1 76 MODERN SEA FISHING 



On the unimpeachable authority of a Dublin police magis- 

 trate Mr. Porter a fly fisher once took a large number of 

 herrings in Dublin Bay. There was a fish hooked at almost 

 every cast, and the fly was a black hackle or black Palmer. A 

 gentleman who writes under the name of ' Stormy Petrel,' on 

 the other hand, caught a very large number of herrings with a 

 fly dressed to represent a red caterpillar, and on another with a 

 green body, these killing better than the ordinary Irish herring 

 flies, which have white wings and silver-tinsel body. This was 

 in Strangford Lough at the end of summer ; the time was 

 evening. Three dozen and nine were brought into the boat, 

 sometimes two at a time ; and more would have been killed 

 had not a pollack risen to one of the flies, bolted for the weeds, 

 after the manner of these fish, and smashed up the tackle. 



In the 'Field 'of September 23, 1893, Mr. Dombavand wrote 

 that while fishing for cuddies in Loch Inchard, a sea loch in 

 Sutherlandshire, he caught thirty-eight herrings. The loch was 

 at the time full of these fish, and the local fishermen were 

 making immense hauls. A week or two later Mr. J. C. Wil- 

 cocks mentioned in the same paper that he had seen shoals 

 of young herrings or whitebait rising at small gnats, just like 

 dace in a millstream. This was in almost, or quite, fresh water, 

 but he had seen them do the same thing at the Kingswear 

 Pontoon, Dartmouth. There was another letter on the same 

 subject from ' J. S.,' who wrote that fly fishing for herrings was 

 a well-known amusement in Shetland, and that he was once with 

 a party of three who had caught over eight hundred herrings in 

 Lerwick Harbour in a little over two hours. The best time 

 for fishing was in June and July, from about 9 to n P.M., 

 or from midnight to 3 A.M., the latter hours for choice. The 

 flies were not cast ; there were eight or ten on the line with a 

 small sinker at the end of it, and the line was worked gently up 

 and down. Not only will Scotch and Irish herrings take the 



