CHAPTER VII 



ON LAKE-FISHING 

 Lake-Fishing Daping The Creeper The Beetle The Worm 



IN lake-fishing, the modus operandi will depend very much 

 upon whether the angler fishes from a boat or from the 

 shore. In the first event, his task is a comparatively easy 

 one, as he will drift along with very little use from the 

 paddles more than is required to keep the boat straight and the 

 proper distance from the shore. He will rarely paddle himself ; 

 but if he should, he will need to know something of the shores 

 of the loch and where the trout frequent. If he has a boatman, 

 the boatman will probably know the best spots to go to, and 

 the lay of the trout. 



It is always desirable, in a boat, to cast in towards the shore. 

 The distance the boat must be kept from the shore will be 

 entirely determined by the weeds, and by the precipitous 

 nature or otherwise of the shores of the lake. The most 

 advantageous depths at which the trout will be found to lie, 

 run from two to five or six feet ; beyond this the water will be 

 probably too deep for the trout to see conveniently, and to rise 

 from at the fly. On a calm evening, however, the best trout 

 will often be found lying close in to the shore with their backs 

 almost out of the water, and here they will take fly after fly, 

 with scarcely more motion than a trout of a quarter of a pound 

 would be supposed to make ; but in these calm evenings don't 

 be deceived, brother piscator, by the very little disturbance they 

 make when rising close in shore. Approach softly and cast 

 deftly, your quarry may be but a three or four-inch fry, but it 

 may be a rattling two-pounder, and if you go carelessly, all you 

 will see of him will be a severe wave bowling off and widening 

 away into the middle of the loch, and " Confound it ! what a 

 whopper ! " if you be an ordinary kind of angler, or " Dear me ! 

 what a remarkably fine fish ! how very unfortunate ! " if you 

 be particular in language, will be your farewell to him, whereas 



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