FISHING 



101 



evening, the clouds and mist were low, and 

 it was grey and rainlike. Luckily for us 

 sea fish did not seem as sensitive to the ele- 

 ments as their fresh-water brethren. 



Thinking we should have better fun with 

 trout rods, we each tied the big flies on to the 

 line, for anything as delicate as gut would be 

 wasted on saithe and lythe. They certainly 

 gave us capital play, but in a short while after 

 landing several pound fish, when I discovered 

 the top joint of my precious split-cane rod 

 was nearly bent double from the fish's diving 

 propensities, we returned to the more clumsy 

 but stouter bamboo rods. 



To watch a shoal of saithe on the rise is 

 really a sight ; they literally boiled round the 

 boat, and every cast meant a rise and gener- 

 ally a fish. In less than an hour and a half 

 our catch was fifty-five saithe and two lythe, 

 and we and our two boatmen, true sons of 

 Skye, returned to the yacht with the dinghy 

 ankle deep in fish, thoroughly pleased with 

 ourselves and our last evening's work at sea. 



How the heart travels back to those 



