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BERKELEY

GENERAL
UCRARY

UNIVERSITY OF
CALIFORNIA

M. SCOTT

00 ttorier

THE WONDERFUL TROUT

Printed at the Edinburgh University Press
By T. and A. CONSTABLE,

FOB
DAVID DOUGLAS.

LONDON . . . SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT
AND CO., LTD.

CAMBRIDGE . . MACMILLAN AND BOWES.
GLASGOW . . . JAMES MACLEHOSE AND SONS.

THE

WONDERFUL TROUT

. HARVIE-BROWN

' Thus does the salmon vault.'

DRYDEN.

EDINBURGH : DAVID DOUGLAS
10 CASTLE STREET

1898

PEEFACE

IN all scientific endeavour and elaboration,
those who strain after perfection, and put
off that hour when they hope to get beyond
criticism, only stand in their own light and
in the light of real discovery.

By the time they decide (i.e. if they ever
do) to publish the results of many years'
experience, it may be then they only do so
and find there is ' nothing new under the
sun/ Such delay is more likely to end in
disappointment and chagrin than if they
published prematurely. It is the embryo of
a new idea which adds to future knowledge,
because it sets many a-thinking years before
the thought- wave would be otherwise started.
If Darwin had more elaborated before pub-
lishing, Wallace might have outstripped him.

M842706

VI THE WONDERFUL TROUT

And if he had, would scientia have been
better forwarded than it is now ? This strain-
ing after perfection is a great loss to science,
though we do not advocate the other extreme
of unripe, unthought-out data. The happy
medium, of course, is hard to hit.

This may seem a pretentious Preface to a
' littel worke^ but we hope there may appear
in it at least a germ of sensibility.

DUNIPACE, LAKBERT,
28th Sept. 1898.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTORY

PAGE

Up-stream fishing — Scientific and unscientific anglers
— ' Flailing down - stream ' — Attractions of
angling, 1-5

DEPRECATORY

' Record baskets '—Bad weather conditions— Tem-
peratures of air and water — Hatch-off of fly-
food — March browns and Early duns — The
rising of trout dependent upon the comparative
temperatures of air and water — * Flailing ' —
Length of season for brown trout — The c down-
streamer,' 6-13

III

SIZE AND AGE OF TROUT

The Spey as a type of a Highland stream— Small
and large rivers compared as to their trout pro-
ductiveness— The age of trout, .... 14-18

Vlll THE WONDERFUL TROUT

ANGLING REQUISITES

PAGE

Catalogues of tackle-makers — Choice of a rod —
Different woods used in rod-making — Gut —
Flies, 19-21

DEFENCE OF UP-STREAM FISHING

Fly fishing—' When shall we go a-fishing ? '—Worm-
fishing— Down-stream fishing compared with up-
stream—The ' down-streamer '—Fishing up not
suitable for salmon — Advantage of fishing down
when the river is high— Against precedent to
persist too long over one spot— An example to
the contrary— 'Tailing' and 'bulging,' . . 22-38

FLIES

Odd notions respecting tiies— Trout's appreciation of
colour—' Greenwell's Glory '—Method of dressing
a 'Wee Jock Scottie '—Nomenclature of flies-
Light and colour effects— The ' Yellow Sally '—
Coloured flies and condition of the water and
sky— Table for deductions— Notes kept upon
hatching of the natural insects on the water, . 39-57

VII

ON TROUTING WITH THE FLY — THE PRACTICE

How to fish streams — Rapid casting necessary —
' Short-rising '—Places where to fish— Down- and
up-stream fishing— Effect of wind, . . . 58-66

CONTENTS IX

VIII

THE CAPTURE

PAGE

Methods of landing trout— The landing-net — The

correct way without a landing-net. . . . 67-72

WORM IN CLEAR WATER

Tackle necessary— Sinkers— Effect of wind— Necessity
of fishing up-stream — How to deal with a head-
wind— Fishing with a combination of fly and
worm — Fresh worms and 'scoured' worms, . 73-85

WEATHERS AND ELECTRICAL DISTURBANCES

'Time of the Take '—Weather conditions— 'Short-
rising' of trout and salmon — Artificial electric
light and rising fish — Night fishing — Salmon-
fishing experiences on the Inver — Fresh-run fish
—'Moving a fish,' 86-100

FOOD-SUPPLIES AND RELEVANT MATTERS

* Times of the take ' regulated by temperatures of air
and water and amount of sun heat — 'Stodging'
effect of elvers and worms — Old and young trout
— Sea-trout — Influences of geological conditions
upon trout and trout-food — Curious instances —
A close time — Sheep drains and general drainage

THE WONDERFUL TROUT

of river slopes—The averages of killable trout —
Fishing with salmon roe — Process of population,
and dispersal of insect life in a stream—' Tailing
of trout'— Trout taking in a hailstorm— Trout
not taking before rain — Trout feel warm or cold
in the hand when taken out of water — Tempera-
tures of air and water — Good and bad spring
baskets — Good and bad May baskets — Illustra-
tions of good and bad days — History of a bad
day on the Deveron — A good day in May — The
history of a season of extreme drought and heat
— What the effect would be of a succession of
such seasons — The history of a season of great
cold and rain, and dark heavy water, after a
mild February and March — Measurements and
weights of trout in 1898, 101-139

XII

TROUTING WITH OTHER DEVICES — CLOSE TIMES
AND POACHING

Green worm in a yellow flood — Salmon roe — Snatch-
ing— Guddling — Ottering — Cross-lining — Fishing
with twelve flies on a cast — Set lines — Netting —
Burning the water — Dynamite — Night fishing —
Blue-bottle fly— Creeper— Diving minnow— Par-
tail and minnow— The number of flies used by
fishermen, 140-145

XIII

CLOSE TIMES FOR TROUT

Must be suited to a large variety of circumstances —
Legislation a difficult and intricate matter — Trout
poaching — Prices of trout — Sea-trout — Netting —
Large and small fish, 146-152

CONTENTS XI

XIV

NOTIONS, NOTES, AND ODDS AND ENDS

PAGE

Trout in shoals — Some effects of an abnormal season
— Compensating temperatures of sea and river
water — Migratory fish — A polluted river and the
flavour of trout — Origin of salmonidse — Deformi-
ties among trout — Descriptions of weathers —
Winds — Water gauge — Skies — Water — Weather
— Permanganate of potash as a clarifier of ponds
and tanks — Formaline, 153-173

INTRODUCTORY

WITH most of Stewart's practice and the
outcome of his teaching as a north country
angler we agree, because, during all our novi-
tiate and practice, and all the more strongly
of later years (after many seasons mostly
devoted to salmon-fishing), we have ever
been enthusiastically an upholder of the
up-stream method of angling for trout, and
that almost from the first time we perused
Stewart's invaluable treatise. As a boy we
had practised it, and again as a 'grown-
up.'

Since then we have read and studied
every succeeding edition and compared
them, noting the changes and slight altera-
tions in the texts of each, which in several
cases are modifications of the originals,
according as the seasons may have altered,
or as trout have become more educated (or
A

2 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

frightened), and ' fisherfolk * have become
more abundant, and anglers — good and bad
— have increased in number. As we believe,
the worst enemy the truly scientific angler
has lies in the troops of unscientific anglers
who thresh every stream as with a flail, and
cast their long shadows over the thin waters.

In our present volume, and all during
our practice, we have every season taken
up Stewart's points ; and we have patiently
endeavoured, day by day, to prove their
correctness or discover their imperfections.
We have also, by careful analyses of re-
peated experiences and by experiments, as
conscientiously tried to give reasons for
many, if not for all, of Stewart's conclu-
sions, and his well-proved array of facts.
Examples of this may be found under the
headings of ' Temperatures of Air and
Water/ 'Descriptions of Weather/ 'State
of Water'; and the Tables, showing the
averages of various conditions and circum-
stances— in fact, the raison d'etre of his
whole arguments and practice.

Where we find, as we believe, reasons to
differ, or where changes in conditions have

INTRODUCTORY 3

supervened since Stewart wrote, causing
changes which he did not, and most likely
could not, foresee, we have tried to give
reasons as they occurred to us that came
within our belief and practice.

Pure theory will be kept out so far as
possible, though we may claim that cer-
tain deductions present themselves. But
'Theories and Notes and Notions' may
have a chapter to themselves.

And now, once for all, let it be understood
at this outset, we are not offering a treatise
on trout-fishing generally, but these pages
refer to river-fishing only. Stewart in his
first Preface says: 'The information re-
ceived (from others) we have thoroughly
tested before admitting it.' In like manner
we claim to have done the same, at least
during the last eight or nine years' trout-
fishing out of a total experience of, alas !
close upon forty years' actual angling for
trout and salmon — for we began under
tuition, before any 'standards' had to be
'passed'; so, if the education was slower,
possibly it may prove more stable and lasting.

Stewart in his Preface to the Fourth

4 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

Edition, whilst acknowledging the favour-
able reception of previous editions by the
press and by many eager and interested
pupils, still points out (p. x) that 'dark-
ness rather than light is the deliberate
choice of the million/ and this fact we hope
to bring out more emphatically. Notwith-
standing the aforesaid reception, the average
local angler of to-day (A.D. 1898) does not
fish up-stream in any state, on any stage of
water, upon at least nine -tenths of the rivers,
large or small, of Scotland.

We do not desire to appear even to
assume a higher standard of authority than
we honestly believe we possess. We humbly
think, after these many years, that we
cannot compete with hundreds of other
anglers, old and young (young especially !),
whose opportunities and experiences, energies
and abilities, have very likely been extended
over double or treble or ten times the areas
that ours have. What we try to aim at is
to get a large body of fisherfolk to give
up that terrible practice of 'flailing down-
stream' under all conditions of flood and
drought, thereby frightening all the decent-

INTRODUCTORY 5

sized fish for fifty yards before them, and
take to the more scientific practice now so
long advocated by up-stream anglers. We
lay the principal blame of deterioration
of well- stocked rivers upon this suicidal
practice.

Angling (scientific angling, and even — as
all know — even the coarsest forms of the
sport) becomes a passion to any one who has
tasted its delights and disappointments, its
concomitant pleasures and regrets, and the
charms associated with the ' Contemplative
Man's Recreation.'

DEPRECATORY

' Subsequent experience has convinced us, not
only as good, but better, sport may be had in
clear water than in coloured.' — [P. A. Preface,
p. xii, 4th Ed.]

FOR many years past we have refused to
6 flail ' with a two-handed rod from the bank
of a flooded water under conditions such as
the following. But there is, we believe, a
large majority of local anglers, and also of
itinerant anglers, whose chief object is to go
out and kill something, and whose apprecia-
tion of that little word yclept 'sport' con-
sists in the size of their ' take/ whether the
fish be in good condition or not. ' Sport '
it no doubt is, but only, we maintain, in a
degree far below that obtained under the
different conditions we advocate. We do

DEPRECATORY 7

not ourselves enjoy ' sport ' under the follow-
ing circumstances : —

(a) When, early in the season, trout are
not in ' decent ' or even ' wonderful condition
for the time of year/ and are still half
starving, and only beginning to recuperate,
after the severe conditions of their natural
winter existence. Nor at such times as the
fishing papers are full of ' big, record baskets.'1
[Remember we speak of rwer-angling.]

(6) When, in early April, the sky is dark
and gloomy, or when only fitful flares of
sunlight intervene. When the rivers run
full and dark or inky black from combined
effects of sky and matter in suspension.
Sometimes these conditions are combined
with high gales of north and north-east
winds.

(c) When the temperature of the water is
vastly below that of the air, or when both
the temperatures of air and water are below

1 We associate many of these records, in a whimsical
sense, with an ancient rhyme which began — 'Fe Fi
Fo Fum,' etc. — but some others certainly issue from a
few informed sources also which are situate north of the
Borders and north of the Grampians. We trust none of
our ' not-guilty ' English or other friends will feel hurt at
the allusion.

8 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

a certain point, about which we will have
more to say further on.

In early spring it is not always on
warm days, with slowly heating water,
that the biggest hatch - off of fly - food
takes place. Flotillas of March Browns
and Early Duns are most often wit-
nessed when the air is colder than the
water, i.e. if both are above the certain
point on the thermometer scale. A bright,
warm blink of sun occurring about the time
of the hatch-off of fly— say 10.30 to 11 or
12 noon — will certainly assist the hatch-off.
Not much before the time when snow-water
has cleared away do larvae rise to the surface
and become fly-food.

In the above statements it will be seen we
remove some portion of the emphasis which
Stewart puts upon the state of the weather (v.
p. 122) as the only, or principal, factor in the
birth of water-insect life. By long experience
we have come to the conclusion that the rising
of trout depends less upon the coldness or
warmth of the atmosphere separately than
upon the comparative temperatures ruling
between air and water ; and that if water be

DEPRECATORY 9

greatly lower in temperature than the air, trout
do not rise well. When both temperatures are
too low they do not rise well. But if the tem-
peratures are nearly equal, above about 53°
to 55°, they often do rise well ; and especially
in summer, if the temperature of the air be
cooler than that of the water, they rise best.
Often in a backward spring the water and
the air become colder as the day advances
instead of warmer, as we have repeatedly
proved, and this is most fatal to the hatching
off of water insects. A continuation of high
floods, and dark skies, and dark waters, with
these low temperatures, sum up the worst
circumstances that can befall the spring or
early summer angler, and, in consequence,
the trout fail to get into their best condition
from the absence of winged insect food.
Such a season was 1898, at least upon the
less aerated reaches of our rivers. Under the
above conditions, as we have said, we refuse to
' flail.' We often prefer to sit still when other
anglers are — in the words of Stewart — 'ex-
ercising unlimited patience ' (op. cit. p. 2). For
hours together we have in vain watched a
long, lovely reach of water, to detect the

10 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

motion of a fin, the ring, or, as an old mentor
of our own youth used to call it, ' No' even
the mairk o' a troot.' Nor is it only that we
have watched such a reach, but we have over
and over again fished it ; and if we caught
some trout, they were oftener than not
smaller than our river average, or if large, in
poor condition, ' without ' (so to speak) ' a
kick in them/ We have fished innumerable
times under precisely similar and recorded
conditions, and have stopped in the middle
of killing trout, after putting back many a
trout which, had his weight corresponded
with his measurements, would have weighed
over the Ib. (See Table at p. 137.)

To reiterate in other paraphrase, we seldom
care to c flail ' and ' chuck and chance it ' with
a two-handed rod or ' pole ' from the bank of
a flooded or high-coloured water in early
spring (nor, indeed, at any season) when the
trout are not in full condition, on a dark,
gloomy, sunless day, and the temperatures
do not improve as the day advances ; when
the water looks black as ink; when the
surface of a pet glide or ripply reach bears
the colour of a new pair of patent leather

DEPRECATORY 11

boots or a Lincoln and Bennett brushed the
wrong way, or when one has to use ' flees
that are not flies/ as big as a ' bumble-bee '
or the historical ' bee in the bonnet.' And if
we do, and bring the bigger trout home, we do
not eat them — unless, like the man with the
bad egg, we try to ' pick out the best bits/
We have known the same experiences when
the so-called ' finnocks,' caught by the sack-
ful, basketful, or trayful in early spring in our
estuarial waters, have been and constantly
are thrown out to the pigs. Just as soon
1 shoot a hen pheasant on Sunday morn ; on
a midsummer day, in standing corn/ Says
Stewart : ' It is unsportsmanlike in the
highest degree to kill fish that are of no
use/ and 'they are never in condition till
they get abundance of insect food ' (op. cit.
pp. 22, 23).

The question of 'butchery' spoken of by
Stewart, and his estimates of possibilities
in the way of large baskets, comes up. If
the ( sport ' of angling lies in the capture of
fish, it seems evident that the more fish the
better sport. We agree with this, but we
reserve the opinion, that such is not ' sport '

12 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

unless the fish are fit for human food after-
wards. In Stewart's estimates of sport he
quotes ' between May and October/ We are
inclined to quote between May and the end
of September (for Brown Trout) or, on a few
early streams, from, say, the 15th April to
the end of July, as the true fishing season
for Brown Trout in streams of Scotland.
September only in some streams (and lochs,
of course).

As to the quantities mentioned in his
famous statements — altered in the later
editions — these were written long ago, when
'fisherfolk' and anglers were much scarcer,
and these need not be now used in evidence
nor argument except as items of antiquarian
interest and in a comparison of then and now.
Tempora mutantur et mutamur in illis.
But we incline to believe and agree with
Stewart when he writes, ' Angling is much
better sport now than it was fifty years ago '
(pp. 31, 32), and we agree with his reasons.
But we do hold, it is hard indeed to see
true ' sport ' spoiled by cubic-length shadows
of men, and sixteen-foot poles, thrown all
over the water by the ' down-streamers/ when

DEPRECATORY 13

the sky is clear, the river low, the sun high
overhead in the blue, and, as likely as not,
behind them \ Thus three or four miles of
water capable of supplying sport to three
or four scientific anglers are, day after day,
season after season, destroyed upon many
reaches by one man and a pole.

Ill

SIZE AND AGE OF TEOUT

STEWART in his great treatise evidently refers
with most experience and knowledge to his
southern or border streams. This becomes
evident when he speaks in a general way of
the size of trout being dependent upon the
size of rivers and feeding qualities. He
instances some more northern rivers as ex-
amples of streams where ' trout are neither
numerous nor large' (v. p. 19). Thus he
instances Spey and most Highland streams.
He is unfortunate in his selection of a type
in Spey. Spey holds very large trout over
all its reaches, and on its upper beats yields
excellent trout-fishing in the season. In
another place he assigns a curious reason
for the scarcity of trout in certain rivers.
He says : ' Small rivers produce more trout

SIZE AND AGE OF TROUT 15

in proportion to their size than large ones,
as a large river has not so much bed in
proportion to its size. It is principally the
bed of a river which yields the insects and
other food upon which trout live.' There
is undoubted truth in the remarks ; but in-
sufficient attention appears to have been given
to the great exceptions, if such indeed they
are. Thus Spey, Tay, Tummel, Don, Deveron,
Inver, and even his own Tweed ; do these not
class among larger rivers, and do they not
claim rank amongst our best trouting streams ?
Again he says : ' Trout are seldom so numer-
ous in rivers where salmon-par abound ; are
rarely such good trouting streams as those
where there are none, the small fish con-
suming a large proportion of the food of
the river/ We fail to reconcile our own
experiences with this latter statement, and
again instance the same rivers mentioned
above, which are not only large rivers, but
also rivers 'infested with par.' [Salmon
men ! don't look askance at the expression.
We are speaking of trout. If salmon-fry
eat much of the food, trout and salmon kelts
eat much of the fry.]

16 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

Now, as regards the age of trout, possibly —
indeed, almost certainly — at the time Stewart
wrote, there were not so many opportunities
of proving the ages of trout (v. p. 19); and
subsequent experiments and experiences
both of our own hatcheries, and our own
streams (and lochs and ponds), and even
more so of such as have been instituted in
some of our colonies at the Antipodes and
elsewhere, tell us much more than Stewart
then knew. We will only instance a few
examples known in our own experience or
obtained from what we consider thoroughly
reliable sources, e.g. —

A trout nineteen years in confinement was
seen by us in 1892. It was confined in a
drain close to the then-gamekeeper's house
on Castle Grant estates, near Grantown.
This fish was taken originally from Loch-an-
Dorb, along with others, and all except this
one were conveyed to the ponds at Cullen
House. This one had been overlooked and
came back in the carrier-tin. Mr. Temple-
ton, the keeper — of long years' service in the
Seafield family — had kept and fed it for nearly
twenty years, until it became so tame as to

SIZE AND AGE OF TROUT 17

feed out of his own and even strangers' hands.
The apparent size of the trout was about
thirteen inches or more, and weight at some-
what over the pound when we saw it. Mr.
Templeton died in July 1892, about one
month after we paid him a visit.

