LOCH-FISHING 181 



of pottage indeed, as it was a small salmon-fly with 

 which Mr. Muir accomplished the feat. His taking, 

 or rather attempting to take, the fly at all as 

 though hooked outside the jaw he rose at it can be 

 accounted for on no other supposition than that old 

 age had weakened his intellect and impaired his 

 memory. Mr. Muir very properly got him stuffed, 

 with the fatal hook still in his jaw. 



The common trout in lochs may be captured by 

 any of the methods usually employed in rivers, but 

 the only one of these that can be called sport, and 

 the one that undoubtedly deserves the first notice, is 

 the artificial fly. 



The notion usually entertained, that some particu- 

 lar fly is necessary for every different loch that a fly 

 will not take unless its body is made of some particu- 

 lar dubbing, its wing of some particular feather, and 

 that the least deviation from rule in the colour even 

 of the tail-tuft will injure its usefulness we believe 

 to be altogether erroneous. The prevailing opinion, 

 that in order to be successful the artificial fly must 

 be an imitation of some one of the natural flies on the 

 water at the time, will also, when applied to loch- 

 fishing, be found absurd. We should like to 

 know what insects the gaudy-coloured loch-flies 

 in common use are intended to represent, or 

 what part of the body it is that is imitated 

 by the tinsel so lavishly bestowed. Certainly we 

 ourselves never saw any insects like artificial 

 loch-flies. 



It is quite unnecessary to have a large collection 



