LOCH SALMON -FISHING. 77 



resting on the shore after sweeping the water 

 thoroughly; the otter's head again appeared, 

 when he dived all round the fishing-ground, and 

 finally landed, and ran into the wood. Other 

 casts of this loch were more uncertain, the salmon 

 and white trout often changing their ground. 

 Here I may mention a rather unaccountable fact 

 long noted by me viz., that a cast of a loch or a 

 pool in a river will sometimes prove excellent for 

 a whole season, and during the next scarcely 

 afford a rise, yet no outward alteration can be 

 detected either in the loch cast or river pool. 



The size and colour of salmon-flies do not vary 

 nearly so much in lochs as in rivers. One reason 

 no doubt is, that there are fewer changes in a 

 loch ; another, that the loch season is generally 

 shorter. I have often found red palmers, or a red 

 body with blae wing, very acceptable to salmon 

 in small lochs ; in large lochs a green body and 

 darker wing is a killing fly ; but every tolerable 

 fisherman ought to be able to find out the fly of 

 the water he frequents ; and if a stranger, he must 

 trust a good deal to his fishing guide. There is 

 often a loch-fly, which, take the season from end 



