LOCH-FISHING 137 



the knowing angler would have shunned with care. 

 Unhappily, his satisfaction was not lasting ; it gave 

 place to another and a different emotion when, at the 

 end of the evening, he discovered that though his basket 

 was unsullied by a scale, mine contained two leash of 

 lovely trout. 



It is said that the biofofer the wave the briorhter the 

 prospects of large fish. What everyone says is presum- 

 ably true, but the statement is not to be accepted with- 

 out qualification. Like other angling maxims, it is not 

 of universal application. There is no necessary relation 

 between the size of the wave and that of the fish ; 

 indeed, one sometimes finds them in inverse proportion. 

 Not long ago, fishing in a wind so high and a sea so 

 tumultuous that it was difficult to keep the boat on the 

 water, I caught trout in great numbers, but none that, 

 proved by the eight-inch measure cut on one of the 

 thwarts, it was found possible to retain. They were 

 all undersized, and, as usual when small fish are on the 

 move, the larger held aloof. All the boatman's in- 

 genuity failed to coax one of them up to the standard ; 

 he patted and stroked them and drew them out to their 

 utmost length, but they remained, without exception, 

 just a fraction of an inch too short. He was in despair. 

 There was an ever-recurring conflict between his rigid, 



lO 



