JULY 157 



operation was fatal to the char and highly beneficial to 

 the trout ; the last char recorded was taken in a net in 

 1837 near Kinross House Pier. The char of Lochleven 

 must have been far superior to those of any other 

 Scottish waters, unless the local fishermen were ' pulling 

 Pennant's leg' when they told him, about 1773, that 

 they ran to a length of 2 feet. 



The habits of British char prevent its being reckoned 

 a good sporting fish. Far less patient of warmth than 

 the common trout, it lives and feeds in deep water; 

 and although it is said that bumble-clocks and winged 

 ants do tempt char to the surface in cool autumn 

 calms, it can scarcely be worth anybody's while to go 

 fly-fishing for them. The utmost one may expect, even 

 in a lake containing thousands of char, is a brace or 

 two of these lovely fish in a full basket of trout. They 

 are taken in Windermere and the neighbouring lakes 

 on a spoon-bait attached to a plumb-line, but that is 

 not a very exhilarating form of the gentle art ; neither 

 is the method employed by a local angler in Gaits 

 Water, who, as recorded by Mr. John Watson, took 

 seventy char in a day, using a grub as bait. l By far 

 the largest number of char are netted, the annual 

 average from Windermere alone being about 4000 lb., 

 valued at Is. per lb. Net fishermen have to pay 

 1, 13s. 4d. for a licence, and plumb-liners 5s. As the 

 close season for char on Windermere is the same as for 

 trout from 15th September till 10th March the fish 

 of this lake enjoy a salutary protection which is with- 

 held from Scottish char. These are netted, sad to say, 



1 The English Lake District Fisheries, by John Watson (1899), p. 207. 



