306 THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



have always treated that particular omen with little heed. From 9.15 till one 

 o'clock I was hard at work killing fish as quickly as I could ; but then, for some 

 strange reason, not a fish would move, and for two hours I literally flogged 

 without rising, or, if I remember rightly, seeing a fish. I thought the game was 

 up ; but then the fun recommenced, and, working hard till seven o'clock, I 

 killed 46 fish, just beating Naylor's second best. 



" It was a grand day's slaughter, but, as far as fishing went, most demoral- 

 ising. As soon as a fish was hooked there was no nonsense about playing him 

 scientifically, down went the point of the rod, and pull hard was the order of the 

 day. If the fish broke away, as often happened, it did not matter, as another 

 was soon on again. George Probyn's experience of being for an hour and a half 

 towed about the lake by a foul-hooked 27 Ib. fish showed me that no wasting 

 time must be indulged in. Break or come in quick was the rule. 



"The great majority of the fish were grilse about 61b., so they came in very 

 quickly ; but every now and then one got a big fish. My best that day was 

 18 Ib., which, as I thought, wasted a lot of time. George Probyn was very 

 unlucky in his two days, for one was dead calm and bright, and on the other he 

 foul-hooked (of course, accidentally) a large 27 Ib. fish, which, as I before men- 

 tioned, took him more than an hour of the best of the day. We always fished a 

 tail and a bob fly, but before I had been fishing half-an-hour the breaks were so 

 numerous that I only used one fly all day. I did most with a Jock Scott, but 

 any fly seemed equally good ; and, all the dark-bodied ones being exhausted, I 

 remember I finished the day with a Silver Grey. There was no skill required, 

 only hard work, and not wasting time with playing fish when on. 



" By the end of the last week, August 30, natural rains had fallen, and the 

 rivers had risen, so that the fish could, and did, leave the first loch, and worked 

 up, as usual, all over the upper lakes ; consequently, the Monday following our 

 big week was the last abnormally good day of that season's fishing, 24 being 

 taken in No. 1 lake on that day. This proves that, where an artificial spate is 

 made on a river, to be a great fishing success, as ours was, the fish must be 

 stopped from running too far up, and, above all things, from being allowed to 

 lose themselves in a big lake at the head of the river system. 



"Instead of being gradually spread over the whole water system of the 

 Grimersta basin, the fish were confined to one small lake. It was just this 

 peculiarity of our experiment that made its great success. The fish must have 

 been so thick in the lake that many of them could not have found suitable 

 resting places. So this may account for them still keeping to their eccentric 

 habit of swimming in shoals close to the surface with their fins showing as they 

 did in the sea, and as they continued to do in the loch. Our great week's fishing 

 was practically all done in this one loch. Though a few fish were caught in the 

 river and No. 2 loch, none got into the upper lakes. 



" The following is the tabulated record of our week : 



Salmon. Ib. Sea Trout. Ib. 



Aug. 27. Naylor 15 94 6 8 



Probyn 36 210 4 2 



Hansard - 8 39 7 4 



