62 AUTUMNS ON THE SPEY. 



anxiously watching an opportunity of quitting 

 the sea, now cross the bar and occupy all the 

 favourite haunts in considerable numbers. When 

 the river has settled down after a real effective 

 flood of this sort during September, good sport 

 may be anticipated until the end of the season, 

 and a second spate is rather to be deprecated 

 than desired ; for although it never fails to bring 

 up fresh recruits from the sea, yet the same 

 instinct that prompts these to enter the river 

 equally induces those it already contains to move 

 higher up the stream, and during their change of 

 quarters success is out of the question, for a 

 " travelling " fish never takes the fly. 



It is a fact that this portion of the Spey the 

 last ten or twelve miles of its course affording 

 such good sport during the autumn, is totally un- 

 productive to the angler when the river opens 

 again in the spring, and for some time afterwards. 

 The salmon are there sure enough, and are netted 

 in considerable numbers, but they are all " tra- 

 velling." 



Fly-fishing is then hopeless, and success can- 

 not be expected nearer than Arndilly or Aberlour : 

 higher up it is still better, though as the year 

 advances these conditions are gradually reversed. 

 Salmon, as a rule, generally become scarcer on 



