CHAPTER Y. 



SEA TROUT. 



Habits and Haunts — Some Standard Flies — Fly-fishing — Other 

 Methods of Fishing. 



EA TROUT are now, by some of our highest 

 authorities, supposed to be of the same 

 species as burn trout, only varying from 

 them in appearance by reason of their 

 sojourn in salt water and marine diet. 

 The latest experiments at Howietoun prove 

 most conclusively that neither by colour nor 

 form can the young of bum trout be dis- 

 tinguished from the young of sea trout during, at any rate, the 

 first eighteen months of their existence.* 



The life-history of sea trout very much resembles that of 

 salmon given, at sufficient length for the purpose of this 

 book, on pages 3 to 5. Local names of sea trout will be found 

 on page 6. 



Sea trout are very like salmon in shape and general appear- 

 ance, but they may be distinguished from the " king of fishes " 

 by having about as many X- shaped spots below the median 

 line as above it. In the salmon, nearly all these spots are 

 above the line. The median line runs from about the centre 

 of the gills to the tail, and will be easily recognised in the 

 engraving of a Loch Leven trout given in th.is book. 



* See the Field, Sept. 22, 1888, page 434. 



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