408 SPECIAL ROD FOR SPECIAL TROUT 



far greater than that for salmon-fishing. The most 

 scientific fishing I ever experienced in Scotland com- 

 pletely mastered me, until I succeeded in procuring a 

 rod which combined the exact amount of lightness and 

 stiffness required. The trout to which I here refer 

 were the most difficult fish to hook which I have ever 

 known, although they were lake trout. There are in 

 this loch no fewer than three distinct kinds of trout — 

 viz., the ordinary yellow trout, spotted with red, the 

 brown, and a kind which were of a bronze or almost 

 black colour. The first two kinds were easy enough 

 to catch, but the black ones gave me the most infinite 

 trouble. Instead of rising at the fly, they made a rush 

 at it, but only raised a small wave in so doing, and the 

 instant they took it they managed to spit it out again, 

 before there was time to strike them. Most fishermen 

 wait until they see a fish rise or until they feel a tug, 

 but these fish quietly sucked in the fly and as instantly 

 rejected it. Now, however, I have succeeded in con- 

 quering them (and they are good fish, running up to 

 8 and lo lb. weight) by having had a rod made 

 specially for them, and it rarely fails to hook them. 

 The instant the wave appears, it is necessary to turn 

 the wrist up, and if the hook has taken hold the most 

 desperate fight ensues, and I have been an hour before 

 I could succeed in landin^f one of these fish at times. 

 The largest salmon I ever killed, and which weighed 

 35^ lb., only took some twenty minutes to bring to 

 gaff. I think these black trout fight harder than any 

 fish I ever knew, and every time they make a rush 

 they jump out of the water to a height which would 

 appear incredible ; and even when exhausted and lying 

 on their sides they will try everything they know to 



