THE ANGLER IN IRELAND. 1 5 5 



being greeted, not by bagmen's trunks and sample boxes, 

 but salmon and trout rods neatly ranged on the rack, and 

 landing nets occupying every spare corner. What a thrill of 

 anticipation passes through one when the landing net is 

 damp from recent use, and bugled|with the silver scales of 

 the last captive ! There is no inn in the world so comfor- 

 table as an honest angling house a statement which holds 

 equally good in the Highlands, by the waters of Ireland, 

 among the mountains of Wales, or on the banks of the 

 English rivers. 



The fishing in Lough Neagh is mostly a matter of nets. 

 I heard a few sly whispers of what was done sometimes on 

 windy days by cross fishing, and saw evidences (of which no 

 more) which rather set at nought the fishermen's ruling that 

 little, if anything, can be done with a fly on that one 

 hundred and fifty-four square miles of fresh water. At the 

 O'Neill Arms at Toome Bridge I saw, with my own individual 

 eyes, a magnificent lake trout of sixteen pounds taken that 

 morning by net from the lake, and in the recess of one of 

 the coffee-room windows there lies under a glass case a 

 stuffed specimen of the same family, labelled " 261b." 

 Trolling and spinning are the best methods of angling for 

 the Lough Neagh trout and pike. 



The fishermen do a great deal with night lines baited 

 with scraps of pullan, the fresh-water herring which abounds 

 here, and which one boatman told me was often found on the 

 cross lines. This must be a very exceptional circumstance, 

 seeing that the flies used in this poacher's contrivance are 

 almost as large as salmon flies. The lake is famous for 

 delicious eels, and hundredweights of them are despatched to 

 England by an English lessee who has purchased the fishery. 