Again, in the Howietoun ponds, as we
were (alas !), and are, informed on the best of
authorities, the age of trout — or rather, we
should say, the age of growth in trout — there
does not usually exceed from five to seven
years, but the artificial conditions must be
considered. Of the age and growth of trout
transplanted we have had various experi-
ences, both from natural to natural sources
and depositories, from artificial to artificial,
and from artificial to natural. Of the first,
viz. in several lochs and streams of Assynt,
we found the growth rapid under the new
natural conditions, but in many cases we
found the deterioration afterwards equally
rapid. That meant aged fish, perhaps not
larger than six to the pound when introduced,
feeding up fast in muscular development,
but, likely as not, overtaxing their constitu-
tions before the time when their spawning
B

18 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

season arrived, and then rapid decadence. Of
this subject we may have more to say under
a later chapter, and when we come to speak
more pointedly of food supplies.1

New revelations have been made as regards
the life-history of the eel in salt water, since
this part of our writing was done.2 We
believe that our Salmon Commissioners have
almost as much to learn as regards the life-
history of our migratory fish in salt water ;
and that quite as interesting, and even
startling, results may yet be revealed.

1 Refer to Stewart's notes :— pp. 21-23, Preservation
and conservation ; p. 24, Causes of diminution of trout
in many streams ; p. 25, Effects of drainage — sheep and
cattle; p. 21, Elvers, and fly-food, and larvae, and con-
dition ; p. 32, Causes of deterioration, and the averages
of different streams.

2 International Zoological Congress, at Cambridge,
August 1898, q.v.

IV
ANGLING REQUISITES

ON this subject we have not much to say.
The best advice we can give is to buy
periodically, and bind up sets every few
years, of as many of our best tackle-makers'
catalogues as will make up a handy portable
volume of reference, and, as experience may
teach you, purchase therefrom.

Only where we differ from Stewart, or
where later improvements unknown in his
day give occasion, shall we have anything
to say, and then only where we have per-
sonally used these more important later
improvements.

The subject of the choice of a rod need
not be dilated upon. Indeed this seems
to us not to be a true subject for fair or
useful discussion in a book, and should be

20 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

reserved for personal and individual selec-
tion and practice. ' What is one man's food
is often another man's poison/ Custom,
strength of wrist, delicacy of touch and
manipulation must rule the style of rod and
tackle used. It seems to us that much of
what Stewart complained of, viz. ' excessive
pliability of rods made in Edinburgh/ has
long since been obviated both there and by
other makers, whether makers famed for
their greenheart trout-rods or makers famed
for their split-cane rods, the latter either
in toto or in combinations. We have not
hitherto had any direct experience of steel-
centred rods. Split-cane rods, such as now
can be obtained — only, however, from the
best makers — were not known at the time
Stewart wrote his complaint, nor were
greenheart rods so beautifully balanced and
presented as is now the case. Of joints, fer-
rules, bayonet-slots, and outside and inside
screws and whippings, much depends upon
the idiosyncrasy of the individual, not to
speak of his actual experiences. We our-
selves know what we like best of such as we
have used, and, it is to be expected, so should

ANGLING REQUISITES 21

other people. The advantages of thin gut
(and good) need not be rewritten, nor its
importance again be belauded. But our
belief may be expressed that for Scottish
streams the fine, clear, round gut (undrawn)
for fine fishing is the best, and a tapered
cast, though two feet shorter, is better than
a long cast made up of long lengths of finest
gut only. We see some anglers using warm
water to steep their gut and flies in. We
ourselves prefer cold. Lastly, we fully
re-echo Stewart's concluding sentences of
chapter iii. p. 54 But of flies we will have
more to say further on.

DEFENCE OF UP-STREAM ANGLING

CERTAINLY we look upon fly-fishing for trout,
under sporting conditions, as the acme of an
angler's pleasure. But not under the condi-
tions we have already pointed out. Never-
theless there are the seasons — those for
fly-fishing as a scientific recreation, and
others where fly-fishing is supplanted by
the almost equally fascinating ' worm-fishing
in clear water/ Regarding these seasons we
need not enlarge. They may, and do, vary
on rivers large and small, or according to
lateness or earliness, altitudes and local
conditions, but the best times for either and
for both have been repeatedly and correctly
pointed out.

Undoubtedly fly-fishing in low, clear water
is ' beyond compare the most difficult of all
the branches of the angler's art, and should

DEFENCE OF UP-STREAM ANGLING 23

therefore rank highest as " sport/' ' So says
Stewart, and he is rigid !

WHEN SHALL WE GO A-FISHING?

No bumble-bees are humming,
No willow catkins coming,

And the river's high and banked by cauld snaw-bree.
There 's nae liltin' o' the thrushes,
There 's nae cooin' o' the cushies,
And nae wadin' i' the watter tull the knee.

For it's cauld, cauld, cauld upon the lea ;
There 's nae growth atween the upland and the sea,
For there 's snaw ahint the dykes,
There Js a seugh amang the sykes,
And it's jist aboot as cauld as it can be.

Will we then gang a-fishin',
Whan the winter snaws are rinnin',
And the troots are lang and lank as they can be ? —
Na ! we will gang a-fishin'
When the poplar-trees are blushin',
And the bumble-bee is hunimin' ower the lea.

For we prefer troot-fishin'

Whan the troots are in condition,

And we 're wadin' i' the watter tull the knee ;

For it is o' nae avail

Tull gang fushin' wi' a flail —

As weel gang for sillocks l in the sea !

1 Podlies.

24 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

What more lovely than in a clear, low
'stickle/ below where tiny streamlets meet,
perhaps a foot in depth, or it may well be
not more than six inches, than to take out
by dexterous angling with the fly and a
tapered line, not more than fifteen feet from
top of rod in length, from six to eight or
more three-to-the-pound trout, and perhaps
a pounder as well, and this when the sky is
blazing blue without a cloud ! And when
this ' stickle ' is not more than twenty yards
in length, terminating in the big pool below
— the hold of every trout that is feeding on
the shallow — what more delightful than to
stalk its lower tail-race, work it up foot by
foot, pull each successive capture down into
the pool, and kill each on the channel below,
disturbing naught above ! Then, when you
have done with it, what more astonishing, it
may be to an onlooker, to observe the water
in the centre of the stream, as you cross over
to another similar summer ' stickle/ does not
take you so deep as the top of an ordinary
ankle-boot ? l

1 An excellent article upon the practice of this art —
Trout-Fishing in Rapid Streams— will be found in a

DEFENCE OF UP-STREAM ANGLING 25

Undoubtedly also, next to this method
ranks that of the scientific worm-fisher under
almost precisely similar conditions of sky
and water, but at a somewhat later season,
i.e. later in the summer. The second natur-
ally takes the place of the first when the
right season arrives. Fly-food is not taken
by trout after the proper fly-season ends
nearly to the same extent, nor with the
same eagerness ; and during the daytime, at
least, the best-conditioned trout and the
largest are sure to come at the worm if
properly presented under the correct con-
ditions of good angling and up-stream wind
and propitious weather, of which we will
have more to say.

But, avaunt ! Observe a long exciseman l

volume with that title, by H. C. Cutclifte, p. 110 et seq.
Excellent instructions also are to be found in How to
Catch Trout (D. Douglas, 1888), and in Fly-Fishing for
Salmon, Trout, and Grayling, by Edward Hamilton, M.D.,
1884. Also, some wise truths can be culled from Pritt's
Introduction to his North Country Flies (1886).

1 * Remember the black beetles, horrid things, and be
sure to well sprinkle the river-banks with ' ' Keating's
Powder," the unrivalled killer of fleas, beetles, moths.
Harmless to animals. Sold only in tins, 3d., 6d., and
Is. each.'

26 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

or some local angler who ' prefers the dark-
ness rather than the light/ as he comes
striding down the river's brink, a pole over
his shoulder, or waving like a poplar in a
gale over the devoted stream ; throwing his
coil far down before him, and covering
perhaps four miles of river-bank and acres
of water, not more than a foot or eighteen
inches in depth, which, however, hold trout
it is just about able to conceal.

Evening comes, and he comes back to
1 mine inn ' a sadder, perhaps, but often a no
wiser man. He complains bitterly of a
' bothering up-stream wind.' He produces
(or not, as he pleases) a few par and an odd
trout not much bigger than gudgeon, which,
with a backward wave of his sixteen- footer,
he had chucked into the nearest road of the
adjoining parish. He never thinks of com-
plaining of his ' cubits ' or his c pole,' or the
long shadows cast over four miles of water
which he has covered with his line ; nor does
he dream of apologising to other anglers —
who would have been content to fish correctly
any one half-mile or mile of the same, and
have brought in, say, seven or eight pounds

DEFENCE OF UP-STREAM ANGLING 27

of trout — as having destroyed the reach for
that day and probably for several.

As Stewart says, 'He plies his lures to
the terror and alarm of almost every trout
in the water.' That man, or such like him,
should only thrust his obnoxious presence
on the stream-side when the trout are roving
in a coloured water, or on an early April day
when the fish are in condition good enough
for him. He can then enjoy himself
according to his lights, and not interfere so
much with true 'sport/ Such fishing does
far more to make trout shy and cautious
than any amount of scientific angling.

Stewart in the days of his practice and
writing believed 'that ninety-nine out of
every hundred fishers fished down, and never
thought of attributing their want of success
to their doing so.' And at that time Stewart
(i.e. about 1857) had ' only met one or two
amateurs and a few professionals who fished
up-stream.3 In our own angling travels we
still find in A.D. 1896, and up to the present
date, 'darkness rather than light is the
deliberate choice' of by far the largest
number of (shall we say illiterate ?) fishermen.

28 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

But we have even heard the system of
down-stream fishing defended by men who
were not only educated men, but by some
who rank high as scientific thinkers, and
whose abilities as anglers are often praised.
It seems strange — to us at least — to hear the
reasons they give. How, for instance, can
they affirm that 'more water is covered in
down-stream fishing than in up-stream
fishing ' ? We admit the fact, but it is
covered by the line, not by the flies, and the
mileage is certainly, as we have shown, longer.
In other words, the river-bank is covered by
strides and the water by shadows, and clear
against the sky behind ' the man with the
pole ' is silhouetted, to the horror of every
trout within fifty yards. The streams are
'covered' by hops, skips, and jumps, and
unnatural jerks of an insect imitation. A
salmon-fisher must reach the lie of the fish,
and then hang his lure over it if he expects
to ' bring him up/ and that by casting down-
stream. But a trout-fisher, by 'covering'
a large extent of water ' fine and far off/ does
so with his line, not his flies, and passes over
feeding fish, frightens many — ten times more

DEFENCE OF UP-STREAM ANGLING 29

than arc caught — i.e. if he fishes in low, dear
water, where the up-stream angler makes his
baskets. On a half-flooded or amber water
it may be well to fish across the stream,
standing, however, well back from the verge,
and then allow your three flies — or four
are permissible at such times — to drift
down a few yards or feet, and then cast
again ; and often good baskets are thus
made, but it is not good enough in a low,
thin water. 'Fine and far off' seems to us
an exploded phantasy, so far at least as
Scottish streams are spoken of. We write
of Scottish sport. Possibly in the chalk
streams of Hampshire, with the dry or float-
ing fly, ' fine and far off' is still a necessity.
In this style of angling we have, we confess,
only served a novitiate. We would for
Scottish sport substitute the advice, 'In
water clear, cast fine and near/ up-stream, or
up and across, unless occasionally when it is
desirable to reach a rising fish, across, or
under the opposite bank, or properly to hang
a fly in a far-off eddy or swirl by changing
your position.

And now a few words about ' striking one's

30 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

fish.' As Stewart points out, in angling
down-stream, 'if a trout rises and an angler
"strikes" he runs the risk of pulling the
flies straight out of its mouth, whereas in
fishing up, its back is to him and he has
every chance of bringing the hook into
contact with its jaws'(t>. p. 65). Later we
will speak of the colour of sky and cloud as
a factor in what is called 'short-rising' of
trout (and salmon) ; but meanwhile, apart
from these conditions, causes — proofs, we
believe — can be found in a fault in the
practice as pointed out by Stewart.

Either in up- or down-stream fishing the
angler 'strikes/ as it is usually termed, or
gently raises his hand. Some ' strike from
the reel/ and to accommodate this class of
anglers the makers of the ' Requisites ' will
now meet him half-way. Except on rare
occasions we look upon this 'striking from
the reel' as only a clumsy excuse for too
excitable nerves and want of coolness and
self-possession. The advice by an onlooker
would probably be, if he wished to increase
the excitable condition of the angler, ' Don't
get excited : keep cool. Take a drink, and

DEFENCE OF UP-STREAM ANGLING 31

you will have less short rising/ (The reply
might probably be ' Darn ! ' or something
stronger.)

The seemlier way we believe to be a
gentle raising of the hand, or what may be
described as the ' turning of a key in the
well-oiled lock of a door/ 1 This is easy in the
case of up-stream fishing with a short, taut
line between rod-top and tail-fly, but the more
difficult the longer the line used, and when
a big slack of the line has to be recovered.

The other advantages of fishing up are
all detailed by Stewart. Undoubtedly up-
stream fishing is harder exercise than is
down-stream fishing, and we will endeavour
to illustrate this. On one occasion in which
we were ourselves fishing up along with an
angling friend, and we were passing one
another, taking hundred-yards reaches time
about. The one counted the other's casts,
timing with a stop-watch, and repeated the

1 We wrote this description at the time, either not
knowing that it was so written before, or forgetting that
we had read it (see Younger's River Angling, 2nd edit.,
1864, p. 127). Anyway, we believe in the description
as perhaps as accurate a one as can be foundr anywhere
in angling literature.

32 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

experiment over and over again to test its
accuracy. The conclusion was arrived at
that the one who was angling made fifteen
casts in one minute. He who was fishing
thus was not at the time aware of the pre-
sence behind him of his friend. Therefore if
a day's fishing be put down at, say, six hours
(we are usually content with much less),
fifteen a minute would give 5400 casts per
diem. By deducting one hour for lunch and
other intervals — ' fankles,' pipes, and landing
and netting one's fish — that figure would
be reduced to 4500 casts. As Stewart tells
us, the alighting of the fly is the most deadly
in the whole cast, therefore the oftener it is
repeated the better.1 Later on, when we
intend to speak of the actual process and
practice, and describe the fishing-up of a
reach or pool or stream, we may make the
reason of such frequent casting more dis-
tinct. Meanwhile let us ask the question :
How many casts will the down-stream fisher
make per hour, or per minute, when cover-
ing four miles of bank and acres of water

1 But we do not agree in this altogether with Stewart
(see further on).

DEFENCE OF UP- STREAM ANGLING 33

with his line. We leave the question to be
answered by the ' down-streamer/ The hard
work in ' down- streaming ' conies in, not for
the arms, and eyes, and mind, but in the
cubits, and the strides, and mileage, and
weight of the pole.

It is seldom needful to use a longer line
than one and a half times the length of the
rod — i.e. if wading up ; nor a longer rod
than a single-handed twelve-foot rod. Yet we
have seen otherwise good up-stream anglers
using too long a line, which ought to become
evident to themselves, if they observed the
continuous loss of time by 'fankling' and
subsequent mismanagement at the time of a
rise of fish — all hurry and little speed, curses
not loud but deep, and sometimes accom-
panied by frantic gestures. ' The nearer we
are to our flies the better we can use them,
and the greater the chance of hooking'
(p, 107).

But on large, heavy, and rapid rivers, such
as the Spey, where the current is strong — as,
for instance, on the Aberlour water and Rothes,
the former of which we are acquainted with
as a salmon-fisher — it is < most impossible ;
c

34 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

to wade up against the stream, and fishing
down is imperative. There, in the spring
months, local and other anglers wade in
long waders, or fish from the bank for trout
with long rods and big flies, with ' flies that
are not flies,' any more than a ' Spey Dog ' or
a 'Jock Scott' or a 'Durham Ranger 'is a
fly. These are thrown far out into the deep
streams, and worked just like a salmon fly,
and are taken by large and heavy trout.
But as a rule they are ' some saft i' the fish '
(i.e. somewhat soft in the flesh), and rather
1 woolly ' on the table.1 Such, however, are
better killed. Similar fishing may be had
on the large rivers like Tay and Tuinmel,
where up-stream angling would be imposs-
ible or too fatiguing. Such afford the best
chances to the adept down-streamer or the
man of cubits and a pole. We call it ' salmon-
fishing for trout.' Like ' Old Lloyd ' of
Scandinavian fame, he may wade up to his
navel, and whenever he feels tired could sit
down on a stone at the bottom ! He would

1 Whimsically, about the same difference in flavour as
there is between Highland black-faced mutton five years
old, and Cheviot stock mutton one and a half years old !

DEFENCE OF UP-STREAM ANGLING 35

then do other anglers no harm, nor disturb
the fish ' any more, whateffer ! '

There is, however, one good reason for
fishing down when the river is high and
flooded, and when too deep to wade with
comfort. At such times the trout are more
scattered, unless in certain eddies or close to
the banks, and then the man and the pole
has more right on his side to fish down and
cover more 'miles and acres. But the very
proof of this being so must surely show to
the same individual that when the river
' falls in ' to normal states of condition, when
'wadin' to the knee' is necessary for con-
cealment, when the trout are more circum-
scribed of necessity by the contracting of
the channel and clearing of the shallows,
surely the conditions are reversed ! Cer-
tainly, in flooded or high conditions of water,
fishing down (and walking down) covers
more water with the line and miles of the
bank, and it becomes necessary to do this to
make a good basket. But as certainly it is
unnecessary when the river becomes low and
clear.

Fishing long in one place. — It is against

36 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

precedent and usual practice to persist too
long over one spot, or attempt to do what
some people advocate, 'bully a fish into
rising/ But all rules seemingly have their
exceptions, and when such occur the reasons
are often not far to seek. Instance : — Ob-
serving a small space of water, not larger
than the crown of a hat, at the edge of a
swift current of water, where a big fellow
was steadily feeding ('rising to himself,' as
expressed in the Highlands), we fished up
to him, then across to him, then down to
him, i.e. in the direction of the stream,
which ran swiftly past this side eddy. At
last the fly — a c Greenwell's Glory ' — came to
him — as he would wish to be done by ; and
he took it with a rapid, hungry rush, and
we had him — as we would be done by. At
least twenty casts we had put over him as
he ' bobbit aboot wi' a wonderful snout, and
cockit his tail oot o' favour' (Stoddart).
Many such experiences we have had. The
lesson taught is : Try till you get the fly to
hang over him correctly ; shift your position
of attack ; he believes a swarm of flies are
coming down ; he is keen to respond ; treat

DEFENCE OF UP-STREAM ANGLING 37

him fairly and hell curtsy to you, though
at times he may only play ' snooks ' at you.

Another occasion for persistent fishing and
oft-repeated casting over the same water has
been advocated by a south country angler
or anglers — ' The Marquess of Granby and
others ' — in The Fur, Feather, and Fin series,
1898, q.v. p. 28.

A lovely little slip, as it appears to us
northern anglers, comes in in the words
1 even when fishing up-stream/ and the fol-
lowing remarks about the ' parson and the
grey hackle-fly,' a ' small partridge hackle '
(p. 29), positively make us ' chuckle/ in
common, I presume, with other north
country anglers.

The occasion they mention is that of
'tailing' of fish, which we speak of under
' Food-supplies/ infra ; and we are perfectly
' at one ' with them when they recommend
' hackle-flies ' as the most useful under such
conditions. We could add another ' tip/
but do not feel inclined to commit ourselves,
as it is only very lately we have tried it,
both for 'tailing' and 'bulging' trout — the
latter a term, by the way, new to us in the

38 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

north — and we desire to give it a further
chance before being satisfied ourselves. All
we can say about it at present is that we
have tried it with varying success, and that
we believe it is founded upon natural
phenomena.

We do not desire to affect mystery, and
would not have mentioned it, only that we
have been led up to it, it seems.

FLIES

WE might dismiss this subject much as we
have done that of ' Angling Requisites/ but
as considerable changes have taken place in
Stewart's own disciples' ideas since he recom-
mended his own few standard patterns, we
think we must speak at a little greater length
of these ' Requisites/ and of certain facts in
connection with their use.

The significance of the following opening
remarks on the subject of flies, natural and
artificial, may perhaps become apparent as
we proceed.

Stewart at one place seems almost to refer
to the natural insects as reaching the surface
of the water from above, i.e. from the air,
whereas, as is well known, the larger number

40 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

of species upon which trout fatten reach the
surface from below, i.e. hatches out from
the larval stage, on reaching the surface
from the bottom of the stream or channel
bed.

