FISHING AS A SPORT 



most men will take a couple of hundred. The same with 

 baits ; will you have a fly and, if so, of what sort ? 

 a spinning-bait, a prawn, a minnow, a lob-worm, or a 

 cockle ? Many anglers prefer a small, sober- coloured fly ; 

 but in the Irish rivers you are almost sure to find a large 

 and gaudy red-cock hackle, ribbed with gold, with wings 

 of drake's, woodcock's, or mallard's feathers, set very wide 

 apart. But there are special considerations that, in the 

 main, determine the question of the sort of fly that it will 

 be best to pin your faith to ; the time of year, the depth 

 and degree of clearness of the water, and many other 

 varying circumstances, not forgetting individual prefer- 

 ences ; every man who has fished for several years should 

 be the best judge of what suits him personally. 



All the Irish rivers are more or less salmon-yielding ; 

 so are all the fresh-water loughs that are the source or 

 the outlet of rivers Neagh, for instance. The Shannon, 

 which is so fertile in salmon as almost to rival some of 

 the North American streams, has rapids below Lough 

 Derg; many of the smaller streams, too, have their 

 "salmon-leaps," enticing enough to the fisherman who 

 cannot get as far as the more exciting Scandinavian 

 grounds. The fishing in both countries is now almost 

 entirely proprietary. 



A successful salmon-fisher is made, not born ; nor can 

 he become one by reading books on the subject. For the 

 beginner who has grit in him there is always hope. Let 

 him serve his apprenticeship to an old hand and, with 

 a little common observation and a good deal of patient 

 practice, the learner will at last become a fisherman. 



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