SALMON-FISHING IN BRACKISH WATER. 195 



knowledge, had killed them in salt water. I 

 have fished a great deal in tide-ways with the fly, 

 and had admirable sport : mackerel, whiting, 

 pollock, and sand-eels, may be taken in great 

 quantities. The fly is a white feather, projecting 

 considerably over the hook, and it resembles the 

 herring fry, of which both mackerel and pollock 

 are very fond." 



As to salmon fishing in brackish water, he 

 says 



" Salmon take the fly in brackish water. I was 

 quite ignorant of this fact until last year (1839). 

 The Costello river in Connemara, twenty-one 

 miles west of Gal way town, belongs to a club, of 

 which I am a member ; perhaps there is no river 

 in Ireland, or any other country, in which there 

 are more salmon. The tide runs up about half- 

 a-mile, for the most part over a bed of rocks and 

 turf soil. The oldest fishermen on the river never 

 had known any man to kill a salmon below the 

 bridge until last season, when one of our members, 

 Mr. Martin of Ross, hooked what he conceived 

 to be a white trout, just as the tide was running 

 up ; the keeper, in attendance on him, swore it 

 could not be a salmon, as they never took in 

 brackish water, but a salmon it proved to be ; and 

 I, having joined my brother angler, killed my 

 share of eight fine fresh fish; they had all the 

 sea louse on them, and were enormously strong. 



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