LAKK AND POND FISHING. 125 



This mode of fishing is usually practised for catching the great 

 lake trout, only that the bait is a small trout or parr ; and though I 

 have not yet had an opportunity of making the experiment, I have 

 little doubt a good sized brass killdevil would be one of the most 

 attractive baits that could be used. As the great lake trout is 

 very powerful in its native element strong tackle must be employ- 

 ed. The line should be of fine whipcord prepared in boiled lin- 

 seed oil, that is to say, steeped in the oil for about five or six 

 months, when it will turn out a most excellent line for this pur- 

 pose, as also for trolling for pike. The footline should consist of 

 three strands of good round silkworm gut of even lengths but 

 loosely twisted. If the real bait is usred, tackle fiUed like that for 

 minnow trolling, (where the loaded wire is used instead of spit- 

 ting the minnow on the main hook,) should be employed with flyer 

 hooks of about No. 2. or 3, tied back to back. There should be 

 three or four stout swivels to prevent the line from twisting and 

 kinking, and the hooks should be of excellent temper, as a good 

 sized grey trout would put their metal to the proof, there being 

 no stronger fish in proportion to its bulk to be met with in the 

 fresh water or the sea either, not yielding in this respect even to 

 the salmon ; with this difference, that the effort of the salmon 

 seems to be to get away from the scene of danger, and may be 

 compared to the active speed and strength of the greyhound, whilst 

 the lake trout with dogged determination strives to hold his ground 

 with the pertinacity of a bull dog, It will not therefore do to 

 pull too hardly against him, or to be too impatient to get him either 

 aboard or ashore, and if you choose to persist in attempting it, the 

 chances are that your skill never places him there. 



They grey trout may be considered more as a fish of prey than 

 any other of the salmo genus, feeding chiefly on fish, and rarely 

 rising at a fly after it attains any considerable size. Professor 

 Wilson however mentions that he was an eye witness to one of six 

 or seven pounds being taken with a fly in Loch Assynt, yet he 

 seems to have considered it as rather an unusual event to catch 

 one of that size by that means, though some of three times that 

 weight have frequently been taken in trolling, to say nothing of 

 the numbers that have made their escape by breaking the tackle. 

 Being of an extremely greedy nature they are often caught by night 

 lines of very clumsy construction baited with dead fish, and some 

 of the largest are taken by this means ; yet such is their strength, 



