SECOND DAY.] FISHING IN IRELAND. 53 



even the artificial May-fly, according to Cotton, was 

 very killing. 



POIET. I have heard various accounts of the 

 excellent fishing in some of the great lakes in Ireland. 

 Can you tell us anything on the subject ? and if the 

 same flies may be used in that island ? 



HAL. I have been several times in Ireland, but 

 never at this season, which is considered as best for 

 lake-fishing. I have heard that in some of the lakes 

 in Westmeath, very large trout, and great quantities, 

 may be taken in the beginning of June, with the 

 very flies we have been using this day. Wind is 

 necessary ; and a good angler sometimes takes in a 

 day, or rather formerly took, from ten to twelve fish, 

 which weighed from 3 to 10 Ibs., and which occasionally 

 were even larger. In the summer after June, and in 

 the autumn, the only seasons when I have fished in 

 Ireland, I have seldom taken any large trout ; but in 

 the river Boyle, late in October, after a flood, I once 

 had some sport with these fish, that were running up 

 the river from Lock Key to spawn. I caught one 

 day two above 3 Ibs. that took a large reddish-brown 

 fly of the same kind as a salmon-fly ; and I saw some 

 taken that weighed 5 Ibs., and heard of one that 

 equalled 9 Ibs. These fish were in good season, even 

 at this late period, and had no spots, but were 

 coloured red and brown mottled like tortoise-shell, 



