12 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS. [CHAP. i. 



lakes of a considerable size, where the pike were plenty, the trout 

 have improved very much in size and quality, and not diminished 

 even in numbers to any great extent. In fact, the thing to be 

 complained of in most Highland lakes is> that the trout are too 

 numerous, and consequently of a small size and inferior quality. 

 The only way to kill the larger trout is by trolling. In Loch 

 Awe and several other lakes I have seen this kind of fishing 



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succeed well. If the sportsman is skilful, he is sure of taking 

 finer trout in this way than he would ever do when fly-fishing. 

 In trolling there are two or three rules which should be care- 

 fully observed : Choose the roughest wind that your boat can 

 live in ; fish with a good-sized bait, not much less than a herring, 

 and do not commence your trolling until after two o'clock in the 

 afternoon, by which time the large fish seem to have digested 

 their last night's supper and to be again on the move. You 

 may pass over the heads of hundreds of large trout when they 

 are lying at rest and not hungry, and you will not catch one ; 

 but as soon as they begin to feed, a fish, although he may have 

 half a dozen small trout in his stomach, will still run at your 

 bait. The weight of sinkers on your line, and the depth at 

 which you fish, must of course depend on the depth of water in 

 the lake. A patient fisherman should find out how deep every 

 reach and bay of the lake is before he begins to troll. The 

 labour of a day spent in taking soundings is well repaid. The 

 strength and activity of the large loch trout is immense, and he 

 will run out your whole reel-line if allowed to do so. Some- 

 times he will go down perpendicularly to the bottom, where he 

 remains sulky or attempts to rub off the hooks: get him out of 

 this situation, and away he goes, almost towing your boat after 

 him. Then is the time for your boatman to make play to keep 

 up with the fish and save your line ; for a twenty-pound Salmo 

 ferox is no ignoble foe to contend with when you have him at 

 the end of a common fishing-line : he appears to have the 

 strength of a whale as he rushes away. 



I was crossing Loch Ness alone one evening with my rod at 

 the stern of the boat, with my trolling-tackle on it trailing be- 

 hind Suddenly it was seized by a large trout, and before I 

 could do anything but take hold of my rod he had run out 

 eighty yards of line, and bent my stiff trolling-rod like a wil- 



