FISHING SEASONS. 49 



tempestuous, the salmon directly leave the estuary, ariu 

 remain at sea until the water clears and the storm abates ; 

 and the time allowed by law often expires before a moiety ot 

 the fish can be secured. 



It is extraordinary how much the flavour and quality of 

 the salmon depend on circumstances apparently of trifling 

 moment. A single day in the river will injure, and a flood 

 spoil their condition; and the difference between a fish 

 taken in the nets, and one killed with a rod, will be easily 

 perceptible. 



Although in this water angling may be considered as 

 ending in September, yet, through the succeeding months 

 till spring, the fish rise freely at a fly. But the sport is 

 very indifferent compared with summer angling ; the salmon 

 now has lost his energy; he struggles laboriously to get 

 away, but his play is different from the gallant resistance he 

 would have offered had you hooked him in July. I have 

 landed and turned out again as many as nine salmon in one 

 day, and their united exertions did not afford me half the 

 amusement I have received from the conquest of one 

 sprightly summer fish. Salmon appear to lose beauty and 

 energy together. They are now reddish, dull, dark-spotted, 

 perch- coloured fish, and seem a different species from the 

 sparkling silvery creature we saw them when they first left 

 the sea. As an esculent, they are utterly worthless soft, 

 flabby, and flavourless, if brought to table ; and instead of 

 the delicate pink hue they exhibited when in condition, 

 they present a sickly, unhealthy, white appearance, that 

 betrays how complete the change is that they have recently 

 undergone. 



And yet at this period they suffer mostly from night- fishers. 

 This species of poaching* is as difficult to detect as it is 

 ruinous in its consequences. It is believed that the destruc- 

 tion of a few breeding fish may cost the proprietor one 

 thousand ; such being the astonishing fecundity of the 

 pregnant salmon ! 



Night fishing is carried on when the river is low, and the 



* " When I made the tour of that hospitable kingdom in 1754, it (the 

 Coleraine fishery) was rented by a neighbouring gentleman for .620 a year, 

 who assured me that the tenant, his predecessor, gave for it 1600 per 

 annum andthat he was a greater gainer hy the bargain, on account of the 

 number of poachers, who destroy the fish during the fence month." Pennant. 



