ULLSWATER 89 



mainly on favourable days, the following individual 

 catches have been made 'by a persevering angler : 

 8'- Ibs, 1 1 Ibs, pf Ibs., 10 Ibs, 1 1 J Ibs. 



It is interesting to note that the Ullswater trout 

 will now rise more readily to a more brightly-, 

 even gaudily-, coloured fly than they would at one 

 time. Whether they get satiated with bottom 

 food and require tempting, or they have not had 

 fancy flies sufficiently offered them before, is a 

 question but the fact remains. I have noticed 

 the same fact in connection with the trout in 

 Haweswater, particularly upon one occasion. On 

 my cast was a brilliantly-coloured fly of nondescript 

 pattern, which I hesitated at putting on, and yet 

 almost every fish was killed on this fly, and a 

 small char in addition. The green and grey 

 drakes are fished in their season, and the butcher 

 proves very killing in June. 



Of late years the trout in Ullswater have de- 

 creased both in size and quantity, and various 

 opinions have been adduced to account for this ; 

 and there can be no question that fifty years ago 

 the lake was much more prolific than it is to day. 

 One is that the fish in the lower portion of the 

 lake used to descend the Eamont in order to 

 run up the Lowther. About 1864, however, a 

 weir was placed across the Eamont above its 

 junction with the Lowther, in connection with 

 the water-supply of Penrith. The fish pass in this 

 \veir proved accessible to salmon, but not to trout, 

 and, once over the obstacle, they were unable to 

 return. This view is sometimes contested, but that 

 depletion of the trout at the Pooley end of the 

 lake followed upon the construction of this weir 

 there can be no question. 



