionally give some fair
sport. But for a good evening's fishing, the weather
being favourable, you should go right round the
Manghold Head into Port Moar Bay, and fish along
the rocks and rocky shores there. It is about seven
or eight miles' pull from the harbour. The pollack
are much more numerous, and larger. The south of the
Island is a still better rod-fishing ground, the bottom being
principally rocky. A friend of mine, while staying at
Port Erin a couple of summers ago, killed from fifty to a
hundred pounds of pollack and bloggan each evening,
though the weather was not as fine as it might have
been. Boating is very dangerous there, on account of
the strong tides and currents, which frequently run five
or six knots an hour.

66 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

Taking the sea -fishing of the Island generally, I
believe it is much better than on other parts of the
English, Scotch, Welsh, and Irish coasts, and I think
anyone who is going over there would never regret
taking a stiff rod of about sixteen feet, a reel with a
hundred or so yards of line, spinning tackle, flies, and a
good gaff. When living there I always used to land or
board my pollack with an implement made of a large
hoop of iron bound on to a boat-hook handle, the net
being the ordinary tarred fishing net. Though not so
portable as a gaff, I found it more effective, especially in
rough weather, when the fish seem to have a knack of
getting under the boat and sawing the line against the
bottom. With a long handle and big net you can scoop
them up some yards away from the boat before they have
a chance of getting under it. Of course the net must
be sound and strong, as with a fifteen or sixteen-pound
fish there is often a big strain on it. As the trout-fishing
in the summer months is indifferent, the streams generally
being small, low, and clear, worse sport may be found
than is yielded by a few evenings among the pollack or
other kinds of fish, and the beautiful rock scenery and
sunsets which are seen in such perfection from the water.

A CANADIAN EXPERIENCE:

FISHING FOR THE

SMALL-MOUTHED GREEN BASS.

BY HAROLD ENGELBACH.

WOULD not give the proverbial brass farthing
for the heart of that fisherman who loves
solitary sport from a selfish point of view ; who
delights in enjoyment which he does not long that others
may share with him. Truly, there is enjoyment in
moments of solitude to the fisherman who explores
regions till then untrodden by the sportsman. Who
has experienced without joy the casting upon the
waters of a maiden stream ? But does not the very
essence of the delight and enjoyment lie in the
pleasure of having gained an experience which can be
imparted to less favoured friends; in the thought that it
is his alone to open to his beloved fellow fishermen pros-
pects of new pleasures; to widen the area of their
happy hunting grounds ? Was there ever ambition so
unselfish ?

I propose relating the adventures of George and
myself in search of the "small-mouthed green bass," on

68 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

the Grand River, which runs from Pushlynch Lake, in
Ontario, to Lake Erie : —

" Where the wave as clear as dew,
Sleeps beneath the light canoe,
Which reflected there
Looks as if it hung in air."

Let me, then, at once take you with us to the river's side,
merely stopping on the way to tie our horses to some
trees on the outskirts of the bush; of which more
when our day's sport is over. Among our party was

Colonel M , of the Royal Canadian Artillery, our

host, at whose house in Guelph George and I were being
entertained by the Colonel and his hospitable wife. To
be with them enabled me to appreciate at their full
value the lines of Tom Moore : —

" Ah I well may we hope when this short life is gone,
To meet in a world of more permanent bliss ;

For a smile or a shake of the hand hastening on
Is all we enjoy of each other in this.''

Then there was the Colonel's friend, Mr. W , an

earnest sportsman. We found that we had common
friends in Ceylon and other parts of the globe, and that,
therefore, although we met for the first time, we were, by
reason of these "acquaintances in common" (George's
legal mind suggested this term), not strangers. George
and myself completed the party. On reaching the river
we found a rudely-made canoe hauled up on the muddy

bank. Our friend W carried on his shoulder two

paddles, and I was the bearer of a third. On our way
through the bush we had suddenly stopped — guided
probably by instinct — and W , carefully looking

A CANADIAN EXPERIENCE. 69

round to be sure that no human eye but ours was on
him, had extricated these paddles from a hiding-place.

Our intention was to drop down stream and land two
of our party on the further bank, which, being fairly clear,
would afford the chance of a good cast, while the other
two would fish from the canoe. But we had hardly put
off from the shore before we realised that the chances
were strongly in favour of all four making close ac-
quaintance with the waters of the Grand River, and then
whether the right or left bank or the bottom would be
the destination of any one, or more, or all of us, the event
alone would determine. The only thing fairly certain
was that the canoe and paddles would survive, to float
down to Lake Erie, and then, after shooting the Falls of
Niagara and the Rapids, be swept round and round in the
whirlpool for countless ages. Under these circumstances

it was agreed that Mr. W and I should land, leaving

the Colonel and George to brave the stream in the

canoe. There was wisdom in this decision. Mr. W

had an injured hand, bound up, and I was the father of a
family. The Colonel was stout and calculated to float, and
George, being one of the " Devil's own," was sure to be
cared for. The arrangement was promptly carried out
at the expense of no little ingenuity in preventing the
landers from getting up to the middle in mud, and the
others from being upset into the river.

I must now ask you to follow my own fortunes.

Directed by Mr. W I made my way as best I could

through the bush, always keeping as near the river as
possible, till light showed me that there was an outlet to

^o ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

the bank; then, making for it, I found myself in an
opening which gave me an opportunity of getting a cast.
After spending a couple of hours in this sort of work I

laid me down to rest, when friend W came up.

"What have you done? Anything, eh?" "Well, any
sport ? How many ?" " None," answered I. " Oh, one

wretched one," replied W , " but it's too early yet ;

wait till the sun begins to go down a bit. What say you
to a drop of real Irish ? It won't harm either of us, I think,
eh ? " What similarity there is in the greeting words
among fishermen all the world over, I thought, and
what wonderful similarity in tastes, too ! We sat down
together, to give the sun a chance ot going down a bit,
and began to compare notes generally. My rod was a
twelve foot one. The cast was heavy ; I had three flies —
I do not know their names. They were an inch and a
half long, with black body and hackle, and large white
wings with one scarlet stripe on each wing. They looked
for all the world like a bit cut out of a pair of Uncle
Sam's breeches, and about as unlike any fly I ever saw
as they could be. I thought of a paper in " Anglers*
Evenings," where it is maintained that something in like-
ness to nothing ever heard of in insect life is undoubtedly
taken by a trout to be a spider, and I wondered what
a bass might take a pair of Uncle Sam's pants for. One
thing only I knew — so far the bass had not taken them
for anything.

We passed some time reclining on the bank, W

taking the opportunity to relate how at each particular
spot where we had been casting either he or a friend had

A CANADIAN EXPERIENCE, 71

landed a four-pounder, each fish possessing a special
history of its own, arising out of the process of landing.
Of course on this water he had the advantage of me.
He knew I had never fished there before, and I had to
be silent. But was I no fisherman ? Had not I fished the
sweet waters of the Annamoe ? Was Lough Dan not in
my memory ? and the Ribble with those charming pools,
and the tarn, too ? How about venturing just 4 lbs.
with \ lb. added, and beating the 4 lb. bass ? While we
thus conversed, instructing each other, a floppy splash on
the other side of the river called us to our feet. Yes, it
was indeed a rise, and a good one. Soon the river
seemed alive with fish — they were rising up and down
stream and on both sides, except at that part of the
river where we stood ; there they confined themselves to
the other side, and took care to rise only beyond the
reach of our casting powers. These fish are, indeed,
like other fish, thought I.

At last, however, one more venturesome than the
others rose on my left, in the shadow thrown by an old
broken tree hanging over the water. He was within
reach, and, quick as lightning, my tail-fly dropped in the
very centre of the circle. As the fly lighted on the
water it was taken — a splash, a wriggle — then a dart to
the bottom and a sulk. It took me from five to seven
minutes to land him, and I had caught my first small-
mouthed green bass. He fought well, and from beginning
to end behaved like a thoroughly well-educated trout.
He turned two lbs. on the scale. The colour, from which
he derives a portion of his name, was chiefly about the

72 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

gills. These were almost emerald, the mouth a light
whitish green, the colour shading off to a brownish green
about the head, the scales of the body being somewhat
similar in colour to the back of the brown trout, but of a
duller hue. The dorsal fin was like that of a perch.

Already the shadows were beginning to lengthen, but
sport was on, and not till I had landed eight fish did I
reel up, regretting that in those regions twilight was
so short. Our friend W had, with a true fisher-
man's politeness, left the work to me, contenting himself
with landing one for form's sake.

We now made our way back to the spot where we
had parted from the Colonel and George in the canoe.
When at last they came paddling up the river they had
some difficulty in finding the landing-place.

" Grey the vault,
Pure, cloudless ether ; and the star of eve
Was wanting ; but inferior lights appeared
Faintly, too faint almost for sight

ere the boat attained
Her mooring place."

The inferior lights, on this occasion, were lucifer matches
which we burned to guide our friends to shore, for it was
now quite dark. They had fifteen fish, one of them 2^
lbs. That one had been taken with a natural fly, caught
by George to see what sort of fly to put up. The Colonel
put it on, and, dropping it by the side of the canoe, at
once hooked his best fish. Taking the paddles with us
we now began our journey home. To make your way
through a Canadian bush or swamp in the heart of the
backwoods would be no easy task to the uninitiated,

A CANADIAN EXPERIENCE. 71

even by daylight; but in darkness to which "Darkest
Africa " would be light, only one thoroughly accustomed
to the work could venture. Keeping close together in
Indian file we followed the lead of our trusty guide,
replaced the paddles in their hiding place, and emerging
from the bush found ourselves where we had left our
horses, patiently waiting. Harnessing them as best
we could in the dark, we proceeded slowly through

the wood, the Colonel at the reins and friend W on

foot, leading. On gaining the outskirts of the wood we
came to a cottage, where we made a halt. We knocked,
and the door was opened by a little girl. " Mrs. May,
are you there?" called the Colonel. " Good evening,

Mrs. May," said W , as that lady came forward.

"Oh, sir, is it you? Well now. May and I was
wondering who it was was up there with them horses.
We seed the horses, yer know, and ' May,' says I, 'who's
them as is gone in the bush this night? They's got lost.
They's lost in the swamp.' Oh, dear, and it's you ; well,
well!" "Yes, Mrs. May, and here we are, not lost, but
dry, Mrs. May, dry ! Have you got some water ? "
" Why, to be sure we have. Here, child, bring a glass
of water." A glass of water was brought ; in the mean-
time a flask had been unearthed, and some of the
contents being mixed with the water, one of us refreshed.
" Here, child, bring another tumbler of water," said Mrs.
May. At this juncture Mr. May appeared upon the
scene. "Good evening, Mr, May," said the Colonel from
his seat on the box. Mr. May could not see him, and
merely growled out a responsive "Good evening." " Why,

74 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

you don't know me," said the Colonel, " I'm Colonel

M . We're going to have some whiskey and water ;

won't you join us, Mr. May?" "Eh?" replied Mr. May,
" why, yes, of course I will. Here, child, don't you hear
the Colonel wants more water?" By this time Mr. May
was alive to the situation, and, seeing he was to be a
participator, resolved that his share of the feast should
be on a liberal scale. " What are you at ? What's
that ?" he cried, referring to a tumbler half full of water
which the child had in her hand. " Bring a pail, child;
bring a pail, I tell you. Don't you see they're thirsty?"
A pail was brought, and all, including Mr. May, having
satisfied themselves, we started off for Guelph, not, how-
ever, before Mrs. May had again and again expressed
her thankfulness for our escape from the dangers of the
swamp, and her hope for our safe arrival home "this
terrible night." Mr. May now led the way till we
reached a gate which opened on to the high road. An
hour's drive and we were at the Colonel's house, to be

met by Mrs. M and the faithful Jack (the dog). An

enjoyable supper, a smoke, and a chat were then the
preludes to sleep and dreams, in which the "small-
mouthed green bass " were again caught in profusion, in
which Mrs. May got lost in the swamp, and Mr. May
harnessed the Colonel to the horses, and the horses

swam the river, while George caught Mr. W with a

natural fly, and the canoe floated over the Falls before I
could get out of it, and woke me up with a bump as it
reached the rapids. Bass fishing is apt to give you
nightmare ; at least, that is my experience.

TROUT FISHING IN OTAGO,
NEW ZEALAND.

BY J. O. MACKENZIE.

[N New Zealand the first thing that strikes the
angler, fresh from the home lakes and rivers, is
the large average size of the trout. Here half
pounders and even pounders are of small account, and
although in most of the smaller streams they are
plentiful enough, the capture of these small game is
looked upon as a waste of time and trouble. My first
trout was caught in this wise : — I was on a visit to a Mr.
Kitchener, brother to the Suakin commandant, who owns
a station ten miles up the Shag River Valley ; the
river just skirts his garden. Seeing signs of trout about,
I put up my nine-foot rod, and, hitching on a fine cast
and one small spider, threw into some rough water where
the stream cascaded into a rocky pool. The river was
dead low, and clear as gin ; the time three p.m. in
December (June at home). On my second throw I had
a fellow fast, and, after some minutes' play, grassed a
fine-conditioned trout scaling an ounce or two over two
pounds. As the day was bright and very hot, I was
content, and hied me home with my capture, which, on

76 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

sight, drew from my host the remark, "Ah ! a nice little
fish." Thought I — " If this is a little one, how about
thebig'uns?"

We have two classes of rivers in New Zealand, rain-
fed and snow-fed. The former, save when in flood, run
clear and resemble much our Scotch and Yorkshire trout
streams, some flowing placidly through cultivated valleys,
their banks clothed with hawthorn, alder and willow,others
careering through rocky gorges for miles in a succession
of roaring torrents and deep black pools. Our snow-
fed rivers are altogether different; they run lowest in
winter, and are comparatively unaffected by rain, but come
down in full flood during a spell of hot weather, especially
one accompanied by a north-west wind. Like all glacier
and snow-fed streams, they are never, so to speak, clear,
but have always a " greenery yallery " milk-and-watery
tinge, and in fishing them the strength of your tackle is
of primary importance. They are, as a rule, dangerous to
fish, especially in wading, as they are full of quicksands
and nasty swirling eddies. The Waitaki, one of them, is
a most uncanny looking stream, and it is said that more
lives have been lost in it than in any other river of New
Zealand. Being glacier-fed and deep, the water is
deathly cold, and cramp is apt to seize the most robust
swimmer. This last season I paid this river three several
visits. On my first, in November, in an evening and
morning's fishing, myself and friend had eleven trout
which scaled an aggregate of fifty-two pounds. On a
second trip, in December, in one day we had seven fish,
the largest eight pounds, the smallest three, and then a

TROUT FISHING IN OTA GO. 77

Nor- Wester brought down the river in flood. But, on
my last trip in March, the sport was poor, it being too
near the end of the season, and we did not average more
than two fish a day.

Minnow is the favourite lure, although at Kurow,
forty miles inland, I am told that fly is successfully used.
This river fairly teems with big trout, and it is no
unusual thing, under a favourable combination of weather
and water, to secure in an evening eight or ten, average-
ing from four to eight pounds each. The favourite
fishing ground is about two miles from the sea, at the
railway crossing. The bridge is a mile long, and at each
end is a station and a " pub," where the angler can be
put up very comfortably. The river runs in three or four
channels, which are constantly altering, and the trout are
found on the edge of the current, generally within a foot
or two of the bank. As the water is milky no great art
is required in rising your fish, but, once hooked, they are
strong and full of fight. Trout are of comparatively
recent introduction in this river, and it is only within the
last two seasons that they have come into angling
prominence. The supply of whitebait, our minnow, is
simply illimitable, so trout are bound to increase still
further.

Already there are stories of monsters having been
seen and hooked. One gentleman, a Christ Church
angler of seventeen years' home experience in salmon
fishing, reports having got into one fellow which ran out
120 yards of line, and then broke away with everything,
whose weight he put down as over thirty pounds. On

78 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

my first visit in November the ostler at the inn told me
that if I would walk a mile down the river he could
point me out a fish over three feet long, but, added he,
" you can't get at him." The best fish I have killed in
the Waitaki was just under eight pounds ; but on my
second visit I certainly both saw and felt one of these
leviathans. He came clear out of the water, jumping
over my minnow, and as I struck, I hooked him in the
vent. My instant thought was, " By Jove, it's true about
these big fish ! " Unfortunately, I had no friend then
within hail, to lie prone and gaff, as the fish rooted about
the bank, and to make a long story short, I played him
for an hour, until at last he tore down stream right
through and underneath the bridge, where I could not
possibly follow. He ran out my eighty yards, and then
it was a case of hold on, but, happily, the minnow came
away, so I saved my line and tackle. Well, I put this
fish down as from fifteen to eighteen pounds, and I had
many a look at him, as seven or eight times he sprang
feet out of the water trying to rid himself of that drag at
his tail. Phantom and Devon minnows are chiefly used,
the latter, from their weight, being specially suited to the
strong currents on the Waitaki ; but on the clear rain-
fed rivers the natural bait is preferred, used on a
spinning flight.

Our river banks are much cumbered by the
Phormium tenax, or New Zealand flax plant, the
leaves and stalks of which stand up ten feet and more;
so that to negotiate them a longish rod is necessary.
I have found my American built fifteen-foot cane rod

TROUT FISHING IN OTAGO. 79

the very thing for our fishing, and use it for both fly and
minnow. I have hardly once seen a landing-net since I
came to the Colony, but every angler carries the indis-
pensable gaff. The flies used are similar to our own, and
I have found my own favourite partridge-spider a very
sure killer. A favourite fly is body of peacock harl,
dressed with a light wiry and red hackle. The Shag
has been a famed trout stream, and was one of the first
rivers stocked in this province, but two consecutive
exceptionally dry summers, and continued " sluicing " in
the upper waters have quite ruined it for the present.
This last summer we turned in 15,000 yearlings, so hope
it may come again. In the tidal waters good trout are
still caught, but they are scarce. I got one in December
which scaled seven pounds, a magnificent fish ; he cut as
red as a salmon. Unfortunately, it is of little use trying
for these big fellows before dark, and night fishing
has never been much to my taste. The sluicing is a
nuisance; it causes our rivers to run thick for weeks
together, and must be detrimental to the trout. The
interior of this portion of Otago is a vast gold-field,
and the diggers run the streams through their cradles,
sending down any quantity of mud.

Trout have taken most kindly to New Zealand, and
are now found in almost every river in Canterbury,
Otago, and Southland. Sea-trout we have too, but I am
not sanguine as to the successful acclimatisation of salmon
proper ; our sea-water is, I fear, too warm for them. But
time will show. In some of our lakes trout grow to
twenty pounds, and only an expert could tell them from

8o ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

salmon, their shape and colour being almost identical.
The scenery in this neighbourhood is very similar to
that of the Yorkshire Wolds and Upper Clydesdale ;
from the coast to thirty miles inland a bare undulating
country, hills grass-clad to their summits, and sheep
everywhere. The lark too, singing overhead, throstles
and blackbirds, finches and starlings, and sparrows of a
most impudent kind, all flourish exceedingly in this
new land, and are pleasant reminders of the old. Food
in our rivers is very abundant, and this accounts for the
rapid growth and great size of the trout. Whitebait, a
little fish, very similar in appearance to the home article,
begin in October to ascend our streams in myriads. They
penetrate for miles up country and spawn about
Christmas, returning to sea by the autumn floods in
February and March. During their stay in fresh water
the trout simply gorge themselves on these small fish,
and can hardly be induced to look at the fly; in fact,
owing to this, fly-fishing is best inland, well away from
the seaboard. As at home, I find evening the best
killing-time with either fly or minnow. Our summer
months, November, December, and January, are pretty
warm, and, in bright weather, the fish during the heat of
the day seem to bask inactive and do not start feeding
much before six o'clock; but the "rise" once "on" is a
sight to see. Our twilight is very short; unless at full
moon, you find yourself all in the dark within half-an-
hour after sunset, and the banks of our New Zealand
rivers are rather rough walking for night work. A box
of well-scoured gentles is not an unusual adjunct to

TROUT FISHING IN OTAGO. Si

the Otago fly-fisher's outfit, and I am told that big
trout, seven and eight-pounders, who simply ignore
a bare fly, are frequently entrapped by the seductive
wrigglings of the impaled grub; but, reader! this
is hearsay. Early prejudices coming in, I have
not yet brought myself to try this particular bait.
This New Zealand has been well termed " Britain of the
South." There is much to remind one of the old home;
English trees, shrubs, fruits, and flowers in abundance,
and no scarcity of clouds, rain, and wind. Our Otago
streams have many features in their surroundings all in
common with Ribble and Tweed ; and could we only
suppress the ubiquitous flax plant, and, on yonder cliff,
where stands a waving cabbage-palm, conjure up the
orthodox ruin, ivy-clad and grey, all else is home-like
and suggestive of Upper Ribblesdale and the Border.

Our fishing season is from the first of October until
the first of April, and hereby hangs a tip. If any
reader has leisure, and the desire to skip an English
winter and enjoy a New Zealand summer, plus such
trout fishing as we can give, let him take the direct
steamer leaving Plymouth in September, which will
arrive here in mid-spring, spend four to five months in
the Island, and then, leaving in March, get back in due
time for the May-fly at home. This would be something
like an " out," and I can guarantee a good time to any
brother of the angle. To the minnow fisher this is a
paradise, indeed. The " brotherhood " here are good
fellows all, and would extend a warm welcome to any
visitor from Home.

G

LOCH LEVEN.

BY THE REV. C. P. ROBERTS, M.A.

ERE I a poet; or better, perhaps, a Scotchman ;
or, better still, a poet and a Scotchman, I might
be tempted to begin with a glowing description
of Loch Leven, its islands, and the surrounding country;
I should, doubtless, hold you spellbound whilst I
pathetically dwelt upon the imprisonment in the Island
Castle of Scotland's Queen, and painted her romantic
escape from its dark and gloomy dungeon. But, being
neither a poet nor a Scotchman, but only a common-
place, and withal a veracious, English, practical angler, I
shall confine myself to the simple story of my first
introduction to it.

The thoughts of a visit to Loch Leven fired me with
a good deal of angling enthusiasm, for had I not heard
of the beauty of the trout, the sport they showed, the
large average size to which they ran ; and, moreover, had
I not enviously read in the Field of the takes reported
as falling to the rods of anglers whose names were
mentioned ? Had I not heard, too, that they wanted
catching, and that a "duffer" was not much good in that
anglers' paradise ? In order, therefore, to get some little
acquaintance with the Loch and its peculiarities, if it

LOCH LEVEN. 83

had any, I determined to spend a couple of days there
before the eventful Wednesday, May 23rd, 1883, on
which the " National Anglers' Competition " was to be
held. I was joined by Mr. Mackenzie at Stirling,
and reached Kinross at about ten o'clock in the
morning. Having tackled up, and duly stowed the
luncheon box, away I went in charge of the two boat-
men who were to be my first mentors in Loch Leven
angling, and upon whose local knowledge I was de-
pendent with regard to the choice of ground. That
Monday, alas ! was only the first of a succession of eight
days of bad fishing weather during my stay at the
Loch ; but they were not all equally bad, and this was
one of the least so. I found that there was not much
difference between fishing in Loch Leven and in other
lochs, except in the fish themselves when I had hooked
and landed them. The Loch Leven trout is very lively
in the water ; the silvery sides of the distinctive Loch
Leven species look like those of a sea trout, and the
symmetry of his form as he lies a deceased captive at the
bottom of the boat or your basket is perfect. But I
had only seven to feast my eyes upon as the result
of my first day's fishing, and my friend who joined me
in the middle of the day had only two. They averaged
about fib., and I was not discontented with my first day's
outing. Mr. Mackenzie got fifteen, scaling 131b. 8oz., a
basket which was creditable even to his skill.

Tuesday was the gathering day of the competitors,
as well as a practice day for myself, on which I got six
fish only, the weather being again unfavourable. In the

84 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

evening a meeting was held at the hotel to make the
necessary arrangements for the following day. The
chair was taken by Provost Wilson, of the West of
Scotland Angling Club, and Mr. Macgregor, the
secretary, was present, together with one or more
representatives of each of the seventeen clubs who sent
competitors. The rules, which had been printed and
circulated, were read, and the conditions of the contest
explained. Two gentlemen were chosen to measure the
rods in case any excess over the fifteen feet allowed was
suspected — a not unnecessary provision, as one of the
competitors in 1882 had to cut off two inches from the
butt of his rod to bring it within the prescribed
limit. A gentleman, unconnected with the competition,
was also chosen to weigh the fish in the presence of the
president and members at the close of the day's work.
Then began the process of ballotting for boats as
follows : — There were eighteen boats for the thirty-six
competitors. Into two hats were put papers containing
respectively the names of the competitors and the names
of the boats, bow and stern for each ; a ticket was
drawn simultaneously from each hat, and the person
drawn had to take his seat, to begin with, in the bow or
stern, as the case might be, of the boat which was
drawn with him. Mr. Mackenzie drew the stern of the
" Sir Walter Scott," having for his companion Mr.
Robert Gow, a representative of the Dundee Club, and
I drew the stern of the " Bruce," having as my com-
panion Provost Wilson, the genial commodore of the
fleet. One of the rules of the competition was that the

LOCH LEV EN. 85

occupants of the boats should change from bow to stern
every hour, so that each might have right and left-hand
casting alternately. When these preliminaries had been
settled, and the scene of next year's competition and
the number of clubs which should be allowed to compete
had been discussed, and a committee appointed to
arrange these matters, the meeting broke up.

And here let me mention that the Green Hotel is the
head-quarters of the West of Scotland Anglers' Club,
which annually holds three competitions on Loch Leven,
the first and chief being on the Friday and Saturday
next after the Wednesday on which the National
Competition is held. This brought many members of
the club down to Kinross, and I think it only right that
I should acknowledge with gratitude the very kind
hospitality which the members of the club displayed
on the Tuesday and succeeding evenings towards the
representatives of the Manchester Anglers* Association.
They made us free of their room and free of their
"mountain dew"; and exhibited in full that cordial
welcome which anglers always extend to their brothers.
After spending the evening in moderate conviviality,
each person present retired at an hour which seemed
to himself a reasonable one (there was not unanimity
on this point ! ), all in good hopes for the morrow.

I was fishing for eight days at Loch Leven, but I
really think that my best sport was on this particular
night I had the finest and strongest of tackle, and threw
the lightest of casts in the most perfect of weather. I
filled a basket with an aggregate which seemed bound

86 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

to win the first prize, and was just ready to land a beauty
which would certainly have taken the premium for the
heaviest fish, when the sport was ended by a " tap, tap,
tapping at my chamber door," and I was awakened from
my dream to the melancholy reality of weather anything
but perfect, and a prospect of the fulfilment of the truth
of the adage that " dreams go by contraries." However,
I rose and made up my casts for the day's work ; then
joined the others at breakfast, where we made up
ourselves, and then off in the machine to the pier, where
all had to assemble by nine a.m., under pain of disquali-
fication. The thirty-six competitors were all up to time,
and the scene was one of bustling activity, with thirty-six
men making up their rods, and thirty-six boatmen in
attendance upon them, all eager for the fray. It was
said that the gathering was representative of the best
angling skill of the country ; there were some with
reputations already won, and others without reputation,
who meant to win it. All the best known Scottish loch
fishers were present from the West of Scotland, Kin-
ross-shire, Dundee, Stirling, Edinburgh, Walton and
Buckland, St. Mungo, Dunfermline, Clackmannanshire,
Glasgow Rowbank, Dundee Walton, and Perth Clubs.
The last-named sent as one of its representatives the
well-known Mr. P. D. Mallock, who carried off the first
prize in 1881 and 1882, and who, in the fishing tourna-
ment held at Hendon on June nth, 1882, won the first
prize in each of the 'amateur competitions with " single-
handed fly rod in "throwing fly with greatest accuracy
under bushes," the fly-casting competition with double-

LOCH LEV EN. 87

handed trout rod, and came in second to Reuben Wood,
the American competitor, in the contest for " amateur
fly-casting with single-handed trout rod " and " amateur
fly-casting with salmon rod." The contingent from the
southern side of the Cheviots included such crack
anglers as Dr. Brunton, from London; Mr. Norledge,
from Newark; and Mr. J. O. Mackenzie, from Man-
chester.

The wind blew stiffly from the west and south-west,
the very worst direction it could possibly come from for
good sport on Loch Leven, for, curiously enough, that
loch fishes best in an east wind. The temperature was
very low, but our spirits were high, and when the arrange-
ments were complete, rods and tackle adjusted, and
luncheon baskets stowed away. Provost Wilson gave the
word for " off," and the boats started for those parts 01
the loch which, in the judgment of the boatmen and
those of the competitors who had any local knowledge
of the ground, were deemed the best. My boat, the
" Bruce," was a lumbering old tub, the man-of-war of the
fleet in which daily raids are made with nets upon the
pike in the loch. My companion grumbled at the ill
fortune which gave us so heavy a craft, with its broad
beam and half-decked bow; but I blessed our fortune
later on in the day, for, when changing stations, I found
the half-deck a friendly shelter under which I sought
protection from the bitterly cold wind, whilst I consoled
myself with a pipe, and let my flies trail behind.

The nature of the day's sport will be gathered from
the takes of the various competitors, which I will pre-

88 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

sently record. It was killing work — for the fishermen,
not the fish — to cast and cast in the half-gale which was
blowing ; " March Browns," " Hechams," " Zulus," " teal
wings with green bodies," and " teal wings with red," all
the favourite flies, failed to lure any but the few which
must have escaped from whatever aquatic institution
answers to the terrestrial " asylum " — for no sane trout
rose that day ! However, sane or insane, each counted
if you could but catch him, and if you want to catch
fish you must " keep your flees in the watter and leather
awa." So I " leathered awa," and I think I never had a
harder day's fishing in my life. Each boat that we came
near had the same tale to tell, and all exertion seemed
fruitless. One gentleman ought to have won a prize, if
get-up and exertion could win ; he wore on his hands a
pair of gloves minus fingers, and on his head a gear very
much phis ear caps ; round his neck was a substantial
mufiler, and a diminutive body was enveloped in a good
deal of coat. He cast to the right of him, cast to the left
of him, cast to the front of him; he fished with his arms,
fished with his body, flung his head after his flies, and
threw all his person into the effort, except his feet on
which he stood ; but all, alas! of no avail.

And so the day wore on until it was time to be
making towards the pier in order to save disqualification
— 5-45 was the time for landing. I had six fish when we
quitted the bay, and my companion had four. He
thought my chance of a prize was good, considering the
weather, and it was amusing to hear his report to the
boats we passed — " The minister's doing it ! " This was

LOCH LEVEN. 89

what convinced him that the minister had done it. I
was lying at full length in the boat, with my head and
shoulders under the friendly half-deck, seeking solace in
a weed ; my flies were trailing behind, when whis went
my reel and up jumped I ! I landed the fish, which
scaled lib. i2oz. The Provost thought me sure of a
prize, and felt that he could not himself beat my aggre-
gate ; so, with the unselfish generosity which always
characterises a true sportsman, whose breast harbours
no feeling of jealousy, he insisted on my fishing the best
of the water for the remaining distance, and was more
keenly anxious for my success than his own sport.

It was interesting to watch the eighteen boats
gradually gathering towards the pier. All who had any
fish landed punctually, and then came the weighing.
Basket after basket was emptied into the scale, and all
displayed such an even mediocrity that speculation was
rife as to who would win a premium. A whisper went
round that one Harris would have the best creel ; and a
certain red-bearded boatman, who had twice to be put
back and told to wait his turn at the scale, at last
produced what seemed a " giant amongst the pigmies :"
seventeen fish scaling 131b. 11 ^oz. left no doubt as to
the winner of the first prize, and a murmur of applause
went round when the weight was declared. After all
had finished, the Provost declared the winners. There
was no mention, alas ! of a Manchester representative,
though " the minister " had the tantalising satisfaction
of coming next on the list, with seven fish weighing
5lb. loioz., or ijoz. behind a prize. I thought my fish

go ANGLERS' EVENINGS,

of lib. i2\oz. had a good chance of the premium for
the heaviest fish ; he was in splendid condition, and all
that a trout should be ; but another competitor, a
Scotchman, produced one with a head like a cod, and a
body like an eel, weighing two ounces more than mine,
and so all the seven prizes went to our Northern
brothers, who were not to be beaten that year on their
own ground.

The Glasgow Herald thxxs described the finish : — " The
result tends to exemplify the proverbial uncertainty of
fishing ; the favourites, except Mr. Macgregor, who won
the third prize, were ' nowhere,' and the winner was a man,
a good angler and true, who had no repute beyond his own
club ; but the boatmen who were with him said that they
had never seen a better angler, and that when a fish rose
the steel was in him to a certainty. And there never was a
competition in which skill was more heavily handicapped,
and in which the luck of coming across fish which were
unfishlike enough to rise determined the issue. It is
curious to notice that the winner's companion in the boat
only got four fish weighing 3lb. 30Z., against seventeen
weighing 131b. ii|oz."

All things come to an end, and this came to a good
end at the hotel. Those competitors who were staying
at " The Green," and some few who joined them for
dinner, did ample justice to a well served repast, and
cordially toasted the hero of the day, who, though unable
to be present himself, had not forgotten to commission a
friend to provide champagne for the consolation of his
beaten but appreciative and friendly foes.

A MEMORY OF LOCH TAY.

BY C. H. NEVILL.

CRAPE, scrape, scrape,

O'er thy cold false waves, O Tay,
And I would not my tongue should utter
The thoughts that arise to-day.

Oh, sad for the Gillie who shouts
" 'Tis a fish," when 'tis only a rock ;

Oh, sad for the frozen man.

Who sits in his boat on the loch.

And the weary ones row home

To the landing under the hill ;
But oh, for the rush of a goodly " lushe,"

And the sound of a reel that is still.

Scrape, scrape, scrape

By thy desolate shores, O Tay ;
The tender dream of my vanished youth

Has come, and has passed away.

IN FAR LOCHABER.

BY P. H. MULES, M.D.

N August evening, in 1886, found one whom we
will call the " Doctor " in anxious consultation
with Donald Cameron over the relative merits
of " scarlet bodies " versus " yellow bodies," " mallard
wings" versus "teal wings," and "fly" versus what
Donald would call the " worrum." For had it not been
pouring all day, and was not the river certain to come
down a full water ? And with a full water coming
down, salmon would be going up, and this opened
possibilities for the morrow, gladdening the heart of
the angler who had come three hundred miles in the
hope of such a favourable opportunity.

