S6 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SALMON FISHING. 



when the males are very plentiful ; but the females are 

 scarce till about the beginning or middle of November. 

 With salmon it is the reverse, as their females leave 

 the sea before the males. The Bull Trout is also more 

 regular in his habits than the Salmon, for the fishermen 

 can calculate almost to a day when the large black 

 male Trouts will leave the sea. The foul fish rise 

 eagerly at the fly, but the clean ones by no means so. 

 They weigh from two to twenty-four pounds, and 

 occasionally, I presume, but very rarely indeed, more. 

 The largest I ever heard of was taken in the Hallow- 

 stell fishing water at the mouth of the Tweed, in 

 April, 1840, and weighed twenty-three pounds and a 

 half. 



The heaviest Bull Trout I ever encountered myself 

 weighed sixteen pounds, and I had a long and severe 

 contest with his majesty. He was a clean fish, and I 

 hooked him in a cast in Mertoun Water called the 

 Willow Bush, not in the mouth, but in the dorsal fin. 

 Brethren of the craft, guess what sore work I had with 

 him ! He went here and there with apparent comfort 

 and ease to his own person, but not to mine. I really 

 did not know what to make of him. There never 

 was such a hector. I cannot say exactly how long I 

 had him on the hook ; it seemed a week at least. At 

 length John Haliburton, who was then my fisherman, 

 waded into the river up to his middle, and cleiked 

 him whilst he was hanging in the stream, and before 

 he was half beat. 



Besides the three species I have mentioned, I have 

 sometimes, though very rarely, caught a fish very 



