SPRING FISHING IN LOCH ARD. 235 



for March, April, or early May, being perhaps 75 per 

 cent below anything that ought to be called good fish- 

 ing in genial and abounding June. Let it be con- 

 sidered, too, that what some people not quite correctly 

 term " excessively moderate " fishing, at a time when 

 the appetite for the sport has been whetted by the 

 long winter's abstinence, really gives as much plea- 

 sure as does much better or more productive fishing at 

 a later season, when greater things are naturally to be 

 looked for. Therefore, when we say that good fishing 

 is to be had in March and April, and that the best 

 place in Scotland to get that fishing is Loch Ard, on 

 the borders between Perthshire and Stirlingshire, we 

 mean that the fishing is good for these early months, 

 and for that particular district, which witness the 

 black and barren waters of the Lennox is on the 

 whole no angling paradise. The extent of commen- 

 dation meant to be bestowed on Loch Ard is simply 

 this that there you may get, on an average day, a 

 dozen, a dozen and a half, and occasionally two dozen 

 trout, of very fine quality, and weighing nearly three 

 quarters of a pound each, at that early period when 

 it is spring in the almanack and nowhere else, and 

 when trout-fishing in almost all other districts of 

 Scotland is a depressing and desperate enterprise. 



It is by no means clear, and indeed nothing in 

 that department is clear, why Loch Ard should fish 

 earlier than almost any other loch and than any river 