"Ye maun try the worrum," said Donald impressively
for the ninth time. Now, if a worm be permitted
under certain exceptional circumstances to turn, how
much more may a human being revolt at the idea of
such enormities ! Donald's suggestion was met with a
scorn which should have withered him, and he subsided
for the moment, as the door opened to admit a stout
weather-beaten man who, shaking the raindrops from his
plaid, enquired in the cheeriest of voices, " Weel,
Toctor, an hoo are ye the nicht ? Ye'll be trying for a

IN FAR LOCHABER 93

fush the morn." " Ah, ha ! McKenzie, and how are you ?
You're just in time," said the Doctor. And replying to
the persuasive eloquence of the hostess with " just a wee
drappie, Mrs. Gow, an here's t' ye all," McKenzie tossed
off his nip and settled himself to decide the respective
merits of the rival flies. Scarlet body and gold twist
had it, with yellow body and teal for contingencies. So
a solemn content reigned over the whole party, broken
only by the ghoul Donald, who, in the pawkiest manner,
enquired —

" Wad ye no thenk the worrum the recht thing,
Maister McKenzie .-' "

With " Half-past six and raining fine I" a voice the
following morning roused the Doctor. A glance at his
watch assured the astonished man that the night had
actually passed. Raining it was, and although the
addition " fine" might be a contradiction in terms, the
meaning was fully understood. "When it rains in
Lochaber, it does rain," said a witty old Scotch divine.
" This is only a wee saft ; we ca' it rain when ilka'
drap just fills a toddy glass," Four other anglers, as
enthusiastic as themselves, had preceded Donald and
the Doctor on their six miles' drive to the river. There
were lovely glimpses as the rain ceased from time to
time and the clouds lifted; a winding road following
the Loch-side and turning almost impossible corners,
twisting up steeps and down pitches at an angle, on the
average, of 45° ; in the distance, stretching cloudwards,
the rugged snow-capped crest of grim Ben Nevis ; whilst
from every jutting rock and craggy knoll leapt miniature

94 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

waterfalls, streaking the hill sides with silver and
transforming the wimpling burns into sturdy little rivers,
tearing their busy way onwards to the sea with a " Who
shall say us nay?" brief assumption of importance.
Passing the little store and the Highland smithy — round
which, even yet, float phantom shapes wielding targe
and claymore, whilst the anvil's ring conjures up the din
of arms and the shrill notes of the pibroch — we meet
the moist breezes laden with peaty scents and heavy
with the balmy odours of bog myrtle, whilst patches of
purple heather and waving fern-fronds stretch up the
glens and brae-side, giving touches of colour to the
landscape. Then the track winds past the old kirkyard
and the tiny kirk, about whose moss-grown walls
still lingers the halo of old-world " meenisters " whose
sayings and doings, delightful in their quaint wit and
simplicity, form a literature of their own. The old
divines have passed away; their sayings, at least the
witty ones, remain, and so do the grey weather-beaten
stones, rich with many coloured lichens — fit memorials of
the past. Still we skirt the loch, ever and anon passing
clumps of birches with silver stems and pendant graceful
foliage, like leafy fountains. Then, as the mist lifts sea-
wards, a grey motionless object seen standing in the
water suddenly awakens to life, and with a heavy flap,
flap, a solitary heron sails ghostlike away, only to settle
two or three hundred yards further on; whilst the
whistling whaup, the most wide-awake of birds, leaves the
rocky shore, and uttering its railing cry swiftly skims
the tossing water. A nudge from the driver, and a finger

IN FAR LOCHABER. 95

pointing far across the current, rivets the attention of
both to a round black object running up with the tide
like the head of a powerful swimmer. "Seal?" says
the Doctor enquiringly. "Ay," replies his companion.
"Three hundred yards?" is the next query. "Just
about," is the laconic response, whilst such is the
absorbing nature of sport that the thoughts of both
regretfully revert to the rifle hanging up at home. A
further space is traversed along the winding road whose
beauties, ever fresh, can scarce be hidden by the rain-
storms which come sweeping adown the glens, clouding
the distant hills and making them a fitting habitation
for the "children of the mist." But what care our
anglers? For if a southerly wind and a cloudy sky
proclaim a hunting morning, a westerly breeze and a
falling rain are prophetic of a full river.

Round another corner, and there on the " lip, lip," ot
the tide, swaggering about with inimitable impudence,
are a pair of hoodie crows, their wise heads twisting
this way and that, and their sharp eyes watching for
unconsidered trifles brought on shore. For genuine
impudence commend me to these birds. In a way
they are valuable scavengers, and if only their talents
were confined to this department, they would be useful
adjuncts to Highland sanitation ; but all is fish that
comes to their net, and they welcome a healthy change
of diet with the springtime. For be it young lamb,
grouse-eggs, or young grouse, all is taken with equal
alacrity into the omnivorous maw of Master Hoodie
Crow. Then their ingenuity in robbing the grouse-

96 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

nests is almost human in conception and execution.
Two hoodies agree to go egg-hunting; let us go with
them, and turn bird-language into Lochaber Saxon.
An exemplary mother grouse is sitting on her nest,
when to her advances hoodie No. i, the spokesman.
" Hoo's a' wi' ye the day, mem ?" says he in the most
suave of tones. " An' hoo's yersel, honest mon ?" replies
she, not to be outdone in politeness ; for, being doubtful
of her visitors, she is anxious to propitiate and not give
offence. "The gudeman's no at home the day?"
says he enquiringly ; for he knows the cock-grouse
will show fight. " He's awa' jest the noo," says she.
All this time the second crow has been working
round to the rear, and at a wink from No. i, he gives
the lady a violent peck behind. Twisting rapidly
round to repel this unmannerly advance, the indignant
matron exposes for a brief moment some of her
valued charges; and a second later an tgg is pierced,
and the two hoodie crows, with fiendish chuckles, are
sailing to the nearest knoll to consume their ill-gotten
gains.

But now the anglers near their destination, and, as a
distant rushing, booming sound catches on their listening
ears, Donald's eyes glisten, and he says exultingly,
"The fush will just be runnin' grand." "Eh! mon!"
says he again, as a moment later the never-to-be-
forgotten sight of a Highland torrent in full spate
bursts upon their delighted eyes, " she's waxed varra
big; ye'll just try the worrum." Ten minutes later,
by practised fingers, the scarlet body and gold twist

IN FAR LOCHABER. 97

was being knotted to the cast, whilst Donald, with a
weapon of home manufacture, yet serviceable withal,
prepared for a campaign with the worm.

The river rises in the deer forest of Scarva, high
among the hills whose sombre shadows tell of sheltering
corries and mountain fastnesses, the home of the fox,
the raven, and the stag; and running a short length
with a rapid descent, empties itself into the sea half a
mile from the first pool. The watershed is extensive,
but the descent so quick that the stream is at its best
during, or immediately after, a heavy rain ; then it is in
perfection — a series of fine falls, with swirling foam-flecked
currents twisting the peat-stained water this way and
that into a thousand fantastic shapes, and merging into
inky-black pools of apparently bottomless depths, where
the water-kelpies hide, and the cunning old salmon
who has gauged all the resources of the angler's art
rests on his upward way ; these, again, give place to
rapids, through which the foaming waters boil and surge
amongst huge water-grooved rocks, to fall by another
cascade, partly veiled by steamy spray, into a sullen
rock-girt basin at its foot. The first pool yielded
nothing, for although it teemed with fish it was difficult
to work from the side on which they were. The second
venture was made at the junction of the Scairg with their
own stream. There a misguided troutof goodly appearance
rose at the fly, and was incontinently tossed on to the
bank for his pains. " Noo thin, Toctor," said Donald,
" bide a wee till I get me by yon rock, and then fcesh
doon the pool again." A few casts over the rougher

H

98 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

water, and, as the fly hung for a moment in midstream,
there came a pull, and the angler was fast in a fish
which, fairly hooked, had little chance of escape. The
pool was deep, the way was clear ; and in five minutes,
at the foot of a coral-clustered rowan, Donald lifted a
nice grilse of 4 lbs. on to the dewy grass.

But, somehow, after this the fish rose badly. The rain
ceased, and the river fell quickly ; the likeliest pools were
drawn blank, and the fishers met their disconsolate
fellow-anglers wending their homeward way with long
faces, dry flasks, and empty creels. Even Donald failed
to draw a prize from the bosom of the deep, nor could
sarcasm of the most biting kind shake his belief in the
virtues of his bait " Dinna fash yersel," said he, " gin
they feed at a' they'll tak' worrum, an' I'll set me doon a
wee." So down he sat, like a scart on a rock, to dangle
his worm again in the rushing water. The Doctor
travelled onwards, till a noble pool stretched before him ;
a perfect salmon cast, with a grand rush of water at the
head and falls at the foot, spanning which and pointing
far up the hillside to the lonely cot of a mountain shep-
herd was a primitive wooden bridge, rocking and
tumbling with the fierce blows of the tumbling water.
Carefully fishing down the pool, a sudden plunge came,
and again was the angler fast in a fish. Twenty
yards of line in half the number of seconds whizzed
through the rings ; then with a mad upward rush an
81b. grilse, fresh from the sea, threw himself, a glittering
mass of burnished silver, three feet into the air, to fall
with a sullen plunge just over the casting line.

IN FAR LOCHABER. 99

Here was the danger ; the water was very heavy,
and the fish travelled down at an alarming rate. With
care the first pool might be negotiated, perhaps the
second ; but here all chance of a kill ended, for below
the third pool was a broken water full of rocks, through
which no fish could be piloted. Where ! oh, where !
was Donald with the gafif? A despairing look was
cast around, when, to the angler's relief, a shepherd
with an eye to sport plunged down the hill-side through
the purple heather, scattering his fleecy charges and
startling a solitary grouse, which winged rapidly away
with its accustomed " kock, kock." A frantic waving
hurried him on, a few words sufficed to explain the
difficulty, and at full speed he set off for Donald, as the
fish passed over the first fall, to lie for a moment in the
second pool. Still he bore down, taking all the angler's
skill, as rush after rush hurried him further and further
into the strong water. With every care he was guided
over the second fall and dropped into the last pool
where he could be killed. A shout — and just as all hope
had departed and the fish was making straight for the
rapids, out of which no human skill could have turned
him, Donald, breathless with haste and eagerness,
bursts into view, the shepherd close at his heels.
There is one chance left — a deep at the head of the
broken water. All the strain the rod can bear is
brought on the fish; it slowly swings for a moment
within reach of the gaff; its silver side is pierced, and
with a whoop from the shepherd, who tosses his blue
bonnet high into the air, far on to the heathery bank

loo ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

flies the coveted prize. Just then the sun burst forth,
bathing the glorious hill tops in a flood of golden light,
and spreading a royal mantle over the purple moor-
land. Even hoary Glencoe, the grim witness of the
most ruthless of massacres, looked less forbidding as
he reared aloft his triple crowns ; and with minds at
peace with all mankind, the Doctor, Donald and the
shepherd pledged one another in a bumper of
" mountain dew," and drank success to salmon fishing.

FISHING ABOUT BRAEMAR.

BY REV. J. M. ELVY, M.A., MINOR CANON OF MANCHESTER.

jY two visits to Braemar were made at the same
time of year under diametrically opposite
climatic conditions, the former being a cold
and backward summer with scarcely a fine day, the latter
dry and hot : the one pleasanter for excursions, the
other more favourable for fishing. Braemar can be
reached in three ways : by train from Aberdeen to
Ballater, and thence by coach or carriage, a distance of
eighteen miles; by coach from Dunkeld via the Spital
of Glenshee, forty miles; and from Blair Athol on the
Highland railway via Glen Tilt. The last can only be
taken by hardy pedestrians without heavy luggage. I
took the first. A coach runs daily between Ballater
and Braemar in the season, and twice a day during the
height of the season, July, August and September. The
road follows the right bank of the Dee, amid scenery
of the grandest description. Pine forests mingle their
sombre foliage with light graceful silver birches. On the
left you have Lochnagar before you the whole way, and
in front from time to time you come in sight of Ben
MacDhui, with other giants of the Grampian range.
In June these mountains arc still capped with snow,

I02 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

which remains in the gullies even well on in July.
About six miles on you pass Abergeldie on the opposite
side of the river, and three miles further on come
to Crathie and Balmoral, Here, if you are so disposed,
you can pay a pilgrimage to the tomb of John Brown,
which, I am told, attracts more visitors than the more
exalted monuments. There is a good view of Balmoral
from the road, and when the Queen is absent you can,
with an order, go over the castle itself The grounds are
left very much in a wild state, which harmonises well
with the surroundings, and shows the good taste of the
Royal resident. The house is about equal to that of a
second-rate nobleman in England. There is a noble
hall, ornamented with heads of stags shot by the late
Prince Consort, with date of slaughter and weight
below. The carpets and curtains of many of the rooms
are of tartan plaid. These are my only recollections of
this favourite Royal residence, beyond the splendid hills
and forests in the background — crowned in many places
with monuments commemorating interesting events in
the history of the Royal family — and the rushing river
in front.

About five miles from Balmoral the road crosses to
the left bank of the river, and shortly afterwards you
come in sight of Invercauld House, the seat of the
Farquharsons, who share with the Earls of. Fife almost
the whole of this splendid region. This is a finer
mansion, and in a far grander situation than Balmoral.
The late owner, Colonel Farquharson, occupied it very
little, being fonder of the opera and the gaieties of

FISHING ABOUT BRAEMAR. 103

London than of salmon fishing and deer stalking. He
went by the name of Piccadilly Jim, and among the
most successful caricature portraits which have appeared
in Punch was one of him dressed in full tartan, with his
opera hat in his hand, standing amid the lamps of
Piccadilly. After passing Invercauld you come to
Braemar Castle, which stands at the junction of the
Clunie with the Dee. This is a fortress of some antiquity
and considerable strength, and remains much in its
pristine condition. Its last military occupation was by
a company of soldiers who were quartered there some
hundred years ago to prevent smuggling, then common
in the Highlands ; its sole occupant now is old Angus,
a pensioner of the Farquharsons, who knows every inch
of the river, and every fish in it and how to get them
out, and is always ready to impart his knowledge to
those privileged to fish ; a dear old fellow, who, I hope,
is still in the land of the living, notwithstanding that he
lived, all alone, winter and summer, in that dreary old
castle.

Braemar is a straggling place, not beautiful in itself —
no Scotch village towns are — but pleasantly situated on
elevated ground with the Clunie rushing through it.
There are two hotels there, the Invercauld and Fife
Arms, which now carry on, though in a commercial
spirit, the former rivalry of the two clans. These are
often filled to overflowing in the season, guests being
put up on chairs and sofas and the billiard table, as none
can be sent away. There are plenty of lodging-houses.
The usual plan is to take a house, from which the owners

I04 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

retire into a shanty at the back. I hired one for £t, per
week ; not dear, as it accommodated all my family and
servants. At the height of the season, however, it would
let for ;^5 or £6. My advice is, don't go there in the
season ; go in May or June — the fishing is better then,
the scenery fresher, and you get better accommodation.
There are in Braemar Established and Free Kirks, a larger
Roman Catholic Chapel, and the English Church, which
is a very pretty building constructed of pine wood from
the neighbouring forests. These Christian bodies, I am
happy to say, live together in the greatest brotherly
concord.

Now for the fishing. Not an inch of the Dee above
Ballater is free for salmon fishing. The Invercauld
water lets for some ;^300 for the season. The Invercauld
Arms has a short length with two good pools in it, free
to those staying in the house.

The Fife Arms has a capital length extending to the
Linn of Dee, some six miles, which is let by the rod up
to the end of May, and is free in June and afterwards
to those staying in the house. Below Invercauld House
the Queen comes in, and none but highly privileged
persons can set their feet there. Above the Linn the
fishing is in private hands, but I believe that permission
for a day or two is not hard to get. The fish, how-
ever, do not go above the Linn till the end of May.
Nor is trout fishing free, all the water being in the hands
of the inns or of those who hire the shootings and
fishings; but as trout fishing is not much accounted of,
permission is easily got if sought in the right way.

FISHING ABOUT BRAEMAR. 105

My position as Chaplain of the English Church obtained
me special privileges. Mr. Foggo, the factor for the
Invercauld property, takes great interest in the Church,
and at once gave me permission for trout fishing on all
the water on the property, which includes all the best;
and the landlords of the two hotels soon gave me leave
for salmon on their lengths.

At first I confined myself to trout fishing. The
Clunie, which is about the size of the Ribble at Horton,
but more rapid and rocky, is the best trout stream. You
should walk up it about two or three miles, and then
fish up and down. There are plenty of fish, and you can
mostly get a capital basket averaging three to the pound.
The largest I caught there was fib. They are not
particular as to flies, but hackles do best. A few sea
trout and grilse come up, and some salmon. The last
are rarely caught there with fly. I got one on a March
Brown when fishing for trout, and had it on some time.
I should probably have killed it if it had kept to the
pool, but after a time it took to the rough water below,
where I could not follow it, and I lost it. I landed one
with a worm of about 7lbs. The drawback to the
Clunie is the multitudes of salmon parr, which, when the
water is low, lie all over the stream and seize the fly as
soon as it lights, and scare the trout away by their
struggles.

By taking the coach for about nine miles, you
reach the upper water of the Clunie, where large
baskets of small trout can be taken after rain. The
tributaries of the Clunie are the Callater and Baddock

io6 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

burn. The former flows out of the loch of the same
name, and after a course of some four miles empties
itself into the Clunie, two miles from Braemar. It is a
rocky stream with dark peaty water, and is good for trout
with fly or worm — and with a worm there is a good
chance of a salmon. You can go to and return
from the Baddock burn by coach; distance six miles.
You should walk up it about a mile, when you come to
rocky pools and streams. Here, under favourable cir-
cumstances, you can take large quantities, but thpy will
not average a quarter of a pound. Loch Callater, five
miles from Braemar, is a fine sheet of water, amid grand
scenery. Pike were introduced into it some years ago,
and it is now useless for trout There are many salmon
in it, which I am told cannot be taken by fly or minnow.
The shooting tenant nets it from time to time, when
considerable numbers are taken. The stream before it
enters the loch is good for trout. From here is the best
place to make the ascent of Lochnagar.

A small mountain loch near is well worth a visit.
You turn off to the left from the river Callater about four
miles from Braemar, and come to it by following a
stream, after a stiff pull of two miles. There you are in
the midst of the wildest scenery, sacred to grouse and
red deer. It is no use going there unless there is a stifT
breeze from the west, the only wind which gets on
the loch. It is about twice the size of Horton Tarn.
I went twice, the first time catching fifteen averaging
half a pound, the latter five rather heavier ; but more and
larger may often be caught. The fish are fatter and

FISHING ABOUT BRAEMAR. 107

gamer than any I ever handled. I can find no mention
of this loch in any book. To my south-country ears the
name sounded like Vatrich, which is, I believe, the Gaelic
for Patrick, though what the patron saint of Ireland can
have had to do with it I do not know. There is a loch
near the top of the Glenshee pass in which fish of one,
two, and three pounds may be taken. The fish, how-
ever, are shy. The best plan, I was told, at midsummer,
is to go in the evening, fish till dark, wait during the
hour or so of darkness, and fish again as soon as light.
But as the region is of the wildest, and I had no
companion, I did not relish the expedition.

The Dee does not rank high as a trouting river,
but I have seen it alive with rising fish. During my
second stay, when other streams were too low, I used
to go to it, starting about 9 p.m., and fishing till
11-30 (up to which time, at midsummer, you can see
to fish), and in certain parts took some very good
fish ; but it is well worth a visit at other times
when one is not occupied with larger game. A good
excursion from Braemar is to the Derry, a shooting
lodge of Lord Fife's. You turn off the Dee at the Linn,
and go up Glen Lui and Glen Derry. There is a fall on
the Lui which prevents the salmon going up. The Lui
itself has a bright white sandy bottom and the clearest
water, and I should think that a trout could see you a
hundred yards off. The Derry, which runs into it, has
deeper pools and darker water, and is a capital brook for
trout when there is sufficient water. I went up with a
party, and, during my stay there to rest the horses,

io8 . ANGLERS EVENINGS.

caught about forty, one large enough to break me, which
I caught as I returned, with the old fly still in its mouth.

This is the best place from which to make the ascent of
Ben MacDhui, the second highest mountain in Scotland.
From this point you can go on to the Tarfe, but it is a
fatiguing excursion and somewhat dangerous if you
should lose your way or get caught by bad weather.
There are other tributaries of the Dee good for fishing,
the Ey, Quoich, and Garrawalt ; but I did not try them.

Now, as to salmon fishing, my first experience was
on Sir W. C. Brooks's length at Glen Tanner, below
Ballater. Before leaving Manchester I wrote to Sir
William, who in response most generously gave me
permission to fish there as often as I liked, telling me
that if I wrote to the gun room a fisherman should wait
upon me and show me the best pools for the day, and
that I might have for myself the best fish I could catch
each visit This permission he renewed to me when I went
again to Braemar. The offer was too good to be neglected,
so one day I took the coach to Ballater, stayed the night
at the Invercauld Arms there, and went by train in the
morning to Dennis, where I found the fisherman in
readiness. I must confess to my brothers of the angle
that I surveyed this functionary with some awe. He
was a stalwart businesslike fellow of somewhat stern
countenance, and appeared to be master of all that can be
known in salmon fishing. I, a complete novice, was
about to perform in his presence. I debated with my-
self what I had better do, and as I reflected that he would
soon find me out for himself, I thought the best course

FISHING ABOUT BRAEMAR. 109

would be to confess my ignorance beforehand. So I
unbosomed myself to him, and, though I evidently went
down somewhat in his estimation, he very kindly con-
sented to take me to the side of the river where the
easiest casts could be made. I felt clumsy at first with my
16-foot rod, and even with considerable exertion could
not get out much line. But I soon improved under his
instruction, and in about the third pool got into a salmon
which, after some fight, was gaffed and safely landed.
My first salmon — you can easily understand my feelings.
I drank its health, and I did not forget to invite
the keeper to do so too. It was but a poor fish,
between five and six pounds, but I was proud of it.
I did not catch another fish that day. A keeper was
fishing on the other side, and I was surprised at the
marvellous line he got out. While I with difficulty
covered about one-third of the river, he with apparent
ease threw right across. He did not throw a clean line,
but bellied the water and then whipped over. This
did not, however, matter in rough water like the Dee.
My friend told me that he was considered the best
fisherman on the Dee, which is saying a good deal.
While I watched him, he hooked and landed a splendid
new run fish which weighed I4lbs.

Sir W. C. Brooks has about six miles of the Dee at
Glen Tanner on both sides. It is a splendid length,
full of grand pools. He had also then the Aboyne
water lower down.

On my second visit I trespassed on his kindness
twice, and caught one fish each time, one of which

no ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

weighed I3|lbs., the largest salmon I have caught. The
Dee spring salmon do not average more than eight
pounds. Lower down,' heavy fish are caught in the
autumn. On this visit I had what I consider a perfect
gillie. His taciturnity was remarkable even for a
Scotchman. When we got to a pool he showed me
where to begin and end, and where the fish were most
likely to lie, and then went and sat down, not rising
even when I hooked a fish until it gave signs of
exhaustion, but then he was on the spot, and did his
business manfully.

The Invercauld Arms at Ballater, a comfortable
and reasonable inn, has a splendid length of water,
extending from two miles above Ballater nearly to
Balmoral on the right bank, and marching with the
Queen's and the Prince of Wales's fishing. It is let by
the rod, fetching, in the best months, April and May, as
much as ;^30 a month per rod. To this must be added
the expense of a carriage. It is divided into three beats,
which are taken in turns. In June the terms are lower,
and you can go and return by the coach. In this month
the fishing is often very good, and I do not know where
fishing so good can be got on more reasonable terms.
In July it is free to those staying in the hotel, but the
fishing is not then usually of much count. In April and
May the sport is often splendid, and I was told on good
authority that two gentlemen the year I was there got
250 salmon in the month. They were crack hands, and
took nearly all with minnow. I may here mention a
circumstance that amused me. While I was at Ballater

FISHING ABOUT BRAEMAR. in

the train which was to convey the Royal party was
waiting at the station, and I, with others, went to see the
carriages. An old domestic showed us over, pointed out
the Queen's bed, and then turning to another he said,
" and this is Beatrice's bed." I thought it illustrated the
affectionate simplicity with which the Royal family are
regarded by their servants.

We now return to Braemar. I tried the hotel waters
once or twice for salmon, but without success. There
are, however, plenty of salmon in the upper part towards
the Linn, where they go with the intention of pushing up
when the water is in suitable volume. The Linn is a
chasm where the whole water of the Dee rushes through,
contracted within the breadth of some six feet — a kind
of extended Strid ; a series of round swirling holes and
rushing passages. In the pool at the bottom, and in
these holes, you can see the salmon lying in hundreds,
waiting to go up. How they accomplish the feat is a
puzzle, for at the top is a fall of some feet. It is said
that the fish never take bait while lying there, but they
are nevertheless caught in a most unsportsmanlike
manner, by means of a snap-hook and strong tackle.
This, of course, is done by stealth, but, that it is
attempted, proof positive was afforded some time ago.
In very low water a log of wood was taken out with
hooks enough in it to have set up a fish-tackle shop.

I received from Mr. Foggo one day a letter which
cheered my heart. It was to the effect that the let of the
Invercauld water was up at the end of June ; that I was
at liberty to go on it for the rest of my stay, and that if

il'2 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

I went to old Angus he would doubtless go with me,
and would show me how to get them out if anyone
could. You may be sure that I did not neglect this
opportunity, for this length is undoubtedly the best on
the Dee. It extends to Invercauld Bridge, about three
miles. The last mile, however, is the really good water ;
it is all salmon pools ; you are no sooner out of one
than you are into another. It is always full of fish,
which rest there on their way from the rough water
below before they make for the Linn. The whole of it
can be fished, too, without wading. I had nine days'
fishing there before I left, and during that time caught
twelve fish. I had one or two blank days, several days
I caught two, and the last morning, fishing from eleven
to two, I caught three. At this time of the year this was
splendid sport. I took Angus with me the first day,
and he put me up to all the good places. But after
that I went alone, and gaffed all my own fish. I hate
to have a man dangling at my heels. The fish are
rather a serious burden, but if you are overweighted you
can take the coach which passes over Invercauld Bridge.
I wish those times would come again. On my second
visit I could not get on this water, as the let was
extended to the end of July.

With respect to tackle, a 1 6-foot rod is quite large
enough, at anyrate for summer fishing. The best flies
are Jock Scott, Butcher, Popham, Durham Ranger, black
and silver Doctors, and Blue Jay. A large March Brown
is said to be good, but I never did anything with it.
Most of mine were caught with Jock Scott, which I varied

FISHING ABOUT BRAEMAR. 113

in size according to the state of the water and the
character of the stream which I was fishing. There is
a fly used early in the spring called the Yellow Eagle,
which is good in heavy water and towards evening. For
summer fishing the great thing is to have small flies.
The prawn is a deadly bait early in the season. Old
Angus told me that it was introduced there by one of the
gentlemen of the Queen's household. He met him and
told him that he might as well throw his hat in, but
changed his mind before the gentleman had done, for
though a very poor fisherman he landed eight fish.
John Brown is said to have killed eighteen in one after-
noon with it. I never used it, for I had none, and if I
had I don't think I should have tried it, for it seems to
me unsportsmanlike to employ such a slaughtering bait
in a splendid river like the Dee.

ON DERBYSHIRE STREAMS.

BY J. A. H.

HOSE anglers who prefer small takes of good
fish to larger numbers of smaller ones can
hardly do better than turn their steps to
Derbyshire. Big catches are not to be expected ; one
must content oneself with two or three brace of fish
averaging from |lb. to lib ; though on a good day one
ought to get five or six brace, and baskets of ten
brace or more are not unheard of. A further charm lies
in the fact that the inhabitants of the Derbyshire streams
are not to be caught by anyone and everyone. Here
are trout and grayling of education and refinement ; and
the smallest and neatest of flies, the most delicate gut,
and absolute accuracy of casting are necessary, except
on those rare occasions when the fish will rise at
anything.

It may be prejudice on my part, but I would sooner
catch a brace of fish on the Wye or the Dove than a
dozen on some loch in the wilds of Sutherland, where the
veriest duffer has nearly as good a chance as the most
skilful. It was on the Wye that I first threw a trout
fly, and learnt the intricacies of " fine and far off" ; a
liberal education, though it was long before I ventured

ON DERBYSHIRE STREAMS. 115

to call myself a fisherman. And there is this advantage
in Derbyshire fishing — that if the fish are doing
badly, there is lovely scenery to rest one's mind, wearied
with the cares of life; the streams, too, are full of
insect and animal life, in which one can always find
interest to wile away the time. On a good day the fish
should average about fib. with a few pounders thrown in
— at Bakewell the limit is 10 inches — and here and there
you come across monsters. I never killed anything
over i^lbs. myself, but I saw one of 3lbs. taken with a
fly, and I knew of one trout in a mill reservoir which we
guessed to be between 61b. and 81b. Needless to say,
we fished for him many a time, but in vain, although, as
a last resort, we descended to night-lines and trimmers.
In Dovedale there are grayling of 2lbs. and 3lbs. weight,
and I saw one at Ashbourne, evidently poached, weigh-
ing 4ilbs. The largest trout I ever saw weighed 3f lbs.,
taken in the Birdsgrove Club water, on the Dove, with
a worm. At Bakewell there are legends innumerable
of monster trout being choked by puppies, kittens, etc.,
but if one is to enter into legends there will be no ending.
There are three principal rivers, the Derwent, tlie
Wye, and the Dove ; the two latter run almost entirely
through limestone, which accounts for the clearness of
their waters and the quantity of weed and natural food,
with the result of plenty of large and well-fed fish. The
upper waters of the Derwent drain from the moors
between Sheffield, Glossop, and Hayfield, but the lower
reaches run through the limestone district, and con-
sequently it is not until we get down to Baslow that we

ii6 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

find such good fish as in the Wye and Dove. For the
upper reaches there are no better quarters than the
Ashopton Inn, about ten miles' drive from either Sheffield
or Glossop ; and here, by paying three shillings a day,
one can fish about ten miles of water — the Upper
Derweut, the Ashop, and the main stream after they
join together. It is very pretty water and full of fish.
There is also accommodation at the Snake Inn, on
the Ashop, between Ashopton and Glossop, right away
up on the moors.

If we follow the river down from Ashopton we come
to Bamford, where the little river Noe, which runs from
Castleton and Hope, joins the Derwent. This stream is
full of small trout, but is in private hands. Here the
character of the Derwent changes entirely ; it is no
longer a brook in a narrow valley, but a river in a
broad open vale. We now come to the waters of
the Sheffield Fishing Club, who have done their best to
improve the fishing by re-stocking with trout, their fish
hatchery being close to Bamford. It is hardly necessary
to say much of private water. Passing down the valley,
the first open water we come to is the Chatsworth
fishery, which can be fished from the Wheatsheaf or
Peacock at Baslow, or from the Chatsworth Hotel at
Edensor, a charming house. At the Peacock, at
Rowsley, permission can be got for a few fields on the
Derwent and for the Bakewell water, but not for the
Chatsworth fishery. I once made the mistake of going
to Rowsley to fish the Derwent, and so I had to fish the
Wye instead ; curiously enough, it was one of the best

ON DERBYSHIRE STREAMS. 117

days I ever had there. Five brace of trout, with six fish
each a pound and over, is more than one usually expects
to get at Bakewell, especially on Saturday, when the
mills shut their water down for hours. There is one
mill in particular, just above Bakewell, where the water
is worked in a manner most annoying to fishermen.
About noon on Saturday the water is shut down for
about three hours, and then suddenly the dam is run off
with a flood which lasts for perhaps an hour, effectually
stopping all fishing, and disturbing the fish for the rest
of the afternoon. Later on the water will be again
shut off for hours, leaving the river-bed dry in all but
the pools. Appeals have been made to the conservators
and also to the Duke of Rutland's agent, but with no
effect. On the Chatsworth water there are some very
nice grayling runs, and as a rule better baskets of both
trout and grayling are made here than on the Wye, but
the average weight is not so good. Wading, and deep
wading too, is necessary, and one of the most successful
fishermen on this water was generally to be seen
immersed to the armpits. As the Derwent is fed
mostly by surface water, it is more liable to floods
than either the Wye or the Dove, the feeders of those
rivers being almost entirely subterranean, so that there
is a more equable flow of water. When a really heavy
flood does come down, it is most annoying, for after a
short time the washings from the limestone quarries
and from the roads turn the water milk-white, and
generally sicken the fish. In the spring of 1886 there
was a most disastrous flood, which carried a lime tip at

ii8 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

Miller's Dale bodily into the river, and killed every fish
between Miller's Dale and Bakewell. Bakewell soon
recovered, but many years must pass before there is such
a stock at Monsal Dale as there used to be.

At Rowsley the clear waters of the Wye are lost in
the Derwent's browner stream, and the two form a
fine river, which meanders through the meadows lying
below the wooded hills of Darley Dale. Here the
waters are preserved by a club as far as Matlock, where
the beauties of the limestone scenery are at their best,
though perhaps the narrower gorge-like valleys of
Monsal Dale and Miller's Dale are lovelier still. Here
there is a strong association which has cleared out the
pike, re-stocked the river, and made what is now one of
the best fisheries in Derbyshire ; it is open to visitors on
a small payment. The Greyhound at Cromford is a
capital place to stop at, and fairly out of the run of the
"cheap-trippers." Between Cromford and Ambergate
there is fishing, but it is almost entirely in private hands.

