ELAN LAKES— WILD SOUTH WALES 



yards from the shore would drown you almost any- 

 where. There is not the scope for sagacity and ex- 

 perience in the lie of fish that is afforded by bank 

 fishing or wading a natural lake. Yet one acquires 

 fancies for particular spots upon the Elan lakes, and is 

 happier, perhaps, for such delusions, if delusions they 

 be. There is assuredly some room for intuition in 

 the varied nature of the bank, the Httle patches of 

 weed, the submerged rock, the projecting bush of 

 alder or willow scrub, the out-jutting point of bank, 

 on the far side of which, and well out of sight, you 

 feel sure, there is a trout lying, as there very often is. 

 It is curious, too, how standardised in weight these 

 trout have become. In Y-shaped Caban-Coch, the 

 lower dam being the pedestal of the stem, they average 

 two-thirds of a pound. In the smaller lake of Dol-y- 

 mynach, at the extremity of the left arm, into which 

 the Claerwen flows, they run a trifle over a pound. 

 In the middle lake of Pen-y-gareg, beyond the right 

 arm, which is much longer than the left, they scale as 

 in Caban-Coch. In the top lake of Craig-C6ch, a 

 mile and a half long, into the head of which the Elan 

 flows, the fish are a good deal smaller, and run about 

 three to the pound. 



Much larger fish are frequently caught in all these 

 lakes, but on the whole this average is fairly uniform. 

 They are good-fighting fish, particularly the pounders 

 and over, in Dol-y-mynach (the meadow of the monk). 

 On being hooked these last generally make straight for 

 the middle of the lake at racing pace, and break many 

 an unwary angler who fails to humour them properly 

 at the first rush. Medium-sized, ordinary trout-flies 



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