A BOOK OF FISHING STORIES 



show by making boils on the surface, and my behef is that the 

 daddy-long-legs were the cause ; and wherever the sea trout 

 showed, and I could reach them from the bank, they took 

 my fly. 



There is very interesting sea trout fishing to be had in 

 Shetland, of which I once had some experience. It was on 

 a property of some 12,000 acres, remote from all hotels, and 

 so indented by small and large voes that the actual coast line 

 was about thirty miles, all wild and rocky. There were in- 

 numerable lochs, but the overflow of most of them fell into 

 the sea over some precipice, which no fish could ascend, and 

 the sea trout lochs were practically only two in number. Two 

 burns flowed from these lochs to the sea, and joined each other 

 about a mile from their common mouth. Very little was 

 known about the fish, as far as angling was concerned, and I 

 found myself — for I was alone in the first days — with the 

 delightful prospect of exploring the possibilities of salt and 

 fresh water, remarkable for both extent and variety. When 

 first I saw the burn, it was very low, and the deeper part of it 

 looked like a sulky, black ditch. This burn had so little water 

 that it seemed impossible any fish could have got up the rocky 

 places at the mouth, but even then there were fresh-run sea 

 trout up to two pounds' weight in the black peaty holes, and 

 they took a fly well. When a spate came in the last week of 

 August, and in other spates during September, quantities of 

 sea trout and grilse came up this burn, and we always found a 

 number of fresh-run fish in its pools willing to rise at all 

 heights of water. 



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