The Wye is altogether a different style of river. The
trout are larger, but more wary ; as a school-inspecting
friend remarked once, "These Wye trout have passed
the sixth standard." The Buxton length is the first
fishable water, and a small charge is made to visitors,
but it is not advisable to begin fishing until you get at
least two miles from the town, for until quite recently
this small stream had to carry away all the Buxton
sewage. However, thanks to some settling tanks, and
the wonderful precipitating powers of a stream running
from Axe Edge, matters are very different now, and the

ON DERBYSHIRE STREAMS. 119

effluent is reported to be as " clear as crystal," and
quite fit to drink. Curiously enough, the trout in the
Buxton length run large — one of 5:ilbs. was killed
recently. This does not look as though ordinary
sewage, in moderate proportions, were very detrimental
to the trout. But in connection with this it is inter-
esting to note that every few years there is an
epidemic of horrible fungoid disease which more than
decimates the inhabitants of the Wye. The Dove is
very like the Wye, except that it is* entirely unpolluted
and has no lime quarries ; and I have never heard of
any diseased fish being seen in the Dove, even in 1880,
when dead fish were to be picked up all along the
banks of the Wye. The grayling seem to suffer more
than the trout ; they are much more delicate, and when
the flood swept down from Miller's Dale, poisoned with
lime, the grayling came floating up to the surface first,
the trout being able to fight longer against its suffocating
powers.

Below Bakewell we come to the Miller's Dale length,
formerly in the hands of a fishing club, but now in
private hands. This is one of the loveliest spots in the
whole of England, and it is hard to keep one's atten-
tion concentrated on fishing, as the eye is apt to
wander from the flies to the towering limestone crags
with their adornment of trees and ferns. This charming
spot was the scene of one of the most dastardly crimes
connected with poaching. The son of the Squire one
evening ran against some poachers, who first killed him,
and then threw his body into the stream.

I20 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

Passing down the stream we first come to Monsal Dale,
then past Ashford — the beau-ideal of an English country-
village — and then to Bakewell. All the fishing here is
in private hands, and the owners do not readily grant
permission to fish ; but at Bakewell the Duke of Rutland
has thrown open a long stretch on both sides of the
Wye. Visitors to the Rutland Arms at Bakewell, or
the Peacock at Rowsley, can fish the waters without
payment; to others the charge is 2s. 6d. a day. Only
fly-fishing is allowed. A lovely water it is, but the
trout are the most highly educated in the North of
England, and the most learned of them are said to be
able to discriminate between the respective merits of
different tackle shops. Any fisherman who can kill
good baskets at Bakewell should not have much
diflficulty elsewhere, and at most times dry fly-fishing
is a necessity. On Saturdays and Bank Holidays this
water is apt to get crowded, but through the meadows
of Haddon Hall the river winds and turns so much
that there is plenty of fishing for everj'^one. At Fillie-
ford Bridge, a mile below Haddon, our permission ends,
but the river meanders on until it is lost in the Derwent
at Rowsley. Just before it reaches the Derwent it is
swelled by the united waters of the Lathkill and
Bradford, which are celebrated for their swarms of fish ;
these, however, are reserved for the ducal owners and
their intimate friends.

And now let us turn back again to Buxton, retracing
our steps to the source of the Wye on Axe Edge.
To the north a little streamlet forms the headwaters

ON DERBYSHIRE STREAMS. 121

of the Goyt, eventually to become the Mersey ; to
the east runs the Dane ; and last, but not least, to
the south flows the classic Dove. It would be
difficult to find a clearer or less polluted stream than
this last, at anyrate as regards its upper waters, and
though the trout have perhaps not such savoury morsels
to feed on as their neighbours below Buxton, they
seem to thrive fairly well. The river runs nearly due
south for about twenty miles through Hartington and
Dovedale towards Ashbourne. This is the best of the
trout water, and with a southerly wind affords perfect
up-stream fishing. Just short of Ashbourne the river
turns away towards the south-west to Rocester, and here
the trout begin to lose their predominance over the
grayling, though near Ashbourne they are rather
larger and better fed than higher up. Close to Ash-
bourne two brooks run into the Dove — Bentley Brook
and Henmore Brook — and sometimes very good fish are
caught in them with the minnow, fish of two or three
pounds being not uncommon. Unfortunately, pike have
got into Henmore Brook, owing to the bursting of a
weir higher up the stream ; worse still, they are gradually
increasing and also getting into the main river. I have
never yet found out the correct pronunciation of the
name of the Dove. Some call it the Dove, and others the
Dove, and it is hard to say which is right ; it is at any-
rate noteworthy that Charles Cotton makes it rhyme
with " love," which tells in favour of the prettier name.

At Rocester the grayling predominates largely, and
sometimes very good baskets of these fish are got down

122 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

the river, which runs south-east from Rocester, through
Uttoxeter and Tutbury, to join the Trent below Burton ;
here the trout and grayling fishing ends. A little higher
up, the Blythe runs into the Trent. This stream is
remarkable for the quantity of green drake which
make their appearance in June, and also for the fact that
on its banks Ronald lived and wrote his book, one
invaluable to fly-fishers in almost every part of the
country. Near Rocester the Churnet joins the Dove,
and it seems extraordinary that salmon manage to find
their way through the Humber and up the Trent and
Lower Dove as far as the weir at Rocester. No doubt
they might tell some strange stories of the hosts of
difficulties they have passed in the way of weirs and
pollution. One catches numbers of salmon parr when
fishing at Rocester. There used to be a salmon ladder
up the weir across the Dove at Rocester, which, luckily,
was entirely useless, as the nuisance of salmon parr when
trout fishing would hardly be compensated for by getting
a few unhappy fish that had toiled up the Trent.

There are some lengths open to the public near
Uttoxeter, where in the autumn very good baskets of
grayling are got with the fly and bottom fishing.
But a good deal of the Dove is taken up by clubs. Just
below Dovedale there is the Okeover Club, with three or
four miles of water and about five members, who seldom
fish themselves or give permission to others. It is a very
pretty water and well stocked, and makes one envious of
the lucky few whose lines can be cast in such pleasant
places. The Norbury Club, which has a very nice length

ON DERBYSHIRE STREAMS. 123

between Ashbourne and Rocester, is very difficult to get
into. Norbury lies about the centre of their water, and
on the opposite side of the river is Ellaston, a pretty little
village, especially interesting as the scene of " Adam
Bede." Between the Norbury and Okeover Clubs lies
the Birdsgrove Club, which has lately been reconstituted
and promises to rival its neighbours. Mayfield, about a
mile and a half from Ashbourne, lies in the centre of
the water; this little village has also some literary
interest, for here is the cottage in which Moore wrote
"Lalla Rookh."

The highest waters of the Dove are all preserved, but
at Hartington there is a very good length of water,
open except in June ; the charge is 2s. 6d. per day.
There is a good hotel there, the Charles Cotton,
which is about a twelve miles' drive from Leek,
Buxton, Bakewell or Rowsley. Whoever named the
Charles Cotton and Izaak Walton hotels chose most
appropriate titles, as commemorating the friendship of
these two brothers of the angle two hundred years ago,
and reminding us of the classic ground we tread when
fishing on the Dove. As the angler strolls along the
banks of the Dove he has plenty of room for his
imagination ; perhaps, where he has caught a large trout,
there Charles Cotton landed one which Izaak Walton
had risen and played ; or, perhaps, where he has sat down
on the bank to have a talk over flies and other piscatorial
matters, or to discuss some whiskey, there these two
friends did the same two hundred years ago — barring the
whiskey. At any rate it is recorded that Cotton had his

124 ANGLERS' E VENINGS.

friend up from the south to try his hand on the wily
inhabitants of the Dove. I suppose every fisherman has
read the " Compleat Angler," but Charles Cotton's short
chapters are not in all editions, though they are well
worth reading and contain information really useful,
even in these days of school boards and education both
of men and fishes. I do not suppose Charles Cotton
could catch fish now with the tackle he used then ; he
speaks of rods fifteen to eighteen feet long, and the
bottom end of his cast consisted of two horsehairs.
Nowadays on the Dove a ten-feet rod is long enough,
and unless the angler uses the finest drawn gut he will
not kill many of its inhabitants. For all that, the true
principles of fly-fishing are to be found in Charles
Cotton's book ; and it is still true that —

" To fish fine and far ofiFis the first and principal rule for trout angling."

He also tells us to make the cast so that

" Your rod and tackle will in a manner be taper from your very hand to
your hook. "

Unfortunately, Cotton's residence, Berisford Hall, is
now in complete ruins, and only the lines of the founda-
tion and a few stones are to be seen; but the fishing-
house which he built is still standing, with its motto over
the door " PISCATORIBUS SACRUM," and the initials I Z
and C C intertwined. Owing to the cheap-tripper's
mania for cutting and writing his name everywhere, the
owner has been compelled to keep this historical little
house locked up; but one can peep in through the
window and wonder if ghosts frequent the place.

ON DERBYSHIRE STREAMS. 125

The Hartington length is very nice water, more
especially the short length through Berisford Dale.
At times fair sport is to be had here, and good fisher-
men can generally make decent baskets. Between
Hartington and Dovedale the water is full of fish, but it is
all in private hands. Still, though few anglers have the
opportunity of fishing there, they benefit from this
stock, both on the open water at Hartington and on the
open water below at Dovedale.

I now come to my last subject — Dovedale, a fisher-
m.an's paradise; but no words of mine can describe the
charming variety of the scenery of this beautiful dale. The
entrance is about five miles from Ashbourne station, and
they will send over to meet you from the " Izaak Walton ;"
but anyone objecting to the slowness of the North
Stafford trains can go by train to Matlock, and then take
the charming drive passing through the Via Gellia.
Once at the " Izaak Walton" you will be very sorry to leave
it. The river runs through a narrow gorge-like valley,
which is thickly wooded almost to the water's edge, while
here and there the limestone juts out in most fantastic
shapes. The stream is full of trout and grayling, but
they are not to be caught by everyone ; still, they are not
quite up to the aggravating standard of education reached
by their relatives at Bakewell. Anyone thinking of
going to Dovedale should read a charming little book
entitled, " An Amateur Angler's Days in Dovedale." He
is sure to go then, and if he goes once he will go again.
Perhaps from a piscatorial point of view the beauty of
Dovedale is its disadvantage, as it attracts crowds of

126 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

cheap-trippers, who persist in walking on the very brink
of the river ; and the trout are wary, owing to the clear-
ness of the water and the quantity of natural food. It
is easy to imagine anyone wearying of catching fish where
everyone can do the same, "duffer" or not; but in Dove-
dale the odds are on the fish, and the greatest skill is
required in fishing these romantic waters. Many hints
for those who know nothing of Derbyshire fishing can be
picked up from Ronald's book, or from David Foster's
" Scientific Angler."

There are, of course, times when the fish are to be
caught easily. One red-letter day often comes back to
my memory. I had been staying at the "Izaak Walton"
for a week at the end of one September. The weather
was hopeless — cold east winds and occasionally snow;
but the barometer began to fall, and persuaded me to
extend my stay another day or two. Next morning I woke
up to find the wind blowing a hurricane from the south-
west, and after hurrying over my breakfast, I reached
the river to find I had the whole stream to myself, and
the fish rising all over the place. It was one of those
days when any fly seemed the right one, and all day
through I never changed one of the three different flies
on my cast, except to replace those lost when the line
was whirled by the wind into trees or bushes. Of
the rises I got I could not have struck more than one-
third, and even to this day it is unpleasant to think of
those that were played and lost. Unfortunately, in the
hurry of the morning, lunch, whiskey, and tobacco were
all left behind ; and before the afternoon was over I had

ON DERBYSHIRE STREAMS. 127

to return wet through and worn out with fighting against
the storm. Never had an angler such a chance of
making a record ; as it was, I managed to total ten brace
of trout and grayling, running from half a pound to a
pound and a quarter, and weighing altogether fourteen
pounds. But days like these come once in a lifetime,
and the blank days and bad days are many in number.
Still, in lovely spots such as Dovedale, catching fish is
by no means all of fishing, and therein lies the charm
of Derbyshire angling — that it is a pleasure at times
to lay aside one's rod in favour of other surrounding
interests.

RECOLLECTIONS OF MANY
WATERS.

BY JAMES BROADBENT.

|NTIL some eighteen years ago my angling
experiences were confined to fishing for coarse
fish in the reservoirs near my native town in
Lancashire. At this time I went to reside in the then
quaint and quiet little village of Cannock (Staffordshire),
which has since been considerably spoiled by the march
of modern so-called improvements, though it is one of the
few places where the old custom of ringing the curfew is
still kept up. There I first experienced the delight of
angling for trout and grayling ; a delight which has
deepened with increasing years, and is now a never-failing
source of interest and pleasure, whether in looking back
upon the many enjoyable holidays passed by the river-
side in some charming valley, or in making plans for the
future — that golden future — when the hope, which springs
eternal in the angler's breast, of slaying a mighty
" sawmun " shall become a reality. And oh ! the joyful
anticipations when, on a winter's evening, surrounded
with fur, feather, and silk, we tie the Duns, March
Browns, Red Spinners, and the endless variety of

RECOLLECTIONS OF MANY WATERS. 129

entomological specimens (many unknown to the
naturalist) which we consider necessary for our next
summer's campaign.

Whilst living at Cannock one of my most intimate
friends was a Scotchman — we will call him " Mac." He
had been a fly-fisher from the time he was big enough to
handle a rod, and was one of the most successful anglers
I ever met. In a happy moment I was induced to join
him in a fishing expedition to Loch Awe, Argyleshire.
On our outward journey we went through Greenock and
thence by boat through the charming Kyles of Bute to
Ardrishaig; then we took coach to Ford, at the head
of Loch Awe, and made this village our first resting
place. The accommodation at the small inn was of the
most primitive character — the beds were of chaff, and our
fare principally trout and braxy mutton, washed down
with potato whiskey ; but the keen bracing air engendered
an appetite that made us anything but fastidious; so
long as the supply of food equalled the demand we were
easily satisfied with the quality, and I question whether
we should have declined " long pig " if nothing better
had come in our way.

We arrived at Ford on a Saturday afternoon, and in
the few hours' fishing at our disposal Mac got sufficient
trout for Sunday and Monday mornings' breakfasts.
There was a service in Gaelic at the little kirk on Sunday
morning, at which we were not present. Instead, we spent
a long day in exploring the country in our immediate
neighbourhood. We had a lovely walk across the hills
to Craignish, a small fishing village on the coast, and

I30 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

obtained most charming views of sea and loch. We
stayed at Ford for a few days only, and then removed
to Port-in-Sherrich where we stayed another two days,
and should have remained longer but that our hostess
treated us rather shabbily in the matter of bedrooms. In
the evening, after we had finished our day's fishing, we
engaged two sturdy Hielandmen to row us down the
loch to Port-Sonachan, a distance of about ten miles,
where we arrived shortly after eleven o'clock. It was a
rough, dark night, and I was very thankful to reach the
shelter of Cameron's Hotel, which became our head-
quarters during the rest of our sojourn at Loch Awe; and
a more comfortable hotel it would be hard to find. After
our experiences at Ford it was elysium. We found the
fishing best between Ford and Port-in-Sherrich ; the bays
are smaller, but there are more of them. The trout
there are more numerous and not so highly educated
as at the lower end of the loch, owing to this part
being less fished; but they do not run quite so large
on the average. It was my first experience in loch
fishing, and I have therefore nothing remarkable to
relate in the way of big baskets, but my friend Mac had
excellent sport on several days, and we were able to send
some nice specimens of Loch Awe trout to our friends. I
understand that Cameron has now a small steam-launch
on the loch to tow the boats out to the fishing ground
in the morning and fetch them back in the evening ; but
we had only our own and the boatman's arms to trust to,
and many a long row we had at night after our day's
fishing.

RECOLLECTIONS OF MANY WATERS. 131

On our homeward journey we drove all the way from
Port Sonachan to Helensburgh, staying one night at
Inverary. A more delightful drive it would be difficult
to find; we passed along the head of Loch Fyne and
Loch Long, through Tarbert and along the shores ot
Loch Lomond, passing through Luss, where we rested
for a couple of hours. It was my first visit to Scotland,
and was in all respects a new experience to me ; to a
tired man of business I cannot conceive anything more
invigorating than a fortnight spent at Loch Awe at the
end of April or the beginning of May. And here
I would fain record my deep and lasting gratitude to my
mentor, that learned Piscator, for having quickened in me
the love of angling which had lain in embryo for many
years, and which has since led me to follow the windings
of many charming rivers and burns, and developed in
me the love of nature inseparably connected with an
angler's life.

My favourite river in Staffordshire was the Blythe.
It is a tributary of the Trent, and not, as I have often
seen stated, of the Dove. It rises near to Longton, in
Staffordshire, and, after flowing through a somewhat flat
country for about twenty miles, falls into the Trent at
King's Bromley, a few miles north of Lichfield. It is
a quick-running river, alternating in deep pools with
streams rippling over a clean gravelly bottom, until a
mile or so above its junction with the Trent, where
it becomes very deep, with few streams, and holds
more pike and coarse fish than trout and grayling. The
lower reaches of the river are very open and easily

132 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

fished, but, as you ascend, the banks become considerably
overhung with trees and bushes, and for successful
fishing waders are necessary. The Blythe differs from
its sister river the Dove, in that it does not rise in the
limestone rock, and has not a rocky bottom ; and perhaps
this is why in the Blythe much larger flies are used, the
water not being so clear. The whole of the Blythe
fishing is in the hands of private individuals, but it has
always been my good fortune to obtain permission to
fish there whenever I could go. The first fortnight in
June is the fishes' carnival in this river, as the May-fly
(the drake) swarms in abundance. A week's fishing
during that time is a thing to be remembered. It is
then that the old trout, who spends the greater portion
of his life in a snug hole well protected by overhanging
bushes, and furnished below with some conveniently
handy snags as a place of retreat, loses his head, and
falls a victim to his insatiable appetite for that apparently
delicious mouthful, the Ephemera Danica. It was my
privilege some years ago to spend a week in this anglers'
paradise when the May-fly season was at its height, and
such baskets of trout as we then took were a sight to see
and to long for in these degenerate days, when trout
never seem to be in a humour to take what is offered
to them and to be thankful for it. Can it be that
even in the depths of the water the schoolmaster is
abroad, and that the fishes have their note-book com-
piled by experienced old trout, containing valuable
observations as to the different artificial flies which may
be expected on the water at different times and seasons,

RECOLLECTIONS OF MANY WATERS. 133

with added advice as to when it is safe to rise to a fly,
and when it is wiser to remain quietly below ! Who
can tell ?

The house at which I stayed was once the residence
of Ronald, the famous entomologist and fly fisher, and
near to it he built his piscatorial observatory overlooking
the Blythe, in order that he might more easily pursue
his observations on the habits and customs of Fario and
Thymallus. The editor of a late edition of Ronald's
" Fly Fisher's Entomology " says, " The BlytheTa sweet
trout stream in Staffordshire, close to Creswell station,
was the scene of Ronald's early experiences ; on the little
bridge close to the present station stood his observatory."
I think he is wrong in this statement. Ronald himself
says, " I built a little fishing hut or observatory of heath
overhanging a part of the river Blythe near Uttoxeter in
Staffordshire." Now Creswell is at least twelve miles
from Uttoxeter. The place I have mentioned is only
three miles distant.

One day, whilst I was there fishing with my friend
Mac, we took thirty-two trout before five o'clock in the
evening, and, had we fished on later, we could have in-
creased our take considerably ; but the day was hot and
we were tired (for we had fished hard whilst we were at
it), and we had each a good basket of fish. Above all,
wc had arranged to be in for dinner at six o'clock, and as
it would not do to keep a lady waiting, we cried " Hold,
enough !" and put up our rods. We turned out our fish
on the grass in front of the house, and, the landlady
bringing out her largest dish, one of the sort that would

134 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

comfortably accommodate a Christmas round of beef,
we piled up the fish, with the biggest on the top, after the
manner of anglers. The sight was one to gladden the heart
of the most exacting fisherman — one half of the trout
averaged close on a pound each ; there were no small
ones, as we had returned all less than eight or nine inches
in length. Our landlady, who had lived at the farm for
many years, said it was the finest dish of fish she had
ever seen, and although I have caught more fish in one
day I never caught so fine a lot in such perfect condition.
I fished with only one fly the whole of the day — a Dark
Mackerel, a favourite fly of Ronald's, and one which has
lost none of its charm since his time. The next day,
fishing with another friend, we had almost as good a
basket, twenty-six fish, and in all probability should
have beaten the previous day's take but for a bad
breakage of one of our rods, which restricted our
fishing for the rest of the day to one rod. During the
greater portion of this day we fished with the artificial
May-fly — sunk.

I will give the experience of one other day on this
river, some miles lower down, and then pass on to the
Meece. One dull, cloudy, but mild morning in November
I set off, accompanied by a small boy to carry my
impedimenta, as I had five miles to walk from the railway
station to the river, and back again in the evening. We
all know that after a long day's fishing it is no joke to
have to carry waders, etc., in addition, if the fates are
propitious, to a well-filled creel. It was one of my
early days as a fly-fisher, and, perhaps on that account,

RECOLLECTIONS OF MANY WATERS. 135

of all my successful days it stands out as a " bright spot
in memory's waste." I began to fish about ten o'clock,
and had been getting fish with tolerable regularity up to
about three o'clock, when, in fishing a deep hole with a
heavy stream running into it, I hooked something large.
I saw the fish as he took the fly, and whether he was a
big Trent trout or a small salmon I shall never know for
a certainty. He made tracks up the stream as hard as
he could go, until he landed me in front of a high fence,
with water below me too deep for wading. I let him
have as much line as I dared and then gave him the butt,
in the hope of turning him, trusting that my tackle might
hold ; but, alas ! it failed me, and the fish went on and
on, and, for all I know, may be going yet, with the
remains of a cast and three flies tacked on to him. I
never saw him again, but I might say of him, " he never
told his weight, but let imagination, like a germ, grow on
his vanished form." The painful incident was too much
for me, so to steady my nerves I settled myself down for
a quiet smoke, and possibly might have taken a mouthful
of " cold tea." I rigged up another cast of flies, but my
friend from whom I had just parted must have spread
the news that there was danger about, seeing that I took
no more fish that day. When I came to turn out my
creel and take stock of the day's sport, I counted up
seventeen beautiful grayling, in the pink of condition,
many of them close on a pound each. It was a day to
be remembered by a young fisherman ; I need not say
that, ever since, I have had a strong affection for the
much abused grayling, and so far as my humble efforts

136 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

can avail he shall have all the protection the law can
give him.

Here I would call attention to the fact that in the
same river, at different times of the year, excellent
baskets were made of trout and grayling respectively.
For instance, in the days of June of which I have
spoken there were few grayling taken, while, again, in
November very few trout were taken. This shows that
each of the two has his special season as a sporting fish,
and is then in his most perfect condition. The flies I
used on the last-mentioned day were the Hare's-ear Dun,
the Cinnamon-fly, and the Ephemera-palmer, put on my
cast in the order named, beginning with the dropper.

Before leaving the Blythe, I may mention that in the
late autumn, in a wet season, many large salmon go up
this river. They rarely go beyond the first mill, owing
to the obstructions there, except in a big flood. One
day I saw four salmon, all very much covered with
fungus, and almost in a dying state. One, which I
estimated to weigh about twenty pounds, I took out
dead.

After the Blythe, the river Meece is my favourite as
an angling river. It is a tributary of the Trent, rising
near to Whitmore, Staffordshire, and can be seen when
travelling on the L. & N. W. Railway between Crewe
and Stafford, as it is frequently crossed by the line.
There are no grayling, but as a trout stream it has few
equals. It flows through a flat country, and is one of
those oily winding streams with deep holes under
the banks which have such a " trouty " look about

RECOLLECTIONS OF MANY WATERS. 137

them. Nearly the whole of the stream above its junc-
tion with the Sow, near to Norton Bridge, is preserved
by the Meece Angling Club, consisting of twenty
members, chiefly the riparian owners or their friends.

Izaak Walton, our great example, lived for many
years at Shallowford, or, as it was called in his day,
" Shawford," a small hamlet situate on the banks of
this river. Doubtless it was while living here that the
love of angling first took possession of him. In "The
Angler's Wish " he says, —

* * Or with my Bryan and a book
Loiter long days near Shawford brook."

Sir John Hawkins in his note says, " Shawford Brook,
part of the river Sow, running through the very land
which Walton bequeathed in his will to the Corporation
of Stafford to find coals for the poor. The brook is a
beautiful winding stream, and the situation such as
would be likely to create admiration in a mind like
Walton's."

The subscription to the Meece Angling Club is
;^5 a year, and there is also an entrance fee of ;^5.
The fishing is very closely preserved, a keeper being
employed all the year round. The club have no fish
hatchery, but the last time I was there I noticed that they
had fenced in a small runlet, with a framework of fine
gauze, in which to place fry ; the gauze protected the fish
from birds and prevented the fry getting out into the
main stream until such time as it was thought fit to
liberate them. I have not heard the result of the
experiment. The stream abounds in shallow gravelly

138 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

" runs," the perfection of spawning beds, so that with the
limited amount of fishing over twelve miles of water, and
with freedom from pollution, except such as is common
to all rivers flowing through an agricultural district, there
is every chance for the trout to increase and multiply.
There are four or five mills on the stream, about a couple
of miles distant from each other, and the pools formed
by the damming up of the water at the head of these
mills give food and shelter to some grand fish. And the
Meece fish are grand, whether from a sporting or a
gastronomic point of view. They cut pink when cooked,
and in weight range up to about two pounds ; occasionally
an odd fish goes beyond this, though such fish are not
frequently taken. The average is about three-quarters
of a pound. The last time I fished the stream, in August,
1888, the keeper told me there had been splendid sport
during the time the May-fly was on, many of the baskets
weighing twenty to twenty-four pounds for as many fish.
One member of the Manchester Anglers' Association
will not soon forget the sight he and I had one evening
in May on a shallow below one of the mills. In a very
short length of water we saw — I am speaking literally
and not with the angler's reputed advantage of magni-
fying and multiplying spectacles — scores of grand trout
making big waves as they scudded away. The water was
then too low and clear to give us much chance of taking
any fish, as the mill above was stopped, and there was
very little water coming down, but in the earlier part of
the day we had sampled them, and amongst the fish we
took was one scaling nearly a pound and a half

RECOLLECTIONS OF MANY WATERS. 139

This river is full of food. In the autumn it is con-
siderably overgrown with weeds in some of the stretches,
and these weeds provide insect life in myriads. The
local anglers rarely fish with more than one fly on their
cast, the favourite being Dark Mackerel (described in
Ronald's book), the Alder, March Brown, and various
Palmers. The flies are dressed very large, quite as large
as an ordinary sea-trout fly ; occasionally they are used
as large as a small salmon-fly. If you fish with small
flies there the result will be small fish. The fishing
during the month of June is entirely reserved for mem-
bers, so that a visitor never has an opportunity of fishing
the stream during the May-fly season. There are several
good rules in connection with this club, one of which is
that no person shall be allowed to fish the stream on two
consecutive days. Such a rule as this would not answer
well on an association water so far distant from the bulk
of its members as is the river at Horton, but I think it
might be applied with advantage to those who live within
a few miles of the village. When most of the members
of an association live within a walk or drive of the river
it is an excellent way to prevent over-fishing. Another
rule, much appreciated by outsiders, is that every mem-
ber is furnished with a number of tickets, one of which is
available for the use of a friend on any one day of the
week for which it is issued ; if the ticket is not used
during that week it is valueless. These tickets are not
available during the month of June, nor can they
be used by any person residing within nine miles of
Stafford. Visitors arc restricted to the use of artificial

I40 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

fly, and all fish taken under ten inches in length must be
returned to the water.

Before I leave this river I must tell you the following
legend of one of its members who has now joined the
great majority — I do not vouch for its truth. He was a
parson, and, as is often the case where the environment
is favourable, an excellent fisherman. During the season
there were very few days on which he did not make use
of his privilege as a member to fish the stream, and rarely
indeed did he go home with an empty creel ; in fact such
was his reputation that he had earned the sobriquet of
"The Otter." On one occasion when his family, a
tolerably large one, had met for the mid-day meal, and
the removal of the cover displayed to view a joint of beef,
the children with one voice exclaimed "Oh, ma, — meat! "

A short account of my experiences at Horton, where
I spent my holidays in 1890, may be interesting. The
weather was very varied, and we saw the river in many
moods. The biggest water was early in the morning of
the 25th August, when the river rose nearly six feet; yet
by mid-day it was fishable with fly, and I heard of eight or
nine trout being taken with a Blue Dun — it was between
twelve and two o'clock. The fishing was, like the
weather, variable, but only once had I a blank day on
the river. The fish I caught were in very nice condition
and the bulk of them of a good size. My best taken
with fly (a small Blue Dun), weighed fourteen ounces, and
gave me a good fight in the stream just below Horton
Bridge. I found the Olive Dun, the Blue Dun, and the
Alder the most successful flies on the river; and on the

RECOLLECTIONS OF MANY WATERS. 141

tarn a fancy fly with silver body, black hackle, and
Indian Crow tag, and a small Alexandra with a little
bright red in the wing.

For an expert in spinning the natural minnow there
was a splendid water many times during my visit. I
met a landowner on the river one day, and he had then,
about three o'clock, eleven very nice trout, all taken in
this way. I heard of his getting a trout the day before
I left Horton, which weighed 2lb. 30Z,, and he — the
trout I mean — had quite a dish of small trout in his
larder ; his capture will be a good riddance to the water.
There is little doubt that the water is very well stocked
with good fish, but except under favourable conditions
they are not easily caught. I came to the conclusion
that the best baskets were to be made either with the
worm or by minnow-spinning, although occasionally the
fly will hold its own ; for instance, on one occasion a
big rise of Duns came on the water about two o'clock,
and in half-an-hour I caught six fish in one stream, four
of which averaged half-a-pound each. I left the river to
send away my " catch " by parcel post, and, sad to relate,
I did not kill another fish that day. I noticed that on
three consecutive days there was a good rise of Olive and
Blue Duns between twelve and three o'clock ; the colder
the day, the later the rise. As to which part of the river
is the best I scarcely dare hazard an opinion ; but I agree
with the keeper, Walker, in this, that if you cannot
get a fish between " New Inn " Bridge and the wooden
bridge below, you are not likely to get one anywhere
else.

142 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

I went to the Tarn four times during my stay, and
never came away blank except on the last day of my
visit, when I was made to feel very small by my boy,
who took three fish and lost several others, whilst I never
touched one. There was rather a curious incident con-
nected with the taking of these fish. When we were at
breakfast my boy said to me: " I dreamt last night that
I caught a grand basket of trout at the tarn, and I can
show you the fly I caught them with." He brought his
fly-book and showed me a small Alexandra ; I said it
looked a very likely fly and he had better try it, and see
if his dream would come true. It came so far true that
this fly was the only one that would stir the fish.

I must not leave Horton without saying a word for
it as a health resort. Westerly winds prevailed while
we were there, and it seemed as though we ought
to taste the brine on our lips, the wind was so
bracing and exhilarating. We had several very pleasant
excursions. A capital day can be spent at Settle
and Giggleswick, with a walk back to Horton by Stain-
forth Force and village. My boys and I walked over
to Clapham one morning, and then through the caves,
returning to Horton by Moughton Scars. These scars
are scarcely less interesting than the caves, and are well
worth a visit; the limestone formation is most peculiar,
and the traces of the action of the sea are as plainly
visible as though the sea had left it but a few years ago.
The hart's-tongue fern grows here in great luxuriance. Of
course we had a climb to the top of Pen-y-ghent, calling
at Hull-pot and Hunt-pot on our way. Another pleasant

RECOLLECTIONS OF MANY WATERS. 143

walk is from Ribblehead Station to Alum-pot, near to
Selside, and then on to Horton. This Alum-pot is a
fearsome place. When visiting it you should make
inquiries as to whether there is a bull in the field. The
farmer very often turns one in, and I understand Mr. Bull
effectually prevents anyone from going near.

A friend and I drove over to Malham Tarn on
Thursday, the 21st of August, for a day's fishing. Under
ordinary circumstances the drive must open out some
charming views of hill scenery, but on the day we went
the clouds were resting on the hills and quite obscured
the view, and it rained, and rained, and RAINED, till we
were like drowned rats ! In spite of the rain we fished
hard till four o'clock, but with little success. My friend
got one fish of lib. 50Z., and lost another. Successful
fishing with fly in Malham Tarn seems to be very
uncertain, the fish rising badly to fly as a rule.
A few years since very large takes were made with fly,
but we were told by the owner that some time ago he
netted the tarn to take out the perch, and a great
quantity were so taken out Since then the fly-fishing
has not been so good, and his theory is, that when there
were a considerable number of perch in the tarn they,
being the strongest fish, drove the trout off the best
feeding ground, compelling them to seek for food on
the surface. There seems a great deal to be said in
favour of this theory.

To sum up the result of my visit to Horton I would
say, " I have been there and still would go." It is a
charming place, full of interest; the time passed all too

144 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

quickly, and it was with great regret that I took a last
fond look at Pen-y-ghent as he stood there in his
grandeur, a veritable " Monarch of the Glen."

THE CONSTRUCTION OF SPLIT
CANE RODS.

BY E. R. AUSTIN.

JREDIT has generally been given our American
cousins for the invention of the split cane rod,
and there is no doubt that they were the first to
bring it into general use. Wells, in his " Fly Rods and
Fly Tackle," gives a capital account of its qualities, and
it was his description that fired the ambition of the writer
and some of his friends to try and improve on the rather
primitive style of construction which Wells suggests.

Any amateur possessed of ordinary deftness of fingers
and a considerable stock of patience may hope, in the
light of my experience, to turn out a creditable weapon,
and thus to secure to himself the feeling of pride that all
anglers have in using tackle, flies, or rods made by their
own hands.

The general tendency of professional makers of these
rods, particularly the Americans, is to make their pro-
ductions too limber; and one of the greatest difficulties
the writer had with his first attempts was the production
of the happy combination of lissomness and stiflfness
necessary to a perfect rod. It was only by repeated
trials, and more than one failure, that this was accom-

146 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

plished. If the rod be made with a uniform taper
from butt to tip it will be too lissom ; the cane rod
should follow what are considered to be the best lines
of an ordinary fly rod, namely, a slight increase in
the middle of its length beyond the uniform taper.
On the other hand, to follow the sizes of an ordinary
rod throughout will result in the cane rod being too
stiff. The tyro must get the proper scantlings from a
cane rod which he finds to work properly to his mind.

That there are elements of superiority in the cane
rod can easily be shown. Take a piece of cane, and it
will be found, even after removing the silica, that the
outside fibres are exceedingly hard, much harder than
any known wood used for fly rods. It has been mathe-
matically proved that in a beam acting as a cantilever,
which is what the rod is when in action, the maximum
breaking stresses are in the extreme outer fibres, in the
direction of the bending strain, and decrease towards the
middle to nothing.