Consequent upon this slip — and we can't
believe it to be other than a lapsus memorial
—he advocates, as the most deadly moment
of a cast (see ante, p. 32), the first alighting
of the artificial fly of the angler. But surely,
if hackle-flies are used, these are sunk, and
while drifting down beneath the surface are
often — nay usually — the more deadly in low,
fine water.

We cannot but believe that Stewart's re-
marks on page 77, in regard to his estimates
of the innumerable species of insects which
come into life in the summer, are somewhat
exaggerated. This, however, is a question for
an entomologist (and angler) of larger ex-
perience and knowledge than there is evidence
of Stewart having been, than we possess,
or possibly even 'Ephemera/ 'Foster/ or
'Pritt.' It seems rather a loose statement.
Did he see this, or only imagine it ? Be
that as it may, we think it rather a pity

FLIES 41

that he put it forward for the purpose
of giving such evidence as follows it. Our
experience (be it what it may be deemed
worth) is rather opposed to these and to his
argument.

Trout show decided preferences for colours
(at least educated trout: and trout are be-
coming better educated — or more frightened
— the more any river is fished, flogged, and
poled). The actual process is too subtle
for our psychological powers, but we think no
angler who has studied the subject can fail
to realise the changes that have taken place
since Stewart wrote.

We find that trout often prefer the new-
comer or fresh or later hatched-off insect.
Thus a preference for the ' Little Iron Dun '
after a gorge of ' Blue Duns ' or ' March
Browns/ or after ' Greenwell's Glory ' has
passed over, promptly shows itself. We be-
lieve it well to anticipate, say with a red
quill or spinner, than to await its actual
appearance.

We are of opinion that trout can dis-
tinguish colours — though what these colours
appear to be to their fishy eyes, through an

42 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

aqueous medium, we cannot say, and pro-
bably they are very different from our appre-
ciations of the same, looking at them from
our own standpoint, or even up through water
at the sky ' like the fishes/

It appears to us to be a mere begging of
the question to use as an argument that the
colour of insects, as seen by us, is comparable
with what may be seen by fish. Fish see
through a different medium from ours, and
surely we see differently through theirs. Or
does Stewart mean to uphold that they see
similarly through their medium with us
through ours ? We must continue to look
upon colours, to the eye of a fish, as an un-
known quality. One fact however is, if
nothing else, suggestive. Many times, when
trying an underhand cast to get the tail-fly
over a rising fish, under an alder or a broken
down reed, has our fly been hung up, and
the tail-fly has been suspended some four
to six inches over his 'wonderful snout,'
and we have seen trout or trouts spring
clear out of water and hook on to that fly,
and, as you may suppose, 'generally stuck
to it too.' This proves they can see through

FLIES 43

both media of water and air. The other
illustration we like to repeat, viz. the
'man of cubits and the pole/ whose
common colour is black ! A ' black hackle '
is equally a killer on a bright summer day
and on a dark moonless night. It is the
most killing fly. for instance, on Loch Earn,
for both trout and char, when it is too
dark for the angler to see his line or flies.
This proves they can see as we can not. But
a white fly — a ' coachman ' also kills well on a
dark night. Hence arises another phase of
the inquiry : Do trout rise best because they
see too well, or because they only see move-
ment under differently coloured waters or
skies ? Stewart criticises anglers who are
too ' scrupulously exact ' about a shade of
colour (p. 78), but finds fault with their
drawing their flies ' up or across the stream.'
There is, as we have been trying to show,
fault and inconsistency here. But, as an
experienced angler friend points out, one
inconsistency does not militate against the
other group of facts or theories, — we are
drifting, however, from facts.

Did Stewart ever see a 'Green well's Glory'?

44 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

Well, no, of course not : or at least, what he
may have seen was not known by that fancy
name. [The synonymy of artificial flies is
nearly as big a curse as the black gnat.]
But, however that may be, Stewart did not
include it in his list. And there can be no
doubt of its deadly character, either as a
floating-bob, or a sunk fly, or with a wing or
with only a ragged torn body, not only in
Scottish streams but also in Hungary and
the Tyrol and in New Zealand.

We do not go with Stewart in his singularly
meagre list of standards, good though these
undoubtedly are. Stewart in one place seems
to consider (p. 81) that a certain colour is
more deadly because more readily seen, i.e.
by the fish, and he instances a black fly as
unsurpassed in clear water. We agree with
this to some extent, but he says nothing
about a ' black hackle ' being one of the most
deadly flies in a dark night — on Loch Earn,
for instance. Or again, what can be said of
the grey partridge 'spider' or hackle —
light, red, or orange — in clear, low streams in
summer, with an equally clear sky ? We
believe in most circumstances the colours of

FLIES 45

the sky above and the water combined gives
a better guide, and that the converse of
Stewart's theory is the true one, viz. that a
' certain colour is more deadly because less
readily seen/ and that movement is the
more visible sensation to the eye of a fish.
Thus let us give a few examples :—

We have instanced already ' black hackles '
and ' white coachman' and 'grey spider/ We
have also found a flash of silver tinsel kill
best under a clear blue sky, but also well in
a dark spring water with a clear or sunny
sky.

We have found ' red-body ' kill best in a
red water, i.e. porter or peat or dark amber.
(Both in salmon-fishing l and trout angling.)

But we cannot agree with those who say,

1 Thus a * Butcher ' in a coloured water, a ' Childers '
when the evening sun goes ' back ' off a pool. But a
' Jock Scott,' in my experience, has killed as well under
a cloudless sky and low water, or in a dark water, or
under a dark sky. Why ? Because we believe the com-
bination of colours which are useful are best harmonised
in the dressing of a 'Jock Scott.' We use 'Wee Jock
Scotties,' and they kill trout well. Dressing : guinea-
fowl hackle, i.e. black and white, two small shoulders
of jungle cock (from the top of the bird's head), body
black and yellow, wing pale transparent starling, or
' what you fancy.'

46 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

f In a clear water surely all colours can be
most easily distinguished.5 (The italics are
ours.) ' Caprice/ spoken of by some, is an
utterly undefined quantity and quality. We
don't know why trout are called c capricious.'
We believe the c clerks of the weather/ com-
bined with the ' inspectors of water- works/
have ' cards up their sleeves' about capricious-
ness ! Yet Stewart speaks of ' mere caprice '
(p. 81). Surely this is not truly philoso-
phical.

As we have already said, we cannot pin
our faith entirely upon Stewart's short list
of flies. It may seem an endless matter to
discuss, but we would be sorry to have to
sally forth to a favourite river-side with no
more than Stewart's limited series — good
though they undoubtedly are. [Ah 3 perhaps
they may, and did, prove all-sufficient and
all-efficient in those palmy days of com-
paratively unsophisticated trout, just as
they might still do ail-sufficiently, say, on
some far away mountain burn or in some
new country.]

We are not going to add more lists of flies
to the many confusing names given by scores

FLIES 47

of previous writers. We are not sufficiently
able, as accurate ' entomologists/ to distin-
guish all the innumerable shades, dressings,
and fancy names applied to the earlier and
later hatches-off of the four ( up-winged ' flies
of Foster. Nor can we attempt to reconcile
all those fancy flies with their natural con-
geners. We were never good at nomenclature
even in its purely zoological aspects, and we
would be content to follow the lead of ' the
latest authority ' in such matters. But who
is ? Is it Foster, Theakstone, or Pritt? Even
in their own country they don't appear
to use the same nomenclature. It would
prove a serviceable piece of work if some
entomologist and experienced angler would
take this question of nomenclature in hand
and settle it, and reconcile all the different
local names under the true insects' names.
None of the many angling books which we
have seen and possess do so in a simple,
easily-referred- to way. Foster's, we think,
is the best, and next Theakstone and Pritt,
but they don't agree in their nomenclature.
Then, besides authors, there are other con-
fusions, worse confounded, introduced by fly-

48 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

dressers, and named perhaps after some
gentleman angler, who has had it c launched
off' in the Field or elsewhere, such as the
'Francis fly/ and scores of others. We
cannot do without our salmon flies so
named, because we cannot call them aught
else than 'Jock Scott/ 'Childers/ 'Black and
Blue Doctor/ etc. etc., bat it seems a very
different occasion to introduce fancy names
for trout flies, where it is possible to allocate
them to their natural relatives. Some no
doubt there are which often do noble service,
and as it is not pretended that they imitate
any natural insect — or at least any known
insect — such must be retained. The pro-
bability is, however, that they do imitate
some insect accidentally, or otherwise that
their colours are blended in such a way as to
command success under certain conditions of
light and colour, and of ivater and sky. We
believe the whole question may yet be found
to resolve itself into what we have before
referred to, a consideration of light and
colour effects. How otherwise is it that on
some days trout allow flotillas of 'March
Browns ' and flotillas of ' Early Duns ' to float

FLIES 49

past utterly unheeded, as often they are known
to do, and as we have often seen them do ?
At other times they rise and miss the flies
time after time. Some one (is it Theak-
stone ?)says the 'Yellow Sally' is 'bitter, and
trout don't like them/ We never eat any
ourselves. Certain it is ' Yellow Sally ' or
its imitations not very often proves accept-
able, but there are few rules without the
exceptions that prove them ; and we have
filled a basket almost entirely with ' Yellow
Sally/ once on the Ythan, and once also
with the ' Grannom ' l on the same stream —
or at least with the fly nearest to it which
we had in our book when it came on, — at
other times with ' Yellow Sally ' on the stream
not a trout moved at them, but the ' little
iron dun ' killed. The trout were not touch-
ing the natural floating 'Yellow Sally/ In
this connection we desire to call attention
to a small array of facts placed here in
tabular arrangement,2 by which we try to
compare the colours of the spectrum or
rainbow colours, the fixed colours of Hay,

1 We never saw the Grannom on Ythan before or since
that occasion. - V. p. 53.

50 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

and the flies, both salmon and trout, which
we would employ under such colours or
approximate colours of water and sky.

When the water is just clearing from
f yellow ' or ' clay ' or e pea-soup ' (see scale
and gauge, p. 169) to ' drumly,' and before
or during the c porter ' or ' peat ' stage, and
when it is too high to fish comfortably up,
or to wade against, and standing well back
from the lip and casting across is the order
of the day, then a large red hackle, a ' wood-
cock-and-red,' a ' teal-and-red/ or a fly with
some red in it ought to be on the cast.

When the water is in the above condition,
with varying skies and big white clouds,
very often trout are found to rise short ; but
when the water clears a little more, say to
light porter or dark amber, then trout often
take very surely and very keenly, if the flies
above mentioned are large enough, and trout
will even begin to rise at smaller flies if
amongst froth or in an eddy.

When the ' light amber ' stage is reached,
we believe in yellow flies, but some degree of
further selection may always be caused by
the colour of the sky and reflections. A ' pro-

FLIES 51

fessor/ a * grouse and yellow/ or an ' early
dun/ or a ( March brown ' with light wing and
yellow twist (or the female), or a large ' Green-
well's glory ' with gold-rib. Or if the river is
lower and sizes have to be reduced, then the
medium sizes of Walbran's hackles — ' water-
hen and gold-rib/ ' waterhen bloa/ ( watchet '
' small iron dun/ ' snipe bloa/ etc. ' Early
duns ' ought to be dressed very light and with
three shades at least of wing (woodcock,
starling, and corn bunting). A ' red-spinner '
kills best in medium water in the 'amber'
stage or higher, even to ' drumly ' if big
enough.

When 'clear' and 'crystal' are reached
the hackles begin to come in: black, grey,
partridge and orange, partridge and yellow,
grey partridge, priest (see list, etc.), and Wai-
bran's hackles. Black hackles, with slight
purply gloss in the larger sizes, but plain, dull
black in the smaller sizes, are always useful,
but perhaps most so in the lower stages of
water. A 'Zulu/ i.e. black hackle with red tag,
is more useful in darker water. A ' partridge '
and blue body is sometimes useful as a mid-
summer fly under a blue sky, and a 'grey

52 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

partridge ' under a cloudy sky. A ' partridge '
and green body we have never done much
with, but we can believe it would kill at
certain times where water was much over-
hung by vivid green foliage, or when that
peculiar green reflection is observed — usually
towards evening of a summer day. ' Alders '
and ' sedges ' are useful, especially towards
evening — indeed, the ' alder ' is a general
favourite at the right time, and will often
kill well into the summer.

At one time, not so very long ago, the
popular belief was in a dark fly for a bright
day or clear water, and a light fly for dark
water or dark sky. Now, we believe, anglers
of experience and with sufficient scientific
interest in their practice, believe in the con-
verse states of combinations, viz. a dark fly
in a dark water and sky, and a light fly in
a bright water and sky.

In the Table we make an attempt to
relegate certain flies — salmon and trout —
for general selection in differently coloured
waters and under differently coloured skies
and clouds and weathers. There may prove
to be enough suggestion in it to induce

FLIES

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54 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

others to take up the idea and work it out
more completely. As it at present stands
it is confessedly imperfect. But we are in-
clined to believe there is sufficient material
even here for fairly safe deductions.

Possibly (but this is theoretical) proof may
yet be forthcoming that the reason why
some flies — natural flies, I mean — are not
such favourites with the fish, lies in the
colour of the flies, and their greater or
less visibility under certain colours of water
and sky and sun and reflections, and not
necessarily upon their flavour. We think
the study is still obscure, but one worthy
of some further considering by anglers and
entomologists.

The following are some notes kept upon
the appearances of the natural insects on the
water :

1893. April 27th, Stonefly out.1

,, „ 28th, Some rusty blue duns.

„ May 3rd, Little iron blue.

1894. April 16th, Stray rise of March browns.
„ „ 18th, A few blue duns.

1 We speak of Stonefly as the perfect insect of the
creeper.

FLIES 55

1894. April 19th, A small rise of olive duns;

Stonefly out.

„ „ 28th, (Forglen) Jenny-spinners out.
5, May llth, Great rise of Grannom.
,, „ 19th, (Snow and hail) Iron blue out.

1895. April 17th, Small rise of March browns

and a few blue duns.

,, „ 20th, No fly at Kothiemay, but a
heavy rise of March browns
on Avochie. Condition of
trout rapidly improving.

„ „ 21st, Large rise of Grannoms.

„ „ 22nd, Stonefly out.

„ „ 25th, Sprinkling of olive duns.

,, „ 27th, One trout chokeful of Stonefly
and creepers; a good deal of
olive duns.

,, „ 28th, Large rise of iron blues.

1896. April 16th, Small mobs of blue duns at

intervals; no March browns.

,, „ 24th, A few blue duns which are
taking; March browns ap-
pear about over.

,, ,, 27th, A very few small duns.

„ „ 28th, A good many yellow-legged
duns.

„ „ 30th, Large rise of blue duns.

,, May 7th, Grannom out, but trout did
not seem to care for them.

,, ,, 15th, A few little iron blues.

The above are taken from Mr. C. H.

56 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

Alston's Registers, kept at Rothiemay and
Avochie.

The following were kept in our own Re-
gisters at Laithers in the season of 1898 :

1898. April llth, Creepers and stoneflies (trout

are in fair condition). Small

hatches of March browns,

about 11 A.M.

„ „ 22nd, Early blue duns, 10.50 to

1 P.M.
1898. April 30th, tilh Iron blues off and on, but

May 30th, / not in quantity.
,, April 27th, Yellow Sally and olive dun
up but very few, and trout
not rising. Iron blue came
on and we killed four with
it.

Small black gnats constant on
the water and in froth all
May more or less.
Trout long since had deterior-
ated in condition (see
tables of measurements and
weights) and going back in
colour — this is certain, on
this reach of water this
year.

FLIES 57

1898. April 30th, Yellow Sally came on at 12
and continued till 1, and
again at 3 P.M., but trout
not rising to them. Iron
blues came on then also, but
trout not moving.

VII

ON TROUTING WITH THE FLY— THE
PRACTICE

IT has been often said to us : c In rough
water of a small stream, with dead low
summer level — no use/ We say, 'Give to
me/

Stalk that stream, creep and crawl, if
necessary, up towards its tail-race or glide.
Then cast rapidly once only over each likely
spot you can easily reach with a line, say, not
more than twice the length of your rod, less
if possible, letting your flies — two in number
— rest each cast one or two seconds, and
keeping the line itself as much out of the
water as possible. This done, then remem-
ber you have only attracted the attention
of the best fish in the swim.

Now once more come over the same water,

ON TROUTING WITH THE FLY 59

beginning straight up on your own side,
then farther out and more across, then
farther, until among the last casts from
the same standpoint you are fishing straight
across, having gradually slightly lengthened
line. After each cast allow your flies to
come down towards your feet, or abreast of
you. Never use a longer line than you can
keep taut from rod -tip to tail -fly, except
possibly the last few casts across, if you wish
to reach over. When a fish rises, ' turn the
key' gently, pull down-stream, kill all you
hook, land them below your standpoint, so
as not to disturb unfished water above ;
then take one or two steps up, still kneel-
ing or creeping, and repeat the process. If
you are on the left bank of the stream, cast
over the right shoulder when you begin to
fish up and across, and each cast recover
in the same direction; thus you cover the
water with the two flies. Supposing it a
small stickle of very shallow water, raise
the hand towards the right, and the flies
come down opposite one another. If you
did the contrary the flies would come down
with the current one on the top of the other

60 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

or along the same line. This cannot be
avoided if you are fishing the first cast or
so straight up stream. The pace at which
considerable reaches of water can be accu-
rately covered thus by two or three flies,
according to the size of the river, depends
upon the amount of knowledge and experi-
ence of the best lies of the fish, and in
the activity, endurance, youth, and prompt
manipulation of the angler. It should be
remembered that to cover the largest
number of rising fish and pick out the
best ones, thoroughly and scientifically,
especially when they are taking free, the
casting and getting over the water should
be as rapid as possible. The above remarks
apply particularly to the lower stages of the
water, say 0. 0. 0. O2. of scale (q.v. p. 169), but
the same method may be employed, and the
same care taken, when the river is in a more
flushed condition, up to, say, 0 0 (medium)
and amber colour, though in these higher
conditions it may not be so necessary for
success. As to the time of year, that is
immaterial in such practice, but always if
the river is low and clear or crystal. We

ON TROUTING WITH THE FLY 61

repeat, striking from the reel in such fish-
ing is a mere waste of muscular energy.
Lightness of hand, keenness of eye, steady
application, are seemlier, quieter, quicker.
The muscular arm effect, judging from the
excited contortions some anglers indulge in
who c strike from the reel,' is a sheer need-
less waste of vital force. Let me repeat,
the true action is as you would 'Turn a
key in a well-oiled lock, quickly and quietly
but firmly, with a scarcely perceptible, yet
decided, raising from the wrist/

But, if you are fishing up either with or
against a strong breeze, too strong for com-
fortable fishing, as is often experienced, and
when it is often extremely difficult to prevent
your line from 'bellying' in the water, and by
the wind, even when short, then often vigorous
striking is necessary in order to convey the
action quick enough to the terminal strands.
At all other times ' quiet and gentle but
firm' does it. The angler who can fish a
reach or succession of streams and pools
and broken water, quickly and quietly as
above, has ten times more pleasure than the
'* man of cubits and a pole.' He kills better

62 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

fish and more of them ; he fishes over per-
haps one-fourth or one-fifth of the extent of
river which the down- stream fisher does,
and lays his flies (not his line, necessarily)
over every feeding fish that is reachable ; he
disturbs the water scarcely at all; and he
frightens and renders shy not one-tenth of
the fish which the man does who 'throws
the long shadows o'er the pool.'

If you find a good trout ' rising short ' (of
which we will have more to say) or refusing
on a second or even third application, re-
member that that may be caused by some
tiny swirl or eddy, though it may also arise
from other different causes. Therefore it may
be worth while, in the case of a good trout,
to alter your standpoint and try again (see
ante, p. 36, and infra, p. 64). The great
pull an up-stream angler possesses over the
'down-streamer ' is well expressed by Stewart
in the last two sentences on p. HO.1 The
hurried dash made at a fly crossing the
stream in jerks and jumps, almost certainly
often account for what is termed 'short-
rising.' But that ' short-rising ' occurs from
this alone we do not credit, and later on, we

1 Refer to Stewart's book.

ON TROUTING WITH THE FLY 63

hope to point out what appears to us to be
undoubted causes, noted from many com-
parative averages and innumerable notes (see
under chapter on e Worm-fishing/ and discus-
sion of 'weathers/ chap. viii.).

