368 SALMON AND TROUT. 



( On a fish taking the prawn, you will, if inexperienced, at 

 first fancy yourself fast in a rock ; but you will soon learn to 

 distinguish in a moment by a sort of indescribable sensation 

 when your line tightens in a fish. When you first feel him 

 do not strike, but give a good 'pull' or two. After two or three 

 seconds have elapsed many fishermen strike or jerk up the 

 point of their rod, but I am against this plan of hooking a 

 fish for reasons I have already explained in my notes on fly 

 fishing.' 



Quitting now the subject of prawn or ' shrimp-bait fishing * 

 for salmon, with thanks to Major Traherne for his excellent 

 hints, and wishing him ' a light heart and a heavy creel,' we 

 must step into the boat that has been awaiting us for the last 

 half-hour, and putting ourselves under 'the creature Dougal's' 

 guidance make play for the upper end of the loch 'Youth on 

 the prow and pleasure at the helm ' so as to have at least a 

 couple of hours before sunset to try our luck at 



SPINNING FOR LAKE TROUT. 



Putting aside the true salmon, Sal mo sa/ar, which has been 

 already alluded to, there are three species of Salmonida taken 

 more or less constantly with the spinning bait, namely, the 

 common trout, Salmo fario, the Great Lake trout, or grey 

 trout of the Cumberland lakes, Salmo ferox, and the sea trout, 

 or salmon trout, Salmo trutta. This sequence represents 

 probably the relative importance of the three fish from the 

 point of view of the lake spinner. Indeed, as the sea trout is 

 most commonly taken when spinning for one or other of the 



can also be used in the latter put on the hook the reverse way, and used casting, 

 \vith a little lead about eight inches from the bait, and again eighteen inches 

 higher up on the casting line, according to the depth and strength of the current. 

 In casting, the bait should be thrown directly opposite the angler and allowed 

 to swing round, care being taken not to allow the line to be ahead of the bait. 

 In trolling with shrimp, always place the lead about two feet from the bait, and 

 u^e single gut. Fish will take a fresh shrimp much better than a stale one.' 