By cutting the cane into sections and glueing them
together with the rind outside, all the strongest fibres are
where the strength is most required. From this it will
be seen that the beneficial effect of putting steel in
the core of the rod, as advocated by some makers, is
purely imaginary, as at this point the bending stresses
are absolutely nil. Experiments made by Hardy show
that split cane is far and away of greater ultimate
strength than any such woods as greenheart, mahoo,
or hickory, and that it is possessed of greater resilience
or power of recovery under bending strains. It is this

CONSTRUCTION OF SPLIT CANE RODS. 147

latter quality which, at close quarters, gives the cane
rod its power over fish. From 10^ to 11 feet is the
best length for general purposes.

CANE.

Considerable care is required in the selection of
cane. So far, the " Calcutta cane " is the only one that
has been found generally reliable, and even this often
proves deceptive. This cane, known by the black
markings on a yellow ground, can be obtained in
sixteen-feet lengths, but as a rule, the butt is the only
really serviceable part, the upper portion being too soft.
There is little in the outside appearance to guide one
as to the quality of the cane, beyond the brightness
of the yellow portion, a grey-looking cane generally
proving unfit for use ; and a good look-out must be
kept that it is not spoilt by the burns. Choose, how-
ever, the heaviest canes. It is only on splitting the cane
up that its real quality can be ascertained. The eyes out
of which the leaves spring are on opposite sides alter-
nately ; the length should be split directly through
these eyes. Then subdivide the cane, keeping for use
only those portions not affected by the eyes, which, on
trial, will be found to be short and rotten at these points.
The rejected portions between the eyes may be used to
test the quality. If, on breaking a piece across finger
and thumb with the skin outside, the fracture is broom-
like, the cane may be used ; if it breaks short, throw
it aside at once. The colour of the grain is a good

148 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

general guide; if bright and yellow it may be service-
able, but if blue it will be found rotten. It is a good
plan when splitting up a number of canes to put
the splints in bundles and label them, "good,"
" medium," and so forth. When splitting up, regard
must be had to the size of section required, whether
for butt joint or upper joints. It will be found a good
plan to scrape off the silica before going far in trimming
to shape. This trimming is best done with a knife,
and, owing to the extreme hardness of the outer fibres,
not many blades will stand the work. Trim the sections
roughly to width and wedge-shaped, file down the
projecting knots, and the splint will be ready for planing
up. It may be thought that the silica is a source of
strength, but this is a mistake ; this covering is often
scratched in the cane, and once marked can never be
brought to a good finish. Besides, it is most destructive
to the keen edge of a plane, and more often to the
fingers, imparting an almost razor-like edge to the
planed strip.

The amateur must beware of Japanese cane — the
beautifully mottled and coloured kind used for flower-
stands, etc. Nothing is more deceptive. Compare a
piece of this with Calcutta cane. The fracture is
perfect ; a test of strength under bending load shows
it quite the equal of the other ; there is no trouble
about leaf eyes, and it works perfectly in spite of the
frequent knots ; yet in spite of all this, for some
unknown reason it will not make rods. The writer
took infinite pains with a top joint, and to all appear-

CONSTRUCTION OF SPLIT CANE RODS. 149

ance succeeded perfectly ; that joint, however, will bend
to any curve and remain so, there being apparently no
resilience in the material.

PLANING TABLE.

A perfect rod must be absolutely true to shape, and
only by a perfect means of planing the strips of cane
true to angle and taper can this be attained. Wood is
of no use for a planing table, as the moment the plane
has reduced the strip to near its proper size it bites into
the bed, and all possibility of making the pieces alike in
shape is lost. Here we must call in the aid of the
engineer to make first a wood pattern of a suitable
planing table for a casting; then to plane it absolutely
level on its face and cut the grooves in it. It is rarely
that a joint is required more than 5 or 6 feet long.
Get the casting made 6 feet long of the following section :
4^ inches wide, 2\ inches deep, cored out on the under-
side to reduce the weight (see Fig. i) with cross-bars at
intervals to stiffen it.

ISO ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

The most perfect practical form for a cane rod is a
hexagon, since in it the angles of all the strips are equal,
and consequently all the sides of equal width. After having

Fig. 2.

got the top surface planed smoothly, raise one end about
a tenth of an inch on the bed of the planing machine,
and, with a tool ground true to an angle of 60°, plane
four grooves in the surface, the deepest about A inch
deep, and graduating in size till the least runs out to
almost nothing. Great care must be exercised in keeping
the planing tool ground true to angle and fixed perfectly
vertical. Then follow with a sharp-pointed tool to clean
out the bottom of the grooves. Nothing more is
required. Each strip planed in these grooves will be
absolutely true in shape and taper ; and, above all, when
put together, perfect glue joints will be formed with-
out any adjustment being required. The whole virtue
of the rod depends on the sides of the strips being
in perfect contact through their whole length and width.
Knowing the size required for a joint of the rod, say
at the bigger end, plane a short piece of soft wood as a
trial piece, cut it up into lengths and tie together. If
this proves too large, try another piece further up the
groove until the right size is attained; then mark the
place on its side as a guide for planing. Take the roughly
trimmed strips, lay them in the grooves, rind uppermost,

CONSTRUCTION OF SPLIT CANE RODS. 151

and with a smooth file level the knots off. Sometimes
there is a hollow above and below the knot, which it is
best to warm and press outwards, or there will be ugly
depressions on the face of the rod, marring its appearance.
There is no necessity for fastening the strips down while
planing ; the slight roughness left by the planing tool
in the metal, and the downward pressure, are quite
sufficient to prevent slipping.

The only plane that will deal effectually with such
hard material is the American plane, which has the
bevel of cutter the reverse way of the ordinary plane,
and is capable of very fine adjustment by its screw feed.
It might be expected that the iron planing bed would,
after very few cuts, take the edge off ; but as a matter of
fact, as long as the strip of cane under operation projects
in the least above the surface of the bed the blade can-
not come into contact with it. It is only at the final cut
that it is necessary to guide the plane by the fingers
travelling along the plate, to keep one part of the cutter
at work on the strip, that to right and left of it naturally
touching the plate. It is this certainty of each strip being
cut down to the surface of the bed that makes them
absolutely alike and true. Some canes will be found
very troublesome to plane at the joints, the plane picking
up the grain above and below in a most annoying fashion.
To get over this a smooth file must be used to reduce
the part of the joint first, afterwards planing up the
spaces between. When you begin planing, watch must
be kept over the regularity of angle, so that one side
does not come out longer than the others (see Fig. 3), or

152 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

Fig 3.

the result will be a distorted hexagon and an eyesore
that cannot be afterwards adjusted. A word must here
be said as to the necessity of so arranging the strips,
that no knot in any one comes opposite that in another.
To this end cut the lengths of cane at least a foot longer
than the finished joint is required, and as soon as they
are trimmed up, lay the six strips side by side ; there
being about twelve inches from knot to knot, it is very
easy to arrange for a space of two inches between.

GLUEING.

The best and strongest glue only must be used.
Some fish glues are very good, but the writer has found
" kid " glue answer the purpose. Only a small quantity
must be melted at a time, and it must never be heated
more than three times.

This is the most disagreeable and troublesome
process of all. Having numbered the planed strips for
the best disposition of knots, warm them before a fire,
lay them on a board side by side, lay the glue
liberally on straight from the fire with a wide flat brush
for about one-third the length, bunch them together, and
wrap spirally with some strong fine twine. It is best to
secure the end of the twine at the other side of the room
and turn the joint round in the hands, keeping a steady
strain all the time. The glue squeezes out over the hands

CONS TR UCTION OF SPLIT CA NE RODS. 1 5 3

and does its best to cover the fingers and string, but this
cannot be avoided. As soon as wound up near to the
end of glueing, and whilst still warm, straighten by the
eye with finger and thumb. Then lay in more glue for
another third, and proceed as before. On finishing the
joint it will be found that the winding in one direction
and the pull of the twine have twisted it ; warm before
the fire, and wind a wrapping in the opposite direction,
crossing the first wrapping. This will take out most of
the twist, but if any is left, lay the joint in one of the
grooves of the planing plate and weight it till the glue is
set. All this has to be done before the glue is set, but a
little practice makes the process easy, and three lengths
or a whole rod may be glued in a morning. Twenty-
four hours should be allowed before unwrapping, and one
anxiously scans the result the moment it is possible, for
any bend or twist must now be permanent, and a source
of vexation for all time to the possessor of the rod.
Happy the maker if he finds nothing more than a regular
bend in only one plane — a good point, as in arranging
the rings the concave side can be placed uppermost to
counteract the natural droop of the rod and the effect
of the bending strain, mainly in one direction.

There is a better way of doing the glueing, but it
requires more apparatus. The joints are glued up in
halves and tied on to a perfectly true planed strip of iron
having the same taper as the joint. By this means the
piece cannot warp and twist. When the two halves are
set, clean up the faces and glue together ; it is necessary
only to watch the possibility of bending in one direction.

154

ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

and no twist is possible. This process requires three
strips of iron of the various sizes.

HANDLES.

The simplest form of handle is that turned out of a
solid piece of wood, maple or black walnut, with a ferrule
let into the end (see Fig. 4), but the strongest, most

^^

'Xi»-^J'»i

:

a^^^^;^^^^^^^^:^^^^^xx/^-S^>?^>g-:»-^

S/i ""^ - - -

S^

Fig. 4.

workmanlike, and best looking is that in which the strips
of the butt joint are spliced into the handle. (See Fig. 5.)

Fig- S-

To make this perfectly a lathe is required, as great
accuracy in the spacing and cutting the grooves is only
attained by fixing the piece of wood between the centres

CONSTRUCTION OF SPLIT CANE RODS. 155

after turning to shape, and cutting the wood out by a
diamond-pointed tool traversed by a slide rest, the
handle being revolved one-sixth of a turn for the main
cuts, and finished off by hand at the taper portions. A
free working wood with straight grain, such as red cedar,
is necessary, and great care is required to finish off the
taper portion to a feather edge at the junction with the
cane joint. Having glued the cane joint up to this point
it must be warmed, and whilst hot the grooved butt
must be forced in, the body of the joint being whipped
round with copper wire to prevent it being wedged open.
Take care to get the joint straight and true with the
butt When cold the pieces may be separated for final
glueing. For choice, the cane need only be carried down
to the first ring, which makes a good finish.

The handle should not be varnished with coach body
varnish (so suitable for the rest of the rod), as it is always
liable to be sticky to the warm hand; shellac spirit
varnish is better, laid on with four or five coats as fast
as they dry, an affair of a quarter of an hour. When it
is well set after the final coat, rub it down first with
powdered pumice and water, polish with rotten-stone
and oil applied with an old silk handkerchief, and finish
off with dry rotten-stone. This gives a brilliant polish ;
the varnish is always dry to the touch and very
durable.

The most simple form of reel fitting is that composed
of two narrow flat strips of brass set a suitable distance
apart for the reel to lie between, and a V shaped heel-
piece as shown by Figs. 4 and 5.

1 56 ANGLERS' E VENINGS.

FERRULES.

No reliance is to be placed on the ordinary ferrules
to be bought at a tackle-maker's. These are generally
made with the male portion taper and depend upon
their jamming when pushed home. This either results
in the ferrule being jammed too fast to be separated
without a good deal of force and twisting, about the
worst thing for a cane rod ; or after a little wear the joint
works loose, and the angler is continually casting a part
of his rod into the water with a great splash unless it is
tied, a most miserable sort of contrivance and unworthy
of this age. All that is necessary to avoid this is to
make the male ferrule perfectly parallel, so that when
pushed in it is in perfect contact, without shake, for its
full length. When buying the ferrules, preferably of
bronzed brass, select another ferrule the next size smaller
and throw away the male ferrule furnished by the maker.
Cut this to length and spin it in a lathe on a hard wood
mandril, which for convenience may be turned in steps
for the different sizes, then file and rub down with emery
cloth till it is a perfect fit in the female ferrule, using the
callipers freely after the tip will just enter. This ferrule
requires no dowel or stringing to keep fast, and on taking
down the rod the joints can be separated with the
greatest ease.

A good deal has been made of bayonet joints,
screws, and many other devices. None of them are
necessary. I have made several rods, and none of them
cast loose. A good test of a perfect fit is the pop-gun-

CONSTRUCTION OF SPLIT CANE RODS. 157

like sound when the joints are separated. After fitting
the ferrule to your satisfaction, one end of each requires
forming to a hexagon shape to fit the rod. The end of the
cane joint is of course scraped perfectly round and fitted
to the ferrule without distorting it ; when pushed home the
hexagon framed end corresponds with the body of the
joint. Dowels are quite unnecessary, and in fact are a
great evil, as the wood is cut away where the solidity is
most required, inside the female ferrule. Above all do
not put any pins through the ferrules ; this is another
source of weakness and only permissible to bad work-
men. For fastening the ferrules use leaf shellac warmed
over a spirit lamp, first inserting a portion into the
bore and making thoroughly hot, then slightly coating
the end of the joint but taking care not to overheat it,
and pushing on the ferrule.

WRAPPINGS, RINGS, AND VARNISHING.

These are the finishing touches. The best silk for
the wrappings is a loosely-spun kind, to be bought at a
fishing-tackle-maker's; but for the top joint fine sewing
silk will be found best. Having laid off the spaces for
the rings, increasing in distance from the tip, sub-divide
them, beginning about half-an-inch apart, and likewise
increasing in the spacing. The upper half of the top
joint will require only about five-ply of silk, and the
width of the wrapping should increase towards the butt
as the size of the joint increases. It is only necessary to
wax the point of the silk to prevent it slipping, and to

158 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

finish off the last ply, which should be done by the
invisible knot ; then lay over the wrappings with weak
glue, which fills the loose pores of the silk and makes
thenm take the varnish better. The rings, by choice,
should be fixed and graduated in size. The eyed tip
can be of the ordinary wire kind, which, however, may be
much improved, with a view to prevention of cutting by
the reel line, by working in an ordinary boot eyelet,
polished smooth. Coach body varnish is the best, used
fresh, thinned down with turpentine, and laid on with a
stiff short hog's-hair brush. If the weather be damp,
warm the piece first. Allow a few days to dry, and
repeat two coats.

In this paper I have endeavoured to give the amateur
the result of my experience, so that he may avoid pitfalls
and unnecessary experiments in finding the best means to
his end. I hope that, having succeeded in turning out
his rod, he will derive as much pleasure as I myself have
done in watching its behaviour under the trying circum-
stances which sometimes befall the angler.

THE KEEPERS, HORTON.

THE HORTON-IN-RIBBLESDALE
FISHERY.

I.

TROUT BREEDING IN RIBBLESDALE.

BY ROBERT BURN.

HE upper waters of the River Ribble, for about
twelve miles from its source at Ribblehead,
down to Helwith Bridge, four miles north of
Settle, are preserved by the Manchester Anglers' Asso-
ciation. At the head of the valley is Whernside, on the
right hand Ingleborough, and on the left hand Pen-y-
Ghent, three of the highest hills in Yorkshire. The
little village of Horton-in-Ribblesdale is the headquarters
of the Association ; it is the most northerly parish in the
West Riding of Yorkshire, and about 770 feet above
the sea level.

During the construction of the Settle and Carlisle
extension of the Midland Railway, which runs alongside
the river, when large bodies of men were encamped
for years in the valley, the water was almost depopulated
by unrestrained netting and other means. Fish were
taken in nets or " grappled " with the hand ; they were
blown up with dynamite and poisoned with lime, and
in low water it was a favourite Sunday amusement for

i6o ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

parties of three or four men to go up the river armed with
sledge hammers. Every large stone in the water likely
to shelter a trout was struck violently, and the fish,
stunned or lifeless, came to the surface. The river is
now carefully watched by the Association, and with a
view to replenishing the waters a fish-house has been
erected.

When the Council of the Association decided to
establish the breeding house, it required much care to
find a suitable situation, as many points had to be
considered. It was necessary to find a place sheltered
from strong and cold winds ; one which could be easily
drained, so as to get the water away quickly ; and,
above all, one where a good and regular supply of suit-
able water could be obtained. These conditions were
found in the site chosen on the bank of Horton Beck,
close to Douk-ghyll Scar. The foundation is solid rock,
with a good deep drain running into the brook. The
water supply was found in a small cistern in the field
close to the Scar, fed by springs which, to the knowledge
of the oldest inhabitant, never went dry. The water
was tested, and pronounced suitable. It is conveyed a
distance of sixty-five yards through lead pipes, and as
the supply cistern is some four to six feet above the
level of the roof, there is plenty of pressure. It may be
noted that the temperature of the water has never been
above 44** in the hottest summer, nor below 40° even
when the thermometer has stood at zero, in the winter.
The erection of the house was entrusted to the village
joiner, and he has done the work satisfactorily.

HORTON-IN-RIBBLESDALE FISHERY. i6i

The arrangement of the house inside is as follows : —
The water first enters a filter box supplied with flannel
slides to catch sand and grit, and then passes into a long
trough. This trough is connected with six trays, in
tanks, on the left side of the house, arranged in the form
of steps, over which in succession the water flows,
escaping by a waste-pipe into the drain. On the right-
hand side are also nine trays arranged in the form of
steps, and independently supplied with a constant flow
of water from the trough and with a waste pipe. The
trays are furnished with glass rod grilles, on which the
ova are placed; each tray holds about i,8oo. As the fish
are hatched, they escape through the grilles into the
boxes below. Trout spawn at Horton late in November
or early in December, and run for that purpose up the
small brooks or becks, surmounting difficulties to an
extent that seems incredible. Here they are easily taken
in small nets or by the hand.

Before the close-time legislation, trout were taken,
when spawning, by thousands, but now anyone taking or
having trout in possession in close time, except for
purposes of cultivation, is liable to prosecution, and even
fish breeders must have permission from the Conservancy
Board. When sufficient trout have been netted, and placed
for readiness in large cans filled with water, the method of
spawning is this: — In a broad shallow dish is placed a
little water, then the female fish is held, the tail in the
left hand, and the head and shoulders in the right hand.
The right hand is passed with gentle pressure down the
body of the fish towards the vent. If the fish is ripe the

M

i62 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

ova begin to fly out singly into the dish, without any
apparent pain. Should the fish not be ready, it is seen
at once that pain is caused, and the fish is returned
to the brook. A male fish is then taken and stroked
in the same way, and the milt allowed to fall upon
the ova in the dish, which is canted from side to side
so that all the eggs may become impregnated. The
change is something wonderful. The eggs at first are
colourless, but on absorbing the milt change to a golden
pink hue. The ova are easily carried for hours in a
little water in a quart can with swinging handle, until it
is convenient to place them on the hatching trays. As
many as 3,000 to 4,000 may be so conveyed without
injury. The spawning is generally done on the bank of
a stream, and as each fish is done with it is returned to
the water. At first it seems languid, but it is soon
restored by the current, and swims to a place of conceal-
ment, not much the worse for the unnatural treatment
it has received. It is said that a female trout of one
pound weight will contain about 1,000 eggs, but I have
never seen one that parted with so many, the largest
number being 400 to 500. Perhaps we were afraid of
injuring the fish by too much pressure, and many eggs
were left behind which would be deposited in the
stream in due time. The eggs vary in size according
to the age of the fish. It was noticed that the ova
from a |lb. trout will go 32 in a row, while from a
trout lib. to i|lb. only 30 will He in the same space,
and from some large Malham Tarn fish 28 occupied the
room.

HORTON-IN-RIBBLESDALE FISHERY. 163

The time required before the young fish hatches
varies according to the temperature of the water and air.
For the years 1885 to 1888 inclusive, the time of incuba-
tion was uniformly 104 days ; but in 1889, owing to the
milder weather, the first fry were hatched in 76 days.
A spell of severe weather then came on, and the hatch-
ing stopped at once, and was not resumed for a fortnight.
About six weeks after the eggs are placed on the trays,
they begin to show signs of life. Taking one up in a
glass tube and holding it to the light, the eyes first show
as black specks, then the complete form of the fish
can be seen coiled round inside the shell, and with a
magnifying glass it is possible to see the blood vessels.
When the little trout bursts its shell it has a yellow bag
attached to the under side of the throat containing a
glutinous substance, by the absorption of which the
alevin, as it is called, subsists for a month or six weeks.
At first this bag seems to overpower the fish, and it
seems anxious to get into some dark corner out
of sight, but in a few days it gathers strength and moves
about freely. Day by day the appendage gets smaller,
and the little one gradually acquires its own natural
graceful form with dark back and silver belly, and darts
about actively in search of food. The alevins are very
sensitive to light, and it is necessary to place pieces of
slate or stone in the troughs under which they can shelter.
Many monstrosities are hatched, fish with two heads or two
tails, or even two bodies joined together like the Siamese
twins, but they never grow to any size, always dying
in a few weeks. As the fry get larger they require

i64 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

more water and more room, and some are removed into a
larger trough with a steady supply of water falling in at
one end and overflowing at the other, so as to cause a
continual current. There is considerable natural food in
the water, but in addition the fish are fed daily with well-
boiled beef or liver, finely powdered in a mortar and
passed through a fine sieve, or with a specially prepared
food which is very nourishing. Outside the breeding-
house is a stone cistern holding about 3,000 gallons, with
a regular flow of water of twenty gallons a minute. In
this some three or four thousand fry are kept until they
are a year old, and then are placed in small streams, so
that they may gradually work their way down to the
river. At the age of one year the young trout measure
from three to five inches. As there is not sufficient pond
room in which to keep the whole of the fry until they are
yearlings, a considerable number of the largest and
strongest are placed in .sundry small becks, where there
is an ample supply of food and shelter. For the last
nine years ending March, 1893 an average of 25,000 fry
have been turned into the streams, and this must tell
largely on the stock of trout in the Ribble.

Coming, as the spawning season does, in the winter,
the work is at times anything but pleasant. On some
days there is a keen frost, with snow thick on the ground
and the nets frozen stiff when out of the running water ;
on others a cold, biting rain makes netting the fish, and
then handling them to get the spawn, a difficult and
disagreeable business. Dry clothes, a comfortable dinner
in a warm room, and an *' Anglers' Evening " to follow,

HORTON-IN-RIBBLESDALE FISHERY. 165

soon put all right again, and the Manchester Anglers
look back with pleasure on many enjoyable days and
evenings at Horton spent in this useful work.

II.

CREEPER FISHING AT HORTON.

BY THE REV. ST. VINCENT BEECHEY, M.A.

The latter half of April and May and the first
half of June should be the prime of the year for
those who whip for trout on our North of England
streams. Do not be alarmed, brother anglers; I am
not going to indulge in a diapsody on the sweet
influences of the springtime at the countryside, more
especially as the prevailing influences in the spring of
the present year* were influenza, drought, and a persis-
tent north-east wind. I am going to stick in a severely
businesslike way to the fish and the fishing. In the
month of June, just at the time when trout fishermen
might be expected to be returning from the warpath,
enthusiastic about the battles they had fought and the
captives they had made or might have made, I made a
discovery as regards our river at Horton — a discovery
which seemed likely to ensure sport on the Ribble at
almost any time during the period mentioned, on those
frequent days when the condition of the water prevented
fishing with the artificial fly. I had given Walker f

* iSyi. t llie AMOciatioii's keq)«r.

i66 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

instructions at the beginning of the season to send me a
telegram to say when the river was in condition. The
end of May had come, but no telegram. In my part of
the world, which is not very far as the crow flies from
Horton, this was not to be wondered at. I never
remember a May so made up of drought and east wind.
The " cacoethes scribendi " was nothing to the itching
of my fingers to wield the rod, and the best of the season
was fast slipping away. So I determined on the ist June
to go to Horton and chance it. As I came down from
the station I paused on the bridge, and shook my head
as I looked at the attenuated stream. At the same
moment Walker's stalwart form was observed coming up
the river-side. He expressed considerable surprise at
seeing me, and wanted to know why I had come. But
an idea had been forming in my mind — suggested by
piscatorial accounts in the papers from other Yorkshire
streams — and I asked him in turn whether he had seen
any creepers at the river-side. He said he had come all
the way up and hadn't seen one, though he had looked
carefully for them. I suspected then, and had good
reason afterwards to be sure, that he either did not
know what a creeper was or did not know where to find
them. In the evening a visit to the tarn was rewarded
with three good fish, but time was also found for an
examination of the stones on the river-side, which satis-
factorily proved that the creepers were there, and all very
much alive. So Walker was told to get a supply next
morning, being instructed as to the proper place where
they were to be found, namely, under the stones adjacent

HOR TON-IN-RIBBLESDALE FISHER V. 167

to water which has at least a moderate current. Very
few can be found near water that is comparatively still.
About nine a.m. on the following day he appeared,
looking flushed and excited, as if he had just emerged
from a bout with sheepstealers or poachers ; and if no
damage was visible on his limbs, injury was clearly
depicted on his countenance. Looking at me reproach-
fully, he ejaculated, " Well, by gum ! I never had sic
wark i' a\my life." It is quite beyond me to reproduce
in the vernacular the account of his pursuit after creepers.
I wish I could. I can only give the substance of his
remarks. Creepers were decidedly misnamed. Runners,
or, rather, sprint runners, would be the more exact term.
It was one thing to find them — quite another to catch
them; and when he thought he had them safe in his
fingers, they had a trick of transferring themselves to his
coat sleeve, and then, unless the coat was rapidly pulled
off, of wandering into more remote and less accessible
parts. Between the exertion of catching the little beasts
and continually half stripping himself he was dead beat.
I suggested that boys should be requisitioned for the
purpose ; but he wouldn't have them at the river-side. I
may here say that another trial at the same game induced
him to alter his opinion, and think that, after all, boys
ought to be utilised. We both agreed — for I had tried
to supplement the somewhat meagre results of Walker's
exertions by efforts of my own — that boys would be
more suitable for the purpose. They were more handy,
in the first place, for getting down to the stones ; they
were less exposed to the danger of apoplexy ; their

i68 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

smaller fingers were better adapted to grasping the lively
quarry ; while a few creepers more or less between the
shirt and the skin would probably be a matter of
indifference to them.

As the wind, to my surprise and delight, was blowing
gently from the south, bringing a cloudy sky, I resolved,
not having as yet much faith in the creeper, to try the fly
in the streamy bits at H el with Bridge. As long as these
atmospheric conditions prevailed, by fishing fine and far
off I was tolerably successful. But it was not long before
the wind got back to the old quarter, blowing, conse-
quently, down the river, and making it very difficult to
cast up-stream, the only possible method in such low
water; for, if it is difficult to cast the fly against a wind,
it is quite impossible to cast the creeper, since if you
whip too quickly and suddenly you simply oblige the
trout with a gratuitous tasty morsel, for you inevitably
whip the insect off. But those who know the Ribble
will remember that there is one portion of about a
quarter of a mile in length, between Crags Hill and
Higher Studfold, where, owing to a sharp bend or elbow,
the course is partially reversed, and consequently the
wind, when it is blowing down the river, will generally
be found blowing up this length. At the lower end, just
before the river turns southward again, is a large pool, at
the end of which is a good stream ; above this is a long
stretch of flat water (useless for the creeper) flowing
between high banks on either side; and above this
several little pools of broken water, succeeded again by a
stream which, in its course, curves back into the old

HORTON-IN-RIBBLESDALE FISHERY. 169

direction. As the wind was favourable for this length,
and the sun was now (4 p.m.) shining brightly, I
determined to give the creeper a trial. I was very soon
convinced that the Ribble trout fancied the creeper.
Whenever the visitor was properly introduced he was
eagerly welcomed. This introduction, however, was not
always easily managed, owing to my inexperience in the
art, and the quantity of baits employed was out of all
proportion to the quantity of fish encreeled. The way
those trout managed to absorb the insect without absorb-
ing the hook was astonishing. In about an hour the sun
again disappeared, and the fish stopped feeding, and,
indeed, it was little use attempting to fish up beyond the
topmost bend, owing to the adverse wind ; so I knocked
oflf, with ten trout weighing exactly five pounds, or an
average of half a pound — not a bad take, considering the
lowness of the water. Most of these had been taken with
the fly, but all the biggest, averaging three-quarters 01
a pound, went to the credit of the creeper.

I now determined to give a day entirely to a fair trial
with the creeper, and to this end read up during the
evening all the literature I could find on the subject.
Ah, brother angler ! you know by sad experience the
difference between gaining information from angling
manuals as you sit in your arm-chair with a pipe in your
mouth, and trying to profit by what you have read when
you come to do business at the water-side. To describe
the apparatus and methods of fishing with the creeper
would simply be to copy from the aforesaid manuals;
the most lucid and helpful of them on this subject I

I70 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

found to be "Pritt's Yorkshire Trout Flies." It is enough
to say that the ordinary fly rod, line, and gut cast are
suitable enough, with the addition, of course, of the
special bait hook; a single No. 4 hook, armed with a
bristle for the jacks or male insects, which are only about
one-third the length of their better more-than-halves ;
and two small hooks, placed about half an inch apart, for
the females. These hooks are inserted, the upper one in
the thorax and the lower one in the tail-end of the insect,
so that it hangs head upwards, with its legs, as it were,
embracing the gut. The fish appear to take both baits
equally well. By the time I had digested all the informa-
tion I could glean, imagination ran riot in thoughts of
the sport I should get on the morrow. Everything
seemed favourable for a record in water where I knew
the fish would take the bait, and where, I was told,
creeper fishing was never practised. Pritt had said, "The
lower and clearer the water is, the more chance of sport ;"
and again, " From the time you begin to find the creeper
under the stones close to the water's edge, which, in warm
seasons, will be about April 24th, up to the appearance of
the stone-fly itself, he can distance all comers, and the
fish you will get with it will, as a rule, be the largest fish
you have." All the conditions, therefore, pointed to a
big bag. So I rose in the morning eager for the fray ;
but, alas! when I turned out I found the one important
condition necessary for success was wanting — the wind
was contrary, blowing stiffly from the north-east. There
was nothing to be done but to utilise that convenient
easterly bend of the river and make the most of the few

HOR TON-IN-RIBBL BSD A LE FISHER Y. 171

pieces of streamy water which it contained, for the creeper
is of no use in still water.

The trout did not seem to be very eager at first, and
I had only taken three when I came to the upper limit
of the fishable water. At this point it is bounded by a
wall on either side. The water was so low that the
stream at the head of the pool was divided into two
parts by a large bank of stones. Wading up the middle
of the water I took a good fish on the field side, and then
turned my attention to the run on the further side. This
was a narrow stream not more than eighteen inches wide,
extending for about ten yards between the wall which
carries the road and the bank of stones in the middle.
As the wind was already very awkward, owing to the
upward curve of the river, it was difficult casting. To
get hung up either on the stones on the one side, or the
grass growing in the wall on the other, would have been
fatal. The extrication of the hook would have meant
the dispersion of the trout. But by very careful mani-
pulation, and working the line gradually up-stream, I
managed to raise in this narrow run four large fish, three of
which I got safely into the net, of course leading each
one promptly down-stream, so as to avoid disturbing the
water above. This was a typical place for the creeper,
so I describe it in detail. I had taken from one spot,
standing in the mouth of the river, four trout in perfect
condition, and none under half a pound. But I had
come to the end of my tether. It was most tantalising
to know that the trout were well on the feed, and yet
that it was utterly useless to make any further attempts

172 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

owing to the strong east wind. But for this the slaughter
must have been terrific. The seven averaged nine ounces
each — a small but handsome lot. Talking of averages,
it is curious to note how fish of a similar size seem to
rise on the same day. On consecutive days in Septem-
ber I whipped with fly exactly the same water, namely,
from the wooden foot-bridge below the "Golden Lion "to
the "New Inn" bridge, and took twelve fish each day; the
first lot averaged fully seven ounces each, the last barely
five ounces, and they ran very even. I need not say that
I took no account ot undersized fish.

The creeper, of course, changes into the stone-fly,
locally termed the May-fly. On the day which I have
described the creepers were already undergoing the
transformation. When this is the case it does not matter
which you use ; the same tackle will do for both, and
the fish seem to take them equally well. When, how-
ever, the stone-fly is fully out it is even more deadly
than the creeper, and you never get an ill-conditioned
flsh 'with it. The only difference in using them is, that
the creeper should be sunk a few inches, while the stone-
fly may float nearer the surface — indeed, it is difficult to
make it sink. But it should not be allowed to float
nearly high and dry, as it is apt to do, for in that case
the trout will seldom get hooked. Time and again I
noticed the trout rise fairly to the floating insect and
carry it off without giving the slightest pull. How it
manages this instantaneous appropriation and evades
the two hooks embedded in the body of the fly is a
problem as yet unsolved.

HOR TON-IN-RIBBLESDALE FISHER V. 173

This method of fishing may be profitably employed
on those days (which are rather the rule than the
exception) when the water is too low for the fly, during
the period lasting from about April 24th to June
20th. It is not as artistic as fly-fishing, but it is a very
good substitute for it, while the fish taken by it are
always the finest, and give excellent sport after they
are hooked.

I should like to make a further suggestion for im-
proving the sporting capacities of our water at Horton,
and that is, that grayling should be introduced. They
could easily be obtained from the neighbouring river
Yore, where the trout and grayling thrive well together ;
and if grayling were established they would prolong the
angling season into the late autumn and even winter,
and at least form an excuse for some of our anglers to
slip away from the fogs of Manchester, and spend a day
or two in the bracing air of Horton and unconventional
ease of the " Golden Lion."

III.
A PLEA FOR THE GRAYLING.

BY J. A. H.

Most anglers are content to take Charles Cotton's
description of the grayling — "one of the deadest-
hearted fishes in the world " — as correct, and judge
this graceful little sporting fish accordingly. But

174 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

I think that Charles Cotton could never have fished
for grayling at the right time of the year. Nor am
I alone in this opinion ; I need only refer to the
numerous authorities on the subject, Pritt, Senior,
Walbran, Dr. Hamilton, and many others, who all bear
testimony in favour of the grayling. The fact is that
very few anglers have any idea what sport they might
have, if, instead of hanging up their rods when Septem-
ber has passed, they would wend their way to the neigh-
bouring streams of Derbyshire and Yorkshire, and
cultivate a nearer acquaintance with this charming fish.