If a river rises or maintains a higher level
than medium, or if it be slightly coloured,
say, reddish or darker than amber, and just
rather deep for comfortable wading, then
good fishing may be had by standing well
back from the river verge, or w.ell back from
the lip of a steep bank, and casting opposite
your feet, with three flies, and let them float
down (or drift down) close under your own
side, casting rapidly, and rarely allowing your
flies to get below your standpoint.

Stewart advises the angler ' always to keep
on the shallow side of a stream, because the
best trout generally lie under the bank on
the deep side/ This has not been our invari-
able experience. Sometimes — often, we may
say — we have with advantage waded, where
wading was practicable on the deeper side,
when fish were feeding on the shallows, and
cast out and over on to the shallows. Addi-
tional concealment is often thus afforded, and,
according to our experience, the best fish are

64 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

not necessarily on the deep side, nor under
the bank, when on the feed.

The smooth glides above streams or pools
are often superior spots holding the ' monarch'
of the pool, especially where the stream,
before the rush, contracts. A ' monarch '
there holds the ' key of the pantry,' as it were,
and may often be taken when there is barely a
ruffle or a break on the surface, and especially
if there be a light amber tint in the water.

Many an angler appears to us to waste half
his time in vain repetitions, as if he could
force the trout to take, and as if he could not
satisfy himself in two or three casts at most
as to whether he was doing it properly. An
angler new to a stream certainly stands at
some disadvantage to the local man, all else
being equal, who knows every rock and
stone, turn and twist of the water. And as
we have already pointed out, there are
occasions — plenty of them, too — where such
a policy as continuous and rapid casting, and
shifting one's standpoint, is often valuable,
But it should not be practised except where
the angler's experience tells him it may be
remunerative — such as if a swirl or back
eddy is known (or seen) to hold a good fish.

ON TROUTING WITH THE FLY 65

An advocate of down-stream fishing once
stated in our hearing, if not indeed in black
and white, ' If it were not that the up-stream
angler selected his spots, he would have no
chance with the down-streamer.' To this we
reply, ' We prefer trout-angling to salmon-
fishing for trout/ and the beauty of fishing
up appears to us to be the knowledge
acquired and the natural selection which
follows such education.

Many, indeed most, anglers prefer to fish
down, when heavy down-stream winds render
it too difficult and too fatiguing to fish up ;
and, indeed, in such weather there are many
days in which the up-stream casts are made
almost impossible. But Stewart advocates
the attempt even then. It is possible at
times to fight the wind across by a peculiar
underhand flick, difficult to describe and not
always easy to attain to, sending out the line
on the same plane with the surface of the
water ; but this requires a stiff rod, and cannot
be said to be very satisfactory. Another plan
is to cover a larger mileage of water, and
thereon select only such bends or reaches as
are negotiable. We have taken many a fair
E

66 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

basket in this way under adverse circum-
stances. A third way — and where neither of
the above are found to be practicable — is to
take Stewart's advice as conveyed on pp. 117-
118, and 'you will be more able to fish
properly' another time.

An angler friend of experience writes:—
'Yes; I have no doubt whatever, from ex-
perience, that the underhand cast is the best
plan for getting one's line out against, or
rather " under," the wind.' We have said it
is difficult to describe, as well as not always
easy to do, but perhaps the following may
convey the idea : — The action is somewhat
similar to that of a round-hand bowler, when,
at the end of his swing, and keeping his
hand low — rather below the shoulder than
above — he attempts to put a 'break back'
upon the ball at the pitch. And in angling,
and attempting to dodge a flaw of wind,
the same motion, as when he tries to 'put
on a twist' from leg in cricket. But in
angling the whole action is not an entire
arm- action, but should be done by forearm
and wrist only.

VIII
THE CAPTURE

Now, as regards capturing your fish, and
landing or netting them, I have some
words to say, which may not be looked upon
as safe guides. Indeed, I scarcely feel in-
clined to preach to others what in this
respect I practise (I speak here in the first
person singular, for I believe I am almost
singular about it). l

First, let me say : — I have never taken
kindly to a landing-net, nor a landing-net
to me. I have possessed many — one after
another — and I have always looked upon
them as an unnecessary incumbrance and
impediment to rapid up-stream fishing. I
know I may fail (but neither do I expect)

1 We believe a well-known angler of Perth accounts
for many of his large baskets by utilising a somewhat
similar method.

68 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

to convince others. But I will say what I
practise. I hold that any trout above half
a pound is worth going to shore with, but
that nine-tenths of fairly well-hooked half-
pounders can be creeled by hand, but not
necessarily as Stewart advises ; indeed, my
plan is the very one he strongly condemns.

Stewart says : — ' In taking the trout out of
the water do so with your hands, if you have
not a landing-net, and never attempt lifting it
by the line, or you are almost certain to pay
dearly for your experience.' To this I would
add the rider : ' Unless you do so the correct
way/ All I can say is — though I confess to
losing many good trout, as every angler of
experience has also done — my method and
results show much time saved, temper saved
from entanglements or ' fankles ' with a net,
or in wading out to the bank, and a high
average, in my own case, of successful basket-
ing of trout up to and, when well hooked,
over the half-pound. If trout be very lightly
hooked, the risk of the plan is of course in-
creased, but this fact can usually be ascer-
tained before taking the trout by hands,
and if so, then the shore may be sought,

THE CAPTURE 69

or the net used. Even when I carry a net,
I prefer my method for all trout under
or up to the half-pound. And now, having
advocated my method, I will endeavour to
describe it.

This method is almost what Stewart utterly
condemns (v. p. 111). But I hold there is a
correct and very safe way of landing trout
besides that of taking them in the water by
the hand or hands. There is a fairly safe
way of doing it, and an absolutely dangerous
way of doing it. I will first describe my plan,
and then give instances of its success. I
may add that a fishing companion unwilling
to be convinced has often watched me do
it and confessed it was 'good/ I will try
and describe what I almost invariably do
when wading out from shore with a twelve-
foot split-cane rod by Hardy, with a half-
pound or often a three-quarter-pound trout
on": — Play out the fish until you can keep his
head and mouth out of water, keeping steady
strain as you would do if bringing him to
net. Preserving the same strain, no more
and no less, and having wound up line till
you can raise the top back over your shoulder,

70 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

gently lift by the last gut strand as near to
the fish's head as you can with the right
hand, dropping at the same time the point of
the rod, and a second after drop the rod itself
into the hollow of the right arm. Lift the
fish by the same steady, never increasing
nor diminishing strain, and carefully avoid-
ing any jerking, until it hangs limp and
played out, opposite say the third or fourth
button of your coat or waistcoat. Seize the
fish with the left hand simultaneously with
its touching your breast. Thus you have
both hands free to disengage the hook.
But, before doing that, break his neck against
the under side of your right-hand wrist.
('Blood!' says some one, but that is easily
guarded against by a protecting cuff and a
pad, or if you are fishing in a waterproof it
will wash !) Then, retaining the same hold
of the fish, release the hook, and basket your
fish in your pannier, which, I presume, you
carry on the left side, or under the left arm,
with a Foster-strap. Voila!

Now, we have often in a day's fishing
quietly lifted every fish under and up to the
half-pound when wading ; and out of a basket

THE CAPTURE Vl

of, say, thirteen to fifteen or twenty pounds,
with the average at the half-pound (in the
river Deveron) lost only one or two trout.
This, of course, includes larger trout, say
three-quarter-pound to one and a quarter or
larger, which I took to bank, or netted if I
was ' possessed by a landing-net.' This pro-
portion, I flatter myself, will compare well
with any work in which all were taken to
shore or entangled in a net.1

I do not ask my readers to accept this
method, but I back myself to do it all
through a season with much advantage. Of
course there are occasions on which a net
is almost absolutely indispensable, and these
occasions do not require recapitulation, just
as there are plenty occasions when a half-
pound trout and even larger can be gently
lifted (not jerked or c bunged ' out) bodily
from the top-rod strain, and safely deposited
at your feet — not swung over head as if try-
ing to emulate Mark Twain's ant going over
Strasburg steeple. What in salmon-fishing

1 Somewhat similar advice, however, is given by the
author of the Angler and the Loop Rod, p. 107, though
recorded somewhat differently and the method not just
the same.

72 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

is also known as ' hand-lining a kelt/ applies
equally to the method I speak of, only that
in the case of a trout of the dimensions 'I
speak of, it is actually lifted, not by the
line, but by the terminal strand of gut.

WOEM IN CLEAR WATEE

' Those who despise worm-fishing as a thing so
simple as to be quite unworthy of their atten-
tion, would quickly discover their mistake if
brought to a small, clear water on a warm day
in June or July.' — (Stewart, p. 135.)

BUT thundery weather, dark sky, heavy
cumuli-clouds piling up round the horizon
with little or no motion, or in different cur-
rents, or desperate down-stream gales in
June, and worse still, in July, are usually
fatal to anglers' success — though even on such
days, here and there, some fish may be got.

Stewart advocates a 'double-handed rod on
all occasions, in all waters, whether small or
large/ All we can say is, we do not consider
such necessary, and it is certainly not so
pleasant and sporting to fish with.

If a long rod is at any time required or
advisable, it is upon the smaller streams,

74 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

where one cannot comfortably wade, or on
boisterous days when it is almost too fatiguing
to try. In larger streams, even where
very shallow, and the shadow of your rod
can be kept off the water you are fishing, a
shorter and stiff rod is all that is required,
if the angler wades. We use generally a
twelve-foot split-cane Hardy. We find it
ample with a line from half as long again
as the rod, to at most twice the length — the
latter only used occasionally.

Of other worm-anglers' requisites we need
not speak, as anglers can best please them-
selves with two-hook, three-hook, or four-
hook tackles, or fine single wires, all of which
have their own advocates.

' The best rate for the worm to travel at
is undoubtedly the natural one, and if the
trout wish to seize it they have plenty of
time to do so ' (p. 142).

Their education is up to that standard !
Therefore we rarely use sinkers, except under
certain circumstances. Instance, in high
water, when one would be better employed
in howkin' worms. Or in a heavy down-
stream wind, when, after all, one would be

WORM IN CLEAR WATER 75

better not practising 'Quixotic exercises/
In a heavy down-stream wind it is not a
pleasing or edifying exercise ' throwing back
expletives at the rough-tongued winds ! ' any
more than it is satisfactory to ' kick against
the pricks.' In such weather it is better
to search out the few bends and reaches
where the wind blows locally up, as in fly-
fishing. Under these conditions we grant,
if one is determined to fish, a thirteen-foot
stiff rod and a heavier line is an advantage ;
but it becomes a regular f poling' match, unless
it can be wielded by one hand comfortably.
We have not experience of steel-centred rods
and lines. Of course, if an angler has only
an odd holiday to devote to fishing, then he
is right to ' pole.'

In a heavy down-stream wind the worm
travels at ' railway speed,' owing to the com-
bined influence of wind-drag and water-drag.
Such is inevitable ; and, as in good up-stream
worming as little of the line as possible
should be in the water, even under the
best conditions, any one may conceive how
impossible it must be to preserve the same,
when all the conditions are adverse. Lower

76 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

' the top after the cast until all your line is
submerged/ says some one. No use, sir ; the
water-drag is how many times greater!
And how many times faster is the travel
of the bait ! ' Put on sinkers and fish with
a stiffer rod/ says another advocate. Very
well, perhaps that is the best way ; but even
then, does the worm travel naturally ? the
sinker may act as a drag if attached a foot
or two up the line, and more or less assist,
and such fishing is, we know, often success-
ful. And if people will fish, or must fish
when they have only a short time to select
their days, and if they will preserve their
equanimity, and not ' speak back/ and are
supplied with plenty of sinkers mounted on
rotten gut for attachments (when others are
lost}, and still enjoy themselves, and can
get their line straight to where they want
to place it, this plan is no doubt the best.

But another potent reason we believe is : —
That the best-fed and larger class of trout
are not feeding on the shallows when a gale
of wind is tearing down-stream. (By better
class of fish we mean up to the average of
the stream.) This is all the more the case, if,

WORM IN CLEAR WATER 77

as has usually been their practice, the better
trout have been feeding during the night.
Stewart says: — 'Streams in the immediate
neighbourhood of large pools will generally be
found the best, as the trout come from the
pools into the streams to feed.' But when the
conditions we describe supervene — and in
summer the wind usually rises as the day
advances — these best trout, which have been
on the feed at night, fall back into the pools
if they find a ' rough- tongued'' breeze and
unfavourable conditions. Large, well-fed fish
leave the shallows at such times to the small
fry, and probably sleep (?) ; and the par and
juveniles, being young and active, then have
a high old time, and ' eat the gooseberries in
the garden/ so to speak.

Every angler knows how particularly
annoying par and small trout are on some
days more than on others. If a large trout
is on the prowl, or has taken up his special
feeding-lie in a stream, he commands the
'key of the situation/ and is not slow to
repel all minor fry that come within many
feet of his ' monarchical throne/ This we
have often seen when looking down into

78 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

the clear water from a height. Even before
taking the bait himself, he will chase away
the small fry, i.e. if the bait is lying stationary
at his very nose. If it be travelling, his dash
at it is enough in itself to scare the smaller
fish. Therefore — at least we feel sure it is
one good reason — the small fry feed when
he is not there.

But with adverse winds, still a basket may
be made if the angler covers more mileage of
river, and selects only such bends or reaches
which are partially or wholly negotiable,
just as may be done in fly-fishing; and we
have seen good baskets made in this way.
Still, it is not invariably the case that big
fish are not on the feed during a strong
down-stream wind. If they are found on
the shallows and streams in such circum-
stances, we certainly think other counter-
vailing reasons are discoverable in each case.
In the worm season, as we have said, the
wind usually increases as day advances. As
for trout feeding under all circumstances of
heavy down- winds, that we cannot believe;
but that they do so at times is certain, as
may be gathered from the following quota-

WORM IN CLEAR WATER 79

tion from a letter from an expert up-stream
fisher : — ' My own experience is to put on a
lead shot and fish up-stream (with a long
rod?). ... I remember well a typical day
with nearly a gale blowing down. Even
with the aid of a sinker I could not even get
a rod's length of line out, and often it went
splash into the water in a most unfisherman-
like way. Yet, spite of these disadvantages,
I never had such a good take, and never had
so many extra large trout. A hard down-
stream wind helps one little in quick streams ;
but near the tops and at the tails of pools,
where big ones are fond of lying, and where
it is impossible to fish them in fine water —
the only legitimate worm-water in ordinary
conditions — the strong wind gives sufficiently
rough water to hide the fisher, though using
only a very short line. As regards the
pleasure, however/ he adds, ' of fishing under
these conditions, that is a matter of taste.
I must confess, after the day's fishing re-
ferred to, I felt mentally and physically (fizzi-
cally ? P.D.) done, with wading up-stream and
exerting all my strength casting, though I
had a good basket of magnificent fish. I must

80 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

confess that my mind was a jumble of wind
and water, fish and worms, and a line doing
its best to knot round the rod, the fisher, or
anything it could get hold of; in fact, do
anything but keep in the water.'

We think the above is a very accurate
description of what most people may feel
after such a day's experience, even with a
fair basket of trout and a bellyful of whisky.

Personally, we prefer to cover more river-
bank and look for the nooks and corners
where the wind is not so frisky.

The following is from the Fishing Gazette
of a date I have unfortunately lost :—

'There is yet another way of dealing with a
head wind, which Mr. Tod may possibly not
have heard of. It was one of the lessons of my
mentor, the late Dickie Routledge, of Carlisle.
I had been telling him a distressing experience
with the wind in my teeth, and had asked him
what he would do under such circumstances.
'Fish down-stream,' said he, and showed me how
he did it. He made his cast (right hand of
course) with the left shoulder and foot advanced,
and when the bait dropped, swung his body
steadily round and took one step forward with
the right foot. The bait thus travelled about

WORM IN CLEAR WATER 81

two yards. By that time he had either hooked
a trout or demonstrated that there was not
one to get hold of. I never practically tested
this method, for the simple reason that one would
have to go to the top of the water, instead of
beginning at the bottom and fishing-up as one
naturally does in practising the clear water worm,
so I always preferred to fish up and chance it.

GRETA.'

We never tried Routledge's plan; but he was
(is, we hope) a good fisherman, well known on
his native streams and, journeying occasion-
ally to 'Scottish waters/ and we can well credit
the plan. It is, it seems to us, something
like fishing across with fly, when standing
back from the bank in a high water, as we
have tried to describe above under ' Fly-fish-
ing Practice/ The difference is, presumably,
that Routledge wades in fine water when he
does it, whereas, in fly-fishing so, it is usually
when one cannot wade, and in higher water,
and concealment is not necessary — or less
necessary. We cannot feel sure, however,
that demonstration could simply show ' that
the 'trout was not there/ because, far oftener
than not, such a cast is drawn blank even
when the wind is up. Few trout are killed
F

82 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

below the angler's standpoint — i.e. lower
down — even under the most favourable
conditions of wind and water.1 Perhaps —
we do not know — the down-stream heavy
wind may, in such a case, make that form
of cast, or ' point/ more favourable. But
why, we cannot at the time conceive, though
we may find out if we practise it, which we
intend to do.

[Thanks to Greta for the tip, and though
unknown to me by nom-de-plume, by leave
we wish to send him ' greetings ' in all good
fellowship.]

Sometimes it is useful to the angler to
know when it is wise to change from fly
to worm, or vice versa, especially about the
commencement of the worm season. A
simple way, and quite a good way, is to
bite off your tail-fly and terminal strand of
gut, and affix your worm -tackle in its place.
We have often caught trout thus upon both
fly and worm — sometimes at the same cast.
In no ways do we find the action of the one
interfered with by that of the other — rather
indeed an aid, if you keep the bob-fly on the

1 i.e. in worming in fine water.

WORM IN CLEAR WATER 83

surface. It makes a good guide to the eye
if your line stops.

We made a fine basket on the Whitadder
on a cool, drizzly day, with east wind, in
July, with blinks of sun now and then, by
this combination of fly and worm, and this
was the first time we had at that period ever
fished that river. The reach was that between
Abbey St. Bathans nearly to Ellemford, and
we fished it after two other anglers who had
fished in the early morning had taken down
their rods and left. We began about 10.45,
having driven over from Grant's House, and
continued fishing with varying success up to
about four, when the trout stopped apparently
for good. We had forty-eight trout — just
twelve pounds ; and as we at that time had
never fished a well- whipped Border stream,
we felt fairly elated; and a local angler
from Duns, whom we met there — Roger by
name — said, 'Man, yeVe gotten a grand
tak' ; ' and afterwards, ' Ay, I mind ye.
Man, ye had a graund basket thon day last
year.' Roger at that time fished as a pro-
fessional angler for the White Swan Hotel,
Duns, and he and I passed several days

84 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

together afterwards by the river-side from
Ellemford upwards. We have rather spun
out our tale in trying to show how useful
this combination may sometimes be. We
got quite one-half of our basket with fly,
whilst the worm was attached at the tail;
but the best trout were taken by the worm.

In the worm season, if a trout be seen to
rise at a fly, it is almost certain that that
trout will take the worm if it is carefully
and correctly presented.

The extent to which water is oxygenated
by air is an undoubted factor, we consider,
in the happy and active existence of Salmo
fario. ' The livelier the water the livelier
the fish,' as a general rule, though we don't
mean to say there may not be some excep-
tions arising out of countervailing circum-
stances.

Of large and small worms, of ' green' or
well-scoured worms we can say nothing new.
Yet we have met with anglers — clear- water
anglers, too, of good practice — who have
upheld ' green ' worms against small red
ones, ' because the former have more smell.'
' The bee tie- crawler ' has some right to defend

WORM IN CLEAR WATER 85

the green worm, but sight surely is the sense
utilised more than smell in low, clear water.
Besides, fishes' sense of smell seems to us
still to remain an 'unknown quantity,' and
as yet unproved.

It is unnecessary to recapitulate the ad-
vantages of up-stream fishing with worm.
Nothing can be added to that part of the
subject beyond Stewart's directions for prac-
tice. But when we come to speak of when
to expect sport, while his directions and
facts are in most cases incontrovertible, we
think there has been left some room for
deductions as to the ' whys ' and ' wherefores '
of good and bad conditions, and we propose
in the next chapter to explain some of these
matters of inquiry.

