62 WILD SPORTS OF THE WEST. 



Although in this water angling may be considered 

 as ending in September, yet, through the succeeding 

 months till spring, the fish rise freely at a fly. But the 

 sport is very indifferent compared with summer angling ; 

 the salmon now has lost his energy ; he struggles 

 laboriously to get away, but his play is different from 

 the gallant resistance he would have offered had you 

 hooked him in July. I have landed and turned out 

 again as many as nine salmon in one day, and their 

 united exertions did not afford me half the amusement 

 I have received from the conquest of one sprightly 

 summer fish. Salmon appear to lose beauty and energy 

 together. They are now reddish, dull, dark-spotted, 

 perch-coloured fish, and seem a different species from 

 the sparkling silvery creature we saw them when they 

 first left the sea. As an esculent, they are utterly 

 worthless — soft, flabby and flavourless, if brought to 

 table ; and, instead of the delicate pink hue they 

 exhibited when in condition, they present a sickly, 

 unhealthy, white appearance, that betrays how complete 

 the change is that they have recently undergone. 



And yet at this period they suffer mostly from night- 

 fishers. This species of poaching* is as difficult to 

 detect as it is ruinous in its consequences. It is believed 

 that the destruction of a few breeding fish may cost the 

 proprietor one thousand ; such being the astonishing 

 fecundity of the pregnant salmon ! 



Night fishing is carried on when the river is low, 

 and the night moonless. The poacher, with a gaff and 



* " When I made the tour of that hospitable kingdom in 1754, it 

 (the Coleraine fishery) was rented by a neighbouring gentleman for 

 £620 a year, who assured me that the tenant, his predecessor, gave 

 for it £1,600 per annum — and that he was a greater gainer by the 

 bargain, on account of the number of poachers who destroy the fish 

 during the fence month." — Pennant. 