The joys of grayling fishing can only be appreciated
by those who have experienced them. To my mind
there is nothing more delightful than on a bright frosty
day in October or November to be on the banks of a
grayling stream with a fly rod in one's hand, and the fish
rising all round one and refusing to be put down, pluck
them as you may. They are free risers at times, but are
most difficult to hook, for the smallest of flies and the
finest of tackle must be used ; and when once hooked
they require delicate handling, for their mouths are most
tender. And then the beauty of the fish when caught !
Most anglers only know them in April, after they have
spawned, when they often come readily to the fly ; but
there is as much difference between a grayling caught
then, and one caught in September or October, as there
is between trout taken in February and June. The open
season for grayling begins on June 15th, though they
do not come well to the fly until August, and the big fish
are rarely caught until the end of September; but

HORTON-IN-RIBBLESDALE FISHER Y. 175

October and November are the best months, though I
have taken them with the fly in December and January.
Grayling fishing has a fascination of its own, coming as
it does when the glories of autumn are upon us, and the
landscape is touched with the melancholy of the fading
year. But at present I will regard the subject from a
more practical point of view, and ask you to treat the
charms of grayling fishing as an accepted fact, and to
consider whether it would not therefore be adviseable to
introduce these fish into the waters of the Manchester
Anglers' Association in Ribblesdale.

One of the greatest arguments in favour of the
grayling — especially to those who do not shoot — is that
it comes in just when trout are going out. Trout fishing,
as we all know, begins nominally at the beginning of
February, but few anglers worthy of the name begin
their fishing before March. We soon reach September,
and if there are no grayling at hand our fishing is
over for the year — ^just a short six months, during
two-thirds of which the water is either too low or
too high, or there is no wind or there is too much,
or else there is thunder about, or something else. This
does not give one many opportunities of catching
fish, especially as most of us are able to go a-fishing
only when we can arrange to get away from business,
and not when it is the right time to go. Now,
although "catching fish is not all of fishing," we like to
get some sometimes, and anything which increases the
possibilities of attaining this object should not be ignored.
By introducing grayling into the upper Ribble we should

1 76 ANGLERS' E VENINGS.

have more opportunities for sport during August and
September, and also have four additional months added
to our fishing season ; this ought to be sufficient reason
for us to consider seriously whether it may not be ad-
viseable to introduce this sporting little fish into the
waters at Horton. But further than this, the very best
time for grayling fishing is when the water is low, and
this applies to August and September, when trout are
still in season, as well as to the later months of the year,
when grayling are the only fish we may angle for. How
many of us there are who have started off Horton-wards
full of hope, only to find on our arrival that the river was
hopelessly low, and fishing out of the question! If we
had had grayling in the stream, the case might have
been different I admit that they are somewhat capri-
cious risers ; so are trout, but my experience leads me to
believe that the best time to catch grayling is when the
water is low ; which, alas ! is not the case with trout.
Here we admirers of the grayling have a very strong
argument, and in further support of it I may mention
a few days from my own experience. One day I was at
Rocester on the Dove, at the latter end of August —
the water was low, the sky was bright and the sun hot,
and it is hardly necessary to say that, as I had been
fishing for trout, when the afternoon drew on there was
very little more in my creel than when I started. I was
lying on the bank, smoking and basking in the sun, and
wondering what I should do to pass the time until my
train was due, when the keeper came up. " Have you
had any sport, sir ?" " Well, need you ask } — only two

HOR TON-IN-RIBBL BSD ALE FISHER V. i yy

small trout," was my disconsolate reply. " If I were you,
sir, I should go down to the weir, and try for the grayling ;
there's been a good few rising there all day." I imme-
diately "blessed" my own stupidity for not thinking of
this before, for grayling are curious fish, and though not
rising all over the river, will often rise steadily all day in
one particular spot. I hurried away to make the most
of the time, which was now only too short; for when I
reached the large pool below the weir, I found my friend
the keeper was right. To cut matters short, in very
little over an hour I creeled seven brace of grayling
weighing just seven pounds. Later on in the same year,
at the end of chill October, long after the trout fishing
was over, on the same water I got 9| brace of grayling
weighing 9J lbs., all taken with the fly.

Here is another similar experience, also on the Dove.
On this occasion I was fishing higher up the river, where
the trout fishing is excellent, on the Birdgrove Club water,
which holds some of the largest trout in Derbyshire. I
had heard that the water was hopelessly low. A bank
holiday, however, and some heavy rain in Manchester, —
which as I found out later carefully avoided the Dove —
tempted me to go down and take my chance, with the
usual result; for it was one of those days when your
friends kindly advise you to " chuck your hat at them."
A low river and a sky of the purest blue did not inspire me
with hope, but my past experiences helped me on this
occasion, and wending my way to where I thought the
grayling might be rising, I was lucky enough to have
my hopes rewarded. I returned home with yh brace of

N

178 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

grayling weighing 8 lbs. ; but this time I worked hard,
for the fish would not loolc at a sunk fly, and only took a
small Yellow Tag fished perfectly dry. The moral I wish
to draw from the foregoing is that, but for the grayling,
on each occasion I might have had to toil all day for
perhaps a brace of trout, or perhaps nothing ; instead of
which I was lucky enough to get two catches of which
any angler might feel proud.

There is another point I ought not to miss, and that
is the short time in which grayling attain a decent size.
In " Salmonia " Sir Humphry Davy states that such
fish as were hatched in May or June became nine or ten
inches in length by September, and weighed from five to
eight ounces, though probably in our northern streams
the rate of growth would not be so rapid as in the river
Teme, of which he was writing. But in any case, in a
very short time one would get really takeable fish, and
indeed, fish which one might take all the year round, for
grayling under |lb. are not supposed to spawn — so says
the late Francis Day, the greatest authority on British
salmofiidce.

The scene of the following experience was nearer
home. One September I visited Horton, going as usual
when I could get away, and expecting, with my usual
luck, to find the river dead low — which I did. I fished
for two days with as much result as you can imagine,
and finally I bolted off" in despair to Wensleydale, for
there, at any rate, grayling were to be found, to say
nothing of charming scenery. The water was of course
low, for the Ribble and the Yore rise on much the same

HORTON-JN-RIRBLESDALE FISHERY. 179

watershed, and I cannot say the grayling were rising
freely, but at least I got some fishing worth calling
fishing, of which there did not seem much probability at
Horton. On my return I met Walker on the bridge.
He shook his head sadly as he looked at the river, which
had now dwindled to that apology for a stream which
we unfortunately know so well. " Well, and have you
coort oot up yonder?" asked Walker, evidently not
expecting that I had. When I turned out of my creel
half a dozen nice grayling, of which the biggest was
close on a pound, his face was a picture. The old boy
does not like to have his ideas upset. " Dom it," he
said, " whoi can't we have them soart o' fish ? " I
managed to bring Walker to my way of thinking very
easily, and I wish we enthusiasts for the grayling had
always as easy a task before us.

I hope I have proved that grayling may be a very
desirable addition to any fishery ; and I will now touch
on the points likely to be raised against me. Prejudice
one cannot fight, but, when a reasonable argument is
brought forward, it is a duty, in advocating what some
people look on as a revolution, to refute it. The most
common objection is that grayling devour trout spawn,
and must eventually be the means of thinning down the
stock of the latter fish. In the first place, I have never
seen this proved; I think the theory is not based on fact,
and even if it were, it would not matter at Horton. For,
curiously, grayling seldom leave the main stream, and
my impression is that whatever spawn is deposited by
trout in the main river at Horton does not come to

i8o ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

anything; the heavy floods of winter and early spring
must often sweep it all away, or else bury it inches
deep with stones and gravel. Further, I believe the
fry and yearlings which we turn in are what mainly
stock the river. In proof of this, I would call attention
to the great increase in the stock at Horton compared
with what there was before artificial breeding operations
were begun. This is a fact to which the resident land-
lords have borne witness. Great credit is due to the
Fishing Committee for the eminent success of the fish
hatchery. I dare say that someone may object that in
the Derbyshire streams the stock must be almost entirely
kept up by the spawn deposited in the main rivers, as
there are few, if any, tributaries for the trout to ascend
for spawning purposes. But they don't have floods in
Derbyshire like those in the Ribble ; and further, the
Derbyshire trout seem very well able to look after them-
selves. My own opinion is that " the boot is on the
other leg ;" the poor, much-abused grayling, from its
habits, is compelled to deposit its spawn in the main
river in April or May, when Master Trout is just begin-
ning to pull himself together again, and I have no doubt
the latter is very much on the rampage at that time, and
on the look-out for the daily rise of the " grayling ova "
fry. The late Francis Day states that at the end of
July the fry are one to five inches long, and that in
aquaria it has been observed that trout will readily eat
young grayling. Perhaps my opponents will look on
this as an argument in favour of their introduction, as
being the means of providing additional food for the

HOR TON-IN-RIBBLESDALE FISHER Y. 1 8 1

trout. I suppose no one would contend that the grayling
goes for young trout. His small mouth is hardly
adapted for such food ; but certainly the trout will reap
any revenge which is due to him when the small gray-
ling hatch out.

I have also seen it stated that grayling will bully
trout. Again, I think, " the boot is on the other leg."
The grayling is comparatively a delicate and timid fish,
whereas the trout, with all due respect, is a pugnacious
rascal. Many a time have I seen small trout flying for
their lives when they had ventured a little too near the
haunt of one of their great-grandfathers, but I have
never yet seen a grayling pursuing another fish. One
of the strongest arguments I ever read was a remark by
" South-West " in one of his interesting little notes in the
Field. I think his name ought to carry weight, for he
is one of the best, if not the best of fishermen in the
south of England, with an experience of many years.
He is speaking of the Test, and here are his words : —
" It would be an evil day for Houghton if the grayling
followed the example of the May-fly and grannom in
deserting the river."

But the strongest point of all is the fact that with the
exception of a few instances, where grayling have been
introduced in modern times, — they have been living side
by side with the trout for centuries. If half what is
said against the grayling is true, by this time wc should
have very few trout left in many streams in England.
" Prejudice is not proof," and those who have experienced
the fascinations of grayling-fishing cannot be expected

i82 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

to yield to mere prejudice. I don't lay claim to
more than ordinary skill in fishing, and unfortunately
my experiences are but few, but I have killed good
baskets of trout in Derbyshire, and in the very same
waters I have taken numbers of grayling. The same
thing holds good of the rivers of the south of England,
and the Shropshire streams ; and I recently received a
letter from Mr. F. M. Walbran telling the same story
of the Yorkshire rivers. He writes as follows : —

"On June 21, 1889, on the Wharfe, I killed 44 trout
weighing 2ilbs. On the same water on November 21,
1889, I killed 44 grayling weighing 281bs. Again on the
Yore in December, 1890, I killed 36 grayling weighing
I4lbs., and on the same water I have killed i61bs. of
trout per day. Beyond this you do not want to go and
I say without fear of contradiction that trout and grayling
will thrive well together r

Mr. T. E. Pritt in the " Book of the Grayling " writes
as follows: —

" The fish (trout and grayling) thrive equally well
together in those rivers which are suited to them, and
grayling must be acquitted of any tendency to diminish
the number of trout, if the ordinary supply of food is
fairly plentiful."

Evidently the Yorkshire fishermen have no doubts
on the subject, and if we turn to the writings of southern
anglers we find the same opinion. Mr. R. B. Marston
writes as follows in the Fishing Gazette : —

" So long as there is plenty of room and food for
both, I do not believe that trout are prejudicially

HORTON-IN-RIBBLESDALE FISHER Y. 183

affected. . . A river which contains trout and grayling
in good quantities is, in my opinion, far more interesting
to fish, and affords far more sport, than one stocked with
trout only, and of course for a much greater portion of
the year."

Again, Dr. Hamilton, also writing to the Fishing
Gazette^ uses the following words : —

" We feel sure that trout and grayling will live quite
happily together."

Other similar testimony to the merits of the grayling
could be given, but it is hardly necessary.

My belief is that those who argue that grayling spoil
trout fishing have not hit on the real reason why their
sport is not so good as it used to be. Where grayling
have been introduced, or where they have been living
with the trout for hundreds of years, and are supposed to
be spoiling the trout fishing, it is more than probable that
these rivers are suffering from the same misfortunes as
many others where there are no grayling ; it may be too
many fishermen, too much draining, or one of the many
causes by which we fishermen try to account for the fact
that we cannot make as good baskets as our forefathers
did, or indeed as we used to do ourselves. I say again,
let those who .say grayling are spoiling their trout fishing
be quite sure that their streams are the only ones where
the fishing is not what it used to be.

The grayling is a fish which grows rapidly to a decent
size, often to a very large size, and it is well worth
introducing both for the fact that it gives us a much
longer fishing season and greater possibilities of sport,

i84 ANGLERS' EVENINGS,

and also for its fine sporting qualities. All authorities
agree that grayling and trout will do well together on
one condition : you must have sufficient food for both.
As regards Horton it is only necessary to turn up the
stones on the river bed to see the capabilities the river
has in food supplies, and in the excellent condition of the
trout there is further proof of abundance. Besides this,
grayling lie more in the pools and gentle runs, where
trout do not as a rule lie. The introduction of this fish
would increase the Ribblesdale fishing-water by fully
one-half, and turn into good fishing-water what is now
practically useless. As to whether the water at Horton
would really suit grayling I do not feel qualified to speak;
but some parts of the river seem excellently adapted for
them, particularly the long pools and still runs below
Horton Bridge, where one seldom thinks of fishing for
trout And surely, by judicious care, it would be possible
to regulate the stock to suit the food supply ; and if they
were found to be too numerous it would not be difficult
to net them out, for they are far more easily netted than
trout. In conclusion, I can only repeat and say with old
Walker " Whoi shouldn't we have them soart o' fish ?"

NOTE ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE GRAYLING—

AND ON SOME CURIOUS ERRORS BY THE

AUTHORITIES.

BY J. A. H.

In Mr. Day's interesting " British Salmonidae " there is a curious
geographical blunder in reference to the various rivers where the grayling

HORTON-IN-RIBBLESDALE FISHER V. 185

is found, viz , *' In Derbyshire and StaflFordshire, the Dove, the Wye, the
Trent, the Blithe, and the Hodder" The last mentioned stream we all
know to lie one of the most charming rivers of Yorkshire. It occurred to
me that I had seen the same mistake before, and I presently discovered it
in an article by Cholmondeley Pennell, in one oi the Badminton volumes
on fishing. There, too the Hodder figures as a Staffordshire stream, and
upon further investigation I was much struck by the similarity between
different authors, both in their mistakes and in the wording of their
sentences. The following are a few illustrative extracts, as ar as possible
in chronological order ; but as I have not carried my search further back
than the present century, perhaps the originator of the blunder is yet to be
found. The first quotation is from " Salmonia," by Sir Humphry Davy,
published in 1828 — " The grayling is a rare fish in England, and has
never been ound in Scotland or Ireland I know of no river further west
than the Avon in Hampshire. They are found in some tributary streams
which rise in Wiltshire. I know of no river containing them on the north
coast west of the Severn; there are very few only on the upper part of this
river, and in the streams which form it in North Wales. There are a few
in the Wye and its tributary streams. In the Lug, which flows through the
next valley in Herefordshire, they are found, but are not common. In Derby-
shire and Staffordshire, the Dove, the Wye, the Trent, and the Blithe afford
grayling; in Yorkshire, on the north coast, some of the tributary streams of
the Ribble ; and in the south, the Ure, the Wharfe, the Humber, the
Derwent, and the streams that form it, particularly the Rye." I
quote this passage to point out that it forms a sort of foundation for some
later writers. Ronald quotes it in full, but acknowledges the original
author It is curious to note that no mention is made of the
Derbyshire Derwent, a far more important stream than the Wye.
In " Fly Fishing," by Shipley and Fitzgibbon, published in 1838,
we find what may be the original mistake in the following passage : — " In
the southern counties of Hampshire and Wiltshire, the grayling is found
in the Test and in both the Avons ; in Herefordshire in the Dove, the Lug.
the Wye, and the Irvon ; in Shropshire in the Teme and the Clun ; in
Staffordshire in the Hodder^ the Trent, the Dove, the Churnet, and the
Wye ; in Derbyshire in the Dove ; in Merionethshire in the Dee, between
Curwen and Bala ; in Nottinghamshire in the Trent ; in Lancashire in the
Ribble ; in Yorkshire in the Derwent, the Ure, the Wharfe, and the
Whiskc, near Northallerton Dr. Ileysham says it is occasionally taken
in the Eden and the Esk in Cumberland." This passage contains several
mistakes. The Hodder. as was pointed out before, is a Yorkshire stream ;
the Wye is in Derbyshire, not in Staffordshire ; and the Dove is as much
a Staffordshire as a Derbyshire stream. As in Davy no mention is made
of the Derl)yshire Derwent. These mistakes are the less excusable, as

1 86 ANGLERS' E VENINGS.

Shipley was a native of Ashbourne. Passing on to 1885, we find Pennell
writing as follows in the Badminton Library: — "Of the counties pro-
ducing this fish, probably Herefordshire and Shropshire contain the best,
as they certainly contain the most celebrated streams. The former
includes the Dove, the Lugg, the Wye, and the Ervon, and the latter the
Clun and Teme. In Hampshire and Wiltshire the grayling is found in the
Test, Wharfe, and both the Avons ; in Staffordshire in the Hodder, Trent,
Dove, and Wye ; in Derbyshire in the Dove ; in Merionethshire
in the Dee, between Curleen and Bala ; in Lancashire in the Ribble ; in
Yorkshire in the Derwent, Ure, W^harfe, and Whiske, near Northallerton ;
and in Cumberland in the Esk and Eden," The similarity between
this and the preceding extract is almost verbatim. Curleen is no
doubt meant for Corwen. At first sight this seems to be a misprint ;
but in a quotation rom a later book by the same author, " Sport-
ing Fish of Great Britain, 1886," we find this mistake reprinted in
another form : '• In Hampshire and Wiltshire the grayling is found in the
Test, the Itchen. and in both the Avons, etc. ; in Herefordshire in the
Teme, the Lug, the Wye, and the Arrow ; in Shropshire in the Teme
and the Clun ; in Staffordshire in the Hodder, the Trent, the Dove, the
Blythe, and the Wye ; in Derbyshire in the Dove ; in Merionethshire in
the Dee between Curlen and Bala ; in Lancashire in the Ribble ; in
Yorkshire in the Derwent near Scarborough, in the Yore, the Wharfe, and
in the Whiske, near Northallerton ; in the Rye, Swale, Costa (Yorkshire),
and the Dove, near Pickering ; in Berkshire in the Kennet at Hemger-
ford ; in Cumberland, according to Heysham (but this appears doubtful),
in the Esk and the Eden." Here we have practically the same thing
over again with a few variations and another way of spelling Corwen.
One more quotation. In " Fly Fishing " by Dr. Hamilton, published in
1884, we read : — "In England the grayling is found, according to Yarrell
and others, in the following rivers : In Hampshire and Wiltshire the
Test, Itchen, and Avon ; in Herefordshire the Lug, the Wye, the Irvon,
and the Arrow ; in Shropshire the Teme, the Clun, and the Corve ; in
Staffordshire the Trent, the Dove, and the Wye ; in Derbyshire, the Dove
and the Wye ; in Merionethshire in the Dee; in Yorkshire in the Derwent.
the Ure, the Wharfe, and the Whiske ; in Cumberland in the Eden and
the Esk." This author perpetuates some of the mistakes. It is amusing
to find how a mistake started fifty years ago, possibly in the last century,
has been reproduced in the present day, I do not wish to disparage
the valuable works of any of the above-mentioned angling writers, as I
have derived much pleasure from studying their lx)oks, and have gained
many useful hints from them ; but it is a pity such a blot should appear
upon their pages.

REMINISCENCES OF EARLY
ANGLING DAYS.

BY HENRY VANNAN, M.A.

I.

ISCATOR nascitur non fit," to alter the Latin
proverb ; and I think that the exceptions to
this rule are not greater in proportion than
they are in the case of mental and physical endowments,
which, it is agreed, are in a general way transmitted by
parents to their offspring. We not infrequently find
that clever parents have stupid children, and often
the father's gift in some special direction is conspicuous
by its absence in the son. Thus I have heard of the son
of an eminent mathematician, who was never able to
master the simplest elements of Euclid, nor work cor-
rectly the most trifling algebraical problem, though he
was by no means wanting in ability of another kind. In
the case of fishing you may find instances of a similar
character, but personally I have never met with a family
where the father practised the gentle art without the
love of the sport being developed in one or other of the
junior members. It is no doubt true that circumstances
tend very materially to foster the liking ; as, for example,

1 88 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

being brought up near some river well stocked with fish.
But even in this case we meet with very many who,
living in the midst of everything calculated to inspire
the piscatorial furor, and having every opportunity of
exercising the art, will tell you that they never handled
a rod or cast a line in their life. Somehow, they say,
they never had any turn for it ; they had not sufficient
patience, and so forth.

But, my angling brother, however we may differ as
to the origin of the love of fishing in ourselves or others,
there is one point on which I am sure we agree, viz.,
that the practice of the art has been to us a source of
boundless delight; that its pleasures never pall, and leave
no sting behind them, and that its prospective prepara-
tion and actual exercise are alike enjoyable. Whether
we sit by the red glow of our ''ain fireside" when the
wintry storm beats furiously against the window-pane,
and discuss with our friend the mysteries into which
only "cunning craftsmen" can enter ; or wander with the
same congenial spirit, rod in hand, by the margent green
of lake or stream when buds are opening, and "the time
for the singing of birds is come;" or when the bright
suns of summer render peculiarly delightful the grateful
shade of sequestered wood and glen, or again, when
laden wains are bearing home the rich treasures of a
bountiful harvest — in all its circumstances and surround-
ings, our angling experience is full of healthful and
innocent enjoyment, and its recollections, early and more
recent, will abide with us as green and restful spots in
our memory while life remains.

EARLY ANGLING DAYS. 189

The early experiences of most anglers must necessarily
have a good deal in common, and there are those whom
nothing delights but the scientific discussion of the latest
devices in rods, or lines, or lures : but then the true
angler is highly sympathetic, though to some this may
appear paradoxical. When we who began to be fishers
just as far back as our memory can carry us compare
notes together, it may not be without some benefit, if it
be but to strengthen the influence of those associations
which cluster round our favourite pastime, to amuse us by
a retrospect of the slow and uphill process of study, and
patient persevering practice, which brought as a reward
the fair amount of skill we have attained ; to make us
more gentle and kind, and affable and communicative to
the wandering juveniles and other tyros who cross our
path, with their feet upon the first rung of the ladder of
their fishing experience, and commonly a painfully
apparent lack of necessary gear ; and to awaken in us
feelings of thankfulness that we have an amusement to
fall back upon which takes us into a pure and health-
giving atmosphere, and brings us into close contact
with nature in her charming and ever varying moods.
Though cynics may speak of the harshness and cruelty
of our sport, and rail against the meanness of its artifice
and deception, yet I maintain that its influences are all
beneficial and humanising, that a man is a better man all
round for belonging to the craft ; and if I have a friend,
who, in addition to the other virtues for which I respect
and esteem him, adds this merit, that he is a fisher, I
shall value his friendship all the more.

190 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

My earliest fishing impressions are associated with a
beautiful little brook, or, as Burns would have called
it, "a wimplin' burn," which flowed and still continues
to flow, in unpolluted clearness, a few miles from a
certain University town some distance north of the
Tweed. Bubbling up from among the hills which used
always to look so far away, and brought such strange,
weird thoughts of terrible loneliness and boundless
distance, it comes down through a charming valley,
in which, covering its channel and fed by its limpid
waters, are two or three large reservoirs, forming the
water supply for the denizens of the neighbouring town.
In this stream, and on that part less remote from home,
my apprenticeship to the gentle art began, at the some-
what early age of six or seven years. The brook has a
name which is neither here nor there, for with us in those
early days it was sufficiently described in our own circle
as " the burn," because then we knew no other. At the
spot where our fishing always began, whether we went
"up" or "down," there stood a "clachan," or small group
of rustic houses, of as quaint and picturesque a character
as you might see in a summer day, consisting of the
smith's house, the "smiddy," and one or two lowly
dwellings, inhabited by the hinds on the neighbouring
farm.

Here the brook was crossed by an old and very rough
road from the city, which marked off exactly the two
portions known to us as "up the burn" and "down the
burn ; " these, though immediately adjoining, were as
different in their aspects as can well be imagined. Above

EARLY ANGLING DAYS. 191

the clachan the stream meandered for some miles
through an open and undulating country, richly clad
with green pastures and waving grain, but with no trees
shading its banks, and few pools to afford harbourage for
trout. Below the clachan, on the other hand, was a
dark and silent glen, sloping upwards on each side to
a considerable height, and densely wooded. Here the
burn assumed a much wilder aspect, and broke into a
succession of falls and pools, where the trout were large
and plentiful.

But how oppressive the silence of the place ! How
dim the light to our childish eyes ! How solemn the
answering notes of the cushats croodling from among the
topmost trees, whose heads, we knew, were lifted up into
the daylight! And it is not wonderful that the im-
pressions left upon our memory by these two neighbour-
ing spots are as widely different as were their aspects.
" Up the burn " all was light, brightness, and cheer-
fulness, and the brook flowed shallow and sparkling
and noisy, through luxuriant valleys and cultivated fields.
The shepherd kept us company with his collie and his
flocks, or the ploughman with his team ; or the sower
sowed his seed ; or the reaper harvested his grain. There
was a sense of freedom and exhilaration in the clear
crisp atmosphere, and we shouted and laughed and sang
for very joy. " Down the burn," on the contrary, in the
glen, that is to say, all to our youthful perception was
gloom, darkness, silence, loneliness, eerieness, dreariness ;
spirits at zero, dark, deep shaded pools, with the witches'
froth perpetually circling round them. Here, at a spot

192 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

which had been carefully cleared in order to admit the
air and sunlight, stood " the big house," as it was called,
grim and vacant, for the proprietor rarely visited it, and
it was generally confided to the care of an old female
retainer of the family.

A thorough-going " big house " it was too, with its
respectable family ghost, or rather ghosts, for if I remem-
ber rightly the number was not limited to one. For the
kindly consideration of the owner in never visiting the
place we were, of course, profoundly grateful, as our
liberty on this account was greatly increased. But alas !
what did all this liberty avail so long as Mordecai the
Jew sat in the king's gate .'' Or, to drop the language of
metaphor, so long as nameless dread held us back
at the very threshold, unless when we were in the
company of our elders. For did not we know full well
that the place was haunted ; and had we not heard,
and drunk in greedily, shivering as we listened, the
stories current of sealed presses and locked-up apart-
ments ? into which, for reasons best known to those
whom it might concern, the light of day was never
allowed to enter, but which, nevertheless, contained —
so those said who had heard of it from others who
had themselves looked through the keyhole — I torget
exactly what, but something very dreadful, as you
can well imagine. This explained satisfactorily to us
why the proprietor never resided there, and how it was
that years afterwards, when a family took the house at a
merely nominal rent, they were not able to endure their
wretched existence. What with invisible beings scudding

EARLY ANGLING DAYS. 193

past them on the stairs and corridors, when with trembling
steps, and candle held before them, they were endeavour-
ing to navigate their weary way to bed ; what with
unearthly bowlings in the chimneys, strange tappings at
the windows, and apparently unexplainable nocturnal
whistlings in the neighbourhood of the house, servants
left precipitately after a few days' service, and master
and mistress and sons and daughters were fain to hurry
after them. But that was not all, nor worst of all ; for
was it not affirmed to be a fact by those who had been
eye-witnesses, and did we not therefore implicitly believe
it, that once every year, on a certain night, at that dread
hour when witches and warlocks were abroad for uncanny
purposes, a sombre hearse, drawn by four coal-black
steeds, and followed by a long train of ghostly torch-
bearers, was to be seen flitting silently like a phantom
through the glen ? Need it be said, after this, that unless
in the company of our respected seniors, and even then
with feelings of modified fear, we seldom ventured within
the dread precincts.

When alone, we preferred to confine our attention
to that part of the brook already alluded to, which was
free and open, and which abounded in minnows and
beardies, the former of which we would catch by the
dozen and take home, only to be thrown out or given
to the cat ; but for all that we discussed our relative
takes with the liveliest interest, and were as proudly
appreciative of a large paunchy minnow as perhaps we
should now be of an unusually fine trout or salmon.
I well remember a story that was current amongst us

194 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

in after years, of one of our confraternity, a veteran
of eight, who caught such a splendid specimen of the
minnow tribe, so broad and baggy, that he went
home in high glee to prove to his father that he
had caught a veritable trout at last. In vain did the
experienced angler attempt to convince his boy that
it was only an overgrown minnow. He had made up
his mind that it was a trout, and, like many another
and older angler, convinced against his will, he sturdily
retained his own opinion.

This part of the brook was shallow, and had little
shelter for trout save under its grassy banks, but it was
a delightfully safe place for youthful anglers to learn
the rudiments of their art ; and so it came to pass that
we learned the difference between a minnow and a trout,
by catching some of the latter, and from that time the
minnow was looked upon with proper feelings of disdain,
as beneath the notice of those who had on several
occasions carried home fish which had actually been
cooked and brought to table. A famous opportunity
was afforded us here of practising that most popular
mode of fishing amongst boys, called "guddling," or
"gumping." I ought to mention, however, that we
never resorted to this plan until we had been un-
successful with rod and line. It was fair means with
us first ; the other kind afterwards.

We were sometimes surprised at the large size of the
trout we succeeded in disturbing — not necessarily catch-
ing ; though we frequently threw out a fair number.
Personally I never cared much for this style of fishing.

EARLY ANGLING DAYS. 195

Wading and splashing about in the cool stream on a
hot summer's day was enjoyable in the extreme, and as
one recalls these scenes in the days of other years, and
thinks of the separations in our little band, Burns's
immortal words come unbidden to our memory : —

We twa hae run about the braes,
And pu'd the gowans fine ;
But we've wandered mony a weary fit
Sin' auld lang syne.

We twa hae paidl't i' the burn
Frae mornin' sun till dine ;
But seas between us braid hae roared,
Sin' auld lang syne.

Wading for pleasure was always delightful, but to
poke about with hands and arms, under the hollow,
worn banks, dislodging fish or water-rats as the case
might be, was, to say the least of it, risky, and calculated
to raise feelings of hesitancy and apprehension.

A friend of mine tells how when a boy he was quite an
adapt at guddling, and pursued the art successfully for a
long time. A companion and he were one day busily
plying their sport, the latter wading in the water doing
the practical, the former giving directions from the bank.
A fine trout was started and observed to dart under
cover. My friend gave chase, the other meanwhile keep-
ing an eye on the exact spot where it had disappeared.
The hands and arms were cautiously inserted. " I have
him now," he shouted as he seized the fish. " He's a
beauty," said he on the bank. " A pound if he's an
ounce," was the reply from the water. " Hold hard till

196 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

you work your thumb under his gill," said he from the
bank. " Look out," said the other as he flung the prize
ashore — not a trout of a pound, but a fine frog of half a
pound, and his thumb had been under its gill! Since
then he has devoted his attention exclusively to rod-
fishing.

Another and more satisfactory mode of capturing
fish, which I have seen practised by boys in the country
districts of Scotland, is snaring or girning them. This
plan seems to require a great amount of skill and dexterity.
One day, in the West of Scotland, I came upon a herd
laddie successfully plying this art in a considerable
stream, and I stood at some distance and watched with
interest the " modus operandi." The water was shallow
and clear. He cautiously waded up stream, or stepped
lightly from stone to stone, keeping his eyes on the
water. Then he would be seen working away for some
time at a particular spot, after which he generally threw
a fish out on the nearest bank. When he had taken
about half a dozen good trout in this way he came out to
collect them and give a look to his cows. I had some
conversation with him and he showed me his appliance,
which was a simple loop of hair. This he managed to
insert from behind under the tails of the trout lazily
basking in the sun, or perhaps enjoying their after-
dinner siesta, if indeed it be so that fish sleep; and,
gently slipping the noose forward to the gills " he nippit
them oot," to use his own expression, on to the bank.
It certainly was a clever operation, and it must have been
a startling one for the fish.

EARLY ANGLING DAYS. 197

II.

One notable figure that stands prominently out in my
recollection of these early scenes is the smith of the
little clachan already referred to — "Auld Andra," as
he was generally called ; not, however, " a mighty
man," as Longfellow describes, " with the muscles of
his brawny arms as strong as iron bands." As a youth
he may have been a fairly strong man, but even when
I first knew him he seemed aged, though probably
not sixty. He looked small, and was bent and
somewhat shrunken; but for all that he kept the
whip hand of his two stalwart apprentices and got
through a lot of work. Andrew was remarkable for two
things; the first his head-dress, an extra tall chimney-pot
hat, without which he was never to be seen either in the
house or the smithy. I used almost unconsciously to
speculate about this ancient appendage, which continued
fit for service long after the beaver was worn off and
nothing remained but the stiff, straight-up-and-down
framework. Andrew was a man of sense and resource,
and a heavy snuffer. Most ordinary men who affect the
dignity of a long hat are content to rest in the belief
that its one and only purpose is for covering the head.
Andrew, however, saw in the immense vacuum above
his cranium a convenient depository for odds and ends,
such as his pocket handkerchief and snuffbox, and very
properly used it accordingly. The other circumstance
by which he was distinguished was his mode of speech —
almost the broadest dialect of Doric Scotch I ever heard.

ipS ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

The late lamented Mr. Kennedy, the Scottish
vocalist, used to tell that when he was on his tour in
the Far West, after an entertainment given in a place
where the audience were principally Scottish emigrants,
an aged woman waited to shake hands with him, and on
his enquiring how she enjoyed the concert, she replied
that she had been greatly pleased, but she " thocht he
micht hae gi'en them 't a wee braider." Andrew's
speech would certainly have come up to this old lady's
standard. Unfortunately he was in the habit of inter-
larding and enforcing his remarks with sundry expletives
and unnecessarily strong expressions, which, happily, in
these days of progress and enlightenment, have fallen
considerably into disuse, and he seemed to be much of
the same opinion as the old Scotch wife whose son had
been severely reproved by the minister for his profanity.
She rehearsed the circumstances of the case to a
neighbour, who, instead of sympathising with her as
she expected, upheld the authority of the clergyman;
so, feeling keenly the position of her son, she
replied, in closing the argument, " Weel, weel, swearin'
may be wrang, but for a' that, ye maun alloo' that it's a
great orniment tae conversashin." It is only doing
justice to the old man's memory to say that when I
knew him in later years this habit was very much
modified, if not entirely given up.