WEATHERS AND ELECTEICAL
DISTURBANCES

STEWART'S definitions of weathers is a most
valuable part of his treatise. If we take his
'worst of all' — that combination, 'bright sky
and sun, with a few clouds and strong west
wind ' (or, we would add, down-stream wind),
causing a glare or glitter on the water, making
it too difficult for the fish to see the rapidly
travelling bait (or fly), we can readily see the
reason why, as he adds in a rider — ' On such
a day, early morning is the best time/

But this fact and conclusion ' point to
another phase or phenomenon in connection
with the ' time of the take/ which is perhaps
more applicable under fly-fishing than worm-
fishing, and has also to do with the 'short
rising ' of both trout and salmon at fly. As

WEATHERS : ELECTRICAL DISTURBANCES 87

we believe it has to do with worm-fishing,
though perhaps in a less degree, we think
perhaps this is as good a place as any to
speak of it in detail.

The ' times of the take ' vary in different
rivers. But we have often thought that after
fishing a reach up when the sun was on the
shoulder, or even behind the angler, up to
twelve or one o'clock in the day, especially
in April and May, and having had fair
success at the 'time of the take/ which
usually runs from eight A.M. to twelve
or one o'clock, and then fishing again the
same or a similarly disposed reach of water
with poor success after the sun had so far
passed the meridian, and was blazing down-
stream in the eyes of the fish as well as in
those of the angler, — we have thought that
Stewart's combination of bad weathers and
sky were accounted for by the difficulty
the fish had in seeing the lures, whether
worm or fly; in fact, that sun and certain
lights and colour-effects often effectually
put down well-fed and large trout, but that
small trout or par or large ill-fed trout
still try to feed. Often when they do, it

88 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

happens that the floating-fly or even the
sunk-hackle is missed ? Temperatures of air
and water have also to do with the rising
or non-rising of fish. The ' time of the take/
which is often, if not always, equivalent with
the time of the hatch-off of insects in suffi-
cient quantity, may also, and doubtless is, in
measure dependent upon the action of the
sun at certain angles to the plane of the
water or to the bed of the stream.

As for ' short rising/ who among trout-
and salmon-fishers is not acquainted with
the phenomena which often occur, viz.: — cer-
tain conditions of water and sky, amongst
which are Stewart's ' bad weathers ' — such as,
in heavy waters, in coloured waters, in heavy
down-stream winds, in electric and glittery
skies, in leaden-hued water, on calm, sultry
days ? Never — well, almost never — have we
seen good baskets made on such days, unless
a change intervenes ; nor on days when criss-
cross winds and flaws of ' rough- tongued/ un-
steady winds 'waff5 the water in all directions.
How often have anglers, including ourselves,
sat by the river-side watching the 'herring
fleet of "early duns" or "March browns"

WEATHERS : ELECTRICAL DISTURBANCES 89

sailing down the stream/ and seen the great
1 splutter ' of trout making frantic saltations —
' playing,' some call it (poor play for them) !
How often do we fix our eye upon, a single
' March brown ' until he passes into the swirl
where a big trout lies, eager to feed, and see
him missed, and then see that same trout
miss five or six others in succession ! Play !
How often do we watch the same fly missed
by three, four, or more trout in succession !
Are they all playing? No; but they are
' rising short.'

We do not uphold that the ' short rising '
of salmon can be explained in an absolutely
similar way to that of trout, but we feel
very sure there are close affinities between
the two sets of phenomena. We have, how-
ever, always kept notes in our Salmon
Registers of the time of day when we have
killed or risen, pricked, lightly hooked, and
lost salmon and grilse, and such can hardly
fail to prove educative ; but as we are really
writing of trout-fishing we pass on here,
though we may refer to this again.

Now, if to the above natural adverse circum-
stances be added the unnatural jerking of

90 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

larval imitations, or full-winged flies across
and up a stream, — while these motions may
slightly neutralise the action, and trout be
thereby induced to rise, still, what is the
usual result? Possibly a basket of small
trout, but far more pricked and lost, and a
large proportion foul-hooked. We have seen
nearly fifty per cent, of a basket of trout which
were foul-hooked, even by an up-stream
angler, and usually under the conditions we
have tried to describe. One day in 1898
we got thirteen trout (eight pounds) during
a short spell of trout-rising, of which six
were foul-hooked and many others pricked,
light-hooked, and lost. (For further details
consult the several Tables given further on
showing actual days of fishing described.)
The above is only one of many similar ex-
periences.

An instance has been given where artificial
electric light had prompt effect in putting
down rising fish. This is related in an
admirable little treatise by Mr. Spachman
on New Zealand trout.1 A searchlight was

i TroiU in New Zealand, published by authority at
Wellington, New Zealand, 1882, p. 27 q.v.

WEATHERS: ELECTRICAL DISTURBANCES 91

thrown upon clouds at an angle (correct ?)
of forty-five degrees. This cast a reflection
upon a river twelve miles off. The river
was the Opihi. Trout had been rising freely
to an angler's lures up to the time (to the
moment) the glare came upon the water,
and then they suddenly ceased. Similar
effects had been observed under similar cir-
cumstances on other rivers of New Zealand.
From this it may appear that the effect upon
trout may be less caused by any direct atmo-
spheric causes, such as atmospheric pressure,
than by simple lights and colour-effects.

The angle of reflection need not necessarily
be equal to the angle of incidence, as the
surface of the cloud may or may not be a
horizontal reflecting plane. And, under vary-
ing directions and circumstances of the wind-
drift across the sun and the formation of the
clouds, or at night across the sky and moon,
so will these combined effects of light vary,
whether natural or artificial. Hence the
varieties of weathers, lights, and effects which
we endeavour to describe further on.

Thus, according to whether the plane of
the reflecting surfaces be horizontal, as in

THE WONDERFUL TROUT

A B, or at the other angles shown in the
accompanying diagrams, viz., at the angles
to the planes of C-D or E-F or G-H or
L-K, so will the angle of reflection 0 M N
be equal, or greater, or less than the angle
of incidence L M 0.

And further, if the plane of the reflecting
surfaces be corrugated or uneven, the more
conflicting and numerous will be the many
different angles of reflection, and the colours
of sky and reflected lights become more and
more fatal to the angler's hopes of success.
And we believe also the direct rays of sun-
light, making many angles with the plane of
the stream surface, or the bed of the river, or
particular reaches of the river, at different
hours of the day, have also varying effects
upon the feeding, or upon the vision of trout.

WEATHERS: ELECTRICAL DISTURBANCES 93

We are not going to enter into more com-
plicated subjects such as the angles of re-
fracted rays of light passing through the
denser medium of water. But we cannot
help thinking that purely natural causes
may yet be discovered for the phenomena
connected with the surface-feeding of trout
and salmon.

In the same way, and we believe for similar
reasons, or arising from similar effects of
light and reflected light, night-fishing for
trout is rarely, or never, so successful on
moonlight nights, and the best nights for
fly-fishing are dark nights — not necessarily
dark, however, from cloudy sky. Besides
this, as we elsewhere point out, it is often
on such dark nights that a black fly kills
best.

In a recently published volume of the Fur,
Feather, and Fin series — on Salmon — an
account is given of a remarkable day's salmon-
fishing, which we consider worthy of repro-
duction in this connection, when all the
hours at which each fish was hooked were
noted down — an experience which finds
hundreds of parallels in all salmon anglers'

94 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

memories or registers. We have also for
many years noted down similar records in
our Salmon Registers, and we will quote two
instances out of many as extremes : —

The example from Fur, Feather, and Fin
series (p. 119) is as follows, as related in
tabular form : —

During the first hour and fifty minutes —
10.5 A.M. to 11.55 — eight fish were brought to
net out of nine hooked.

In the next period of same length of time
— 12.10 to 2 P.M. — seven fish out of nine were
lost.

Then between 2.10 and 5.50 ten fish out
eleven were brought to net.

It is further interesting to read the Hon.
Gathorne-Hardy's notes ; but while granting
that such experiences are quite common,
as all anglers know, he does not attempt to
explain the cause.

We will now supplement the above with
one of many experiences of our own : —

On the 14th July 1896 we had a lively
experience on the Upper Inver.

WEATHERS: ELECTRICAL DISTURBANCES 95

Began at Neck at 11 A.M. Rose one shy
twice by 11.20.

Next pool — Narrows — 11.30. Hooked, and
at once lost one at far tail.

Small Holes — Narrows— 11.45. Lightly
touched and lost a good fish.

Black Pool — Narrows. At 12 noon rose a
good fish short at top ; came and turned with
his mouth shut, very short. Immediately
after, at 12.15, we hooked, played, and landed a
pretty little fish (8 Ibs.), covered with sea-lice.

Minister's Pool. At 12.50 had on a jigger-
ing fish and lost him. This pool did not look
in A 1 order.

Washing Pool. Drew blank, too low.

Minister's Pool (second time over). Yanked,
as we believed, hard — and of purpose — into a
nice fish, and had him on ; but in five minutes
he came to the top, jiggered, splashed, shook
his head and was gone.

Lunched 1.30. Then :—

Black Pool (second time over). Rose one
again very short, the fly passing over his head
and shoulders. Would not come again.

Neck, 3 P.M. Rose one short, killed
another, a small grilse, 5 Ibs.

96 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

Fished all the Narrows over again, and
then Deer Pool down from road-side. Saw
nothing more. All the upper pools (Grasseys,
Lochanneaski, etc.) useless — too low, and
Washing Pool and Deer Pool ditto.

I used a small ' black doctor ' all the time,
and I did not take my flies away from the fish,
having a perfectly cool head at that work
after some twenty-five years' experience of
that river. On other occasions on the Inver
similar experiences could be accounted for
by a strong up-stream wind bellying one's
line, whilst one was obliged to stand high
above the pools — witness Red Pool and the
next below — but on the day above related
there was no adverse wind, but the day was
bright and somewhat electrical, with ' big bad
clouds/ and after 3 became worse, when they
would not move at all.

These two instances illustrate the best
rising between 10 and 12. The slack time
between 12 and 2, and again a good time
between 2.10 and 5.50 in the first case; and
in the second case a continuous rising of fish,
but slack and short and uncertain, 11 to 3,
except two at 12.15 and 3. After 3 nothing,

WEATHERS: ELECTRICAL DISTURBANCES 97

and trap came about 5.20 P.M. to take us up
to Inchnadamph.

Often, however, we kill plenty of fish right
in the middle of a hot, clear, bright summer
day, in low water, with no clouds, with a
small ' Jock Scott.'

Many parallel instances can be given, as
every angler knows, under both salmon and
trout ; but no one seems to keep careful
enough notes as to weathers, barometrical
pressures, etc., or light and colour.1 So far,
however, as we have done so with trout, we
find such occasions in strict accordance with
one another and with atmospheric accompani-
ments. On such days, also, we have often
observed that a smaller class of fish rises, or
otherwise large fish in poor condition, though
this does not apply to clean, silvery, fresh-run
summer salmon. One more remark — when
the 'dog-days' come in, this 'short rising' both
of salmon, sea trout, and brown trout becomes
commoner and commoner. As all know, the
' dog-days ' are charged with electricity, and
lights and colours are accordingly affected.

1 See light and colour of water and sky reflections,
ante, under ' Flies,' p. 39.

98 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

When a day is hot, sultry, electrical, be-
fore the storm bursts fish do not rise well,
especially trout ; but after a storm or a
storm-cloud bursts, and heavy plumps of
rain or even hail fall, fish become more
lively. This, we believe, is due to two com-
bined causes — the effects of change in the
light, and owing also to oxygenation of the
water. Salmon are, we believe, really less
influenced in these respects than trout.

It would appear that fish do not rove
about in search of food in such conditions,
but remain, so to speak, 'glued to the
bottom' — and both trout and salmon and sea-
trout are all affected. Even the net fisher-
men know this, and may even be observed
to take their work easier when such pro-
vision is made by the clerk of the weather
— say, for instance, on some river pool of
Lower Spey in August. It is when fish are
running or roving that both net and rod do
most among fresh-run fish. Fish require to
be wakened up from sleep or sulking (?)
before they can be expected to take the fly
on the surface. So much do we believe this,
that we do not consider it ' a guilty thing to

WEATHERS: ELECTRICAL DISTURBANCES 99

stone a pool where many 'potted fish' are
lying, before fishing it (and we know of
angling friends who can bear us out in this
statement, with the same personal experi-
ences as ourselves). Of course the unthink-
ing angler may pooh-pooh such an idea, and
we don't think there are a preponderating
number of even experienced anglers who
would enjoy the sight of a small boy play-
ing ' ducks and drakes ' over a pet pool ; and
how often do we hear ' anathemas galore '
hurled at the devoted bands of Goosanders
or Ked-breasted Mergansers and their young,
which go ' flafferin' ' down through the pools
in front of one's cast ! If no salmon are seen
in these pools, the blame is promptly placed
on ' these confounded birds,' which ' ought to
be shot.' We do not affirm they may not
be to blame in some measure, or at times,
but we do believe a ' sulky ' pool is not made
any worse by it.

At another opportunity, when salmon is
more correctly our theme, we may give
curious instances in proof of our contention
that a lot of sulky fish make a pool sulky,
and the fish are none the worse for being

100 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

wakened out of their sulks (or is it jealousy
of one another?)1; and of course another
factor may be, and probably is, a deficiency
in physical energy of these fish, caused by
electrical conditions (affecting, as some writer
lately put it, the ' condition of their enlarged
livers ! ').

1 Many anglers must have often witnessed what is
termed 'moving fish.' Where many are congregated
together in a favourite pool, and the salmon-fly passes
enticingly over them, one or more, or several of these
fish, are 'moved.' Under such circumstances we have per-
sistently stoned that pool, and the next time we fished
it over we have often taken a fish promptly when the
salmon-fly hung over the favourite lie. In this case fear
of one another may have been the dominating factor
in their unwillingness to rise to the surface.

FOOD-SUPPLIES AND EELEVANT
MATTERS

THE c times of the take/ we believe, is re-
gulated by general conditions of tempera-
tures of air and water and amount of sun-
heat, and of course upon the consequent
hatch-off of fly. Early in the season the
take may be earlier in the day, i.e. before
snow-water has melted or pulsed the river,
and (or) in seasons following a mild winter,
when ' March browns ' and ' early duns,' etc.,
have got off. The ' rise ' may be as early as
10 A.M., and continue fitfully till 12 or even
till 1 ; but this latter is exceptional. Nearly
the same occurs if there be a long succession of
high- water levels and cold skies, even if there
be no snow near the sources. In May the feed
comes on the surface, in most seasons some-
times as early as 8 A.M., but more commonly
about 10.30 and most frequently about 11.

But if frost or mist is down, but lifting,

101

102 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

the feed is usually delayed till about mid-
day. If the day gets colder as it advances,
or the sun can't struggle through, there is
little rise at all. But if the day gets milder
and sunnier in the afternoon, some of these
days yield best baskets, even as late as be-
tween 1 or 1.30 and 3 or 4 P.M. These are
usually choice days, but they don't occur
very often, and in a bad season hardly
ever.

In summer the rise or tid may continue
longer, even from early morning to late.
Still, the most 'business' can usually be
transacted from about 8 to 3, and then again in
the evening. There is rarely an evening rise
in April or May, even on the livelier broken
water. (We speak of northern rivers !)

Why trout often take in a hailstorm in
April or May, or later if such occurs, we
believe to be because the water becomes
oxygenated, the electric disturbance before-
hand emphasising the change — this and
the drowned- fly food together. In the same
way the livelier the water the livelier the
fish, and on the lower and deader reaches of
a river like Don and Deveron, trout 'go off '
sooner than on higher reaches of the same.

FOOD-SUPPLIES AND RELEVANT MATTERS 103

The run of elvers or small eels takes
place in May, varying with different seasons.
We believe this to prove a great 'stodge'
for trout, and after it takes place trout for
some time do not rise nor feed steadily on fly,
even when fly is abundant on the surface.
This movement of elvers usually takes place
between the 10th and 15th of May (in the
Deveron at least). In 1894 they ran on the
13th and 14th, with a rising water and north-
east wind, as was witnessed by a number of
residents ; and at various localities we have
ourselves seen them about the same period.
A full flood followed the run of 1894, and
trout were completely down after that on the
lower reaches of the Deveron, but continued
livelier about twelve miles higher up, at
Rothiemay, for about a week or ten days
later. We are not inclined to put this ' going
off feed ' to the flood and popular reason — a
gorge of worms — because a few trout we got
were not gorged with worms, but with eels,
larvae, caddis. One in particular seemed to
have eaten nothing but eels. And worm-
fishing, at least, had not begun.

In the same way a gorge of caddis and

104 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

larvae, or of stonefly and creeper, fed upon
by what the fishing papers term ' tailers/
produces a similar cessation from surface
food, but scarcely lasting so long as an elver
stodge. Worm we never consider has a
similar ' stodging ' effect, or if so only for a
very short time, for one reason, viz., trout
principally take to worm after they attain to
their best fly condition, or again after they
have been luxuriating in elvers. They do feed
on worms at all times more or less ; but a
day or two, or indeed a few hours, in a flood
feeding on green worms suffices for them.
We cannot believe that green worms feed or
satisfy or improve the muscular condition of
fish as fly does, and green worms in a spate
are bound to scour the fish more than to feed
them. Perhaps we might find in worm a
natural provision of nature as a blood-
purifier and purge for trout, as green grass
is taken by a dog for a vomit.

We usually find that large trout are seldom
in equal condition — i.e. as regards shape and
firmness of flesh — to small trout in the same
river, and this lack of condition extends far
into the season ; indeed, rarely are big trout

FOOD-SUPPLIES AND RELEVANT MATTERS 105

— i.e. trout far above the average — in as
eatable condition as the smaller ones.

We believe this is accounted for by the
comparative ages of the trout: on the one
hand, the juvenile smaller trout — or, so to
speak, the grilse of the trout — which have
never spawned, and on the other the older
adult trout which have spawned, and which
take longer to recover from their winter kelted
condition of muscle. Indeed, it is more than
possible the young fish may not have severely
lost condition all winter. (See our remarks
under ' Comparison and History of Seasons,'
infra, p. 108).

Also we find parallel conditions amongst
the young of the migratory Salmonidae, such
as the famed (or notorious ? !) finnocks of the
north-east of Scotland — Ythan, Dee, Deveron,
Spey, Findhorn, etc. etc. — or the unspawned
grilse of the sea- trout of March and April.
These descend the rivers of the east coast
about the same time that the run of elvers
takes place, and many of these young
sea-trout, which are caught in the estuaries,
are what may be termed ' weel-mended ' after
their gorge on the elvers.

Early in March and in April, and even

106 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

during part of May, the ' March browns ' are
abundant, the large lighter ones corning on a
little later than the small darker ones — let
us say of the same swarm. We give a general
preference to the lighter, as we believe the
trout do ; and often when the darker males (?)
are going down like fleets of herring-boats,
the female (?) fly makes the basket. Stewart
advocates a smaller imitation than the
natural insect. We do not find that advice
invariably good.

Geological conditions :—

A friend who has studied the question of
the influences of geological conditions upon
trout and trout food, and one who has had
abundant and continuous opportunities both
as an angler and one of the staff of the
Scottish Geological Survey, reports to us as
follows : — c My impression is, the condition
of trout depends almost entirely upon the
abundance of fly food ; and as the hatching
out of the river flies is mainly dependent on
temperatures of air and water, geological condi-
tions only indirectly influence condition of the
fish/ Mr Hinxman continues : — ' The trout
in a limestone district are well fed owing to

FOOD-SUPPLIES AND RELEVANT MATTERS 107

the amount of Crustacea— garnmari, etc. — and
I remember the trout in the chalk streams
of Wiltshire were often in good condition
by the end of March. Streams flowing
through " drift-covered " country like the Don
are again likely to be earlier than those in
which there is much bare rock and shifting
shingle channel; but I do not think that,
with the exception of limestone and chalk,
the nature of the rock makes much differ-
ence. Elevation, temperatures, and snow-
water are probably the chief factors.' Illus-
trative of this, and speaking of the very cold,
bleak May of 1898, he adds : — ' This has been
a very cold, bleak season, and such few trout
as there are here (he is writing from a locality
high up in Lochaber), have been very late
of getting into condition, while there has
been hardly any fly to speak of, though

red-spinners were out on the Burn in

pretty large numbers on the 23rd May. I
suspect you have not done so well on the
Deveron as usual/ (See our ' Comparison and
History of Seasons/ ante, p. 105.)

