IN THE HIGHLANDS 165 



send a couple of men up the previous evening with two 

 or three lines, each having six hooks on it and baited 

 with small parr caught in the Ewe. These lines were 

 set by tying them generally to a boulder, of which 

 there are plenty in the loch standing up out of the 

 water. One day I remember, as we were approaching 

 the little sandy bay, where we kept the boat in the 

 pre-road days, we noticed a great commotion on the 

 surface of the water. One of the men said, " Oh, that 

 is where we set one of our lines last night.'' When we 

 reached it there were two twelve-pounders on it. How 

 they dashed about and jumped out of the water before 

 we could get the clip into them ! I could point out the 

 very boulder even now, though I am seventy-eight, for 

 one does not forget an event like that in a hurry ! 



Another day I was fishing with a friend of mine, and 

 trolling along past the Eagle Island, when he caught 

 three fish in quick succession, of 9 pounds, 7J pounds, 

 and 7 pounds. But the most exciting thing that 

 happened to me on the Fionn Loch was the hooking 

 of the biggest fish I ever saw on that loch. It was only 

 a few years ago. I was casting with a light rod, and had 

 on an ordinary cast with three small flies, just where the 

 small burn flows into the loch at the Feith a Chaisgan 

 sandy bay, when I hooked an enormous fish. Some 

 readers might say it was just a big salmon, for both 

 salmon and sea-trout come up into the Fionn Loch by 

 the Little Gruinord River, though they are very seldom 

 taken; but I am a pretty good judge of fish, and my two 

 rowers — my late faithful friend and gamekeeper, John 

 Matheson, who came to me when he was sixteen and I 



