46 ANGLING & ART IN SCOTLAND 



my brother and I arrived at the loch fairly early, 

 having to leave shortly after midday, as we had 

 to return to England that afternoon. It was a 

 cloudless day, and a strong southerly wind was 

 blowing, which made the boat drift at an awkwardly 

 rapid pace. A fine class of trout were rising — 

 appearing like golden bars as they came up through 

 the sunlit crests of the waves. In about four 

 hours' fishing we had twenty-one fish, all of them 

 half-pounders or better, while the four heaviest 

 averaged a pound apiece. As a rule, however, I 

 have found that the loch fishes best with a slight 

 breeze on a rainy day, when, if you are lucky, 

 you may find twenty or thirty fish in the boat at 

 the end of the day. 



Alas ! it is a good many years now since 

 Thomas Burnside went to his long home, and the 

 order of things has changed. Nowadays the angler 

 must go through the formality of writing to the 

 estate office if he wants to spend a day on the 

 loch ; and the trout do not rise as they did in 

 the olden time. But still you may drive up from 

 Dairy through the beautiful, crisp morning air, 

 and have a day's fishing on that fascinating sheet 

 of water, with the grand music of the moor-birds 



