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 fish ins; in brackish water, he 



o r 



says 



' c 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 Galway 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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