SEA TROUT FISHING AND ITS CHANCES. 107 



from the landing place, I met my friend, rod in hand, by a deep-looking, 

 leg-of-mutton-shaped pool where his stream found its outlet into the 

 brackish waters of the arm of the sea that looked like a land-locked loch. 



" Get out of the trap ; I've got a treat for you," were his first 

 words of greeting ; and then he explained that they had had, the 

 evening before, the first run of the sea trout, and that, standing 

 on a little rock in the brackish water, he had caught quantities of 

 fine fish. Nothing loth to stretch my arms and legs, I took the 

 proffered rod with many thanks, and fished the pool down carefully 

 without a rise of any kind, or a sign of a fish. Putting on another 

 fly, I tried it down again, and also the brackish water at its mouth, 

 with similar results. My friend had foreborne to throw a fly on it 

 until my arrival, and so he chaffed me unmercifully at my want of success 

 after the extraordinary sport he had experienced the afternoon before. I 

 told him that I did not believe there was a trout in the water, and as he 

 had the netting rights, and had come down in the boat with the nets in it, 

 we carefully netted the pool. My host was so convinced that the sea trout 

 were there, that he offered to bet me any odds against a blank draw. 

 He would, however, have lost had I taken his bet, for sure enough 

 there was not a single fish in the whole pool. Whilst I made my 

 way up to the lodge, he went up to try some of the higher pools, but not a 

 rise did he get. The whole big run, shoal like, had run clean up into a 

 small lochan, of which his stream was the outlet. 



But when you happen to find them just in the right place, where you 

 are, then you may congratulate yourself, if you have not too big a rod 

 with you, for half the pleasure of angling is to suit your rod and tackle to 

 the river and the fish. It is giving the show away and discounting 

 half your sport to be " over-rodded." To fish, for instance, in the upper 

 beats of, say, the Helmsdale, in Sutherland, with an 18ft. rod is absurd. 

 A 1 6ft. or 14ft. grilse rod will enable you to cover the water well, and the 

 sport you will get from the 91b. to 141b. salmon in the well-stocked 

 river will be greatly enhanced. A powerful 18ft. Castleconnel will choke 

 the fish unadvisedly. You might as well use a sledge hammer to crack an 

 egg So, too, with sea trout, a 14ft. double-handed rod robs you of 

 the better part of the sport and gives you no real satisfaction. 



On the other hand, if, as you may well do, you happen to get into a 



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