That seasonal changes take place in fish at
different times and even among different in-

108 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

dividuals in the same stream is a well-known
yet interesting fact. To illustrate this let
us offer a few examples. In May 1894 a
trout was killed and opened by us at the
river- side. It was full of ova in strings
about the size of snipe-shot. This trout was
about half a pound, and in prime condition.
Others were afterwards found in a similar
interesting state. In July, from a high-level
loch in Sutherland, Loch Gorm, which is
much fed by snow-wreaths on the north-east
face of Ben More, Assynt, we found many
pink-, or almost red-fl.esh.ed trout full of ova
the size of seed-pearls, and, notwithstanding
the rich colour of the flesh, flabby and
' cotton- woolly ' when cooked.

Again, on April 8th, 1897, a ' baggit ' salmon
was hooked and landed. There were ripe,
large handsome ova running from her in our
presence. A gentle pressure, however, pro-
duced no more. She had dashed at and
taken a spinning bait, and she was kelted in
shape. She must have deposited the prin-
cipal portion of her ova just before she took
that Devon minnow. Our landlord, the laird
of the water we were fishing, himself an experi-

FOOD-SUPPLIES AND RELEVANT MATTERS 109

enced salmon-fisher, pronounced it as ' one
of these late-running fish of last year ! ' We
confess not perfectly to understand it.1

Again, in the upper waters of the Endrick
—a Stirlingshire stream — on the 1st Septem-
ber we found trout running both milt and
ova so universally that we stopped fishing.
Yet on many lochs and rivers trout are per-
fectly fit to kill and eat in September, and
even in some (lochs, at least) as late as
October. At St. Fillans, on Loch Earn, we
have caught trout which were perfectly good
on the table in October, when, at the same
time, on the small tributaries of Euchil
Water, we found trout pushing their noses
upon the edges of the ' divots ' and among
the grassy runlets — full of spawn.

Dark -red salmon still pushing up as
spawners were caught by rod on the Oich
in March 1898, which could scarcely have

1 But we look upon this instance as a proof that a
salmon which had evidently only just completed her
spawning operations dashed hungrily at the Devon
minnow. It would have been interesting to have dis-
sected this fish and observed the condition of her stomach,
in connection with the question of ' salmon feeding in
fresh water.' (See Fishery Board Report, Blue Book,
1898.)

110 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

left the sea and entered the Ness later than
the previous November — i.e. if they had ever
been down to salt water at all! But as a
curious companion instance to this, a single
specimen of the so-called Salmo Killinensis
of Gunther, or the char of Loch Killin above
the Falls of Foyers, was caught by worm
in the tidal part of the river Ness early
in March 1898 (vide Annals of Scottish
Natural History, April 1898). Strange
that — escaping from Loch Killin into Loch
Ness — this fish should not descend below
the layer of spate-water in Loch Ness,
but find its way down three-fourths of the
whole length of the loch, as if making
willingly to the sea !

Many more curious instances could be
given, and it might be worth the trouble
some day to collect such facts for future
use, both with a bearing upon their natural
conditions of life and changes of diet, and
also as possible influences to guide legislation
when framing an Act for a close-time for trout.

We certainly want a close-time for trout,
but we require the same to be suited to
innumerable conditions, and to each river

FOOD-SUPPLIES AND RELEVANT MATTERS 111

or group of rivers, under their own climatal
conditions and temperatures and seasons, and
other physical and natural conditions of late
and early rivers. (We purpose returning to
the subject of close-times; poaching, and
illegal fishing later on.)

Sheep drains and general drainage of
river slopes. — This is perhaps a fruitful
cause of deterioration in size of trout, and
in diminution of numbers, and Stewart
speaks at length regarding it, and is most
accurate in his remarks (pp. 23, 24), and we
do not deem it necessary to dilate upon the
subject, as such would, for the most part, be
' harping on a very old tune,' except to say
that such rivers as are less subjected to this
artificial drainage are usually found — other
advantages being included — to be the best
trout streams. A river, for instance, that is
dependent upon deep-set and innumerable
springs, and which is not dependent upon
flood-water only for its bulk and flow, will
maintain an even flow and a better standard
as a trouting river than one which is sub-
jected to continuous spates of surface wash-
ings, and even than one which has large

112 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

series of reservoirs or lochs at the head
waters. Where a c medium ' stage of water
can run longest, becoming ' amber ' and even
' clear/ and keep such ' medium ' or first
stages of ' low ' levels for the greatest time,
these rivers are the most reliable for sport
and a good average size of trout. (We do
not bring in here any direct reference to
artificial spates, or dams sluiced to bring up
the migratory salmonidoe. That appears
to us to be a totally different matter.)

Now, talking of the averages of killable
trout, we have always considered that as
much pure enjoyment can be got out of
some mountain burn or rocky stream, where
the average is known to be, say, a quarter-
pound, or even where the average is known
rarely to exceed six to the pound, and where
an angler can make a trim little basket of
ten or twelve pounds by careful and scientific
angling with fly or worm. We are our-
selves perfectly happy — happier, indeed, with
smaller fish, than when, upon lower, more
sluggish reaches, it may be, of the same river,
hours are spent over the obtaining of a rise,
except during the short ' time of the take,

FOOD-SUPPLIES AND RELEVANT MATTERS 113

lasting possibly half an hour only (and where
in that time the rise is certainly fast and
furious), and when the same weight of trout
may be basketed with bigger fish. The
average — say half-pound to three-quarters of
a pound — is better, but the sport is not so con-
tinuous nor so pleasing, nor at the end of a
day does one look back upon it as so satis-
factory. We know many anglers differ from
us, and prefer the big fish. For our own part,
we never consider, at least on a Scottish stream,
that a quarter-pound trout is too small to
basket, even where the average of a whole
basketful be found to be the half-pound (there
are plenty of that size in the stream). But
the true average of a stream ought to be con-
sidered at that which it produces when its best
average trout are feeding, and quarter-pound
trouts (where the average runs from, say,
three to the pound or the half-pound, or in
exceptional seasons closely approaches three-
quarters) ought to be basketed, but nothing
under that weight.

In the river Fiddich, a tributary of Spey,
the trout average about five or six to the
pound. Knowing this, many a lovely day

114 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

we have spent upon it before the distilleries
became upon its banks almost as numerous
as ' black beetles ' in a yellow flood ! l

But how many local fishermen are there
who turn back into the water all the par,
small trout, or large, lanky, ill-conditioned
fish they catch ? If they are down-stream
fishers in low, clear, summer water, very
often they would come home c clean ' if they
did, One local fisher we wot of, who was
found drowned in shallow water, having
tripped and fallen in on his face, who locally
was looked upon as a 'king among fishers/
who kept a record of the numbers only of
the fish he killed, and in a lifetime scored
some thousands and thousands, bagged every-
thing he c yanked ' out, from par up to, say, a
few odd pounders, and always selected the
narrow bit burns and smaller streams in
order to increase his tale.

Under circumstances of summer waters
low and clear, when up-stream anglers have
met with a favourable day and up-stream
breeze, or a cool, drizzly day in June or July,
and come in with baskets of seven, eight, or

1 See Table showing measurements and weights of
trout in good condition and in bad condition, p. l&J infra.

FOOD-SUPPLIES AND RELEVANT MATTERS 115

ten pounds or more, several down-streamers
with poles — ' far-off fishers ' — have returned
with pocket, poke, or basket of par I and often
with only a few miserable trout of ounces.

We don't grudge them their ' sport ' — far
from it; but we do object to be denounced
as we once were, to our knowledge, thus : —
1 Oh, I know these gentlemen ' (we were
pleased at this saving clause) cwere fishing
with salmon roe. I know it. They could
not kill these trout any other way/ with vain
repetitions harping on the same miserable
and jealous chord. The date was mid-
summer, the river low — 0.0.0. of scale
(q.v.). We cannot therefore accuse the de-
tractor of ' Honi soit que mal y pense!
' Gentleman (?) of the salmon-roe-persuasion/
please tell our readers if salmon roe is a good
lure under these circumstances, or, failing
knowledge on that point, please tell them
whether it is a killing bait in Spey, say
around Eothes or Aberlour, ' earlier or
later in the season in a drumly water ! '
Only once having used it in our life, and
then ( jist for the raal curiosity o' the thing '
— and not at midsummer — we are not in a
position to educate as regards it.

116 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

When we did use it we felt inclined to
break our rod as not likely ever again to be
successful in honest and gentlemanly sport.
I think now, that rod must be where all bad
rods go, and that it has been there now for
at least thirty years. But this by the way.

Process of population, and dispersal of
insect life in a stream. — Take the ' March
brown,' hatching out in March and April, and
in higher reaches even all summer and into
August (' August dun '). The fly floats down
stream, cock-winged in flotillas. The females
lay their eggs on the surface, and die. Eggs
reach the bottom in time, and in correct
season and in normal seasons hatch-off and
become larvse. Later, they pass upward again
to the surface, reaching the surface with the
current, and become male and female ' March
browns,' or various shades of that well-known
insect. Again the females float down stream,
lay eggs, and die.

Given that the above is correct so far,
there is evident tendency to populate reaches
lower down than those where the winged
insect deposited its ova.

But if a wind blows up the river, or up
any reaches of it, the females and males are

FOOD-SUPPLIES AND RELEVANT MATTERS 117

drifted by the wind higher up the river from
the place of their first appearance, and alight-
ing on the surface lay their eggs.

Given this is also correct, then the other
tendency is so far counterbalanced.

The Grannom fly has been successfully
introduced and hatched-off on a river in
England (Berkshire), and it ' appears to have
gone somewhat lower down the river than
where the eggs were located, etc/ — (Fishing
Gazette, April 23rd, 1898.)

c Tailing of trout" (so much written about in
sporting papers) is a well-known habit of trout
when feeding on larvae. We witness this more
and more in later years, but we cannot say we
have noticed any corresponding decrease of
insect food on the surface. We can, however,
'jalouse' (Anglice, suspect; Yankee, 'guess')
that where dry-fly fishing is ' all the rage,'
trout may get sick of stinging insects, and
more and more take to ' rattling ' in the mud
and slime like pigs. We cannot say that
this habit seems to be dependent on weather,
or water, or temperature. It may occur at
almost any time, especially during a long
drought. It is equally certain it occurs when
rivers are running high, as can easily be proved

118 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

by a slight examination of such trout as may
vary their method of feeding, and be caught
by an artificial fly at such times.

Trout taking in a hailstorm. — This may
arise, as we have already said, simply
because of the drowned fly, or it may be
caused by change from sultry weather and
tepid water, reoxygenated by the pattering
of the hail or rain-shower.

Trout not taking before rain. — Unless
before the rain there are electrical conditions
of the atmosphere, we do not place entire
confidence in this old saw. If the water be
otherways oxygenated, as by rapid streams,
or broken water, or under a fall, trout often
take well before rain-showers. If the weather
be setting down for a regular wet day, then
trout may not do well before it commences,
but when this occurs, say in June or July, as a
rule there are electric and barometric causes
combined. Sometimes, we have certainly
noticed, before heavy rain a smaller class
of trout come on the feed ; or otherwise we
catch ill-conditioned fish. This, as we have
tried to explain before, seems to us a sure
indication that the average or larger and best-
conditioned trout are down, and the younger,

FOOD-SUPPLIES AND RELEVANT MATTERS 119

more active ones are getting a chance to
feed, and take advantage of it ; while larger
but imperfect-conditioned fish also take the
chance given by the refusal of their stronger
neighbours.

There are many bad days when only small
or badly fed trout are found to be on the
move, and thus we account for it. We feel
pretty sure we are not far wrong, as we make
our analyses and averages pretty carefully.

Trout feel warm or cold in the hand when
taken out of the water. — This, surely, almost
all anglers must have noticed, and on those
days when they feel cold, i.e. colder than
human-blood temperature, it is usually (we
think we are correct) when the temperature
of the air is very much warmer than that of
the water, and usually on such days they do
not rise well.

Temperatures of air and water. — We have
rarely found trout rise well when the follow-
ing temperatures are found to rule (and we
here refer our readers to our Tables, showing
some of these rulings, and to the Tables which
illustrate day-to-day records, which are taken
direct from our regular fishers' registers).

120

THE WONDERFUL TROUT

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FOOD-SUPPLIES AND RELEVANT MATTERS 121

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FOOD-SUPPLIES AND RELEVANT MATTERS 123

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124 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

ILLUSTRATIONS OF GOOD AND BAD DAYS.
The History of a Day : Deveron.

(Take two consecutive days, 21st and 22nd
April 1898.)

April 2lst. — Rapid changes of tempera-
ture—

Air, 52° at 9 A.M., and 62° by 2.30.

Water, 44° at 10 A.M., and 52° by 2.30.
Now, what would we expect ? Little, and
we won't be disappointed !

A sudden change of air temperature,

But a slow change of water temperature.
We fished from 10.30 to 1 P.M. Had four
rises and killed two trout. These two trout
were lanky, poor, and black. They were
taken when the air was 52° and the water
46°. There seemed little to find fault with
in the sky or weather. A marbled sky and
faint east to south-east wind. Water still
full (0 0 of scale), and amber (or clear, not
crystal). Early creepers seen — a few.

After lunch at 1, fished till 3.30 P.M. Got
one more in Wheel, two on Heron, two on
Drachlaw. Flies were ' March brown ' and
' Broughton point/

FOOD-SUPPLIES AND RELEVANT MATTERS 125

Argument.

When water is at about its coldest, and
the air makes a jump, only ill-conditioned
fish rise, or small, and when the air leaves
the water in the lurch by 10° all day. On
such days possibly some small trout may
rise, and such may be —

c Capable, keepable, eatable,
Excellent, esculent, succulent/

April 22nd. — Frost in the morning, and
frost-mist down on the water, but gradually
rising to top of hill.

At 10 A.M. air 48°, water not taken.

At 3 P.M. air 50°, water 54°.
Before going out I prophesied to myself,
' Trout won't take till midday, and not then
unless the sun comes out.'

I began at 10.30 and got four small trout
by 12. At Heron I sat down and smoked
a pipe. This brought me to 12.20. Sun
gleams came out at 12. Smash of trout
on — 'early dun.' Between 12.20 and 1.20 I
killed thirteen trout (8 Ibs.), but not another
rise. They hooked badly, and of the thirteen
six were hooked foul.

126 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

Came in to lunch.

Went out again at 2. I had come in as
the trout had entirely ceased to move after
1.20. Half a gale of wind, east. Heavy
wave up Drachlaw Pool. Steely brazen sky,
and by 7 P.M. air temperature down to 46°.
Of course I never saw a fin.

Take now the history of a good day, and
in May.

Temperatures not taken, but following
noted.

May 1st, 1894.— Fished 10.30 to 1, and
1.30 to 4 P.M. Cold, dark, showery up to
1 P.M. Not a rise. Then lighter, warmer,
all afternoon ; but few flies on the water,
the time of the hatch-off being over (usually
10.30 to 12, or so). But a few nice trout
seen rising ' to themselves/

Water low (0 of scale), wind north-west,
and up on the Mid-Heron bends.

Fished again 1.30 to 4 P.M., and trout were
still rising when I had my basket full. Thirty-
one trout, 19 Ibs. (I thought I had 20 Ibs.).
Best trout, If Ibs. Fly, ' Greenwell's glory.'

On this day the change for the better took
place after midday (see above). By that

FOOD-SUPPLIES AND RELEVANT MATTERS 127

time fly-hatch was over, but trout took sure
and deadly.

Having given one or two tables of the
histories of days, we will now give

ILLUSTRATIONS OF SEASONS.

1. A season of extreme drought and heat.

2. A season of great cold, and rain, and

dark heavy water, after a mild
February and March.

1. The History of a Season, 1893.

In 1893 we arrived at our fishing quarters
on Deveron on May 2nd.

There had at that time been five weeks of
dead-low water (0.0.0.0. of scale). Longest
set of low-level records. This state of affairs
lasted in all ten weeks from the time the
drought began — up to the 22nd June. We
had some five miles of water to fish by per-
mission, and rented two more, for May, for
two rods.

On the 6th. — Bright ; strong wind making
waves up; roving sky, low, clear to crystal
water. One rod, twenty-five trout, 10 Ibs.

128 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

On the 8th.— Bar. 30°; bright sun; few
clouds; wind east, up. Twenty-nine trout,
10-|- Ibs., one rod.

After that almost nothing, except on 20th
May — twenty-two trout, 9 Ibs. (with worm
and Stewart tackle ; two, small, with fly).

The weather continued sultry and thun-
derous. By May 15th the river was at its
lowest on record since 1826, as vouched for
by local residents.

Slime on the stones and channel all the
time we were there. Dearth of river flies.
Much destroyed in larval stage by the ex-
posure of the channel and river-bed; and
could not hatch off in mid-stream for thick
coating of slime. All the water spring-
water, but unfortunately thermometers not
used. Many kelts dying of fungus. Trout
also beginning to show disease. But all this
time, and up to 17th May, and as far up as
the higher reaches of the river — say 1000 to
1500 feet (as we ascertained from a fellow-
angler of scientific carefulness, L. Hinx-
man of the Geological Staff) — trout were in
the PINK OF CONDITION. They were seen
' ruttling ' like swine amongst the larvae

FOOD-SUPPLIES AND RELEVANT MATTERS 129

and slime, ' standing on their heads ' and
waving their tails; the latter both under
and above water. No wonder they are fat,
guzzling at the imprisoned larvae and caddis !

On the 20th May the river rose just one
inch by gauge, and between 10.30 and 11.30
we got (one rod) 6| Ibs. out of one stream,
two fish with fly and twelve with worm. On
the 22nd June (we left our lower quarters
after the 31st May, and by this time had
gone to the higher reaches forty miles
higher up) a slow, slight rise of river.
With that rise a very early run of sea-trout
and very small grilse ascended the river
Avon as far up as Inchrory. Fresh run sea-
trout had never been seen up there so early
before. Both sea-trout and grilse were very
small — evidently under -fed in the sea or
tidal-water. Grilse ran from 1J to 2J or
3 Ibs.

The barometer had gone down steadily
from Monday llth June, but rain held off
till the 22nd. Then the rise of from 18" to
two feet of river came slowly after thirty-six
hours rain, and then went slowly back again
to the old condition of things.

130 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

And now trout began very early to go off
colour and lose condition. This was quite a
month before their time in normal seasons.
An almost similar state of affairs held good
well into July, and then, on 13th July,
bitterly cold, dark and misty, and north
wind, and no improvement in fishing.

The above illustration is what we consider
the most extraordinary anomalous season in
our experience and actual practice on the
Deveron. We have known of other seasons
perhaps equally uncommon, but on these
occasions we think we have not been trout-
fishing, but salmon-fishing.

Now, if a succession of similar seasons to
1893 occurred l — exceeding drought from
March to June and July — trout, while per-
haps getting more surface-food than in a
cold season and high water (such as 1898
q.v.), would nevertheless be forced in large
measure to feed upon the larval stages of the
insects. One half of the propagating ground

1 ' Blazing sun and blasting blight,
Tin-pot brazen vault of blue,
River low and colour light,
Scum and dirt too floating through.'

FOOD-SUPPLIES AND RELEVANT MATTERS 131

of the water-insects being laid bare to the
scorching sun is lost. The other half, into
which the trout of double the area are
crowded, and the larvae being glutted up
in slime, are fed upon voraciously ; and most
likely few reach maturity or hatch-off at all.
The trout get into pink of condition (we
never saw them finer on the table), but as
rapidly appear to go off colour. It seems
evident that larval forms are not so sustaining
to trout muscle as winged fly, because even
before the summer months were ended, many
turned dark in our baskets in a short time.

A succession of such seasons, we believe,
would do enormous damage to the feeding
capabilities of a stream. In unoxygenated
or half stagnant ponds or lakes, such as
Presmennan in Haddington, the fish died,
and the water became foetid and covered
with a green slime on the surface. ' Also, in
this connection : it is well known Lochleven
fishes best in cool seasons and in east winds,
because the steady breezes off the sea aerate
and oxygenate the otherwise sluggish water.
East and north-east winds are the salvation
of Lochleven's healthy conditions.

