THE ENGLISH LAKE COUNTRY 



head, and this has made all the difference, and is worth 

 noting by any one interested in the natural history 

 of trout ; for it has nearly doubled the size of the 

 fish, and that, too, in a very short time. Before the 

 water was raised in 1909 a basket of Hayeswater trout 

 ran less than three to the pound, thick, short, game 

 little fish though they were. They now average 

 consistently two to the pound, and fully maintain their 

 high quality, an increase due undoubtedly to the large 

 acreage of submerged land at the head. If they rose 

 rather less capriciously, a finer lake and a more beautiful 

 one to fish I know nowhere. I had a day upon it in 

 1912 with a well-known Coquet angler in early July. 

 I had occasionally fished Hayeswater in former years, 

 and was a bit sceptical regarding the reported increase 

 in the size of its fish. A west wind on this occasion 

 blew nicely up through the gateway of the cul-de-sac 

 in which the lake lies, and on our early adjournment 

 to the sandwiches and the flasks, with an appetite 

 whetted by the preliminary two hours' walk, we had 

 twelve fish between us, six a-piece, weighing six pounds, 

 as shapely, bright, and thick fish as I ever saw, and 

 practically all the same size, killed on a claret and 

 mallard and a dark March brown. We enjoyed our 

 pipes as only fishermen do in the quiet of the hills 

 and beneath the modest smiles of fortune (for a tarn). 

 The breeze was holding nicely, and what a basket 

 would be ours by five o'clock. To cut short the 

 piteous tale, neither of us had even a rise, though 

 we worked hard for three hours. But this, of course, 

 need not be held as a final judgment on Hayeswater. 

 I must admit, however, that my occasional days there 



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