BLACK GRILSE OF BLEAKHOPE. 291 



apply to the high portions of the Breamish itself, unless 

 it be during a moderate flood, or immediately after a 

 considerable one, when excellent sport may be had with 

 the fly. The best fishing is to be had here in the latter 

 part of the season, from August to the end of September, 

 when fish of considerable size may frequently be met 

 with in these high regions, to which they then migrate 

 for the purpose of spawning. Any rather large dark- 

 coloured fly, dressed full and burly, will succeed best in 

 mountain districts, where the fish seem more homely in 

 their tastes than in the better fed waters of the lowlands. 

 The following are the flies best adapted for moorland 

 waters : The red and black hackles ; smoky dun 

 hackle, No. 6 of the standards ; dun fox, black gnat, 

 little dark dun, blue dun, tawny fly, ash fox, ashy 

 dun, crane flies, great light dun, little light dun, 

 hare-ear, and woodcock ; great whirling dun, stone-fly, 

 sooty dun, sand-fly, case-winged orange fly, during a 

 fresh in the water ; cream camel, small black fly, barm- 

 fly, red and black ants, fern-fly, etc. 



In the Bleakhope Water on the Breamish, a large 

 headed, lank-bodied, dark-coloured fish of 2 or 3 Ibs. in 

 weight is sometimes met with, locally called Hack grilse. 

 The body of this fish is long enough to weigh 5 or 6 Ibs., 

 if it were plump and of proportionate girth to its length, 

 as other fish are when in condition. These I suppose to 

 be either bull-trout, whitling, or large specimens of the 

 common yellow-fin which have ascended to spawn dur- 

 ing the autumnal floods, and having entered some of 

 those deep, inky, rock-bound pools, which here abound, 