132 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

2. The History of a Season, 1898.

As a perfect antithesis to the last example
we take the season of 1898.

In 1898 we found our water at a medium
height, or 00 of scale, but dark and cold
and inky, with cold water temperature and
warmer air, and the water pulsing slightly
up and down the gauge. Previous to this
the weather had been genial and mild all
February and March, and indeed during the
previous winter.

Then after the 8th April, and as the season
advanced, both air and water became colder,
and soon trout went decidedly off condition.
Before this they were in better condition
than by the middle of May — at least all those
which were over three-quarters of a pound or
one pound. Young fish were quite good.

March browns had appeared early, but
afterwards very few were seen, and only one
day after the 8th April. Only one day also
was a flight of early duns seen after the 8th,
though a few were seen occasionally; that
flight only lasted for a short half-hour, and
after it was over the trout took savagely for

FOOD-SUPPLIES AND RELEVANT MATTERS 133

a short time. But the sky was bad, and they
caine short. We had six out of thirteen foul-
hooked, and pricked and lost more. During
all May less and less fly to be seen, unless
a few 'iron duns/ black gnats, and a few
'Yellow Sallys.' Even the iron duns — a
cold-weather fly — were scarcer than usual,
and we killed with the imitation ! — (Anglers
will know what that signifies.)

We had temperature of water recorded
between 42° (but colder before that when our
thermometers were not in evidence) and to
50° by the middle of May ; and of air from
42° and 44° to 56° till the 5th May. Then
back again went the readings of both air and
water amongst the 40's ; skies dark and cold ;
little or no sun for days and weeks together ;
no fly ' up ' ; no rise on ; larger trout in poor
condition (see measurements and weights).
On 26th May air was 46° at 9 A.M. and water
43° at 11.30, and the days often got colder
towards midday.

These were combined with hideous weather
— dark, bleak, and cold ; with high-running
water, coloured, and never reaching the low
levels at all, getting amber but scarcely ever

134 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

clear and never crystal. One day only, the
17th May, I am inclined to look upon as a
truly lost day. We find it thus described in
our Eegister : ' Probably would have proved
a record day, as, although there was a little
frost in the morning, it got warmer after
midday — first time this year — but alas ! both
anglers were out of sorts. We saw what we
did not see before or since this season, trout
rising fast and feeding after 1.30 P.M. Un-
doubtedly this was a lost day. In the
morning water was 47° and remained so, and
air had improved from 45° to 50° by 12
o'clock/ After this date, 17th May, trout
seemed to go down utterly.

Now we find that we had noted on the llth
April that trout were in * good condition and
quite good on the table/ and 'much for-
warder than in 1897' (which was one of our

best years on Deveron). Sheriff W

also, who was fishing Dunlugas water, wrote
us that they were in good order, in 'really
wonderful order ' at that time ; and he is not
one likely to be led astray in such compari-
sons. But it was after this they began to
show marked deterioration.

FOOD-SUPPLIES AND RELEVANT MATTERS 135

The larger fish were in worse condition at
the end of May than they were in at the
beginning of April.

The markedly thin condition also of a
small salmon (fresh run), which was taken
on the Deveron on 16th May, is also curious.
It was excellent to eat and perfectly curdy,
but it had not been well fed in the sea whence
it came.

The first grilse taken in the nets was at
the easternmost net station of the coast on
the 21st May, and weighed only one and a
half pounds, and only two had been taken
at Gordonston, the heavier only weighing
three pounds. Continuous gales of north-
east wind and roaring surf made net-fishing
a failure. We heard of all the returns
officially supplied to our landlord, who has
taken so much leading interest and cost in
having the cruive-dykes removed in the
Duff House policies.

Now, in the event of a succession of such
seasons as 1898, it seems almost certain that
trout would come to feed more and more
upon the bottom, on miniature forms of
insect-food or other less sustaining items.

136 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

But when, as is usually the case, the cold
seasons are accompanied by dark skies and
a high flooded state of water, it must also
appear evident that even the larval food-
supply cannot be obtained in sufficient bulk
to keep up the condition or size or average
of the trout, and deterioration of the stream
must ensue. Fortunately Nature does not
usually provide such seasons in rapid suc-
cession. If she did, we fear the deterioration
would assume quite alarming proportions.

MEASUREMENTS AND WEIGHTS OF
TROUT IN 1898.

We did not take measures and weights
earlier in the season than the dates given
below, but, as we have said, the average con-
dition was more nearly approached in April
than in May on the lower reaches of the
river, and condition decidedly deteriorated
as May advanced. Higher up the river in
the more rapid water, where more thorough
oxygenation had taken place, trout were not
in such poor condition, nor does it appear
that they lost whatever condition they had
attained to.

FOOD-SUPPLIES AND RELEVANT MATTERS 137
May 5th, 1 trout measured 18 in., weight 1 Ib.

9th,

10th,

14th,

))

under

14th,

19th,

>.J

„

21st,

ioil

21st,

10J

each

21st,

113

23rd,

weight

23rd,

12|

under

23rd,

weight

„

23rd,

nearly

25th,

weight

oz.

25th,

27th,

. 33

10|

27th,

»J

27th,

H-

We wish we had taken many more measure-
ments and weights, and such materials will
have our more careful attention in future.

138 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

Our measurements and weights are not
taken by the ordinary spring-balances, which
are often faulty in the smaller weights, and
can seldom be relied upon after some time
in use, even when specially constructed by a
good maker to order — such at least is our
own experience many times over.

The following are a few weights sent from
Rothiemay under date of 25th May 1898 by
an angling friend, along with tracings of
outlines of fish.

Rothiemay is fifteen miles by stream higher
up the river, but not at a very much greater
altitude. The day was rank bad.

May 25th, 1 trout measured 11 Jin., wgt. lljoz.
>i 2^th, 1 „ „ llf „ „ 101 „

n 25th, 1 „ „ 12 „ „ 101 „

ii 25th, 1 „ „ 111 ?j ?j 9 „

We ought also to mention that our measure-
ments are taken on a straight line between
the nose along the medial line to the fork
of the tail in all cases.

The following is a specimen of a lanky
trout, dating April 18th, 1895 :—

C. H. A. 1 trout measured 19 J in., wgt. 1

FOOD-SUPPLIES AND RELEVANT MATTERS 139

lb. 14 oz. ; and another for comparison, April
27th, 1896, measured 17 Jin., wgt. 2 Ibs.

e. — Of course the comparative measure-
ments and weights of trout in condition vary in
different streams. All we have given here are
of Deveron trout. It is important also, of course,
when taking and recording such details, to keep
accurate note of the dates; and it might, and
we believe would, add to our knowledge if they
also tabulated descriptions of the weather at the
time they were caught. Those which we have
given can be compared with our previous remarks
and the other Tables given.

It would be, we think, desirable if a
much larger series of measurements and
weights for different rivers were recorded
in sportmen's registers,1 and at different
seasons — say March, April, May, June, July,
and September. Only by a long series of
these could positive scientia be attained,
and much useful data for comparisons be
accumulated. We would be pleased to re-
ceive such from different rivers with a view
to future investigations.

1 Registers, such as we use ourselves, can be obtained
from Messrs. Stewart and Co., stationers, George Street,
Edinburgh, bound in pads, or in sheets.

TROUTING WITH OTHER DEVICES:
CLOSE TIMES AND POACHING

AMONGST other devices for capturing trout,
we merely desire to mention them by name,
adding a few remarks here and there.

Green worm in a yellow flood. — Many
may think we have said enough or too much
already.

Salmon roe is illegal. I done it ' wanst/
but it was not in midsummer !

Snatching is illegal, for salmon. I never
done it ; but the acts don't work. The
Black Watch-it insec' often looking on help-

Guddling, or l gunnling/ or ( tickling/ I
have. Good fun for a boy, but illegal.

Ottering. — I have done or seen it done
twice. Don't see any fun in it. ' Rives ' and
tears, and renders shy scores of pricked fish":

TROUTING WITH OTHER DEVICES 141

Illegal, but commonly practised in spite of
the law.

Cross - lining. — Illegal and destructive.
Never did it, but have seen it done, for both
salmon and trout, by a laird and his keeper.
(Gamekeeper, I mean.)

Fishing with twelve flies on a cast. —
Clyde only, I believe ; open water (very) !

Set lines. — Done it — for eels or monsters.
Never caught many of the latter. Only a
few, when one wanted to ' give a loch a fair
chance/ when it was ' out with jurisdiction ' ;
but went on the same principle as the
Quaker who said, ' Thou may do it this time,
friend, but thou mayst not make a practice
thereof/

Netting. — Have done it once, by permis-
sion, to try and reduce an unnecessary stock
of small trout in a Highland loch. Party :
three ' sportsmen,' six gillies, a pony, and a
' lassie ' looking after the pony. Result : one
small trout to each, some boulders, more
mud, and a ducking. Didn't try it again !

'Burning the Waiter.' — Done it twice: fell
out of the boat, got nasty and wet, but
thought it grand fun, though not sport !

142 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

Dynamite. — Saw it done in a Hungarian
river once. Disgusting ! Never desire to see
it any more. Dastardly !

Night-fishing. — Done it often. Not keen
on it. Cause of bad language.

Blue-bottle fly. — Used to practise this and
kill, but gave it up in maturer years.

Creeper. — Ditto.

Diving minnow. — Ditto, and rather liked
it.

Par-tail and minnoiv. — There is a phase
of thi£ which is sport, i.e. up-stream fishing
with minnow. I am not an adept at it, but can
realise that it is ' sport/ No doubt minnow
is legitimate ' sport/ and ' par-tail ' is a good
bait for getting rid of rubbish, i.e. old big
trout, which are cannibals with big teeth and
do more harm in a stream than good, and
ought to be killed at all seasons, as I think
so should old black cocks and even old grey
hens and old cock grouse all the year round.

Long ago, when our own home river was
comparatively pure and held many fine trout,
we used to go to the river-side armed with
all the anglers' complete impedimenta. We
had a trace mounted for spinning minnow

TROUTING WITH OTHER DEVICES 143

ready baited, and another for diving-minnow
ready baited, and one with worm all attached
to the under-side of our creel-lid, and a
strand or two round our hat ready for using
the ' nat'ral flee ' — usually a big blue-bottle
or a large house-fly — and finally, a cast of
artificials attached to our line. But we
were younger then, more patient than now,
and knew less; but our very keenness and
untiringness often resulted in our having
pretty bits of sport. We would begin fishing
up a stream or a pool or a reach with fly,
then spin it down with minnow — we used a
somewhat stiff twelve-foot rod ; then in the
dead reaches — time about, or as we found
best — a diving minnow or the natural fly,
and good fish were often taken thus. Now,
however, we rarely practise these arts.
Somehow one's ideas of ' sport ' change with
the years that go by. Now we care little or
aught for anything but the artificial fly and
worm, and an occasional (very .occasional)
fling with the 'birlin' mennen' (spinning
minnow) or the 'develin' mennen' (i.e. the
diving minnow) or the par-tail, but we do
not hanker after these methods. As for fish-

144 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

ing out of a boat on the flat face of a loch, it
won't compare with any wee bit mountain
burn, and only as a change now and then do
we practise it. Indeed, we rather dislike it
than otherwise, though the day may come
when one may ' needs be satisfied ' to pump-
handle away out of a boat.

Keferring to Stewart's remarks as to the
number of flies used by some fishermen, he
says, ' some use a dozen.' This is, we believe,
principally practised on the clear upper waters
of the Clyde and Tweed. We have fished the
Clyde but never happened to see the method
in operation, so we are not in a position to
speak accurately concerning it; but it finds its
principal exponent and advocate inThe Angler
and the Loop Rod, by Mr. David Webster, who,
as we are informed on the title-page, has been
' forty years a practitioner in this art.' In this
book of Tweed and Clyde there is a most use-
ful map of the upper reaches of these rivers,
giving all the reaches on which the different
winds blow up on Tweed and Clyde and
their tributaries. Not knowing, we cannot say
decidedly, but we think we would prefer to
continue as we have formerly done with four

TROUTING WITH OTHER DEVICES 145

flies at most for medium and high waters,
and come down to two for low, clear, and
crystal. We practise three usually, at times
four, early in the season (when we then fish),
but should the water come below ' medium '
of scale and gauge, then we use two only, not
far apart. Indeed, we are of opinion that
two anglers of equal expertness in up-stream
fishing will not differ much in results in the
evening should one use three flies and the
other only two. The greater numbers of
trout, we believe, are killed by the tail-fly
and top-dropper; and if an intermediate
dropper kills better than the others, then it
ought not to be an intermediate, and the
sooner it is changed to one of the other
positions the better, or a second and even a
third put on. The object in using from nine
to twelve flies on a loop rod and line, we pre-
sume, is to present a choice of flies, and cast
a longer line in order to cover more water
across and up.

XIII
CLOSE TIMES FOE TROUT

MUCH in the preceding pages tend to a be-
lief now becoming prominent among true
sportsmen - anglers, that a close time is
necessary if our river-trout are to be saved
from destruction.

A close time has recently formed the
principal object of a large meeting of Scottish
anglers in Edinburgh and Glasgow, under
the presidency of Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart.,
whose interest in all such matters is a house-
hold word.

Such a close time, however, we believe, if
it is to be effectual, must be suited to a large
variety of circumstances, to innumerable con-
ditions ; to each river or group of rivers under
their own climatal peculiarities ; to variations
in altitude, temperatures, and seasons.

Legislation on such topics is in itself often

CLOSE TIMES FOR TROUT 147

a difficult and intricate matter, like all legis-
lation which is subject to often ignorant and
blatant and unreasonable opposition. Often
also such legislation is rendered inoperative
and futile soon after the. Acts are agreed to
and passed into law, because the means
taken to bring culprits to justice are ineffi-
cient and unsatisfactory, and hedged about
with innumerable difficulties in practice.

The extraordinary prices now asked and
paid for ' trout ' in our large markets, especi-
ally in our large manufacturing towns, must
offer sore temptation to gangs of poachers,
who harry the water often at dead of night,
and are seldom, very seldom, brought to jus-
tice. We believe we do not exaggerate when
we say tons of trout are thus captured and sold
to dealers, especially in Aberdeen, Manchester,
Liverpool, Leicester, Bradford, and Hull.

In 1897 trout were priced at the current
markets in Aberdeen during April, and even
earlier, at Is. 6d. per Ib. ; and during April 1898
were advertised at Is. lOd. per Ib. in the Aber-
deen Free Press, and at Is. lid. in the Scotsman
about the same time. Sea-trout and brown
trout are usually sold mixed, and these prices

148 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

refer to such; but when sea-trout are sold by
themselves, they bring twopence or three-
pence more per pound.1 When it is remem-
bered the sea-trout are so-called ' Finnochs,'
usually taken by rod and line at the tidal
portions of the east-coast rivers, but also,
it may be believed, with nets, where no nets
are legal, at a time when they are descending
the rivers to the sea, and not when ascending
the same, surely such are not other than
well-mended kelts, or fish not fully recovered
from their long residence in fresh water.
The smaller fish may be, and no doubt are,
fish which have not spawned, and therefore
have recovered flesh and muscle to some
extent by the time they reach the tidal
water, and no doubt rapidly recover after

i Besides, the market prices for small trout rule higher
than those for big trout, and this means a premium to
poachers, increasing facilities for them to poach small
streams ; and as regards the future supplies of salmo
fario in Scotland, it is burning the candle at the wrong
end. The prices quoted are under date September 3rd,
1898, for Tweed and Teviot, viz. : ' Small trout, Is. 7d.
per Ib. ; large trout, Is. 6d. per lb.' ! Surely common
sense in legislation should regulate such prices and sales,
as well as regulate the size of fish which are to be sale-
able from rivers, and the average weight only allowed,
and the premium should rather be upon the big fish.

CLOSE TIMES FOR TROUT 149

they get amongst their natural salt or
brackish feeding -grounds. But we are
assured that oftentimes when so - called
sportsmen have returned from this tidal
fishing with 'heavy record baskets of sea-
trout/ let us say at the mouth of Dee or
Ythan, and are reported by the fishing jour-
nals from the reports from fishing quarters,
that often these fish were ' thrown out to the
pigs' as unfit for human food, only a few
picked out as being 'really in wonderful
condition ' — and some people will always be
found to ' pick out the best bits of them '
and praise them ! We have seen the same
thing often. We have shaken the lanky
things off our salmon-hooks when fishing
for salmon in a well-known Ross-shire river,
when we could have filled our panniers twice
over. And the same day we have seen an
angler, who knew no better, produce a tray-
ful of sea-trout kelts, and, in his plenitude
of pride and generosity, offer us 'a dish
or two/ One thing certain, if he eat them
all himself, I guess he'd be sick! Never-
theless, our laws permit this wholesale
slaughter of fish unfit for food.

150 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

When midsummer is passed, and ' autumn
tints are glowing/ then may the sportsman-
angler expect to see a fresh run sea-trout in
all the vigour and perfect beauty of his scales.
But tell it not in sportsmen's ears who know
better, that fresh run sea-trout are found in
rivers in March and April, nor yet in May.1
The descent of sea-trout takes place on
the west coast later by a few weeks. On
the east coast they descend well up to the
10th or 15th May, varying a little with the
seasons. We have seen them ' smashing ' all
over the pools within a few feet of our legs,
in company with salmon kelts, and even an
odd fresh run c fish/ and scores and scores of
brown trout, all feeding eagerly and hungrily
on March browns or early duns or red-
spinners, as the case may be.

Returning to the subject of netting. Net-
ting off and destroying hundredweights, nay,
tons, of trout — mature, average, and young
indiscriminately — must be a too terrible
scourge upon any river. But if such opera-
tions were conducted under the eye of

1 The heavy sea-trout which run in March and April
up certain west-coast rivers, are not early fish, but the
late fish of the previous year.

CLOSE TIMES FOR TROUT 151

responsible parties, and the great big trouts
which lie in the deep pools were taken out
periodically, it is likely that good might follow,
and the sporting average be maintained and
the numbers even increased. These big trout
are practically vermin, and ought to be killed
systematically, just as old black cocks and
old cock grouse should be thinned off, and
we would even go so far as to say treated like
pike at all times by those who would conduct
the operations properly, and be licensed to
do so. We would have no close time for
pike in trout waters, nor for hoary old sinners
of trout, that live only for evil, and not for
good. And, though we know we will at once
receive adverse opinion and criticism for say-
ing so, should any one consider it worth
while, we would not preserve kelts, i.e. kelted
fish, salmon, or big trout, to the extent which
our laws provide for. But if netting is to
be done (permitted), then it ought to be done
by responsible parties seeing it properly con-
ducted, and all young fish, or fish under a
certain size, according to the river, returned
to the water. If we owned a salmon river, for
instance, which we do not, we would be loath

152 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

to preserve or spare the huge, ugly; long, lanky
twenty-pound kelts, preferring, as we would
always do, the sport to be obtained from
smaller fish, and more of them. More real
sport, we hold, can be got out of grilse and
small salmon than from all the glory of kill-
ing a big fish.

Of course a cry, raucous and indignant,
may probably come from ' those who go down
to the sea' in boats, who often forget to lift the
leaders on a Saturday night, and love to see
a ' monster ' on their fish-slabs, far away and
above the real average of their native streams.

The above are points which we hold ought
to have some consideration should new legis-
lation (and action) be taken in regard to our
Scottish streams. Our small spring fish are
our most vigorous and best breeders, and
ought to be encouraged, but the late autumn
big fish, which spawn in the lower reaches of
our rivers, often amongst mud, and lose half
their ova, ought to be less encouraged than
they are ; and the same remark may be held,
in our opinion, as applicable to large trout
which are far over the average of their native
streams.

XIV
NOTIONS, NOTES, AND ODDS AND ENDS

TROUT IN SHOALS

' MY boatman on Loch Errochd, Perthshire,
related to me one day lately that in August
1880 a Mr. Anderson and himself saw a dis-
tinct ripple upon the surface of the loch,
extending over a considerable distance, during
a dead calm. Upon closer inspection, they
discovered that it was caused by a large shoal
of trout feeding on the surface. The water
at the time was covered with small brown
gnats — my boatman described it — " until the
water was brown with them." On casting a
fly into their midst they — the trout — all
rapidly disappeared, but shortly afterwards
were seen a short distance off breaking the
surface as before, and causing the appearance
of a ripple.

