390 THE MOOR AND THE LOCH. 



In still sunny weather the salrno-ferox feeds nearer the top. 

 Troll then with a finer wheel-line (if you have it), a much 

 lighter casting-line, no lead, and smaller swivels. Often the 

 best fish are taken in that sort of weather. By adopting this 

 plan the first day I was out on Loch Awe one season, I slew a 

 fifteen- pound fish, and another of six pounds, with only a light 

 breath of air. As a general rule, however, the nearer the 

 bottom you troll for large fish the better. 



In the smaller, shallower lochs, the feroxes are often col- 

 lected in shoals. Should you hook or kill one, try them again 

 over the same place until they stop running. In minnow- 

 trolling for yellow trout, you may often have great success by 

 attending to this rule. But when you happen upon a shoal of 

 sea-trout, salmon, or grilse in a loch, be especially particular to 

 come over them again and again, whether you are fishing with 

 the troll or the fly. In very shallow lochs the fly-trout are 

 often afraid to come within reach of the shores till evening. 

 To know this, may often fill a creel that would otherwise come 

 back empty. 



Always, if possible, dry trolling-lines by pulling them out 

 along the shores when you have done fishing. If dried in a 

 room, they twist, and give far more trouble. If not pulled 

 out to dry every time after use, they soon rot. 



Neither rules nor practice will make a man an angler, 

 unless he has a turn for it, although love of scenery or love of 

 " Father Izaak " sometimes induces him to try. Such enthu- 

 siasts deserve better sport than they often obtain. A drunken 

 fishing-guide of Loch Awe was piloting one of them, when he 

 accidentally fixed a heavy fish. " He's running away with 

 my line, I tell you." " Give him a turn round the thowel- 

 pin," suggests little Joe. " He pulls it out still," complains 

 the rod-handler. " Then give him two," says Joe, with all the 

 authority of experience. Of course the two broke the fish. 

 Another was quite content if allowed to pitch his fly among 

 the prisoners of the draught-net, arguing that, as the fish were 



