ii ANGLING FOE GAME PISH. 



fresh water besides those mentioned. As tlaey cannot be 

 termed game fish by any stretch of imagination, I have re- 

 ferred to them when writing of " Angling for Coarse Fish," 

 in the chapter on fish not commonly caught by the fresh- 

 water angler. I am speaking, of course, of vendace, powan, 

 pollan, and gwyniad. There are also several sea-fish — e.g., 

 the smelt — which, so naturalists say, can claim kinship with 

 the salmon. 



All these fish, however much they may otherwise differ in 

 appearance, have one great distinguishing mark — a small fleshy 

 lump on the back near the tail, which is termed the adipose 

 or fatty fin. Its shape and position will be seen at a glance 

 in the engraving of a Loch Leven trout at the commencement 

 of this chapter. 



Salmon, trout, and grayling, are mostly angled for with 

 artificial flies. I must confess, however, that the arrangements 

 of fur, feather, and tinsel, used in salmon-fishing, and occasion- 

 ally for trout, have no resemblance to any known insect which 

 wings its way through space. Probably they are termed flies 

 by courtesy, and out of respect to the feelings of those anglers 

 who so loudly assert that they will be ^i/ -fishers or nothing. 

 Heaven only knows what salmon take these artificial baits 

 for — something alive, something eatable — so much, I thinlc, I 

 may safely assert. My own opinion (very few anglers agree 

 on this subject) is that many of them are taken for the 

 fry of salt-water fish and other marine animals. Anyone who 

 has seen a trawl lifted will probably have noticed among its 

 contents numbers of small fish and other creatures which, 

 when wet, are gorgeously coloured with all the hues of the 

 rainbow. Certain salmon-flies are by no means bad repre- 

 sentations of these beautiful creatures, both in colour and 

 shape; and others resemble small marine animals of various 

 species. We do know that, when in the sea, the salmon 

 feeds on small fish, among other things; and, though he pro- 

 bably eats but little in fresh water, it is not unreasonable 

 to suppose that he would as soon take a small sea fish as 

 anything else. As a matter of fact, a salt-water animal — 

 the prawn — is often a more deadly bait in fresh water than 



