ON SEA TROUT 



shrunken and weak, the still places were smooth as glass, and 

 the water, as is the case in bare rocky parts of the Western 

 Islands, was very little tinged with peat and exceptionally 

 clear; The fish were in the river, but there was only depth 

 enough for them in quite still water, and to fish in that seemed 

 hopeless. I sat down and opened my box of flies. Ordinary 

 sea trout flies seemed double their proper size on such a day 

 and by such water. One could not think of trying them, and 

 one shuddered at the thickness of undrawn gut, and yet there 

 was the river, and the day, and the fish, and I was alone and 

 seven miles from the lodge. Something had to be done. So 

 I took out a well-tapered trout cast ending in fine drawn gut, 

 and added about a yard of transparent stout gut to the thick 

 end of it. On the fine end I put a plain black hackle fly of a 

 size suitable for brown trout. A really heavy basket was, of 

 course, out of the question, and I did not rise any large fish, 

 though there were some to be seen at the bottom of the pools ; 

 but by using a small rod and this very fine tackle, I did succeed 

 in getting about ten pounds' weight of the smaller fish and, 

 though the largest was under one pound, I had many a good 

 fight. The conditions made the fishing interesting ; there was 

 enough success to keep me at work ; and if the result was not 

 very remarkable, it was at any rate enough to give a feeling of 

 having overcome difficulties, and saved what seemed at first 

 a hopeless situation. It was very pretty fishing too, for one 

 could see the gleam of the silver fish, even when they came 

 short or took a fly under water. In similar conditions, but 

 with a little breeze, I have found fresh-run fish up to a pound 



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