TROLLING FOR THE SALMO-FEROX. 385 



hot. Although much more shy than in spring, they some- 

 times take pretty fair in September. A small bait is generally 

 most successful in this month. The large ones lie farther 

 from the shore than earlier in the season. Many of the best 

 worth hooking even haunt the middle of the loch at this 

 time of year. I killed two in September 1850 in mid-loch, 

 which weighed twelve and a half and twelve pounds. Some 

 of the Loch Awe fishing-guides suggested to me, that the 

 partiality of the feroxes for deep water then might be occa- 

 sioned by the pike driving the small trout from the shallows, 

 and that the feroxes followed the shoals into the deep to prey 

 upon them. But if this is the reason, why don't they do so 

 in May and June ? In autumn a good fish is sometimes taken 

 in the estuary of the Awe, called the " Brander," as they are 

 making for the river to spawn. The Brander is generally 

 blank at any other time. 



The salmo-feroxes are, as a rule, much smaller in the 

 northern lochs than in those of the Western Highlands. 

 Trolling for five days in Loch Layghal, in Sutherland, our 

 total was nine fish. The largest fourteen pounds, a very un- 

 usual size there, but an ugly fish. The next, eleven pounds, 

 a great beauty, which we had preserved. Then an eight- 

 pounder, and several from four to seven pounds. Loch Assynt 

 contains the largest feroxes in the county, but we had only 

 time to troll it one forenoon, and brought in a twelve-pound 

 fish, and another of five. Of the many lochs I have trolled, 

 I never found one with so clear a channel as Assynt. 



The larger feroxes never run with a very full loch. You 

 may possibly hook a small one, but the only fish worth the 

 trouble of trying for will not dash at your spinning bait till 

 the water clears and falls in a good deal. Small feroxes fre- 

 quently take a fly, but I never knew save one large one do 

 so, and that was actually in the river Awe, where most likely 

 it had gone for spawning. It weighed seventeen pounds, and 

 was preserved as a curiosity. 



2 B 



