122 THE NESS. 



your side, you drag him, forthwith, to you ; 

 and if, on the other, you let out line, so as your 

 opposite rod may take him to his side. But they 

 can only be called pot wallopers who have re- 

 course to such methods no true angler adopts 

 them. The Ness w T as, last year, taken by a 

 gentleman, of bitter beer notoriety ; and it has 

 been rather a bitter draught to those gentlemen 

 who have fished here for so long a time, to find 

 their occupation gone, by the heavy purse 

 from John Barleycorn. As a trouting river, I 

 should say, by what I saw Mr Lowe do in it, it 

 is not worth much, as the best fishers find them 

 { few and far between.' The doctor is a good 

 salmon fly ; and I have heard of seventeen fish 

 being all killed with one, while it was nearly all 

 worn to the iron. As an illustration, that while 

 they are in the humour, salmon will rise and 

 take anything, a few seasons ago, a friend of 

 mine captured here two or three fish, with the 

 thumb of an old kid glove, stuck on a plain hook. 1 



1 The angling club, with truly piscatorial perseverance, 

 have again leased the lower part of the river ; the 

 gentleman above alluded to being one of them. Letter 

 from Mr Nicol, 23d January 1860. 



