LOCH TAY 



The Kenmore end of the loch — for three miles — is 

 reserved for salmon, l)y Lord Breadalbane, but trout fishing- 

 is free over the v^'hole lake. This reservation makes it 

 advisable for the would-be-salmon-catcher to take up his 

 residence %vith host Maisey, of the Killin Hotel, at the 

 upper end of the water. No doubt the lower end is much 

 the best in the early part of the season, when fresh-run fish 

 come up the famous River Tay into the loch ; but the upper 

 water yields a good many splendid fish to visitors who troll 

 for them. When I say " fish," of course I mean salmon. 

 Xo one, with the slightest pretensions to be considered a 

 sportsman would call a trout a fish ; and as for a pike, 

 well, he is just a pike, and nothing- more ! Phantom and 

 Devon minnows, spoons of silver and spoons of gold — 

 copper and brass — are amongst the tempting- lures with 

 which the Tay salmon are liere beguiled by the angling- 

 holiday-makers. But it is a nice, lazy way of spending a 

 few days, if you belong to the noble army of angling- 

 duffers, in trolling upon Loch Tay. A chum of mine, who 

 had never caught a fish of any kind in his life, was some 

 three years ago beguiled into a boat fi'om the Killin end 

 of the Tay. A rod was put into his hands, with instructions 

 to do nothing with it except prevent its falling overboard. 

 Trailing a minnow around the shallows he caught several 

 pike, and this excited him so much that he was threatened 

 with expulsion from the boat if he did not restrain himself. 



