316 THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



" The great majority of the fish were grilse about 6 lb., so they came 

 in very quickly ; but every now and then one got a big fish. My best 

 that day was 18 lb., which, as I thought, wasted a lot of time. George 

 Probyn was very unlucky in his two days, for one was dead calm and 

 bright, and on the other he foul-hooked (of course, accidentally) a 

 large 27 lb. fish, which, as I before mentioned, took him more than 

 an hour of the best of the day. We always fished a tail and a bob 

 fly, but before I had been fishing half-an-hour the breaks were so 

 numerous that I only used one fly all day. I did most with a Jock 

 Scott, but any fly seemed equally good ; and, all the dark-bodied ones 

 being exhausted, I remember I finished the day with a Silver Grey. 

 There was no skill required, only hard work, and not wasting time 

 with playing fish when on. 



" By the end of the last week, August 30, natural rains had fallen, 

 and the rivers had risen, so that the fish could, and did, leave the first 

 loch, and worked up, as usual, all over the upper lakes ; consequently, 

 the Monday following our big week was the last abnormally good day 

 of that season's fishing, 24 being taken in No. 1 lake on that day. 

 This proves that, where an artificial spate is made on a river, to be a 

 great fishing success, as ours was, the fish must be stopped from running 

 too far up, and, above all things, from being allowed to lose themselves 

 in a big lake at the head of the river system. 



" Instead of being gradually spread over the whole water system 

 of the Grimersta basin, the fish were confined to one small lake. It 

 was just this peculiarity of our experiment that made its great success. 

 The fish must have been so thick in the lake that many of them could 

 not have found suitable resting places. So this may account for them 

 still keeping to their eccentric habit of swimming in shoals close to 

 the surface with their fins showing as they did in the sea, and as they 

 continued to do in the loch. Our great week's fishing was practically 

 all done in this one loch. Though a few fish were caught in the river 

 and No. 2 loch, none got into the upper lakes. 



" The following is the tabulated record of our week : 



Salmon. lb. Sea Trout. lb. 



Aug. 27. Naylor .15 94 6 8 



Probyn .36 210 4 2 



Hansard 8 39 7 4 



Aug 



Aug 



Aug 



28. Naylor .54 314 12 6 



Probyn .15 80 3 3 



Hansard .9 57 3 2 



29. Naylor .15 89 3 2 



Probyn .16 



Hansard ,27 184 5 4 



30. Naylor .2 16 3 2 



Probyn . 18 113 4 3 



Hansard .5 29 



Aug. 31. Naylor .45 269 5 4 