His wife "Mysie" was a little retiring woman, so
short-sighted that she had to peer disagreeably near your
face before she recognised you. She did not appear
to be endowed with any great amount of thrift,

EARLY ANGLING DAYS. 199

but she kept her husband pretty comfortable and did not
contradict him too often — one of the chief secrets, I am
informed, of getting along smoothly in the married state.
The house and smithy stood side by side, and behind,
entering through the latter, was Andrew's "yaird," in
which he took great pride. Here, amongst his other
plants, he cultivated most beautiful wallflowers, the rich
dark-brown double sort, and many of them were wall-
flowers in the literal sense of the term, growing as they
did out of crevices in an old, low, moss-grown wall at the
top of the garden. After pointing out the beauties of
the place he would say, "Noo ye maun get a floor to tak'
hame," and then he would gather us a rustic posy of
beautiful roses, marigolds, wallflowers and violets, with
tall spikes of gardeners' garter standing up in the middle
and waving like banners as we walked. The strong-
smelling plants seemed to have most value in his estima-
tion. "That's the stuff," he would say, cutting a
great bunch of southern-wood and mint and thyme,
and our bouquet was never considered complete until
it had been surrounded by a thick layer of these
fragrant herbs. Close to that part where we descended
by a few steps to the smithy door on our way out, there
grew two very large plants of rue and thyme, and
stopping at the edge of the walk, and pointing first
to the one and then to the other of these, he would
look waggishly at us and say, "Noo, bairns, rue an'
thyme."

The smith's dwelling-house consisted of " a but and
a ben," that is the kitchen or common apartment of the

200 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

household, and the " spence," or best room, which was
only used on state occasions, such as the advent of
friends from a far country. Then, indeed, the place, at
other times rarely entered, had to be furbished up. The
mahogany table and hard horse-hair chairs, and the chest
of drawers — the gudewife's pride — had to be polished;
cobwebs and dust in general removed, and the huge
tent-bed, hung all round with blue-striped print curtains
— the most conspicuous object in the room — aired and
rendered habitable. The kitchen, though not the most
cheerful of apartments, was, if anything, the livelier of
the two; at least, if you remained long enough in it
for the eyes to become accustomed to the dim light
which prevailed there at all seasons, some signs of life
became manifest. What light there was entered by two
small windows on opposite sides of the house, each con-
taining one pane of thick glass with a large green knot
in the middle. On each side of the little passage by
which you entered there was a large box or press
bed, and Andrew, whose father for fifty or sixty
years before him had shod the horses, and made and
mended the ploughs and harrows of the neighbouring
farmers, used to point out the one in which he himself
was born.

A word in passing on this kind of bed. Formerly
they were the only kind in use among the peasantry of
Scotland, and in many respects they were most comfort-
able. The bed itself was generally fitted into a recess,
and in front it had sliding doors, which ran in a groove,
so that it might be opened or shut at pleasure. Our

EARLY ANGLING DAYS. 201

modern fashion is to have the bed pretty near the floor,
but this primitive couch stood very high, and a wooden
board was fixed along the front considerably above the
level of the bed-clothes, which afforded the occupant a
sense of security and a certainty of remaining where he
was, which must have added to his comfort once he was
fairly in. But here lay the difficulty. At sundry times
and in divers places I have occupied a bed of this descrip-
tion, and like most people of some little physical activity,
have attempted by a standing or short running leap to
reach the land of rest, but almost invariably with the
result of coming an excruciating blow on the patella, or,
as an old Aberdeen lady, who had no idea of leaving any
of the letters of a word unsounded, once phrased it in my
hearing, "getting a fearful k-nock on the k-nee." If you,
my friend, in your angling peregrinations should ever be
reduced to the level of a "box-bed," my advice, founded
on painful experience, most decidedly is: — Attempt no
gymnastic feats, but quietly betake yourself, for assist-
ance in ascending and descending, to the nearest chair.
It does not require much stretch of imagination to
believe that the shepherd in his lonely shieling by the
bleak and exposed hillside, with the wintry storm beating
furiously against his door, and the cold, piercing wind
searching for entrance at every crevice and cranny,
would be fain to declare that he would not exchange his
cosy crib, made after the pattern I have described, for
the most approved modern bed you could find him.

But to return to the smith. His life, but for one
solitary exception, had been an uneventful one. He

202 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

scarcely ever went from home save to the neighbouring
town, and, according to his own account, had slept but
one night out of his own house, on the occasion of his
making what was probably his first and last railway
journey, to a place some forty miles distant from his
home. Yet though he travelled so little he would
frequently remark with great unction, though, I fear, with
but a very indistinct notion of the subject, when question-
ing us as to what we were doing at school, that '' jogri-
furry was the stuff." He told us that while his father
was still living, and he himself a strong young fellow at
his best, he was awakened one night by sounds of
scuffling and cries for help. On going out he found a
poor packman in the grasp of a footpad, who made off
immediately on his approach. Giving chase, he suc-
ceeded in capturing him and giving him up to justice.
I cannot say whether the packman had been murdered
outright or only robbed and maltreated. At all events,
the smith was the chief witness against his assailant, and
the result was that the man was hanged. I imagine
that in those times the capital sentence of the law was
carried into effect at or near the place where the crime
was committed. Be that as it may, I distinctly recollect
that an aged thorn, which grew in a field close to the
roadside, was pointed out as the spot where the criminal
was executed. For a considerable time after this Andrew
was in danger of his life from the man's friends, and was
obliged to keep almost constantly at home. His steps
were dogged if he went abroad after dark, and frequently
his father's house would be surrounded at midnight by an

EARLY ANGLING DAYS. 203

infuriated crowd, who demanded that he should be given
up to them. The Httle thatched cottage, however, was
very strongly built, and did not present many assailable
points; the windows were few, and a blacksmith is
supposed to know how to fasten his door securely.
Fortunately for the occupants of the cottage, the mob
never attempted to set it on fire, which, from the
inflammable nature of the roof, could have been very
easily done, but contented themselves with hooting
and yelling, and uttering imprecations upon the head
of him who had brought their quondam companion
to justice. By-and-bye they ceased their nocturnal
visits, but for long after he never returned from the
neighbouring town, after doing business and collecting
money, without depositing it for safety in his boots.

It was alleged that at the trial the robber pro-
nounced a curse upon the smith, declaring that he should
never have a son who would be able to swear away the
life of a man. For the truth of this I cannot vouch.
It may have been one of those inverted prophecies which
are sometimes promulgated after the event has transpired
which fits them. Certain it is that the smith had but
one child, a son, and he a poor helpless paralytic from
his birth, spared to his parents for more than forty years,
but all that time paralyzed in speech and in every limb.
Poor Johnny ! My earliest recollections of visiting the
burn are mixed up mysteriously with him. Some little
token of remembrance had always to be taken to him,
and this it was my duty, while the ciders were putting
up their rods at the door and " crackin' " with Mysic, to

204 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

deliver to him in person, going for that purpose into the
dimly-lighted kitchen, where he lay on the old-fashioned
sofa, across the little window. This to me, as a child,
was an ordeal. The unusually large, manly-looking
head, and bearded face ; the dark, piercing, intelligent
eyes, sparkling out of the shadowy twilight, contrasted
with the diminutive, childish frame, covered with the
little tartan frock which loving hands had made for him ;
this, and the motions of his face, vainly attempting to
express his thanks — so his mother said — all combined
to form a picture that impressed my imagination with
awe.

I afterwards learned from his mother that he had a
perfectly intelligent apprehension of right and wrong,
and a strong natural aversion to anything evil. He had
also great influence over his father, and the rude, un-
taught visitors to the smith's house knew well that no
rough words nor evil conversation would be tolerated in
the presence of Johnny. While their son lived, the
smith and his wife seemed thriving and comfortable,
and many were the kind friends who came, not empty-
handed, to see him. After his death the old couple
sank into poverty. What the Divine purpose of such a
life is we can but dimly see. No doubt the sight of
helplessness and suffering softens the rugged nature and
enlists the love and sympathy and help of the strong;
yet after all we can but say,

God has His mysteries of grace,

Ways that we cannot tell ;

He hides them deep, like the hidden sleep

Of him He loved so well.

EARLY ANGLING DAYS. 205

III.

I NEED not say that as years passed over our heads the
scenes in the wooded glen began to wear a different
aspect, and that we gradually made the discovery that
it was the place where trout were to be found, and
worth a hundred of the upper reaches in the open
fields. There were then dozens of little pools where
nice trout could be taken, and two or three considerable
linns, where at times I have taken trout of more than a
pound weight, but that was when I was out of my
apprenticeship. In the early days it was worm-fishing
we practised, with the single hook, and, I am afraid, not
the finest of tackle. We never thought of preparing bait,
but generally got one of the smith's apprentices to dig
us some worms. This stalwart young fellow was a prime
favourite with us, because of his kindly ways and the
interest he displayed in our juvenile sport. One day,
when the old smith had sent him as usual to get some
bait, and the " gudewife " had just been administering a
refresher of milk all round, I ventured on the remark
that he must be pretty comfortable in his situation, and
that his mistress was an uncommonly nice person. " Ou
ay," said he, " she micht be waur ; she's no that ill if she
wadna pit sticks in oor parritch." Of course, as Scotch
laddies we all had our porridge for breakfast, but what
the apprentice meant by his mistress putting sticks in the
porridge, or with what intention these inedible morsels
were introduced, for a long time I was unable to divine.
But the blacksmith's wife — honest woman — was near-

206 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

sighted to a degree, as has already been mentioned, and
on more than one occasion afterwards I saw her
intently examining the contents of the porridge pot by
the aid of a huge blazing faggot out of the fire, and as
the steam caused piece after piece of the charcoal to
drop, unnoticed, into the pot, the mysterious allusion was
at length explained. This, however, by the way.

Unfortunately for our success at this period, we were
invariably in the habit of selecting the larger sized worms
for bait, under the impression that because they filled
our eye they would also find favour in the eyes of the
trout; and thus many a day, after tiring ourselves,
and fishing, to our thinking, in the most approved fashion,
we succeeded only in frightening the fish, and returned
home with empty creels. It would be about this time, and
probably when I was turned twelve, that a kind friend,
whose memory I bless, put into my hands a copy of
Stewart's "Practical Angler." I need scarcely say that I
perused it with eagerness, that I read it a second time
and studied it diligently, that I became a willing and
submissive convert to his opinions, and immediately and
gladly adopted his modes. I must confess, however, that
I had not at first much faith in his style of bait-
hooks. I bought a few in a tackle shop — they were
then sold at threepence each, and were therefore a not
inconsiderable tax on a schoolboy's slender purse — but
with these I certainly was not successful. I examined
them carefully and laid them aside, satisfied that they
were dressed on too large hooks, and that there were too
many of them. They had been made, as Stewart allows,

EARLY ANGLING DAYS. 207

with four hooks on each. I had also implicitly followed
his directions for putting on the worm, with the points of
the hooks protruding, which is a decided mistake. I was
not long in changing my tactics. I bought no more
ready-dressed hooks, but invested in a small stock of
materials, and tied them for myself, using only three
small hooks and baiting in a different fashion. Then, as
a result of studying Stewact, two principles became fixed
in my mind — to keep out of sight, and at all costs to use
fine tackle ; and I may say that from that day forward
a substantial measure of success was ensured to me. I
never met Mr. Stewart, but it is only fair to say that I
acknowledge more indebtedness for practical instruction
to his book than to any other, on the same subject,
that I have ever read.

I remember when there used to be a great deal of
prejudice against the triple hook, and even yet bait fishers
are to be met who cling tenaciously to the single one.
When fishing with the tackle I was once accosted by a
farmer, an angler of the old school, who inquired, "What
sport?" I had only begun and had nothing to show.
"What kind of hook do you use.^" said he. I replied that
I was fishing with Stewart's tackle. As he did not know
what this was, I showed it to him, when he looked at it
scornfully, and broke out in the vernacular, "An' dae ye
expeck tae catch fish wi' thac daft-like heuks? I'm
thinkin' ye'll scawr [scare] mair than ye'll catch in this
watter," and with a look of contempt he strode on. He
had not gone many yards when the same "daft-like"
hooks somehow got fast in a fine, frisky trout, which

2o8 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

began to make such a commotion in the quiet pool that
my sceptical questioner was fain to turn round and wait
till I had landed my fish ; but he had not the grace to
come back and acknowledge that his judgment was
hasty and his observations rude. Many a round dozen
of the glen burn trout fell victims to the improved
tackle and increased skill we had acquired. We seemed
to feel that we had donned the "toga virilis" of fishing
life, and that all boyish modes of manipulation must
thenceforth be discarded.

Personally, my status at home was considerably
enhanced by the results of my newly-acquired skill.
The women-folk looked with less disfavour on my
carryings-on in the kitchen, when I was preparing bait,
and tenderly handling, to their horror and disgust, my
stock of worms, or utilising the fire and evoking there-
from fearful and wonderful odours, the effects of
profound chemical researches in the preparation of
stains, dyes, and varnishes, and the compounding of
various medicaments we had heard of for putting on the
bait to attract the fish. My rod was now allowed to
remain in the corner where I placed it, instead of being
knocked about by all and sundry, as "that boy's old
sticks which were always in the way," and the butt and
mid-piece were more rarely used at cleaning times when
there was a deficiency of carpet-beaters. My pastime
was regarded in a different light now. It was no longer
mere boys' play, tolerated to keep me out of mischief, or
frowned upon as a snare which tempted me away from
lessons. I had something to show for myself now when

EARLY ANGLING DAYS. 209

I returned, my fish were greatly appreciated, and I
became a person of considerable importance in the
household.

At that time, in addition to the sport, my greatest
pleasure was to see the beautiful spotted creatures, and to
this day the sight of a fine dish of newly-taken trout,
whether my own catching or any other person's, causes
me intense delight. I suppose this is the case with
all old fishers. Since those early days I have cast a line in
many a river, and seen many a different variety of trout,
but, however you may explain it, I have never seen any
to compare with those of the bye-gone days. It may
not be true, though we all seem to think so, that the
skies were brighter and the fields of deeper green in
the sunny days of childhood, and it may be only a
delusion for me to suppose that the trout which came out
of the glen burn were more beautiful than any I have
ever looked at since. But I cling to the innocent delusion
all the same, and would rather not be awakened from
my youthful dream. Good old Izaak says, "God never
did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than
angling!" I am always on the side of Walton.

My friend of early and later angling reminiscences,
did you never feel thankful that you had such a pastime?
If you think of it, I believe you will see cause. Have
you never felt mind and body refreshed and invigorated
by a day of silent communion with nature among the
lonely hills, while you followed the windings of the river,
disclosing to you new sights and sounds at every turn,
and drank in the pellucid atmosphere as from a crystal

2IO ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

and life-reviving spring ? Did you never feel, when the
heart was over-burdened with anxious care, or weighed
down with grief, that a mysterious but healing virtue
seemed to flow from the practice of the gentle art?
The mind found an object with which it could pleasantly
engross itself ; care sat lighter ; foreboding became less
gloomy ; grief was imperceptibly assuaged. You saw
things in a different light, and found an open channel in
Nature by which you could look up to Him who is
Nature and who is yet infinitely and immeasurably
above it.

I have often moralised on the discipline of fishing.
Perhaps, my friend, you smile; but there is a discipline
connected with it after all, though this is more apparent
to the initiated. I have scores of times lost my best and
largest fish. I have been fast to a salmon for the best
part of a day, and after wetting and sweating, and
fumbling and stumbling, he has gone the way of many
another big one, with a smile at my futile efforts to
detain him, if so be that the majestic creature ever
relaxes so far. I have come home from the
fishing with my creel so weighty that every mile I
trudged seemed like two or three. Again, I have
returned without a fin, and though I tried hard to avoid
them, have been button-holed by half a dozen kind
inquiring friends, and have had to explain my want of
success six times over ere reaching the shelter and
seclusion of my own roof, with all the time an increasing
consciousness that I was but half believed, and that I
was set down as a poor hand. I have walked six miles

EARLY ANGLING DAYS. 211

to my fishing ground on the last available day of my
holiday, and finding the water in splendid order, have
discovered to my dismay that I had left the reel
behind me.

But why multiply examples of discipline and dis-
appointment common to all anglers? Enough! Wellington
is said to have declared that Waterloo was won on
the playing-fields of Eton and Harrow ; and I am
free to believe that in the patient perseverance and
frequent disappointments of our craft we may, though
unconsciously, have many a time been schooled to bear
the harder crosses and losses incident to the stern
battle of our life.

AN ANGLER'S CONFESSIONS.

BY T. E. PRITT.

HIS it was that set me thinking. The Kilnsey
keeper had delivered himself one Anglers'
Evening of a memorable utterance: "I have,"
said he, "been on this ground over thirty year, an' I've
seen a sight o' gentlemen in my time, and a deal o'
fishers — good 'uns, bad 'uns, and indifferent ; an' I've
come to one con-elusion, an' it's this : Th' best o' men is
a bit leet gi'en at times." The philosophy of the keeper
extended, I fancy, to anglers only, the ways of common
men being outside the range of his observation. He
had that night seen half-a-dozen of us, heavy fathers, fat
and growing old, playing duckstone on the highroad in
front of the inn. To a man of sixteen stone weight,
after a hard day's fishing and a heavy dinner, this is an
exhilarating pastime, and brings out all a man's good —
and bad — points. But the air of the dales is irresistible ;
there is life and laughter in it. Have I not myself
beheld a grave judge of one of Her Majesty's minor
courts making horrible grimaces in the broad highway
for the delectation of the village children } Ah ! yes ;
when the moorland breezes blow the grime of great
cities off us ; when the telephone bell gives place to the

AN ANGLER'S CONFESSIONS. 213

whistle of the curlew and the plover's cry ; when we see
the sky is still blue as it used to be, years ago, — then the
angler is a boy again,

"Just at the age, 'twixt boy and youth,
When thought is speech, and speech is truth. "

The keeper's words set me thinking. I, too, have
seen a number of anglers and have noticed many things.
I have observed that in a properly constituted man the
desire to kill something is inherent ; his quarry may be
salmon, or deer, or grouse, or rats, but the tyrant man
must triumph. The very housemaid exemplifies this
when she comes down on the innocent black beetle with
the disgusting crack that blots him out for ever. And I
am satisfied that every fisherman is a poacher by instinct.
Now a poacher, according to the dictionaries, is one who
kills game unlawfully, and that is hardly my meaning,
but no other word seems to fit the situation I have in my
mind. Given a clear opportunity, and what angler can
forbear taking a cast over to the far side of the river, where
the trout always rise better, and where that big fish has
lain so long, proof against every wile offered to him ?
That part of the stream belongs to Mr. Schaunt, who
will allow no one to fish it, and it would be untold delight
to catch his biggest trout and stuff it for a trophy —
caught in our water ! Men don't usually tell these things ;
they think them ; and only he who has closely studied
the ways of anglers for a long scries of years, like
my friend the keeper, learns these interesting facts.
I recall two instances in my own typically innocent
career. Many years ago I used to fish for gold-fish

214 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

in a certain Lancashire mill lodge, where the water
was warm and the fish plentiful. Ordinary tackle
with a small hook, and paste for bait, were all one
needed. The commercial instinct had not permeated
the gold-fish market at that time, and specimens which
would now realise from fourpence to tenpence each went
into my boy's basket like so many gudgeon, to the number
of five-and-twenty or thirty in the course of an afternoon.
One fine day, after many visits, I observed that a kind
of small iron bath had been put by the side of one of the
lodges. In this bath, through which a stream of warm
water constantly flowed, were about a dozen of the
largest, the fattest, and the goldenest gold-fish that ever
illuminated a boy's eye. They were selected beauties,
varying from half-a-pound to three-quarters each, and
were obviously the property of some avaricious con-
noisseur about the mill. I sighed and looked, and sighed
and looked ; and the old Adam was upon me. Creeping
close under the mill I dropped my bait in that bath and
caught every fish. Then I departed as fast as my young
legs would carry me, and have never since ventured in
that mill-yard. When I pass it sometimes, even now, I
fancy there may be someone on the look-out for me,
though it must be five-and-thirty years since this
happened. There are plenty of gold-fish there yet, and
I might go again some day, if only an assurance were
forthcoming that the man whose fish were thus annexed
was dead.

Another incident comes to mind relating to a period
twenty odd years later. It was my first salmon, that is

AN A NGLER'S CONFESSIONS. 2 1 5

to say, it would have been, had not another fellow caught
it. We were fishing the Hodder, and had cast over every
likely bit on which we had permission to fish. There
was one magnificent pool in which both of us felt that a
fish was certain ; but we were absolutely prohibited from
fishing it. We talked it over, in our anxiety to get a
salmon, and agreed that under no circumstances could
we fish the forbidden water. So we arranged to try the
open river again, I starting at the bottom (where we
were) and working up, and he beginning at the top and
coming down ; and thereupon we parted. No sooner
was he out of sight than I began to covet the pool I had
no right to fish. I moved and seconded a resolution
that I should try it, and then proceeded to discuss
the question in solemn and solitary conclave. I argued
it from every point of view, and in the end concluded
that it would be a dirty trick to play on my friend,
with whom a binding agreement had been made, and
who was, as all anglers are, a man of strict integrity, who
would himself never dream of doing such a thing. Still,
Eve ate the apple, and I found it impossible in the end
to resist the pea/ — that being a local name for grilse,
perhaps the joke may pass. Wherefore, I sneaked off,
feeling unspeakably mean, keeping my rod down lest my
now distant friend should catch a gleam of it going in a
dubious direction, or that I should be caught flagrante
delicto and ordered off ignominiously. Ten minutes
brought me to the coveted spot, on the verge of
which stood a stone building used for storing fodder.
Behind this building I screened myself, put on a new

2i6 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

fly, and generally rigged myself out for the purpose
of carrying on the nefarious plans which would
unquestionably land me a fish. All being ready, I
stepped out, and at the same moment the other fellow
also stepped out from the other end of the building.
The situation was complete —but embarrassing. It was
practically identical with that of the boy who begged his
father to let him go to a circus. The stern parent could
not afford; the boy said he had saved a shilling and
would pay for himself. The father said a circus was not
respectable ; it was demoralising ; no decent man or
woman would think of entering such a place ; and his
wife backed him up in this opinion. An hour later, the
boy went on his own account, and was carried by a great
rush of spectators into the front row of the circus gallery,
and dropping into a seat, looked up at the man next
him to find he was alongside his father ; at the same
moment the guilty father discovered his son. " Say,
father," said the boy, anxious to get the first word in
such an appalling situation, " Say, dad, promise you
won't lick me and I'll not tell mother you were here."

Having expressed our astonishment at the depravity
of mankind in general, we tossed up who should fish
the pool. Of course he won, and in a few minutes was
fast in a fish of 81b. — a fish which under happier circum-
stances would have been mine. I am not likely to
forget the glee with which I saw him in difficulties
with that fish, how it led him a dance, now up,
now down, the river, over sharp boulders and wire
fences, into deep gullies and out again on level

AN ANGLER'S CONFESSIONS. 217

land; nor shall I forgive his delight when at length
I gaffed the fish and he fondly clasped the salmon
in his arms, exclaiming as well as his lack of breath
would allow him, " Thank Heaven there are not two of
you," just as the fond father nursing his first-born,
" darkly, at dead of night," thanked goodness he was not
twins. So, it seems to me, my Wharfedale friend was
right, and the best of anglers — at least some of them —
are lightly given at times.

That sets me off on another subject. Do fish feel
pain ? Don't, my good reader, shut up this chapter with
a sigh and a remark that now I am going to gnaw a bare
bone of contention. I propose only to relate some
personal experiences which leave me in a state of utter
perplexity as to whether fish feel pain or not. How can
we decide it ? With a truly marvellous optical system,
the brain and nervous organisation in fish appears to
be comparatively smaller than in almost any living
creature. Yet I have seen a trout at Hawnby, in
the North Riding of Yorkshire, show symptoms of
excitement responsive to the footfall of a woman who
fed him daily in a road-side well for the best part of
thirty years. Lean, black, and miserable, it seemed as if,
notwithstanding, some sense of gratitude existed in the
fish toward the hand that remembered him in such a
hopeless situation. And if memory of one kind, even
though but the memory of the cupboard, why not a
far-off remembrance of the river, and the rocks, and the
waterfalls? And if these things, why not — but let us
look at the perplexing point.

2i8 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

One fine August day, when the limestone almost
cracked under the heat of the sun, and the river was at
its lowest, I fished a little red worm up the Wharfe from
Netherside to Starbottom. Just above Kettlewell Bridge
there was a tiny pool of water between two moss-covered
flat rocks, and in this pool, into which a little stream of
water trickled from above, lay a trout of about half-a-
pound. My worm fell just in the neck of the little
stream, and the instant it passed into the pool the fish
took it. I struck, and lifted him out of the water a foot
or so, when he slipped from the hook and fell back to
his little hold. My worm fell a second time in the same
spot and again the fish took it without a second's hesita-
tion, and I basketed him. Now, was this insensibility
to pain or sheer hunger? Given a mouthful of cayenne
pepper, however hungry a man is, he does not yearn for
more.

So much for that ; now look at this. A year or two
ago a man of my acquaintance living at Howtown,
Ullswater, used to throw a worm to a trout that had
its location in the little beck that enters the lake just
at the steamboat pier in Howtown Bay. Every day
at dinner time, as he crossed the bridge spanning this
tributary, my friend dropped the fish a worm or two,
giving him occasionally a downright good feed. The
fish always took the worms readily and rarely seemed
to have enough. When this kind of nodding acquaintance
had existed for some months, the poaching instincts of
the man asserted themselves, and in an evil moment,
with a gross disregard of the laws of friendship, he

AN A NGL ER'S CONFESSIONS. 2 1 9

determined to catch and eat his acquaintance, and for
this purpose basely offered him a worm with a hook in
it. The trout took it in a moment, unsuspicious of guile,
and the man lifted the fish out ; but the fates were kind,
and after rising in the world a couple of feet or so, the
trout fell from the hook and was safe again in the stream.
How did the fish behave thereafter? Like my Kettlewell
trout, did he take another worm immediately ? Not a
bit of it ; from that day henceforward no worm his old
friend offered him was as much as looked at: the
acquaintance was at an end. Between these cases, which
are only two of many similar instances within the know-
ledge of old anglers, there is such a wide range for
speculation, that personally, I give the question up. No
angler would willingly inflict pain on any of the creatures
with which his sport renders it necessary for him to deal ;
it happens they are all cold blooded, or practically so,
and we may believe the wise men who tell us that the
senses of these inferior beings are proportionately dulled.
But the gentle angler is still gentle in the best sense when
he " flicks " the living minnow on the head before
impaling him.

The other thing in the train of thought into which I
fell, consequent on the keeper's philosophic reflection, was
the constant recurrence of libels on the whole race of
anglers, for which the Yankee elongator of veracity is
for the most part responsible. Hear Josh Billings: "The
man that ken swop horses or ketch fish and not lie about
'em is just as pious as any man ever got to be in this
world." And another irreverent joker of the same

220 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

incorrigible land says, "The angler goeth out in the
morning and cometh back in the evening with the smell ot
whiskey upon him, but the truth is not in him." I asked
myself if the keeper meant that these things are true.

You, gentle reader, or simple, whichever you think
you are; you who know nothing of the mysteries of the
finest sport ever discovered by man — discovered as yet
only in part ; you who could not, if you hooked one, land
a salmon under a week with a clothes-prop and a cart-
rope — do not believe these things ; they are base libels
on a long-suffering race of men. For " sufferance is the
badge of all our tribe." The horse-dealer may be con-
ceded, but the angler — never. The popular idea of a
fisherman is, that he is a harmless kind of fellow who
goes out in an atmosphere thick with fog, catarrh, and
rheumatism, and, selecting some wet sod by the river-
side where the wind sighs mournfully through the
bare trees, sits down quietly, drops in a bit of
painted cork, and waits until something happens. Some-
times it does and sometimes it does not happen, but
the angler rarely molests anyone and never complains.
He will watch and wait; he will come again to-morrow
and begin where he left off, with courage undiminished
and patience unexhausted. And remember that this is
the same man who cannot be got to go to church because
the pews are uncomfortable. There is no other sport
like it in existence.

Ah 1 let the scoffer laugh his loudest, he cannot
drown the voice of the singing river, the throstle in the
grey dawn, or the lark at mid-day. Thank Heaven

AN ANGLER'S CONFESSIONS 221

there are still running in this best of all lands streams
untouched by the polluting crafts of man, which leap,
and dance, and tumble as they did when gentle Izaak
trod the daisy-speckled fields and poured out his thanks-
giving that he lived. No man sees so much of Nature
and her moods and marvels as the fly-fisher if he does
but observe, and only an observant man can ever hope
to become an expert angler. What is the wonderful
story that the dainty EpJicmcra has to betray to inquiring
minds when it stands for a brief moment upright on the
\vater, a miracle of beauty invisible almost to our eyes,
but wonderful beyond belief under the microscope?
What is its history through its processes on the bed of
the river? What is its purpose in the great economy of
Nature ? Whence came the colour, the feathery delicacy,
the ever-varying shades ?

And when day is over let the lamps be lighted in the
inn or the farm-house, and let old men tell for the
hundredth time the mighty deeds of their youth ; let the
stimulating grog go round in moderation, I never yet
saw a merry party round a pump,

" An' he that scorns ale to his victual,
Is welcome to let it alone.
There's some can lie wise wi' a Utile,
An' stime that are foolish with noan."

There are so few things in everyday life that are
worth telling just as they occur, that it is the angler's
privilege to touch up the daily incidents of his craft just
as an artist gives us effects which no eye but his could
see ; or, as the photographer, bland and affable, produces

222 A NGLERS' E VENINGS.

astounding marvels of unsuspected beauty in our oldest
friends. But the truth is in these things in spite of the
American jester, who speaketh but for himself.

Uncle Remus, I think, is responsible for the remark
that " licker talks mighty loud when it gets loose from de
jug," and it was under the aromatic influence of lemom
that I not long since heard a story about Sunday fishing,
which may conclude this rambling paper. Perhaps you
never went fishing on the Sabbath day : I blush to say
I once did, in company with four men, all well known on
the Manchester Exchange. I draw a veil over the scene.
It took place on the Scottish Eden, and culminated in
a riot which might have ended in civil war, and which
actually broke up the Local Association, and resulted in
our ignominious flight by a midnight train to different
parts of the land. Next week they had it in the local
paper : it was a just judgment on us, but what could
weak angling nature do when, after waiting a whole week
for a fishable water, the river came down magnificently
on Sunday morning ? Ah !

But to the story. Two anglers — Sassenachs you
may be sure — had waited at Loch Awe for a breeze for
a whole week, and waited in vain. On the Sabbath
morn — you know what kind of a morn it is in Scotland —
there was a glorious ripple, the kind of ripple in which
a trout rushes madly to his destruction ; fish those
anglers must. But the man from whom alone they
could engage a boat was an elder of the kirk, and
he turned up the whites of his eyes "till the strings
awmost crackit again," when they suggested tliat he

AN ANGLER'S CONFESSIONS. 223

should let them the boat for an hour or two. " He
could na dae it ; it was sair ineequity ; sic like a thing
had no been done on the loch within the memory o' man."
They offered him untold bribes of silver, and then of
gold, but he was obdurate until his eye rested on the
sovereign held out to him, when he thus delivered
himself: "Na, na, I'll no let the boat; I'm an elder o*
the kirk, ye ken, and a God-fearing man, and it's no
reasonable to expec' me to consent to sic like a wicked
proceeding ; but the boat lies there in the rushes and
the oars are in her ; just ye gang awa' doon and get
intil her and row awa' oot into the lake, and I'll come
doon and swear at ye ; but ye mun jist tak' no notice of
what I say, but row awa', an' I'll call for the money the
morn."

FISHING IN THE RIVER ORCHY

AND UPPER PART OF LOCH

AWE.

BY THE REV. C. P. ROBERTS, M.A.

N the Autumn of 1862 I met, for the first time,
a somewhat eccentric old gentleman, then 70
years of age, with whom I was slightly con-

nected by marriage. He had, in the course of an active
and successful career as an American merchant, accumu-
lated a comfortable fortune, and at the time of which I
speak had retired from the active pursuit of business and
devoted the greater part of the year to the active pursuit
of angling. For some considerable time past he had
made Dalmally, about two miles from the upper end ot
Loch Awe, his headquarters in Scotland, and in the com-
fortable and old-fashioned inn, not then dignified by the
name of " hotel," he used to spend seven months of the
year, from April to October. Not having any settled
residence in England or elsewhere, he used to invite his
friends to this inn, and there are not a few who first made
their acquaintance with the Western Highlands of Scot-
land, and gained their first experience of the charms of
Highland angling, as his guests. A cousin of mine had

FISHING IN THE RIVER ORCHY. 225

paid him a visit, and returned with glowing accounts of
the beauty of the place, the excellence of the fishing, and
the hospitality of his host. I often wondered whether
it would ever be my luck to meet this uncle, and, if so,
whether he would take to his distant "nevvy." Well,
we met : it was somewhat difficult for one unaccustomed
to him to understand his speech, partly from the low
tone in which he spoke, and partly from the obstruction
which the cigar, which he was seldom without, formed to
the escape of what were meant to be words from his lips.
When he departed, I thought him a nice old man, some-
what eccentric perhaps, genial and good-natured ; but
he had not invited me to Dalmally ! However, our
hostess said to me, "Well, I'm so glad you've seen
Uncle T., and I'm delighted that you've got an invitation
to Scotland." "Nothing of the sort," said I, "he never
mentioned it." "Oh, but he did; he said that he hoped
to see you there next year. You didn't understand his
way of putting it. You'll be hearing from him next
summer, you'll see."

