SEA-TROUT IN THE SHETLANDS 125 



At first I found casting from a boat with a 

 long rod rather awkward, but soon got into 

 it, and landed, or rather " boated," thirteen 

 sea-trout, averaging two pounds. It was one 

 of those days, like my first with brown trout, 

 when they attached themselves without any 

 skill on my part, and, obviously purely through 

 luck, I caught several more than my highly 

 skilled host. Though the surroundings were 

 very beautiful, my first experience of loch 

 fishing did not impress me as being very high 

 up in the scale of sport. The sea-trout played 

 vigorously, it is true, but my rod must have 

 been thirteen or fourteen feet, as sea-trout 

 rods ran in those days, and there really seemed 

 to be no reason w r hy a fish should ever be lost 

 when once hooked on such tackle. There was 

 the whole loch for him to play about in, and 

 plenty of line on the reel. Only one gave any 

 excitement, by an expedition under the boat 

 and a run on the other side thereof, but the 

 gillie spun the boat round skilfully, and luckily 

 the line did not catch in a splinter of wood on 

 the bottom. Certainly the fish were a goodly 

 sight, washed and laid out on the grass where 

 we had luncheon ; but I do not feel inclined 

 to dwell on the subject of loch fishing from a 

 boat for sea-trout, though I have since some- 



