170 DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 



seen straight down from the high rocks above ; 

 indeed, M'Leish, my gillie, called to me : " They're 

 na winking an e'e at ither of them. Try your 

 forward-backward over them, sir." I put one on 

 and had three casts with it when Mac, throwing up 

 his arms, bellowed out : " Och ! bide a wee ; haud it 

 or there'll na be a fush in arl the Glen the morn's 

 morn." 



I must not forget that it was to this clever, ever- 

 smiling, never-discouraged gillie that I owe the 

 notion of a bait which should spin in almost gliding 

 fashion through the water, without the aid of 

 flanges, and it was he who christened it the 

 Natural- Spin. 



THE NATURAL SPIN 



To get the maximum of sport from a much- 

 fished river a change of lure is needed from time 

 to time, for education and the instinct of self- 

 preservation prompt the fish to decline old- 

 fashioned frauds. 



During the past two seasons the sea-lance or 

 sand-eel has been much in favour on the Lyon, but 

 the drawback to its use has been the fact that to 

 shorten it you have to take away its head and 

 shoulders and give it a head that shall cause it to 

 spin smoothly. The one in use worried me, firstly, 

 because it made the eel look all head, and, secondly, 

 the parts constantly became disjointed. In addition 



