STRAY NOTES ON THE GAME-FISH 57 



ten — golden-spangled beauties. Then follows a "big one " 

 ■ — mark that a trout of a pound weight is big' on Border 

 streams ; this one looks fully that. 1 The angler thinks 

 "a bit more"\ but no precious seconds can now be 

 wasted in weighing, and away flies the triple lure without 

 interruption for a moment. Alas, the response this time 

 is that dead sullen pull so fatal to all his hopes and 

 chances for that day. A great salmon-kelt has taken 

 the " teal-and-yellow "■ — a fish of three feet in length, 

 that, when he came from sea, weighed well-nigh 20 lbs. 

 With a 12-foot rod and finest gut, the angler knows there 

 will be ten to twenty minutes lost ere he can hope to clear 

 his hook from those uninvited and undesired jaws — 

 twenty of those "creamy" minutes that only recur on 

 a few days each year! Meanwhile the trout continue 

 rising all round in tantalising security. The weight of 

 the intruder tells on fine tackle ; but at length he is 

 played out, brought alongside, and "tailed" — he is far 

 too big for the landing-net. Free once more, the angler 

 again revels in a few joyous moments with the trout. 

 Luckily, they are still in play. But, at any moment, a 

 second such catastrophe may occur ; in which event, 

 another ten minutes— fifteen • — perhaps twenty, are lost, 

 and then the rise is over for that day. 



However intimately one may know a river and its 

 subaqueous geography, it is impossible wholly to avoid 

 these kelts. They are ubiquitous, and voracious of 

 "feathers" — yet rarely indeed have I seen one take a 

 living fly, or other natural food whatever. These last 

 dozen words I feel inclined to underline. 



1 The largest trout that has fallen to the author's lot in the Borderland 

 was landed while this chapter was being written, at Houxty — May 23rd, 

 1906. Length, 21 inches ; weight, 2^ lbs. 



