A GAMEKEEPER OF THE OLD SCHOOL 45 



The Lochinvar trout are, too, of a fine quality, 

 excellent for the table, and exceedingly game when 

 hooked. They are rather long in shape, with very 

 large tails, which gives them great power in the 

 water. The smallest of flies and very fine tackle 

 must be used to insure any success ; — a fly with a 

 silver body, grey wing, and black hackle, is a useful 

 fly on this loch, as well as on the Ken. I used 

 sometimes to try fishing with hair and flies dressed 

 simply with hackles, without stiff wings, and found 

 them to answer well on calm days ; but it is a bit 

 risky using hair where the trout are so powerful, 

 although excellent practice for delicacy in striking. 

 The advantage of hair over gut is its greater trans- 

 parency in water, being thereby invisible to the 

 trout looking upward ; also, it does not shine in 

 the sun like gut, and is much more buoyant. A 

 friend of mine, who lives in the north of England, 

 a most excellent fisherman, who fishes the West- 

 morland and Cumberland streams, finds he can, 

 on those waters, catch fully twice as many trout, 

 when using hair, as any other angler fishing with 

 gut. 



Perhaps the briskest piece of sport I ever ex- 

 perienced on Lochinvar, was on a morning when 



