LOCH-FISHING. 71 



pieces, just large enough to cover the hook, and fix them 

 firmly on. I recollect catching five or six beautiful eels 

 at one haul, with no other bait than two frogs ; the legs 

 set upon some of the hooks, like worm, and the bodies, 

 cut into several pieces, for the others. The drawing of 

 an eel-line, what with twisting and slime, is often sorry 

 work; if a large swivel was appended to each hook, it 

 would both tend to prevent this and increase the chance 

 of success. It is of little use to set single hooks for eels, 

 as the great likelihood is that the first that comes may 

 have a mouth too small for sucking in your hook, but 

 large enough to devour your bait ; in fact, there are twenty 

 small for one large; and from a line of three dozen 

 hooks, it is a very good night's work to kill half-a-dozen 

 large eels. 



I have thus given an outline of the different 

 kinds of fishing in fresh-water lochs, except perch, 

 which float and worm recreation, as it has come under 

 the ban of Dr Johnson, I might leave the novice to find 

 out for himself. All he has to do is to ascertain their 

 haunt, which any one in the vicinity can show ; fasten a 

 float to his line, and a No. 10 hook bait with an earth- 

 worm throw in without art, and give the fish time to 

 gorge the bait before striking, or it may slip out of its 

 capacious mouth after being sucked in. 



