138 ENGLISH LAKE DISTRICT FISHERIES 



privilege must be made to the steward at Lowther 

 Castle. 



The lake contains abundance of trout, with the 

 advantage that they rise well to the fly. Al- 

 though their size is fair, a great improvement in 

 this respect might be brought about if the lake 

 were harder and more systematically fished. As 

 it is, however, an angler of fair skill,, and provided 

 with appropriate flies, may reckon on a basket of 

 twenty or thirty trout a day. The flies may be 

 fairly large and of the bustard order. Trout up 

 to 4 or 5 Ibs. have been taken, but these are rare. 

 The lake is netted to supply Lowther Castle, but 

 it requires harder netting still if the best results 

 are to be obtained. 



Haweswater is also well stocked with char, but 

 these again are small considerably smaller than 

 those of Windermere, for instance. Of late years 

 Windermere char have been brought to Hawes- 

 water with the object of infusing new blood, and 

 so increasing the size. Unfortunately, this has not 

 resulted ; and here, again, greatly reducing the 

 number of the fish would considerably increase the 

 size. The Haweswater char rise more freely to 

 the fly than those of any other lake, and a basket 

 of trout taken with the fly will almost always con- 

 tain one or two sometimes a gwyniad in addi- 

 tion. Almost any small red fly will take them, 

 and most of these are of a nondescript character. 

 The Haweswater char spawn on the banks of the 

 lake. 



The gwyniad is common in the lake, and large 

 takes are often made in the Lowther Castle nets. 

 Upon one occasion nearly a thousand fish were 

 taken at a "setting," the details of the take 



