126 LAKE AND POND FISHING. 



that they often manage to rend this stout tackle asunder before 

 they can be brought within the reach of the gaffhook or landing 

 net. When younger however their tastes appear to be different, 

 as till they reach a pound weight they will rise very freely at an 

 artificial fly, but as children outgrow their early taste for tarts and 

 sweatmeats, so do these fishes after they attain a couple of pounds 

 weight, eschew the flies thus formerly so much delighted in for 

 more solid fare ; preying without pity or remorse upon such of 

 the weaker finny inhabitants of the lake, as they may chance to 

 pounce upon, and displaying such ferocity, as well as courage, as 

 to have acquired the destructive appellation of salmo ferox. A title 

 by no means inappropriate ; for when one of these fish has made a 

 run and seized upon a bait, he will not part with it, though drag- 

 ged onwards with some force, but still keeping it tightly compressed 

 between his powerful teeth will continue to hold on, till drawn fur- 

 ther than he likes, he suddenly expands his jaws, and the mangled 

 bait is drawn out without his being injured by a single hook; still 

 when this occurs, at the very next cast he will most probably run 

 again, and this time I would recommend you immediately to give 

 away sufficient line, allowing the fish to turn right away if he will 

 with the bait, and then pull as hard as you safely can the contrary 

 way to his movements, when if you do draw the bait out of his 

 mouth, you must at the same time draw your hooks through it, 

 and the chances are that in so doing one or other of them will take 

 fast hold, and if this takes place, look sharp, for depend upon it, 

 the previous struggle will be nothing to the one you have now to 

 expect ; but it is a kind of bull dog fighting affair, and if you 

 are not too violent you will most likely come off the victor, for 

 though the grey trout may be stronger than the salmon he has not 

 the activity of the latter fish, and therefore is not likely to start 

 away upon his travels in the way a salmon does : added to which 

 the grey's struggles seem more a matter of dogged hard fighting 

 than of cunning, though on reaching the surface when apparently 

 tired out, he frequently makes a deseprate dart downwards, and if 

 he takes the angler unprepared at that critical time, he often breaks 

 some part of the tackle and escapes. The first and last struggles 

 of the grey trout are those most to be dreaded. It is much to be 

 regretted that a fish that affords such sport should not be a more 

 general one in this kingdom. It is found in a great many of the 

 lakes in Ireland, and in most of the deep and large lochs in Scot 



