BRITISH SPORT PAST AND PRESENT 



' My dear St. John, — Do you remember saying a salmon 

 was as good as lost if he went over the Ess on the Findhorn at 

 Relugas ? A strong and active fish played me a trick last 

 week and contradicted your idea by taking me down from 

 Rannoch over the Fall as far as the Pool above the Divie 

 junction. The night had been stormy with heavy rain, and 

 although I expected " she would grow " in the course of the 

 day, I thought that by an early start I might get a few hours' 

 fishing before the water came down, especially as fish very 

 often take greedily just before a grow. I was at the river by 

 4 A.M. and commenced at Rannoch (Randolph's Leap). I 

 found the water much as I left " her " the night before, small 

 and clear, the only chance of fish being just in the white broken 

 water at the throats of streams, or in the deep holes amongst 

 the rocks. Rannoch is fishable only from one small ledge or 

 bench, about two feet square, and 25 feet above the level of 

 the water, to which bench you must scramble down the face 

 of the rock, and from this spot you fish the whole pool begin- 

 ning with the line as the fly comes off the bar of the reel, and 

 letting out yard by yard till the fly is working in the " spoots " 

 or narrow rapids, 80 to 90 feet down the stream. If you hook 

 him you must play and kill him in the pool, if possible, your 

 gillie clipping him on a small bed of gravel down below your 

 feet, it being impossible to follow him if he takes down the 

 water from the small two-feet square ledge, without first 

 ascending to the footpath and redescending to the bed of the 

 river ; this you cannot manage with a fish on, owing to trees 

 and projecting rocks. The pool is fished from the right bank. 



' Well, I rose him at my feet almost at the first throw, to a 

 small fly about half an inch long ; he came deej) and shy three 

 times and refused to take it or any other. I guessed him at 

 about 17 lbs. Leaving him to his own reflections, after making 

 an appointment with him for a later hour, I tried the pools 

 above, hurrying along to the best spots in anticipation of the 

 water rising. I worked till eight o'clock keeping on the same 

 fly described before. I had more than average sport, killing 



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