IRISH RIVERS. 



CHAPTER XL 



8 AIM OS 



urr or rusa FOB IRISH RIYBBS. 

 TUB ERNE, BALLY8HANNON. 



THESE patterns were poor Pat McKay's, than whom no 

 better artificer ever turned fly out of hand. 



No. 1. The Parson (Plate II. tig. 3) has been already 

 described amongst the general flies ; but since I described 

 it I have received some patterns with a letter from my 

 friend Dr. Sheil, the former kind and liberal proprietor 

 of the Erne, to whom I owe many favours and some excel- 

 lent fishing on one of the finest rivers on which it has ever 

 been my lot to cast a fly. For the Erne is the beau ideal 

 of a salmon river, containing every kind of water that is 

 found in salmon rivers, and all in perfection. Here we 

 have falls, rapids, broken pools, rocky torrents, and swift 

 glassy currents, and even heavy reaches for boat-fishing. 

 The fish run x large, and nearly always show the finest sport. 

 The sport is best in the months of June and July, if the 

 river is low enough, for it is much more apt to be too 

 high than too low, running as it does from such a very 

 large lake as Lough Erne. The river is very rarely too 

 low for sport, and even in the hottest and brightest 

 weather sport is possible. The river is now held by a 

 company, who let it out in rods by the week. The charge, 

 I think, is 41. a week. As Dr. Shell's letter gives the 