153

154 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

'Now, coming home to-day, August 18,
1880, 1 witnessed the same appearance, but
on a much smaller scale than above described,
and I have often before witnessed something
similar elsewhere, but I am not aware of
special notice of it having been taken. In
Sutherland, on a loch in Assynt, named Faer-
lochan, I have more than once seen a large
shoal of trout at a certain point where the
burn enters, and a big stone juts out from
the shore. It seems almost certain, I think,
that trout are gregarious to a very consider-
able extent. Will this in part account for
the rapid " tids " or " rises " the angler often
meets with in one bay or shore of a loch
when no " rise " is " on " in another ? Whether
they are always gregarious in lochs or not is
another question, but the shoals seen in Faer-
lochan and elsewhere seem to point to this.

' In rivers, however, a " tid " is often just as
marked as in a loch, and here, I fancy, one
must look for other reasons.

' On Lochleven trout are seen occasionally
to be " on the rise " all over the loch, and on
such an occasion the sight is most curious,
and, when dead calm, most tantalising to the

NOTIONS, NOTES, AND ODDS AND ENDS 155

angler. At others trout seem to be " on the
rise " only in certain bays or on certain drifts,
and sometimes only opposite one end of a
boat, and not at the other.

' Surely naturalists some day will discover
reasons for these peculiarities if anglers would
only keep regular notes. I think there must
be reasons for these phenomena, either below
the surface of the water or above it, whether
connected directly with the distribution of a
food-supply or distribution of the fish them-
selves, or other causes. I know char go in
shoals. A friend and self killed eighteen one
day in a short time on Loch Garry, besides
trout/

The above note was originally sent to Land
and Water years ago, and since then we have
had many later opportunities of witnessing
similar phenomena. There can be scarcely
any doubt that trout are gregarious, and that
this is distinctly observable on still water of
lakes or ponds. But it is more difficult to
decide the fact in running streams. Still, we
have often found that on one reach of water
of a river, while one angler has been success-

156 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

ful and made a fair or even a good basket,
another equally good angler using precisely
similar flies has had scarcely a rise. It seems
difficult to say with any degree of certainty
how far such experiences are due to simply a
local hatch-off of flies. A river contains pre-
sumably a greater number of lies for trout,
at least a greater number of specially favour-
able lies for individual fish, than the more
even and less variable shallows of a loch.

SOME EFFECTS OF AN ABNORMAL SEASON

The independent study of separate branches
of natural history and science often reveals
many simple laws of nature binding all these
various branches together in a wonderful way
not before suspected. We may instance this
in a somewhat marked manner during this
year of cold and abnormal summer and east
winds (1898). Indeed, such an abnormal
state of the seasons often provides food for
the mind, and reveals, on account of con-
trasts, the laws of Nature, which succession
of normal seasons fails to do, because these
laws are not sufficiently accentuated.

NOTIONS, NOTES, AND ODDS AND ENDS 157

It is little more than a year ago that a
natural law was brought into notice by Sir
John Murray of the Challenger — one of the
natural results of the work of the Medusa in
taking soundings and temperatures. — That
law, shortly stated, is : During an on-shore
wind the temperature of the surface-water is
higher than during an off-shore wind. And
the simple reason assigned by Dr. Murray is :
Although the off-shore wind begins in com-
paratively shallow water, still the displace-
ment of the surface-water makes room for
colder strata of water below to rise to the
surface and take its place. But in on-shore
winds the surface-water alone is agitated, as
the agitation has either commenced in deeper
water, or has travelled far enough to become
raised in temperature by the sun or contact
with the air.1

In normal seasons our prevailing winds are
westerly, but in 1898 east winds have pre-
vailed. Therefore the waters of the west
coast were abnormally cold as compared
with other seasons.

1 In long continuance of cold weather and absence of
sun heat, no doubt this would come to be in a great
measure neutralised.

158 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

In normal seasons the temperature of our
west-coast waters is usually warmer than
those of our east coast, because westerly
winds — on-shore winds — further influenced
by the warm Gulf Stream, bring up the
temperatures.

In normal seasons the temperature of our
east - coast waters, reversing the above
arrangement, is colder than those of our
west -coast waters, because normal winds,
being westerly, are off-shore, and, as every
one knows, there is no Gulf Stream influence
in the North Sea. or very little to speak of.

An equable temperature is thus kept up
by natural causes and effects, and, if modifi-
cations do occur, they only act as safety-
valves and compensation balances to Nature.

In normal seasons a very patent modifica-
tion may be found in the compensating
temperatures of river water. Thus the colder
snow-water, descending from the mountainous
districts to the east coast, such as the Spey,
Dee, Tay, and Tweed, etc., meeting with the
colder area of the North Sea, allows a vigorous
race of salmon to ascend at an early season
of the year, which populate the rivers from

NOTIONS, NOTES, AND ODDS AND ENDS 159

February on till December, if not, indeed, to
February again. The equable temperature
of fresh water, and the salt water which it
meets, more readily induces salmon to ascend.
On the other hand, on the west coast, rivers,
with rare exceptions, run rapidly to the sea
from high mountain ridges, becoming exces-
sively aerated in their passage, and, bearing
the same snow brae in their bosom, meet
with a much warmer ocean, fed by the limpid
waters of the Gulf Stream. Here the salmon
are later of ascending, the summer run of
fish, say, commencing in May, being the
representative of the spring run on the east
coast rivers. We know of few exceptions
amongst east-coast rivers in the earliness of
their runs of migratory fish, though we do
know of certain variations between some of
these, owing to local position and character,
and slight differences of their circumstances
inter se. On the west coast the few excep-
tions to what has been stated as regards the
lateness of the run of migratory fish are
exceptions which, by their unusually great
compensating phenomena, are enough to
account for these exceptions. The earliest

160 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

rivers on the west coast, known to us, are
the Lochy and the Awe, and, formerly, the
Gruinards. Their compensating qualities
are: length of courses, large reservoirs of
fresh-water lochs throughout their courses
and near their sources, rapidity of descent,
complete aeration, and consequent warmth,
more nearly assimilating to the sea lochs
which they meet, and thus causing the
equable temperature between fresh and salt
water which is so necessary before migratory
fish will ascend. This is not a statistical
paper, but the materials to prove the general
acting of this law are not wanting, but only
withheld. And questions about the compara-
tive rates of speed and flow and aeration of
certain rivers of the east coast, as compared
with certain other rivers of the west coast, at
once suggest themselves ; but we believe these
can be answered statistically by any one who
will take the trouble to collect and arrange
the materials which have from time to time
been published.

If this were done thoroughly by those hav-
ing the knowledge, accurately formed by
many years' personal inspection of, and

NOTIONS, NOTES, AND ODDS AND ENDS 161

intimate acquaintance with, each river in
Scotland, or for such river or rivers as he has
statistics upon, great service would result to
our salmon legislation, and to the knowledge
of the habits of this valuable fish.

Nor are migratory fish only affected by the
abnormal state of the present season. It is
well known on our west coast how late the
fry of many sea-fish were of appearing in 1888.
Thus the fry of coal-fish and lythe were
far later of reaching the surface above the
shoals, and of approaching shorewards. This
was perfectly evident even to the most
unobservant amateur sea-fishermen. Where
fry, in normal seasons, abounded along shore,
and were chased by coal-fish and lythe and
other species below, and fed upon by the birds
of the air above, that year fry seemed almost
absent.

Another consequence of this state of affairs
is somewhat curious to relate. Arctic terns
approach their breeding-places first about the
12th May, in normal seasons, but do not
repair to their selected nurseries till nearly a
month later. They come simply the first
time to prospect and see, as it were, for them-
L

162 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

selves if they could safely take up their usual
habitations. During the interval between
the 12th May, say, and the 12th June, these
terns often keep out far from land, usually
hovering and feeding over certain shoals, and
resting, when gorged, on the surface of the
water. Later in the year, however, the fry
hatched, or hatching out, on these fishing-
grounds and rising to the surface, within
reach of the terns, get drifted shorewards by
the normal, warmed west winds, joining the
later hatches of fish, which are later of
reaching the surface, having been deposited
in the colder strata of water near the shore.
Then the terns follow, and, by the time of
their nesting, their food is all around them
in abundance. Nothing perhaps was more
noticeable in 1888 than the lateness of the
terns in their arrival at their nesting colonies.
We have even a record of half-developed
embryos in terns' eggs as late as 3rd August
on the west coast ; late enough, even though
it may have been a second or third laying.
We believe also that this may have much to
do with the continuous changing of sites so
noticeable in these species of birds.

NOTIONS, NOTES, AND ODDS AND ENDS 163

The east wind, as every one knows, con-
tinued with scarcely any interruption all the
spring and summer, even into the autumn
months, over the whole surface of Scotland.

We might follow this subject further, hav-
ing in our possession comparative statistics of
the movements of herring on our coasts, and
the movement of solan geese for a number
of years, carefully taken and tabulated ; but
this we consider is a little beyond our present
purpose, which is simply to draw attention
to causes and effects, and to the matter of
the first sentence of this communication,
and thereby to point out how all branches
of science may, and no doubt are, equally
deserving of attention as correlated; and if
attention cannot in all cases be given to
them by the selfsame individual, at least they
deserve support and encouragement where
such can be pointed out or suggested.

FLAVOUR OF TROUT — HOW AFFECTED-
INSTANCE

Formerly, and within our remembrance,
the trout of the river Carron, in Stirlingshire,
used to be excellent, esculent and succulent,

164 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

and pinky or creamy in colour of the flesh,
but pollution of the river1 by 1879 rendered
them utterly unfit for food. This deteriora-
tion had been going on and becoming more
and more pronounced for many years before
that date. In 1880 a distinct improvement
took place in this respect, since the river was
purified by the action of the riparian pro-
prietors in common law, and by the intro-
duction of fresh yearlings from Howietoun.
This purification and restocking of the water
below the former sources of pollution had
occupied several years in accomplishing, but
alas! just as it was about to be crowned
by success, the united action by the said
riparian proprietors was broken up by the
withdrawal from amongst their number of
the principal, and action in consequence was
permitted to lapse. It is now little better
than a sewer.

ORIGIN OF SALMONID^E

As is well known, many little streams,
scarcely bigger than ditches, and often having
only courses of a few yards in length, and

1 Caustic soda or soda-leys.

NOTIONS, NOTES, AND ODDS AND ENDS 165

which communicate directly with the sea,
contain abundance of small trout ; and it is
equally well known that others even quite
close to these are troutless. Mr. Hardy, of
Old Cambus, relates that many such small
streams between St. Abb's Head and Dunbar
contain trout, although these streams are
nearly dried up in summer (in lit.).

Below the Smoo Cave at Durness, in a
small stream which issues from the cave and
runs a course of some thirty to forty yards to
the sea, there have been small trout as long as
local memory can recall, but in a mile or two
of river above the caves, into which it falls
with a fall of about thirty feet or more, there
were no trout whatever until they were taken
up from the small bit of stream below the
caves. These introduced trout are lovely in
colour, a bright line of most brilliant and
converging scarlet sealing-wax-like spots
running along the medial line.

The trout of Loch an Sgearrach, in the
Goberneasgach deer-forest, retain the par-
markings through the adult stages, but these
markings fade after the fish are taken out of
the water. This locality is separated from

166 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

the Hope river and the sea by a fall of sixty
feet.

The trout of another very small circular
pool of considerable depth, also in the Gober-
neasgach forest, grow to a large size, and
show peculiar, high-humped backs, and are
very game and powerful fish. This pool lies
high up in the hills, and the stony stream
which descends the steep hillside from it is
often dry for long periods together.

We could give from our personal experi-
ences an account of many more of these
curious conditions existing among trout in
isolated localities, but most of these were at
one time communicated to Dr. Day while he
was writing his volume on British Salmonidse.
We only instance a few.

DEFORMITIES AMONG TROUT

We may here simply refer to the papers
published in the Royal Physical Society's
Proceedings and Annals of Scottish Natural
History by Dr. R. H. Traquair, upon several
varieties of these peculiar deformities, much
of the materials for which papers were ob-
tained and supplied by ourselves.

NOTIONS, NOTES, AND ODDS AND ENDS 167

Local varieties in colour of trout is an
almost inexhaustible subject, dependent on
many varying causes, concerning which we
have many observations noted ; but we cannot
enter into any further treatment of them in
this place.

DESCRIPTIONS OF WEATHERS FOR AN
ANGLER'S VOCABULARY

Winds

Blustering down-stream. ' Fatal fur/

' Bad hat ' — i.e. a L. and B.'s brushed the
wrong way, or against the nap, in relation to
wind and surface of the water.

' Rough -tongued,' 'dirty -tongued/ 'scro-
fulous.'

1 Criss-cross,' ' flawy,' ' daddin',' ' unsteady/

Half-gale ' up ' or ' down ' or whole gale.

'Raging all round like a bull in a china
shop/

'Fluffy," faint flaws/

' Hurtling ' down- or up-stream ; ' scurril-
ous/

' Gap o' May/ f Gowk-storm/ ' Tchuchet-
storm ' (phonetical spelling).

Snow, hail, sleet, rain; 'ghastly/

0000

WATER-GAUGE.

(Not to Scale.)

NOTIONS, NOTES, AND ODDS AND ENDS 169

WATER GAUGE AND DESCRIPTION OF
STATES OF WATER

The gauge or scale is a stick or iron rod painted black
and white in alternate inches, and driven into the bed
of the stream when fairly low, and, say, three feet above
water.

SCALE

0000-00. Highest record, 1831 and 1829.
0000-0. Next highest.
0000. High-level floods.

000. High-level floods.

Any of above are unfishable. Yellow floods,
pea- soup, clay, may dear to porter, peat, black,
or even dark amber.

00. MEDIUM LEVELS

May be yellow, clay, but likely to clear
through porter to amber x . May run milk,
i.e. snow-water. May be black or drumly.

XO. LOW LEVELS FIRST TOUCHED

This should be a fixed point on gauge,
x 0. 0. 2. Lower. Clear,

x 0. 0. 0. „ Crystal.

0. 0. 0. 0.

0. 0. 0. 0. 2. „ Dead low.

0. 0. 0. 0. - 3. „ Lowest records.

The three stages marked x are best, and
amber of 0 0 — .

Stake driven down till medium mark is
touched by water.

170 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

Sides

Dark, heavy, cold grey ; inky, like blots on
blotting paper ; sky with, clots of ink ; no sun,
' woolpacks/ ' dark and light cumuli/ ' piling
up round the horizon/ ' dense dark drift ' ;
' lurid/ ' threatening/ ' thundery/ ' electric/
' sultry/ ' hard and cold/ ' compact and
uniform black/ ' great black and inky rain-
clouds ' ; foggy, misty, frosty, sultry, hard.

1 Bright/ ' glittery/ ' glancing/ ' glaring/
' blazing/ ' cloudless blue/ ' blue with
cumuli/ 'fitful sun-shafts/ 'sickly gleams/
1 a blazer/ ' slight cloud-motion overhead/
'brilling/ ' as hot as when hens jump up at
flies.'

' Mackerel/ * high drifting cirrus/

' Roving/ c warm blue/ ' hard blue/
'balmy/ 'moist/ ' light and blue breaking
through/ or ' light cloud and blue between/
' high film and strata/ ' broken sky/

Water
(See Table of Scales and Gauge.)

Flooded, ' yellow flood/ ' clay ' (usually
road and surface washings), 'ink/ 'high

NOTIONS, NOTES, AND ODDS AND ENDS 171

and dark/ ' drumly/ ' inky ' (often due to
sky reflections, at least in part), ' turbid '
(much sediment moving).

Peat, porter, reddish brown, amber (dark
or light), ' clearing/ ' golden/

Clear, crystal.

' Fatal fur ' (due to wind and sky colours
combined).

Leaden (due to reflections).

Polished lead, dark steel, polished steel
(the latter usually in bright sky with hard
clouds and cold air).

' Coppery glare ' (with lurid sky).

Green (reflections from trees or foliage or
grass banks, usually an evening effect, but
also at times during the day).

'Sullen/ 'sulky/ 'metallic/ 'bad hat/
' rough tongue/ ' furred ' (by the wind).

Weather

' Cold/ ' Cauld, cauld, cauld upon the lea ;
jist aboot as cauld as it can be ' ; ' some saft-
like/ ' gey lowse-like ' (i.e. loose-like, referring
to rain expected) ; ' awfu' wather/ ' fair
rideeklous' (as the meenister said, when
praying for better weather, and it came on to

172 THE WONDERFUL TROUT

rain c waur than ever ' : c 'Deed, Lord, it 's fair
rideeklus ') — Dean Ramsay.

' Camsteery ' (i.e. unsettled : ' ae thing ae
day, and anither anither day/ 'never twa
days the same.'

c Maist dislogical wather.' (I only once
heard this, and it stuck.)

' Drouthy ' (i.e. ' some dry ' ) ; ' fine growin'
wather ' (i.e. warm, moist, genial).

'Raal intellectual wather.' (I heard this
also off-hand, as descriptive of ' growin' '
weather — opposite of 'dislogical.')

CONDY'S FLUID — PERMANGANATE OF POTASH

Mr. R. B. Marston, editor of the Fishing
Gazette, has some interesting suggestions in
that magazine (April 9, 1898) as regards the
possible advantages of using permanganate of
potash for clarifying ponds and tanks.

The action of this chemical ingredient
is 'precipitation' of deleterious or other
matter or solids in suspension.

It can hardly perhaps be considered exactly
an equivalent for aeration of water, though
the effect upon the fish might prove very
similar.

NOTIONS, NOTES, AND ODDS AND ENDS 173
FORMALINE

A warning is held out to anglers in a recent
number of the Fishing Gazette (loc. cit, April
23rd, 1898).

Prolonged use, it is said, may cause
neurosis of the tissues of the nose and other
serious evils.

Though the weak solution used for preserv-
ing minnows, or fish of all sorts, may be (and
doubtless is) less likely to do harm than the
stronger solution as sold by chemists, still
the warning is not to be despised. One to
two and a half per cent, we believe, is sufficient
to preserve minnows for fishing purposes. The
solution sold is, we believe, seventy-five per
cent, of formaline.

Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to Her Majesty
at the Edinburgh University Press

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A. H. EVANS. 21s. to Subscribers. [In preparation.

A TOUR IN SUTHERLANDSHIRE ; with Extracts from the
Field-Books of a Sportsman and Naturalist. By the late CHARLES
ST. JOHN. Second Edition, with an appendix on the fauna of
Sutherland, by J. A. HARVIE-BROWN and T. E. BUCKLEY. 2 vols.
small demy Svo, illustrated, 21s.

THE CAPERCAILLIE IN SCOTLAND. By J. A. HARVIE-
BROWN. Etchings on Copper, and Map illustrating the extension
of its range since its Restoration at Taymouth in 1837 and 1838.
Demy Svo, 8s. 6d.

HELIGOLAND AS AN ORNITHOLOGICAL OBSERVATORY.

The result of Fifty Years' Experience. By HEINRTCH GATKE,
Honorary Member of the British Ornithologists' Union, etc.
Translated by RUIK>LPH ROSENSTOCK, M. A. Oxon. Demy Svo, 30s.

1 The most fascinating and important contribution to our knowledge
of the ever marvellous phenomena of migration that has ever
appeared. ' — Daily News.

'A volume which will ever remain famous in the annals of ornitho-
logy.'— Field.

1 One of the most original, most remarkable, and most valuable
books ever written about birds.'— The Auk, New York.

MODERN HORSEMANSHIP. An Original Method of
Teaching the Art by means of Pictures from the Life. By EDWARD
L. ANDERSON. Fifth edition, re-written and enlarged. Illus-
trated by 60 Moment- Photographs. Demy Svo, 21s.
' When perusing his pages the reader may rest assured that he is
dealing with no mere theorist. No one can take up "Modern Horse-
manship " without seeing the practical man in every page.'— The Field.

THE ART OF GOLF. By the late Sir W. G. SIMPSON,

Bart. With Twenty Plates from instantaneous Photographs of
Professional Players, chiefly by A. F. MACFIE, Esq. New and
Revised Edition. Demy Svo, 15s.
' Remains the standard work on the subject, notwithstanding all

that has been written concerning the game since the publication of

the first edition.' — Natiolial Observer.

EDINBURGH : DAVID DOUGLAS, 10 CASTLE STREET.

YA 01253

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