CH. V.] SEA FLY-FISHING SAITHE. 77 



might be considered somewhat tame, but this is 

 by no means the case, as, in addition to these, you 

 catch very many larger fish, principally Lythe 

 (Whiting-Pollack), which sometimes run up to 

 twelve pounds weight or more, Stenlocks (the 

 second growth of the Coal-fish 1 ), and Codlings, with 

 now and then, though rarely, a Mackerel. A day's 

 fishing of this kind therefore often yields, not only 

 a numerous score, but a very respectable one in 

 point of weight and variety. 



Saithe (the full-grown Coal-fish 1 ), which run 

 up to a very large size I have heard as much 

 as twenty-five or thirty pounds are occasionally 

 caught in this way. Last year (1858), I was 

 trailing, whilst running up a Scotch loch under 

 sail with the wind, when one of my flies was taken 

 by a large fish, which naturally ran off in an oppo- 

 site direction to the boat. The sail being boomed 

 out, before we could bring her round, he had run 

 out the whole of my line, and, apparently without 

 an effort, carried away casting-line and flies. This 

 was probably a Saithe, and his weight could not 

 have been much, if at all, under fifteen pounds, 

 while it might have been double that. 



The weight, the use of which I have recom- 

 1 See note, page 82. 