I confess that I thought a good deal about that old
man during the next few months. I wondered if he had
really said anything about it ; and, if he had, whether
he would remember it. But my doubts were set at rest
when, one morning in May, I received a letter asking me
to go up to Dalmally in the long vacation, and study for
a degree in angling. There were minute directions for
the journey, and the assurance of a warm welcome at the
end of it. Only one answer was possible, and it was
sent. In due course I followed it, and in July, 1863,

226 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

began my connection with the Orchy and Loch Awe,
which I have kept up ever since, four times as the old
man's guest in the years succeeding the first, and many
a time since on my own account. I trust that I may be
able to continue my visits there at intervals as long as I
can seek relaxation and enjoyment amidst varied and
magnificent scenery, amongst a race of Highlanders as
noble as the hills under which they live, and of peasant
girls as fair, in some instances, as the glens in which they
dwell, and amongst waters which afford sport at any time
of the year that one would ordinarily fix upon for a trip
to the Highlands.

It would perhaps savour of selfishness, a characteristic
which ill befits and seldom marks an angler, if I were to
heave a sigh over the increased and increasing facilities
for travelling which have opened out, to numbers of our
countrymen and countrywomen, charming spots in Scot-
land which formerly only the few could enjoy. But
though we anglers are essentially a sociable class, we
appreciate most in our fishing expeditions the society of
those whose objects and interests are identical with our
own ; we scorn the company of those who accept the
cynical definition of angling as a process carried on by
"a fool at one end and a worm at the other" of a rod
and line ; and there is no creature whom — to put it
mildly — we love less than the tourist who "just takes a
walk up the river to see how that fellow who's gone
a-fishing is getting on," who probably walks close
by the margin of the stream as he makes his unwel-
come way, and thus scares away from your favourite

FISHING IN THE RIVER ORCHY. 227

pools the fish which you know were lying ready for
your lure.

The tourist routes through the Western Highlands
of Scotland were, of course, in the summer months, the
same then as now ; but it was not until June that
the coaches began to run ; before that month posting
was the only means of travelling, and its expense deterred
nearly all but anglers and artists from penetrating to
glens, rivers and lochs to ply their art in spring. Rail-
ways now have changed all that. When I was at Dalmally
in April, 1882, there were two or three cheap trips from
Glasgow, and — much as I rejoiced as a man to see a crowd
of city toilers revelling in the pure air of the country —
I sighed as an angler for the former days of calm and
stillness, when the fisherman's voice was the only one
which woke the echoes by Kilchurn Castle. Yet even
anglers have reason to bless the Caledonian Railway.
The time which they are able to devote to an angling
expedition is usually not unlimited ; and the possi-
bility of getting into a North- Western express at the
Exchange Station at 10 a.m. and being deposited at Loch
Awe at 9 p.m., or travelling by the Limited Mail at
I a.m., and reaching Loch Awe at 1 1.30 a.m., may tempt
.some who would grudge a longer expenditure of time in
travelling. To those who can afford the time and have
no disinclination to a sea voyage, I would strongly
recommend, especially in summer, the route by steamer
from Manchester to Greenock ; the boats are excellent
and the cuisine ; and if you choose a time for starting
which admits of the latter part of the eighteen hours'

228 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

voyage being made in daylight, the sail up the Firth
of Clyde well repays those who can appreciate the
scenery. At Glasgow or Greenock you can take
one of the steamers which ply regularly to various
parts of the Western Coast or Salt Water Lochs which
run up from the Clyde. To my thinking, the most
picturesque route is that via Lochgoil Head, where you
can find a conveyance to carry you over a steep inter-
vening hill between Lochgoil and Loch Fyne. Passing
through Hell's Glen on its way to St. Catherine's,
crossing the head of Loch Fyne in a small ferry-steamer
to Inverary, you post or coach it 14 miles through the
charming Glen Aray, skirting Loch Awe during some
portion of the last six miles, and obtaining at intervals
some beautiful glimpses of its island gems. And if you
like to ascend a small hill on your right on which stands
" Duncan's Monument," erected in honour of a local bard
of that name, you get a bird's-eye view far away down
the twenty-six miles which Loch Awe stretches towards
the south-west, and a magnificent view of many-corried
Ben Cruachan across the Loch, as well as of the other
mountains and hills surrounding Glen Orchy, through
which the river Orchy runs past Dalmally, which, with
the whitewashed tower of its church, its comfortable hotel
and groups of bothies, you see nestling in the trees two
miles beyond and below you.

The river Orchy, which is the main feeder of Loch
Awe, comes from Loch Tulla, a small loch near to which
is the Inveroran Hotel, in the well-known district of the
Black Mount Deer Forest. The length of the river is

FISHING IN THE RIVER ORCHY. 229

about 17 miles from source to mouth as the road runs,
without taking into account the windings of the stream,
which are not inconsiderable. As regards the division
of the water for fishing purposes, the upper half from
Orchy Bridge to the Falls is in the hands of the landlord
of the Inveroran Hotel, whose guests, I believe, fish free
of charge. Never having fished in this upper portion, I
have nothing more to say about it. Of the lower portion
I think I know every reach and every pool. Sir Joim
Lawes, at the time I write of, rented the shooting of Glen
Orchy from Lord Breadalbane, and had the right of
fishing three days a week on this lower water; the other
three days the landlord of Dalmally Hotel had. Sir
John, however, seldom exercised his right, and when
neither he nor any friend to whom he might have given
permission was there, the guests at the hotel could fish
every day. Another tenant now rents this shooting, and
the hotel has, I believe, the right of fishing the left bank
of the river every day. No charge is made for the
fishing, but as the best water is seven miles away from
the hotel, you have to take a " machine " to the Falls.
The salmon takes advantage of the length of the
river to display those eccentricities of character and
habit which we all know, but which " no fellah can
understand." The fish begin in March or April to
run up from Loch Etive, through the river Awe, which
drains Loch Awe, through four miles of the loch, and
into the Orchy ; until the middle of May they seldom go
beyond the falls, although there may be plenty of water
to allow of their ascending, and no obstacle to impede

230 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

their progress, except their own incomprehensible
instinct. After the middle of May they seldom tarry in
the lower portion, but hasten into the Inveroran pools.
The best time to visit Dalmally for salmon fishing is
March, April and May, and to visit Inveroran, June, July,
August and September. You may in later months come
across a travelling fish resting on his journey upwards,
but the chances are against his taking the deceptive
refreshment you offer him on his halt. Another curious
illustration of the instinct of the salmon in returning
from the sea to the river in which they were bred, is
furnished by those of the Awe and Orchy ; although the
Orchy-bred fish pass through the river Awe, they are
seldom caught in it, and the Awe fish never ascend to
the Orchy. The fish of these two rivers differ in shape
somewhat, and are easily distinguishable by those who
have frequent opportunities of observing each : those of
the Awe are shorter and thicker than those of the Orchy.
Both are occasionally caught in the loch, and in
September good sport is got with them with fly from a
boat on the south shore. Netting the loch for them off
this shore, which was formerly regularly practised by
those who had the right, is now, I believe, entirely
discontinued. The best part of the Dalmally water is
that which runs through a series of continuous pools for
about a mile, commencing from the bridge below the falls.
You could hardly wish for better water when the river is
in good ply after a spate, easier to fish without either
"switching," "flipping," or wading; though a wise angler
will always be protected by waders, ready for emergencies

FISHING IN THE RIVER ORCHY. 231

such as I myself have there experienced. The sport, too,
for the extent of the water, is hard to beat when the
spate happens to come on the right day of the week, or
with the proper force to allow all the fish to come up
from the salt-water Loch Etive, and to escape the nets at
the mouth of the Awe.

On Thursday, April 20th, 1882, there had been heavy
rain for two consecutive days, which had prevented the
nets at the mouth of the river Awe being set, and
allowed waiting fish to run up. I went up with two
friends, and though the water was too high and rather
discoloured, we managed to bring back six fish. On the
next day, Friday, April 21st, Mr. Montague Campbell
(who has a newly-built house on one of the islands
of Loch Awe) had permission from Sir John Lawes to
fish ; he went up with a gillie (an excellent fisherman too !)
at 8 a.m., and returned at 8 p.m. with the magnificent
result of sixteen fish, weighing in the aggregate 242^ lbs.
I noted the weights as they were scaled, and they were
as follows: 18, 13^ 11 J, 13^, 2ii, 13,22, 11, 13^ 13^, 13,
21, 21^, 15, 10^, io|. Such a take in about half-a-mile
of water in 9 hours (allowing for journeys to and from the
falls) of bright clean-run fish, in magnificent condition,
with sea-lice adhering to many, is not bad testimony to
the prospects of sport in the Orchy, when the river is in
good order in spring. The old gentleman of whom I
spoke at first, once caught eleven to his own rod in a
shorter time than this. I went up myself with two friends
on two successive days ; the first day yielded eleven, the
second ten, to our three rods. The fish do not, as a rule,

232 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

run large ; the average size is from 12 to 14 lbs,, perhaps
rather over, but in shape and beauty they are hard to
beat. You must not think that you are going to land a
" fushe " every time you go out there : many, oh, many
a blank day have I had ! But what true angler is dis-
heartened at that ? When your stay is short and your
time limited, you often go out without prospect of success
on the chance of falsifying the predictions of the knowing
ones, and even against your own real judgment : but
then if you want a salmon you must fish for him. I
said that the best portion of Dalmally water is seven miles
up from the hotel : there are, however, several good pools,
though some distance apart, in the intervening six miles.
I shall ever have a lively recollection of one of these
pools. I had gone that year with a friend, who was
somewhat out of sorts, and had been recommended to try
a trip to the Highlands to set him up. We walked up to
a likely pool, out of which I had landed a fish a day or
two before. I lent my friend my rod to fish over the
pool with the first fly ; no fish rising, I changed it, and
prepared to fish the water again after giving it a rest.
The pool lies at the end of a bed of shingle, down which
I waded to reach the lowest part which my friend had
been unable without waders to reach. I gradually
lengthened my casts, and with a long line prepared for
a supreme effort; the effort was made, the result was
startling, the fly had hooked something behind me; there
was a crash and a shriek! the third joint of my rod was
smashed into three pieces, and was dangling in the water
by the rings ; my friend behind me had his hand up to

FISHING IN THE RIVER ORCHY. 2

j)j

his head, gathering force for the expletives which were
to follow. He had somewhat changed his position whilst
I fished the pool, which resulted in my fixing the point
of the hook, though not the barb, into the frontal bone
just outside the left eye ; a quarter of an inch more and
it must have pierced it. However, I think that I was the
greatest sufferer; he experienced no ill effects whatever
from the shock, in fact, I think it really did him good, for
it supplied a "Nerve Tonic" which he had gone to Scot-
land to seek, though hardly perhaps at the point of a
"Silver Doctor." But my rod was spoilt! I have been
careful ever since to warn spectators to give a wide berth
to the back cast of a salmon angler.

I should not recommend visitors to the Orchy to lay
in a large stock of flies before they go ; indeed, it is a
mistake to lay in a large stock before you go anywhere,
unless it be to some very out-of-the-way place where it is
difficult to add to or replenish your stock. The gillies
at Dalmally can give you the best advice as to what flies
to use, and they are easily procurable there from any of
the well-known tackle- makers and dealers, or perhaps
even on the spot itself. The angler who is equipped with
large, medium and small sizes of the Popham, Canary,
Jock Scott,Thunder and Lightning, Butcher, and Doctors,
will not want many more to suit the waters of the Orchy.

I have said that Loch TuUa is the source of the Orchy ;
it was also, alas, the source of its ruin as a trout river.
The late Marquis of Breadalbanc stocked this loch with
pike, little thinking of the disastrous results to the Orchy
and Loch Awe which would follow from the migration

234 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

of these fish. It was once possible, I believe, to make
sure of a good basket of trout in the Orchy, whereas now
they are seldom fished for. A friend of mine, Mr. Oliver
Pemberton, of Birmingham, president of the Midland
Anglers' Association, once landed six jack out of a single
pool in the river; one can judge from this what the
effect of the presence of these fresh-water sharks has
been and is on the trout-fishing. I have whiled away
the time when there was nothing better to do and no
better fishing to be had, by spinning a minnow in the
scours and runs and in the streams about the Island,
three miles from Dalmally, and occasionally have fished
for trout with the fly; but though I have caught some
few, mostly good ones, from a pound to two pounds
weight, the result is hardly worth the effort. I remember
one old angler, however, who came from Glasgow and
was staying at Dalmally with his son, who used to go
out in the evening, and by worm-fishing up stream
managed to bring in some good baskets, I confess that
I am not an adept at worm-fishing for trout, and perhaps
it was my own lack of skill in this branch of our art
which made me fail where the Glasgow angler succeeded.
Very few, however, fish the Orchy for trout. Similar
disastrous results to trouting in the upper portion of
Loch Awe have followed from the migration thither of
the pike. You may get a rise or a run on your
minnow near the shingle beds not far from the mouth
of the Orchy, and at the confluence of the Orchy and
the Strae, and also off" the sand-bank which extends from
the Castle promontory some distance into the loch—

FISHING IN THE RIVER ORCHY. 235

but these once favourite trout casts are only whipped
over as you pass by them, and offer no inducements to
tarry as once they did. The large bay to the south-east
of Kilchurn Castle, in which an old boatman told me that
he had often seen three trouts on the cast at once, is now
productive of nothing but pike and perch. It is not too
much to say that the trout fishing in this upper portion
of the loch is ruined; you must go at least three miles
down before you have any chance of anything beyond a
casual trout, which has had a marvellous escape from
the enemies which have occupied his ground.

But though the pike have spoilt the trout fishing,
which now has to be sought lower down, the sport which
they themselves provide, at a time of year, too, when few
trout are to be caught anywhere, affords no slight com-
pensation for the damage which they have done, and
helps one to forgive the sad results from the thoughtless
action of the Marquis of Breadalbane. In a small
bay to the north of the mouth of the river Orchy, in the
large bay of Kilchurn Castle, which I mentioned before,
about half a mile down from the Castle promontory,
and at intervals down each shore of the loch, there are
large beds of weeds, which are favourite haunts of the
pike. In each of these localities I have had excellent
sport with them, the best of all in September. They
are more lively than any I have ever caught in English
waters, making very long runs and leaping out of the
water at times like a salmon ; if instead of fishing for
them with something like a pole and a cart-rope one
were to use an ordinary salmon rod, they would give

236 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

almost as much trouble to bring to boat as a salmon
does ; and even with the short strong rod with stiff rings,
and line and gimp trace to match, which I always use in
spinning, it took me more than half an hour to secure
the largest which I have ever captured, which weighed
23|lbs. We had exciting work to get that fish in. I
had forgotten to take my gaff, and we only had in the
boat a large sea-fishing hook which I had whipped on to
a short handle as a substitute for a click ; with this we
had already secured two or three pike, the largest of
which weighed 15 lbs. On getting the big one up to the
boat, I hooked my temporary gaff into his jaw, but it
broke short off, the point catching, I suppose, against a
bone — my victim went off for another long run, and
appeared shy of again approaching the boat. However,
after a bit more fighting he came again close under the
gunwale; I had given the old gillie who was with me a
clasp knife to open which I had in my pocket — one with
a blade about five inches long, with sharp dagger-
shaped point, and a spring catch which secured the
blade when open. Guiding the fish into a conve-
nient position, I stooped gently down towards him,
holding the rod in such a manner that I could give him
line in case he started for another run; he was too
exhausted after nearly half-an-hour's fight to make off
at the mere glance of his enemy, and so I succeeded in
driving the blade of the knife up to the haft in a slanting
direction behind his gill into what I thought would be
his most vital part. I was terribly afraid that this shock
to his system, coupled with the somewhat nervous state

FISHING IN THE RIVER ORCHY. 237

in which I was in as I wondered whether the plan would
succeed, would make him bolt off with a rush, and
perhaps result in his escape, but I was gratified to see
that I had fixed him properly ; he gave a bit of a flap on
the surface with his tail, and became a dead weight on
the rod. I drew him up close, put my finger and thumb
in his eyes and landed him triumphantly into the boat !
He was the largest pike that had been caught for some
years in the loch, and I think that there was only one
up to that time — it is 15 years ago now — which beat
him. We had a good haul that day: 23I, 15, 11, gi,
8, besides smaller ones, formed a bag which ought
to satisfy all but the most greedy angler. The largest
pike I had seen caught there previously was taken by
my friend Mr. Pemberton — it weighed i61bs., and took
the bait in a way which I should not have believed had
I not witnessed it. He was spinning with a trout about
60Z. weight, and casting the bait some distance from the
boat ; he had gradually extended his casts to about 25
yards, and as the bait was dropping into the water, a
pair of jaws were opened about a foot above the surface,
and literally closed upon it in the air. To fix the steel
was the work of a moment; he jumped three or four
times out of the water like a salmon, and was finally
secured after twenty minutes' fight.

When I lived in my native county, Warwickshire,
I had good pike fishing always at my command, and
pretty fair facilities for trouting ; there was no lack of
natural bait, too, for both kinds of fishing — I used to
borrow the miller's cast net to catch gudgeon, roach and

238 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

dace for the former, and spent many pleasant hours in
catching minnows with a worm and tie-line for the
latter. Experience and habit have, perhaps, made me
partial to the use of natural baits for spinning and trolling,
and I must confess that I look upon artificial baits as only-
something to be used as makeshifts when the natural are
only very difficult or impossible to be got. At Dalmally
there is a small burn which runs into the Orchy just
below the hotel, and I always supply myself from it with
a stock of burn trout for spinning for pike in Loch Awe ;
the capture of them with a small fly or a worm itself
affords sport which I by no means despise. There
is to me something much more exciting in standing
up in a boat and continually casting your bait and draw-
ing it in than in lazily sitting in the stern holding the
rod and waiting for a fish to take it. You can drop your
bait, too, amongst openings in the weeds, and cover
likely ground which by trailing behind you must miss.
In spinning for trout in a loch you must, of course, trail
behind, but even then I fancy the natural bait in
preference to the artificial, and this natural bait I
formerly used in Loch Awe. Just above the Orchy
Bridge, which carries the road to Oban, there is a
gravelly shallow which edges off into deep water towards
the bridge. Standing in this shallow, many and many a
silvery salmon parr, about the size of a very large minnow,
have I in days gone by captured with the aid of a midge
fly, and used for spinning in the loch for trout. The very
proper restrictions now placed on taking these fry have
diminished for me the interest I once had in trolling, for

FISHING IN THE RIVER ORCHY. 239

neither with "phantom " nor "angel " can I get the same
success I once had with the parr tail. However, many,
I dare say, will not agree with me; but to those who
have a preference for artificial baits, spoons and other
lures, I say, " Keep them, but give me the natural."

I should exhaust your patience, which I have already
tried too long, if I said much about the perch-fishing
in the upper part of Loch Awe, so I will merely
observe that good takes can be got if you happen to
hit upon a shoal on the sand-banks at the mouth of
the river, in the shallower parts of Kilchurn Bay, or in
the deep water off what was formerly called " Duncan's
Rock," on the north shore, where now stands the new
hotel of Loch Awe ; though it is probable that the latter
once favourite spot has been spoiled by the steamers
which ply to and from the landing place, I once
anchored the boat in Kilchurn Bay, near to a submerged
cairn, at its upper end. My friend and myself obtained
rather over six dozen perch, eight of which weighed no
less than 2lbs. each. We did not catch them all at this
one anchorage, but the bulk of them, and all the largest
were captured there. Little skill is required to beguile
these silly fish, the slightest bit of worm is suflRcient if
they happen to be in a taking humour, neither do they
give much sport when hooked

MANX STREAMS.

BY STANLEY KNEALE.

|N Lancashire we all know where the Isle of Man
is: an island rich in history, antiquities, legends,
and natural beauty, set in a sea which has
been its very life from the days of the Vikings to the
present matter-of-fact 19th century. To quote from
one of the greatest novelists of the day, my country-
man. Hall Caine, " The sea is always present with Manx-
men ; everything they do, everything they say gets the
colour and shimmer of the sea. The sea goes into their
bones ; it comes out of their skins ; their talk is full of
it. They buy by it, they sell by it, they quarrel by it,
they fight by it, they swear by it, they pray by it."
So it is only natural that I should begin this paper by
speaking of it.

Before I try to give you an idea of the Manx streams
from an anglers' point of view, may I quote my country-
man's beautiful description of the Island of Man.
" Seen from the sea it is a lovely thing to look upon. It
never fails to bring me a thrill of the heart as it comes
out of the distance. It lies like a bird on the water.
You see it from end to end, and from water's edge to
topmost peak, often enshrouded in mists, a dim ghost on

MANX STREAMS. 241

a grey sea ; sometimes purple against the setting sun.
Then as you sail up to it, a rugged rocky coast, grand
in its beetling heights on the south and west, and broken
into the sweetest bays every where. The water is as clear
as crystal and blue as the sky in summer ; you can
see the shingle and the moss through many fathoms.
Then the mountains within, not in peaks, but round fore-
heads. The colour of the Island is green and gold ; its
flavour is that of the nut. Both colour and flavour come of
the gorse. This covers the mountains and moorlands,
for, except on the north, the Island has next to no trees.
But, oh, the beauty and delight of it in the spring ! Long
broad stretches glittering under the sun with the gold
of the gorse, and all the air full of the nutty perfume.
There is nothing like it in all the world. Then the
glens, such fairy spots, deep, solemn, musical, with
the slumberous waters, clad in dark mosses, brightened
by the red fuchsia."

Such is Man as seen by a Manxman, and in the
spring. But in the summer months, when thousands of
people from this county and other parts are swarming
over that little Island, it is spoilt for the angler ; he
loves the quiet music of the streams and not the wild
war cry of the irrepressible tripper, who comes driving
down the glens in clouds of dust, throwing stones into
your favourite pool, hurling satirical remarks at the poor
angler, and chasing away the poetic and delightful halo
of thoughts which surround the trout fisher.

Many are the days I have had spoilt thus; but,
fortunately for me, some years ago, I was able to fish the

242 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

stream in all seasons and weathers; all day and every
day that was suitable, wandering forth in the morning
and spending solitary days in some of the wilder glens,
among the hills; meeting no one but, perhaps, a shepherd
and his dog, and the weather-beaten mountain sheep.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the rivers in
the Island is the entire absence of such fresh-water
fish as the pike, perch, roach, grayling, and other fish
described as coarse. I suppose that, as in the Welsh
rivers, the rapid nature of the streams, with gravelly or
rocky bottoms, would prevent their thriving very long,
even if they were introduced. However, in the lower
parts of the Sulby (the most important river in the
Island), where for three or four miles the river runs deep,
and in nice gravelly pools and glides, grayling might be
introduced with advantage, that is if they are not
detrimental to trout. The latter are found in great
numbers in every stream in the Island, with the excep-
tion of some few that have been poisoned by lead
mining, that curse of many rivers in this country. Why
a man should be allowed to poison another man's fish
any more than his sheep or his cattle is difficult to
understand; yet he seems to do it with the greatest
audacity, and with hardly a remonstrance from the

injured side.

The Sulby, which is the largest and best trout river

in the island, flows into Ramsey Bay. The lower part of

the water is brackish for about two miles, the salt water

ascending with the spring tides nearly up to Loughen-e-

Zeigh (the goose pond), about three miles from the sea.

MANX STREAMS. 243

All this lower part, and even higher up, abounds in the
spring months with small white trout, as they are there
called. There has been much discussion as to the species
to which these fish belong ; whether they are the young
of the salmon sewin or white trout. A specimen of them
was sent to Mr. Day, and he at once recognised it as the
sewin. They appear in the river in the greatest numbers
in March and April, returning to the sea in May. An
old Manx saying is: "The first flood in May takes the
white trout away." They are also caught near the
mouths of the rivers in the autumn ; though usually of
a larger size they are not so numerous as in the spring.
They are, for their size, decidedly " game," rising very
freely and fighting hard. They generally average in the
spring about seven or eight to the pound, occasionally
approaching a pound each in weight. I have often
filled a basket which held eight or nine pounds in a few
hours, catching as many as twenty out of one pool.
Some of the larger-sized require a good bit of manage-
ment when hooked; they spring into the air, strike
the water with their tails, and make a great com-
motion, until after two or three minutes play they
are landed. And they certainly are most beautiful
and delicious fish. They are most plentiful in the
brackish pools, and in the two or three miles of deep
water above the town, where the river glides along in
one continuous pool, varying in depth from two or three
feet to ten or twelve ; the gorse-covcred hedges, which
in many places run along the river banks, are rather
troublesome to the angler. All this three or four miles

244 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

of still water can, of course, only be fished in a breeze
which has to be pretty strong to get over the high
hedges and banks, and round the bends. On a suitable
day in spring one is pretty sure of a basketful of fish,
white or brown, on this part of the Sulby; and although
the brown trout are also small, you occasionally get a
half-pounder, or even larger, to quicken the pulses. You
require all your skill to steer clear of the long weed,
which is rather troublesome on this part of the river,
and successfully land up the high bank. At one time I
never used to carry a landing net, and many is the good
trout I have lost through not having one. In one
instance I lost a large sea trout — I mean large for the
locality — perhaps about two pounds. After a desperate
fight for about ten minutes (I had only a very light fly
rod) I had coaxed him to the bank, played out as I
thought, and was just bending over the high bank trying
to get my fingers round his gills, when he made a
sudden spring, nearly hitting me in the face, dropped
back on the water, and floated away, hardly realizing
at first that he had got half my cast ; when he did, he
made a bolt and disappeared, a wiser if not a happier
fish.

About half-a-mile above Ramsey is a bridge, just
beyond which, on your left hand as you face up-stream,
the tributary Aldyn joins the Sulby. Many a basket of
good trout have I had from that little stream. But lately,
whenever I have visited it, the water has always been very
low. Very few parts of it are suitable for fly ; up-stream
fishing with worm answers better, especially on the lower

MANX STREAMS. 245

part. About two miles up there are some nice little pools
which contain good trout. A great many salmon run up
this little stream after a freshet ; I have seen the small
pools quite packed with them. This was in the autumn,
when they were making their way up to spawn ; but very
few of them get back to the sea ; they get caught in the
dams or small pools, and find their way into the cottagers'
houses. This is the case, more or less, with all the rivers
on the island. At Sulby Bridge, I have gone into
numbers of cottages and seen smoked salmon hanging
up, and the inmates have told me they never feel right
without a bit of smoked salmon in the house. Most of
these are spawning fish, and quite unfit for food.
Since the Salmon and Fresh Water Fishing Act of
1882, river inspectors have been appointed, and a
more strict watch is kept; rod licences are also necessary.
The licence for salmon and white trout is ;^i, and for
trout 7s. 6d. yearly ; a weekly licence for trout is 2s. 6d.
When first these licences were imposed, there was much
indignation among the small landowners along the river,
who did not see the force of having to pay for the right
to fish for their own and their neighbour's fish. At
Sulby they formed a "Trout Association," every member
of which was bound to prosecute (for trespass) anyone
fishing on his land with a licence, but it was all right if
you had not one ; on the other hand if you were without
a licence you were liable to be prosecuted by the
Fisheries Board. This caused a good deal of ill-fccling,
and indeed does so yet; it almost stopped fishing for
some time. I used to get over the difficulty by taking

246 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

out a licence and leaving it at home, and when I happened
to be asked by one of the Association if I had a licence,
saying, "I hadn't one !" taking care not to add "with me."
Perhaps the method had its moral shortcomings, but I
had no sympathy with an association whose members
instead of agitating for a repeal of what they considered
an unjust law, stopped the fishing altogether.

The Sulby above the junction of the Aldyn consists
of a long deep glide, fairly wide, an easy casting distance
in most places, and getting narrower as you get higher
up. This water for about two miles can only be fished in
a breeze ; above it the water gets broken into sharp runs,
and nice gravelly pools ; just the place for grayling. This
is not very good fly water, being covered with willows
and other trees. From here to Sulby Bridge the river is
more open, and there are some very nice runs and
stretches of fly water. On the other side of the bridge
you get to Sulby Claddagh, a flat common, covered with
low gorse, bramble and bracken, through which the river
runs. Here, on a bright day in spring, you are almost
dazzled by the golden blaze of the gorse, the blue sky,
and the sun on the white-washed cottages. There are
pictures whichever way you turn; it is a paradise for
artists, and is much frequented by them. The Glen
Moar Inn is near and comfortable; a capital place to
stay at if you intend to fish this water and the
glens above. On the Claddagh there are no high
trees overhanging the river, but plenty of room to get
your flies clear out behind, except for low gorse bushes
here and there. It used to be my favourite bit of the

MANX STREAMS. 247

river; there are broken runs and a few dams and pools ;
of course, as with all small streams, you want a fair
quantity of water to be coming down, but especially in
this part, as in the dry weather the water merely
percolates through the loose stony bed. Many a good
basket of trout have I taken from this part of the Sulby,
considering it a poor day unless I had two or three dozen,
and sometimes getting as many as five or six dozen,
weighing about eight or nine pounds. This Claddagh
is just at the entrance to Sulby Glen, or more properly.
Glen Moar (the big glen) and is called Gob-na-Volly
(the mouth of the valley.)

After entering the Glen, the river becomes more
wooded, and you come to some old starch mills, not
worked now. Below these there is a very good pool,
which used to contain some capital trout ; they seemed
to fatten on the refuse from the starch making. If I did
not get a few good trout out of this pool, I always knew
the day would be hopeless. From this point you go up
the river for about four miles, all fair fly water, rocky,
with good pools here and there, which become larger
and deeper and more overgrown as you go higher up to
Tholt-e-Will. Here the river takes a bend to the right
for about a mile, with good pools, which are rather
difficult to get at. The trout in these deep and dark
brown pools are much darker in colour, and are not well
fed fish, but you find them up to a fair size, ^Ib. and \\h.,
and even bigger. I have caught numbers of i lb. trout ;
but fish of this size are only rarely met with. After
Tholt-e-Will the river bends at right-angles to the left,

248 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

and about a mile up divides into two streams of equal size,
the one on the right coming down Druidale, and the one
on the left from Crammag Glen, rising some three miles
away between Snaefell and Benny-Phott In this glen
there are some good deep pools, and very often when the
river is low you get better sport here than lower down,
as it is fed more by springs. Although the river lower
down is continually fed by small tributaries, its bed is
broader, and the water loses itself in the loose stony
bottom. It is really quite surprising what capital pools
you come across by following an insignificant little
stream to its source among the hills. These are the
salvation of the trout in the small rapid streams of the
island ; but for these the fish would be swept away by
the frequent floods. The scenery up these glens is most
beautiful, and there are numbers of small glens where
even in the summer you are not likely to meet a fellow-
creature the whole day. Of course, out ol the tourist
season you can have nearly the whole river to yourself.
In the summer months the Sulby, from Tholt-e-Will
down to Sulby Bridge, is very much over-fished; and
since the road down the glen runs near the river, and is
a favourite one for visitors driving over the mountains
from Douglas to Ramsey, there is little enjoyment in
fishing.

The first salmon I ever caught — it has not been
my good fortune to catch many — was on the Sulby river,
in a pool below Ellenbane. I was strolling along up-
stream, fly-fishing for trout, taking a nice little fish out
here and there, when I came to one of my favourite

MANX STREAMS. 249

pools, where, if the trout were in anything h'ke a taking
mood, I was always sure of a few good ones, when,
in front of me, just at the edge of the eddy where
the water came into the pool, I saw a swirl, and the flash
of a silver side, that sent my heart into my mouth ! I
had only a light trout rod, and nothing but trout flies ;
however, selecting one of these — a large Red Palmer,
with some tinsel round the body — I went down stream
a few yards, walked across so as to get on the bank
opposite to where my silver friend was evidently feeding,
and casting across the stream, letting my fly swirl through
the eddy at the head of the pool, in the second cast I
felt a tug and was fast in a fish. Before I had time to
realize it, a fine fresh salmon sprang out of the water.
Fortunately I was fishing from the winch, otherwise he
would have broken me at once. I thought he was off;
but no ! After many repeated springs, I began to steady
myself and wind in so as to feel the fish. I had certainly
hooked a salmon, but how to land him was the difficulty.
Of course, he had nearly all his own way; I just kept as
much strain as I thought my trout cast would bear.
Very fortunately for me, the fish seemed to like the pool
he was in, which was about twenty yards long, shallow
at the head and with a long clear shallow at the tail which
he did not seem to care about ; if he had taken it into his
head to rush over the shallow and down stream, I could
not possibly have held him for many seconds, as the river
below was so overgrown by willows and trees that it
would have been impossible to follow. He began leading
me up and down the pool, just as he pleased. A short

250 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

distance above the pool the river is crossed by a foot-
bridge, over which there were occasionally some passers
by, who seeing that I had got hold of a large fish, watched
to see him landed until they grew tired of waiting. That
fish seemed to me like the brook, it went on for ever,
up and down the pool for upwards of two hours, and I
dreading all the time that the gut would fray. Fortunately,
as I afterwards found out, the fish was hooked in the lip,
so there was nothing to come in contact with the gut.
I had no gaff or even landing net ; at last, seeing a
boy passing, I hailed him, and got him to cut a willow
stick which was forked ; one of the ends of this he cut
short and sharpened, leaving the other as a handle. With
this primitive gaff I knew there must be no missing.
After many attempts I managed at last to bring the fish
to the side of the pool under the shelter of some floating
grass, and just within reach of my willow gaff; then with
a tremendous strike I dragged him up the bank, breaking
my rod top in so doing. But what did it matter?
There lay on the grass a beautiful salmon of seven
or eight pounds. This may not seem very large to
salmon-fishers, but to me in those days he appeared a
perfect monster, and I was rather glad than otherwise
that he would not go into my basket, but had to be
carried home, a visible trophy of my skill to all
passers-by. I did not at all like having that fish cooked,
but setting-up was not so much in vogue in those days,
so he was boiled, and pronounced excellent.

