WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS 



move, although the wind and weather all seemed favour- 

 able; while on other days every float had a fish to it. Again, 

 the fish would be quiet for some time, and then suddenly 

 a simultaneous impulse seemed to seize them, and they 

 would seize the baits as quickly as we could wish, for the 

 space of an hour or so. 



The trout seldom take a dead bait during the daytime, 

 but we often causfht them on hooks left in the water all 

 night. In all the Highland lakes on which I have fished 

 in this way, large eels would sometimes take the hook, and 

 often break mylines. It is frequentlysaid that putting pike 

 into a lake would destroy the trout-fishing; but I have in- 

 variablyfound that inall lakes of a considerable size, where 

 the pike were plenty, the trout have improved very much 

 in size and quality, and not diminished even in numbers to 

 any great extent. In fact, the thing to be complained of in 

 most Highland lakes is, that the trout are too numerous, 

 and consequently of a small size and inferior quality. The 

 only way tokill the larger trout is by trolling. In Loch Awe 

 and several other lakes I have seen this kind of fishing 

 succeed well. If the sportsman is skilful, he is sure of taking 

 finer trout in this way than he would ever do when fly- 

 fishing. In trolling there are two orthree ruleswhichshould 

 be carefully observed: — Choose the roughest wind that 

 your boat can live in; fish with a good-sized bait, not much 

 less than a herring, and do not commence your trolling 

 until after two o'clock in the afternoon, by which time the 

 large fish seem to have digested their last night's supper 

 and to be again on the move. You may pass over the heads 

 of hundreds of large trout when they are lying at rest and 



lO 



