48 CHATS ON ANGLING. 



— at what I could not make out — so, taking an oar and gently using it as 

 a paddle, I moved along until I could locate an exact rise, and I noticed 

 a small fly near where the rise had been. Using the blade of my oar 

 as a ladle I annexed the insect, and found it to be a small green beetle. 

 In my box I found a small Coch-y-bondhu, which had a red tag and 

 a peacock herl body. My scissors soon removed the red tag, and then 

 I fancied it might do as a coarse representation of the Simon Pure. 

 Having tied it on, I cast it dry at the ring of the next rise. It was 

 instantly taken, and a plump f-lb. Loch Leven trout was soon in the 

 net. And so it went on ; a cast here or there at the rises amidst the 

 rushes, and in a short hour and a quarter seven good trout had paid 

 the penalty. We then rowed home for luncheon, and, on inquiry, I 

 found afterwards that the united efforts of some twenty-eight men, all 

 as keen as mustard, had produced three fish. 



Does not this tell a tale of lost opportunities, and of the folly of 

 being wedded to one style of angling ? Had there been a good fresh 

 breeze my dry fly would have been nowhere in competition with my 

 eight-and-twenty friends. The best fisherman is the best all-round 

 fisherman, able and willing to adapt himself to the circumstances in 

 which he may be placed. But how little of this dry-fly work is tried 

 upon our numerous lochs ? — not a breath of wind, no good to fish ! 

 Yet ripples here and there are breaking the surface, showing that the 

 fish are feeding. 



Many pleasant half-hours have I had on the same loch, after dinner, 

 under the rising moon, at the season when the main object of life is 

 the grouse shooting. On a mid-August evening, after a hot day, the 

 loch looks deliciously cool. Let us try our luck after dinner. We take 

 our rods, and put up for choice a small gold-ribbed hare's ear. Let 

 us get into that bay, in our boat, with our backs to the shelving shore 

 and the moon before us. There is a good rise. Paddle gently, but 

 quickly, near it ; judge your distance accurately, keeping your eye on 

 the very centre of the now expanded rings. You pitch it accurately, 

 and it floats like a cork. Don't hurry to take it off — loch fish cruise 

 about — he may see it. I thought so ; a good rise and well hooked, 

 and the pound Loch Leven fish merrily runs out your line. Now you've 

 turned him. Don't let him get under the boat. He has run past you 