Of the rivers on the south of the island I know very
little. I have caught trout on the Silverburn, which

MANX STREAMS. 251

finds its outlet in Castletown Bay, and which, like the
other streams, abounds in small sewin in the spring.
The streams Dhoo and Glass, which, uniting near
the town of Douglas, give it its name, both contain
trout. At Laxey there is a good stream, the
poisoning of the lower part of which by the lead mines
prevents salmon and sea trout from coming up; you can
see the lead-coloured water for some distance out in the
bay, of course poisoning everything with which it comes
in contact. In the Glen above the mine, there are plenty
of small trout, rather dark in colour. Further along the
coast you come to a delightful little glen called Balla-
glass, in which there are large numbers of trout. Some
years ago this stream was poisoned by mining, now
it is no longer so, and the trout have become as plentiful
as ever. At the bottom of the Glen there has been
recently erected a large building for the manufacture of
bellite, but this has been stopped by the House of Keys,
who think the explosive too dangerous for them to allow
its manufacture to proceed. This Glen is very much
wooded, and there are not many places where you can
get a fly comfortably on, but down nearer the sea it gets
more open. There is a large brackish pool at the
junction with the sea, which generally contains any
number of trout and sea trout. Last summer, when
fishing there, with a good breeze to ripple the pool, in
two hours I caught about forty nice trout; they were
silvery, game, well-fed little fish. This beautiful glen is
not much frequented, being out of the beaten track. A
friend of mine fishing there, some years ago, caught a

252 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

splendid trout (brown) weighing about 2lbs. At the
north-west side of the Island there is a partly natural
and partly artificial trench which drains the greater
portion of the flat land and meadows of the north,
finding an outlet near the sea at a small hamlet called
Lhen Moar, which is the Manx for " big meadow or
swamp." This stream varies in width from about eight
to twelve feet, and is of a uniform depth of three or four
feet ; it has a peaty bottom, much overgrown with weed,
water-lilies, and so on, which are cleared out about twice
a year when they begin to choke the stream up. The
spring, when the winter frosts and floods have cleared
the weeds out, is the best time to fish this water, as in
summer it often gets grown over, and the places for
putting a fly on are few. The Lhen Moar is about eight
miles from Ramsey. There is a mill there which is a
convenient place at which to put up a conveyance. From
this mill down to the sea the stream is very narrow, but
pretty deep, and it contains some big trout and some-
times sea trout. The best wind to fish it in is one
across ; you should fish straight upstream, as, standing
some distance from the bank, you are out of sight of the
fish. One fly is quite enough ; the stream being narrow,
more would be in the way. About half a mile above the
mill, its trench, running along the edge of a large swamp
(a capital place for snipe in the winter), is more open,
and when there is a good water it flows almost level with
the banks. Farther on the banks get higher, and it is
very difficult to keep out of sight of the trout. Fly is
the only thing you can successfully use, on account of

MANX STREAMS. 253

the bottom weed; and a good strong breeze is essential.
Use one fly and a strong cast, as the trout are large,
dark-coloured, and hard fighters, making a desperate
splash and struggle when they feel the point of the hook.
You mustn't give them an inch, but get them into your
net as soon as possible, otherwise they at once get into
the weed or under the overhanging bank, against which
they saw your cast, and are oft at once. You lose a
great many fish in this way. They are very uncertain
risers, and you never know when they will be in a
taking humour; but if you happen to be there on a
favourable day (sometimes to all appearances the most
unlikely) you will have some capital sport. On a very
fine day I have killed twelve trout averaging over fib.,
and lost as many more. They are not very particular
about flies, but like them rather large and rough with
a suspicion of tinsel ; just such flies as we should use on
the tarn at Horton. On a fine spring day this is a most
delightful four miles of fishing. The white cottages
which skirt the meadow, the gorse and the sweet smelling
flowers which are beginning to blossom, all have a charm
for the angler. But it is also a very disappointing place.
I remember starting off one morning on what promised to
be a good breezy day, in the early summer, and, on arriving
at my destination, the mill, I found a dead calm, with a
blazing sun. As there is no broken water, fishing was
out of the question, so I walked down to the sea and
enjoyed basking in the sun on the beach, watching the
sea-birds circling over the blue water and golden sands.
That was all very well, but I had come to fish, and I hate

254 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

being baulked, so I thought if I could find a worm or
two I might manage to hook a trout. But a worm was
as difficult to get as a trout. There had been a long
spell of dry weather, and the ground round the lower
part of this stream is very sandy and dry; however, I
managed to get a couple of small ones by digging with
the spike of my rod, and creeping to a hole much over-
grown so as to shelter me from the observant trout,
I lowered the worm, not knowing whether it was lighting
on a bramble or in the water. I suppose it must
have been the latter, because I felt a tremendous tug
that nearly pulled the rod out of my hand, and I was
fast in a good trout But how to get him out was the
difficulty. I could, not reach him with my net over the
bramble ; there was nothing for it but to guide my fish
round a bend between many brambles and gorse bushes
to a favourable spot. After fifteen minutes, I landed
the finest brown trout I have ever caught in the Island,
about i|lb. Big trout always seem to lie in the most
difficult places. I managed to get one or two more
small ones, but worms were scarce, and I did not care
much about that kind of fishing, so I had to wend my
way home without having put a fly on the water ; still, I
was partly consoled by the thought of my big trout.
There is a small stream running through Ballaugh Glen
in which there are plenty of trout, but like all small
streams it is difficult to fish with no width of water to
get a fly on properly.

Then there is the Rhenass (the ridge of the water-
fall) known to the tourist as " Glen Helen." I cannot

MANX STREAMS. 255

understand why people should change names full of

association and description for utterly meaningless ones.

Imagine, for instance, changing the name of a beautiful

little waterfall near Ramsey called " Braid-foss " (the

waterfall of the ravine), a most descriptive name, into

Niagara, a name which makes it ridiculous; this is

just one instance of many hundred changes of names in

the Island. But to return to the Rhenass. The stream

rises between the two mountains called Sart Fell and

Glen Maggie, just near the source of the Sulby, but runs

in a different direction for four or five miles to St. John's,

where it becomes the River Neb. From the point where

it is joined by the Foxdale river to the sea, it is poisoned

by the Foxdale lead mines. All the stream above the

junction is filled with small trout. In most of the Manx

streams I think there are too many trout for the quantity

of food ; they rarely grow to any size, and the rivers are

so scoured by big floods which rise and fall rapidly

(caused by the extension of draining, not only of the

arable, but also of the mountain lands) that the moss and

insect life are washed away. The fishing has very much

deteriorated since first I knew it, when with very little

skill you could generally fill your creel. Two or three

years ago 30,000 Loch Leven fry were distributed in

the various streams of the Island ; some were put in the

reservoir of the Ramsey Water Works and in other small

ponds. I have not heard of many being taken ; there

is no doubt it would have been better to put in yearlings,

and in smaller number.

SEA-TROUT FISHING IN ABER-
DEENSHIRE.

BY GEO. H. NORRIS.

HE angling paper in its best and purest form
deals with three distinct subjects : (i) — the
angler's drinks ; (2) — the humours of the

angler's gillie or boatman; (3) — the grandeur of the
scenery in which the angler takes his pastime. The
catching of fish is, indeed, sometimes alluded to, but
such reference to the actual sport — should there be any —
are dubiously received, and are not essential. The
humorous gillie or boatman is as indispensable as the
comic countryman in the melo-drama. Year after
year has the writer searched in vain for this indispensable
constituent, and he would indeed have doubted his very
existence but for the confidence he places in the veracity
of Punch and of his fellow anglers. Faint, yet pursuing,
the writer and a brother angler, having discovered that the
men of Aberdeenshire were the proud possessors of the
largest heads in Scotland, arranged to spend a short
angling holiday at Newburgh, a little coast town in that
county. As the fishing there was mainly from a boat —
thus involving the presence of a boatman — and was by
trolling, a form of sport peculiarly conducive to the

FISHING IN ABERDEENSHIRE. 257

production of humour, the outlook seemed extremely
encouraging. The summer in Manchester had been cold
and wet, and it seemed more desirable than usual to leave
that smoky old city.

To anglers, the preparations for a fishing campaign
are in themselves a pleasure. It is with gleeful antici-
pations that they put in order their rods, flies, and
trolling tackle, and "Bradshaw" itself for a time becomes
a glorified volume full of interest and entertainment,
quite unlike the puzzling and irritating "Bradshaw" of
business. It was on Thursday, the 22nd of August,
1889, that we left the Exchange Station, Manchester.
The journey is a long one, and it was not until about
eleven at night that we reached Aberdeen. This is not
an attractive town. Built of massive blocks of granite, it
is imposing in its solidity, but is cold and grey and
depressing rather than impressive It would seem hardly
possible that one with lively wit could live within that
granite city ; but that the humorist docs exist some-
where is evident from a remarkable stained glass window
in the hotel, upon which is depicted, in heroic size, the
Blessed Saint Andrew bearing his cross, and beneath
this strange device "Nemo mc impunc laccssitT Thus has
the artist, with the intention of genius, represented that
wonderful combination of the spiritual and the carnal
which our countrymen North of the Tweed have so
often proved to be practicable, notwithstanding all
theories to the contrary.

Having discovered that there was a station about
seven miles from Newburgh, we despatched a telegram

258 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

to the landlord of the Udney Arms (the anglers' hotel),
to meet us there with a trap. The railway journey and
drive to Newburgh were not very interesting. The
country is made up of a series of low hills or undulations,
and there is little wood or water to give it variety.
There was just one pretty sight on the drive. At a
little hamlet on the way, preparations were being made
for a school pic-nic, and bands of small children were
pouring in from all sides dressed in the gayest frocks,
and with faces as round, rosy, and shiny as the Jersey
apples in the basket of an itinerant fruit woman. We
reached the Udney Arms just before lunch time. The
inn is clean and comfortable, and the landlord intelli-
gent and obliging. Of Elsie, who combined the offices
of parlour-maid, house-m.aid, boots, stocking-mender,
drier, and floral decorator, — for each guest had a
buttonhole at dinner — the writer cannot speak but
with feelings of the liveliest emotion.

While lunch was preparing we arranged for our boat,
got out our tackle, and went down to the river to survey
the scene of the coming campaign. The river Ython is
tidal at Newburgh and for a considerable distance above.
There are, so far as the writer knows, ie^^ places where
sea-trout take freely in the salt water ; Newburgh is one
of these. The only other which he can at this moment
recollect is the Kyle of Tongue, in the North of Suther-
landshire, where sea-trout of considerable weight are
taken upon the troll. The Ython estuary forms at the
mouth a narrow channel between two sand-hills, but
above, at high-tide, broadens out into the dimensions of

FISHING IN ABERDEENSHIRE. 259

a fairly-sized lake, and it is in the lake-like portion of
the river that most of the fishing is done. On each
side of the river are sandy dunes and low hills, and,
although the place cannot be termed picturesque
in the ordinary sense, still the river, with its little port
and shipping, and its quay and old storehouses rich in
their mazy garment of moss and lichen, has a peculiar
and quaint attraction, and the scene in the golden
evening light is full of quiet beauty.

After lunch, and before the boatman arrived, the
times and mode of fishing were discussed with the
landlord, who is a practical angler. The trolling is
done on the flow of the tide, and the usual course
is to take the boat out to the mouth, and then to
come in gradually with the tide, tacking to and fro so
as to cover as much water as possible, but keeping the
boat's head slightly up to the tide, so as to get a proper
spin on the tackle. If any angler intends to go to
Newburgh, he should first enquire from the landlord how
the tides are for fishing; as, during some portion of the
month, the times are so awkward that it is difficult to
obtain any trolling at reasonable hours of the day. When
the tide has almost run out, fly-fishing from the bank
begins — and very good baskets are often taken in
this way. There is an old parson, hailing from the
south of England, who has spent his annual holiday
at Newburgh from such time as the memory of man
runneth not to the contrary. He angles every day
— from the bank on each week day, and from the
pulpit of the local kirk on the Sabbath. This venerable

26o ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

divine is a most successful fly fisher, and there exist
fabulous reports of the quantity and weight of the fish
he has taken. He is not, however, communicative, and
seems to have an idea that by long possession he has
obtained an indefeasible title to the exclusive use of
the river and all its contents. But there is no doubt
that the old minister is a true sportsman and worthy
angler — indeed he scorns to take a fish but with
a fly.

Having made up our traces — a Devon minnow
at the tail and two artificial sand-eels, one white and
the other red, as droppers — we started for the boat.
This was reached after a walk of about a quarter of
a mile across the links (for Newburgh includes golf
links amongst its attractions). The boat, which was a
small one, had a plank across her quarters, and upon
this we took our seats, facing the stern. This arrange-
ment is very convenient, as the angler can keep his
eye upon his line and act immediately a fish strikes.
The boatman pulled out from the bank and zig-zagged
across and across the flowing current of the incoming
tide in the broad portion of the river. About twelve sea
trout were the result of the afternoon's fishing. All or
nearly all of these fish were as bright as silver and sported
splendidly. The largest did not weigh more than a pound
— the average weight was nearly |lb. We were, however,
able to send quite a handsome parcel of fish south.
On no occasion did we bring home less than a dozen
fish, and once, including the fish caught from the bank,
we captured more than 30 trout. In each take were

FISHING IN ABERDEENSHIRE. 261

included a certain number of bull trout, which, as fish for
the table, carried away the palm, both in flavour and
firmness of flesh. No large fish were taken ; the heaviest
we landed weighed about i^lbs. and the heaviest taken
by any angler at the inn during our stay scaled 2lbs.

The attractions of Newburgh are not confined to
fishing. The sport of mushrooming may be indulged in
when the trouting is slack. There is a spot on the left
bank of the river, just above the bridge, which, in a favour-
able season provides splendid sport for the enthusiastic
mushroomer. Recreation may also be found in the
curious game of semi-billiards, which flourishes in the
back premises of the Udney Arms, and at which the
landlord is an adept. The local golfing links have been
already alluded to.

One thing alone cast a gloom upon the otherwise
delightful holiday. We captured sea-trout and bull-
trout galore, but failed in the attainment of the chief
object of our visit — the humorous boatman still eluded
pursuit. One morning, indeed, a new boatman turned
up wearing a most extraordinary Tam-o'-Shanter, the
work no doubt of skilful and loving hands. This Tam-
o'-Shanter, was a wonderful example of the knitter's
art, involving the dropping and taking up of stitches
innumerable, and appearing to have broken out into
no end of bobs and tassels ; it gave a ludicrous appear-
ance to the wearer. On seeing the gillie with his
comical head-gear, '* Eureka ! " wc each mentally
exclaimed. It was nothing of the sort. Tiiat gillie
was an honest, God-fearing man, without a particle of

262 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

fun, except in his bonnet and a peculiar use of the
diminutive termination. He lived just a "bittie" from
Newburgh, and it was just for a "whilie" that he lived
there.

The journey back to Manchester was rather a sad
affair, and was made additionally melancholy by the
temporary loss at Perth of a creel containing two French
pears, two novels, three pipes, two tobacco pouches, and
four specially selected cigars which had been reserved in
spite of all temptations to be consumed after dinner at
the Golden Lion, an excellent hotel at Stirling, where
we generally console ourselves on our way south. Some
days after our return the creel arrived with everything
intact except those cigars. Whoever took care of that
creel had a good nose for a cigar, and all honour to him.

Thus ends the paper, and the serious question
arises: — how far does it conform to the theory propounded
in the opening ? Alas ! not at all. Where are the grand
descriptions of scenery and the historical allusions 1 You
must still search for these in the pages of Murray,
which is unfortunately wanting from the writer's book-
shelves. Where is the humorous boatman t You must
still search for him in the pages of Punch and the
veracious narratives of other anglers. Lastly, where are
the drinks ?

ARUNDINES
PISCATORUM MANCUNIENSIUM.

THE BONNIE BROWN TROUT.

^/r— "The Roast Beef of Old England."

When hunting men dine, one is tempted to doubt
If they think other sportsmen entitled to shout,
But while I've a lung I'll be loyal to trout.

Chorus. — Here's to the trout of old England,

And here's to the bonnie brown trout.

Compared with the fox, I will venture to tell
That the trout bears the contrast remarkably well ;
He has all Reynard's cunning, but none of his smell.
Chorus. — Here's, etc.

You don't go and hunt him with hound and with horn,
Breaking down all the fences and trampling the corn,
And leaving the heart of the farmer forlorn.
Chorus. — Here's, etc.

You don't find him stealing a cock or a hen.
Or abstracting a lamb or two out of the pen ;
He's a soul above playing such tricks upon men.
Chorus. — Here's, etc.

His diet is modest; with glittering eyes,
He gives his attention to minnows and flies.
How patient his watch! and how graceful his rise !
Chorus. — Here's, etc.

266 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

The hunting man's sport is upset by the frost,
And he stands by the fire and swears at the cost
Of the com that's consumed in the weeks that are lost.
Chorus. — Here's, etc.

Not so with the angler; the skies may be ill,
But his trusty old rod has no belly to fill;
His creel and his tackle are running no bill.
Chorus. — Here's, etc.

So here's to the trout, sirs, and long may he rise
To quicken our pulses and gladden our eyes;
May he tighten our lines, and fight game till he dies.
Chorus. — Here's, etc.

R. GODBY.

ANGLERS' EVENINGS. 267

THE SCIENTIFIC ANGLER*

^j>— "Polly Perkins."

I'm a scientific angler, and make it my line

Observations of temperature with flies to combine ;

With barometer and thermometer, and heaven knows what

not,
A vast amount of information together I've got.

Cliorus. — I tabulate and I fabulate with my note-book in
hand,
As complete a scientific angler as walks on dry
land.

In the crown of my hat there's a gauge for the rain,
Anemometers revolve about the top of my brain ;
With a net to catch Ephemerae my equipment's complete,
And I'm scientifically clothed from my head to my feet.
Chorus. — I tabulate, etc.

* A few yearn itiju the Muiichesier Aiiglen' .\»MH.i;«tiuii ituught i<i »Ij1.uii by tlie
utMCryutiun of their membcrt a nuinlier uf facts which they \v-i«hoil to tabulate,
rotating tu tcm|>crature »i air and water, ilirecliun <jf wind, character v>f »lreani, utatc
of w;acr, hatch uf flics, etc., anil tlicir beuiuK \i\nm >|iurt. 'llicy iMUOil a iiulc-buok in
whiji to recurd the uLncrvalion% m pr<>|>Gr order. 'I'his cAplanatioii will make
Mr. (HMlby'.s luics intvUiitiblc

268 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

Water-flies have two orders, our note-book declares :
The Ncuroptera, or nerve-winged; the Trichoptera with hairs;
If an angler's bills are in arrear, the neuroptera he shuns,
For he scorns to simulate an interest in the family of Duns.
Chorus. — I tabulate, etc.

I hooked a trout one day, and so hot grew the fight

That the thread in my thermometer went clean out of sight ;

I was very parched, and, sure enough, when the fish broke

my fly.
My sympathetic old barometer had marked " very dry."
Chorus. — I tabulate, etc.

My custom is to enter up my notes every night,
And to specify what flies are on, whether " flat or upright ;"
But I often find it difficult, though I can't imagine why,
To decipher clearly in the morning the name of each fly.
Chorus. — I tabulate, etc.

An example from my note-book may serve as a guide,

But the name of this angler need not be supplied ; —

The wind and weather, fish and flies, it would seem, I've

forgot.
But the whisky's "character" was excellent, and the "state

of water " — hot.

Chorus. — I tabulate, etc.

One lesson from our note-book to heart we can lay,

Like the families of insects, we all have our day ;

We now are in the larva stage ; may we hope, like these flies,

When our time arrives for transformation, in perfection to

rise.

R. Godly.

ANGLERS' EVENINGS. 269

MY ROD AND I.

My rod and I are ancient friends,

Long years we've held together ;
Through life's bevvild'ring odds and ends,

And most in cloudy weather.
And, angel-like, both keen and true,

In all good service ready ;
In blustering storm or cloudless blue,

Our friendship's firm and steady.

And oft my faithful rod and I

Have tramped with silk and feather,
When merry birds sang in the sky.

By woodland and by heather.
And when we part, as part we must,

And life-long friendship sever,
Old time may turn me into dust, —

Till then we're friends for ever.

T. E. PR ITT.

270 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

HEY, HO, FOR THE TROUT!

Air — " Lancashire Morris Dance."

Hey, ho, the lively speckled trout,

A lusty trout for me O !

To rise at my fly, and to leap full high,
To rush and fling till my reel shall sing,
Ah, then I cry " none so happy as I."

Hey, ho, for the trout O !

Hey, ho, the silver grayling bright,

Yes, he's the fish for me O !

To flash in the light, in his dashing fight,

To rise and play on an autumn day.

He needs all your skill before him you kill.

Hey ! the grayling for me O !

Hey, ho, the salmon is the fish,

A salmon clean for me O !

If your steel he meet, how your pulses beat,
As he tears along on your tackle strong ;
How your heart doth fall as he goes with it all
Hey ! a salmon for me O !

ANGLERS' EVENINGS. 271

Hey, ho, the beauty barred perch.

The prickly perch for me O !

Who bites with a will, and takes no bait ill,
A worm or a grub, minnow, dace or chub.
Whose fin's like a knife, and who fights for his life.
A red finned perch for me O !

Hey, ho, the pike's the fish for me,

A slimy pike for me O !

You troll by the weeds, where you're sure he feeds.
And he'll snatch your dace in your very face.
But then, when he's found, he's mayhap twenty pound.
Hey, ho, for the pike O !

Hey, ho, the gudgeon is the fish,

But not the fish for me O !

For you sit in a punt when for him you hunt,
And loll in a chair when the weather's fair,
With a worm on your bend, and a fool at t'other end.
Ah, no gudgeon for me O !

Hey, ho, the jacksharp is the fish.

Ah, well, he once was for me O !

With a worm and a thread, with no hat on my head.
Ah, happy was the day that I passed in play,
No care to annoy that dirty little boy.

Hey ! the jacksharp's dtar to me O !

272 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

Hey, ho, the lively speckled trout,

A lusty trout for me O !

To rise at my fly, and to leap full high,
To rush and fling till my reel shall sing,
Ah, then I cry " none so happy as I."

Hey, ho, for the trout O !

A. H.

ANGLERS' EVENINGS. 273

THE CONTENTED ANGLER.

/J/>— Squire Bantam's Song from •' Dorothy,"

Contentment 1 give you, and all that it brings

To the Angler who's fully decided
To catch what he can, and be thankful that things

Are such as his luck has provided.
Some miss a good rise, and then swear at their flies,

Ever ready to seek an excuse ;
While others don't play their fish the right way.

Yet they wonder the creature breaks loose.

Otorus. — But here's to the man who is keen on his sport,
Who never lets patience or temper run short ;
Contented and happy though nothing he caught,
We'll pledge him in wine, when fishermen dine.

One tries a wrong fly, and he yet wonders why

AH the trout do not greedily take it,
Yet ask the same "fella" to cat your umbrella,

And note his head how he will shake it ;
Then why is it right, if his own appetite

Of the proffered umbrella fights shy.
To blame the poor trout if he turns up his snout

At a wholly incongruous fly?

Chorus. — But here's, etc.

274 ANGLERS' EVEIVINGS.

Some anglers, I fear (though I hope none are here),
Treat their sport in a manner half-hearted;
And think they should see an exact £. s. d.

For the guinea with which they have parted.
To such I would say, — "With such feelings away,

That is not the true spirit of sport,"
No sportsman is he who will measure his fee
By the price of the fish he has caught.

Chorus. — But here's, etc.

R. GODBY.

ANGLERS' EVENINGS. 275

AWAY THEN TO THE BREEZY NORTH.

The sun climbs high the azure sky

The snow hath left the hills,
The river gently murmurs by,

And music's in the rills ;
The lark pours forth his matchless song,

The thrush sings in the dale,
And echoes sweet the notes prolong,

Repeating the old tale.

Chorus. — Away then to the breezy North,
Where anglers may delight
In gentle sport with spotted trout,
Or with the Fcrox fight.

Away, then, let us haste away

To Scotland — land of song!
Whose daughters are as lovely May,

Whose sons are brave and strong;
Upon whose hills the healthy breeze

Can soothe the brow of care,
Whose verdant dales and spreading trees

Arc fairest of the fair.

Chorus. — Away then, etc.

276 ANGLER'S EVENINGS.

Away, then, let us haste away

To Scotland's limpid streams!
And with the early break o' day —

Sweet as a poet's dreams —
Whip pool or loch, or "wimplin' burn,"

For captives to our creel,
Until at evening we return,
Content as anglers feel.

Chorus. — Away, then, etc.

George Davies.

ANGLERS EVENINGS. 277

THE OLDEST OF CRAFTS.

Air—" At the Fall of the Year."

I propose to invite

Your attention to-night
To a claim that as anglers we hold,

To take the first place

In the sports of our race,
As I'll show from the records of old.

And if I've no case

I will gladly give place,
But at present I have n't a doubt

That the earliest dish

That man ate was a fish,
And, in all probability, trout.

Chorus. — Then here's to the sport,
May it never run short,
But ever have plenty of GO;
So fill up and shout,
Long life to the trout,
And the oldest of Crafts, yo, ho!
And the oldest of Crafts, yo, ho!"

27S ANGLER'S EVENINGS

Ichthyologists tell

Of a panic that fell
On the fishes some ages ago,

When with terror benumbed

Many thousands succumbed
To a sudden and terrible blow.

The professors declare,

With that sapient air
Wherein learned professors delight,

That the fossils they find

Make it clear to their mind
That this death was begotten of fright.
Oiorus. — Then, here's, etc.

But, taking to task

Our professor, we ask,
"Can you tell us the cause of this fear?"

Then he looks very grave,

And his answer is suave
As he says "Well, it's not very clear;"

But the angler steps in.

And he says, with a grin,
" If you cannot explain it, I can :

'Twas some wag of a trout

That had let the cat out,
And announced the arrival of Man."
Chorus. — Then, here's, etc.

ANGLER'S EVENINGS. 27^

In the matter of streams,

It undoubtedly seems
That Eden was very well off;

And that angling began

With the very first man
We assert — though the critic may scoff ;

For how to kill time

In that beautiful clime
Must have bothered old Adam, no doubt,

Till he hit on the plan,

Like a sensible man,
Of tickling the Paradise trout.

C/wrus. — Then here's, etc

In the days of the Ark,

When the heavens were dark.
And the waters had covered the earth,

The jolly old trout,

Who was cruising about.
Must have thought it a matter of mirth.

For there, at his ease.

In the tops of the trees.
Regaling on excellent food,

He said, " To my mind,

'Tis a very ill wind
That serves to blow nobody good."

Chorus. — Then, here's, etc.

28o ■ ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

Now the patience of Job
Is the theme of the globe,

And that he was an angler is sure ;
For he says in his book
That you can't with a hook

The wily leviathan lure.
As to Jonah's ill fate,
Though it's sad to relate

How he to the fishes was thrown,
Yet we see in this act
The remarkable fact

That ground-baiting wasn't unknown.
Chorus. — Then, here's, etc.

Then we'll drink as we ought

To so ancient a sport —
Let your glasses be filled to the brim :

What sportsman can boast

Of a heartier toast
Than " The trout, and for aye may he swim ! "

May he rise in his might,

And with energy fight ;
{dim) And when his last struggle is o'er,

May he never regret

'Twas an angler whose net
Brought him safely at last to the shore.
. Chorus. — Then, here's, etc.

R. GODBY.

ANGLERS' EVENINGS. 281

WHEN SPRING FIRST DONS HER DAINTY
DRESS.

When Spring first dons her dainty dress,

And decks her brow with flowers.
When birds their gentle wooing press,

From out the budding bowers ;
We'll seek the graceful flowing stream.

Where alder boughs entangle,
And care will vanish like a dream,

While we enjoy our angle.

And if the speckled beauties rise,

And sport attends our leisure,
We'll not complain of smaller size.

Denied a larger treasure ;
For why ! as every angler knows,

His art content hath taught him.
And as the gentle pastime grows.

New joys are ever brought him.

Then let us sing the angler's joys.

By lake, or loch, or river,
When free from city smoke and noise,

His nerves in rapture quiver ;

ANGLERS' EVENINGS,

With gentle tug of spotted trout,

Or strain of salmon fighting,
Long time before the victor's shout,

Or victor's eye delighting.

George Davies.

ANGLERS' EVENINGS. 283

WE'LL NEVER SAY DIE WITH A WHINE!

luiie — "The Old Brigade." — Odoardo Barri.

Where are there joys like the anglers' true,

When they fish by the river's side ?
Wading its shallows carefully through,

To pools which smoothly glide.
Always ready and undismayed,

Always merry and wise ;
Danger scouting, and never afraid,

Seeking each speckled prize.

Chorus. — Then steadily, deftly, we'll handle,
Steadily rod and line.
Fishing along, singing this song.
We'll never say die with a whine !

What is more sweet on a winter's night,

When the wind bloweth loud and cold ?
To sit by the fire when burning bright.

With cronies true and old :
Talking over what we have done,

And what we mean to do ;
Of some rare sport, or of some good fun,

And friendships warm and true.
Chorus. —'Wi^w steadily, etc.

284 ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

We feel the loss of a trusty friend

We have fished with in days gone by,
But new ones will come a hand to lend,

With willing heart and eye ;
We'll share our pouch, or taste the flask

Of brothers when we meet,
With right good will of their welfare ask,

With right good will each greet.
Chorus. — Then steadily, etc.

All these verses to be sung only to the music of
the first verse in " The Old Brigade."

It would be well if the chorus after each verse

were sung once through by the soloist, and a second

time by the company, the soloist, of course, starting it

and helping if need be.

George Davies.

ANGLER'S EVENINGS. 285

COME BRING YOUR RODS.

Aij- — "John I'eel."'

Come, bring your rods to the sweet green fields,
O come, while the grey dawn the bright sun shields,
O come, share the joy that each streamlet yields,
And we'll all fill our creels of a morning.

Chorus. — For the day is awake and the lark overhead,

The bold trout are moving o'er each gravelly bed,
Come ! Anglers, arise, ere the dewdrop be fled,
And the sun spoil the pride of the morning.

Just for to-day let us fish, while we dream
That Care is drowned in the deep, deep stream,
And Hope kills Fear with her soft sweet beam,
As we all fill our creels of a morning.
Chorus. — For the day, etc.

Down where the mill-tail gently glides.
Behold how the March -brown gaily rides,
Lo ! there — a " two pounder " with silv'ry sides,
Which we'll put in our creel of a morning.
Chorus. — For the day, etc.

286 ANGLER'S EVENINGS.

Our gentle craft is devoid of strife,
As a happy man and a loving wife,
And there is no boon like a quiet life.
Or a well-filled creel in the morning.
Chorus. — For the day, etc.

T. E. Pritt.

Abel Heywood & Son, Printers, Manchester.

[Second Edition. Price 6s. cloth. With Illustrations.]

ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

Papers read before the Manchester Anglers' Association.

Contents :

'• Let patience have her perfect work," by Col. J. L
Mawson, C.E. — Trout Fishing in Norway, by Abel
Heywood, junr. Part L : Bergen to Laerdal. Part IL :
Laerdal to Christiania. — The Anglers' Joy, by W.W. —
The Mind of Fishes, by F. J. Faraday, F. L. S. — Rod
Fishing off the Isle of Man, by E. G. Simpson. — A Conger
Story, by Edwin Waugh. — An October Day among the
Grayling, by David Reid. — Note on the Grayling and
the PoUan, by Henry Simpson, M.D. — Fish out of Water,
by Crabstick. — Angling in the Irwell, by Edward Corbett. —
Notes on the Chemical Constitution of Fishing Waters
and of the Irwell, by Charles Estcourt, F.I.C., F.C.S.—
The Anglers' Flowers, by Craven. — The Wensleydale
Yore and its Tributaries, by Thomas Harker. — The Eden
at Armathwaite, by Fredk. Kenderdine. — A Dream of
SpringTimeat Pen-y-Bont, by George Davies. — The Lochs
and Rivers of Sutherland, by William Bantock. — Notes on
the Natural History, Antiquities, etc., of Sutherland, by

P . — An Intercepted Letter, by An Anglers' Wife. —

The Raid to Kirkcudbright, by the Raiders. Chap. I. :
The Scene. Chap. II. : In Action. Chap. III.: A Nicht
at Lochinvar. Chap. IV. : At the Clachan of Fintry. —
St. Boswell's and the Tweed, by Henry Vannan, M.A. —
The Bibliography of Angling, by Charles Estcourt, F.I.C.,
F.C.S.

"A singularly interesting collection of fishing papers." — Alheuitum.

" A number of papers so contributed by menil)ers of the Club, have
l)ecn published in a volume under the title of ' Anglers' Evenings,' and
vcr)' delightful reading the volume is." — Scotsman.

[Price 6s. cloth]

ANGLERS' EVENINGS.

Second Seriks.

With Illustrations by GEORGE SHEFFIELD and others.

Contents :

*• The Coach, the Coached, the Coachman," by George
Sumner, B.A. — One Way to the Tweed, by Abel Hey wood,
Junr. — Tweedside, with a few Practical Hints, by John O.
Mackenzie. — The Meres of Shropshire, by George Davies. —
Three Fishers, by Arthur Hibbert. — Toome Bridge, by
Henry Brownbill. — A Day on a Staffordshire Mere, by
David Reid. — H. L. Rolfe, " In Memoriam," by Francis
Francis. — A Quarter of an Hour on the Wye, and the
Wherefore, by George Sumner. — "We'll all go a-fishing
to-day, by George Davies. — Paternoster, or Boiled Cockles,
by George Davies. — A Week in Mid-Wales, by James
Lauderdale Wilson. — Analysis of Fishing Waters: The
Kibble and BolHn, by C. Estcourt, F.I.C., F.C.S.—
Certain Chronicles of Pen-y-bont. Part I., Chap. I. :
Introductory, by David Reid. Part I., Chap. II.: Our
Opening Day, by David Reid. Part 11. : An April
Holiday, by E. G. Simpson. Part III.: "Glorious
Summer ! " by Robert Burn. — " We'll Angle and Angle
Again," by Henry Lawes ; arranged by Henry Stevens,
Mus. Bac. — A Fishing Adventure in Japan, by Eberu
Ewodu. — A Letter from Norway, by An Angler's Wife. —
The Conditions of Vision in Fishes, by the Hon. Sec. —
Fishes' Ee-seet ; or, Th' Angle o' Incidents, by Arthur
Hibbert. — The Fens and Fen Slodgers, by Cecil de
Gonville. — Pre-historic Fishing, by F.J. Faraday, F.L.S. —
Rambling Recollections of Fishing Days on the Aberdeen-
shire Don, by H. Vannan, M.A.

" A more interesting, brighter, or more useful book upon fishing than
this series of experiences it would be difficult to find." — Illustrated
Sporting and Dramatic Times.

" This second series of 'Anglers' Evenings ' is in many respects an
improvement on the fiist — good as that was. . . Mr. George Sheffield's
four carbon sketches are real gems. . . . The papers are all of them
good." — Fishing Gazette.

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Los Angeles

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