A BOOK OF FISHING STORIES 



I have had fair measure of success, having captured fish in 

 England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and Norway. Once, in 

 five rapturous days, I caught thirty-five on a ten-foot trout rod 

 and light tackle, without any gillie to help me, so that I had to 

 strand nearly all of them unaided. And yet, in all these plea- 

 sant memories, there remains the amari aliquid — the drop of 

 bitterness in the cup of happiness ! The trouble is that I 

 have never caught a really large salmon. I have killed my 

 fair share of fish of 20 lb. and a little over, but the heav- 

 iest only turned the scale at 26 lb. This may be in part 

 accounted for by the fact that, between 1875 and 1893, my 

 holidays were spent at Poltalloch, in Argyleshire, where my 

 beloved little Add winds its devious course through Crinan 

 Moss, a prolific and delightful salmon river, but one in which 

 a fish of 20 lb. is very near the record, being, in fact, as rare as 

 the giant fifty-pounders of Tay or Tweed. I believe that 

 the record for the Add is still held by a fish of my own, just 

 exceeding 2o| lb. when I got it home, and probably a trifle 

 heavier if I had had a steelyard handy to weigh it on the river. 

 I fancy that my brother-in-law. Colonel Malcolm, now Laird 

 of Poltalloch, once caught one of about the same size, and that 

 Dr. Henderson, who is as successful on the river as his blue- 

 and-black namesake, has been equally fortunate. The average 

 fish, however, caught with rod and line in the Add is about 

 7I lb. Yet I have heard of forty-pounders being taken in the 

 nets, so a day may perhaps come when some thrice-blest angler 

 may outdistance all rivals. 



Meanwhile, though it took place some thirty years ago, I 



70 



