A Sportsman at Large 291 



party and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves malgre the perverse 

 conditions. 



When at last Jupiter Pluvius condescended to loose his 

 waterworks our spirits rose, and so did the river and lakes. 

 But it is possible to have too much of a good thing, for soon 

 we found that the river and the whole chain of loughs were 

 in high flood ; so again we had to sit tight and possess our 

 souls in patience. At last the day arrived when the flooded 

 waters had subsided to exactly the right height, whilst the wind 

 was in a favourable direction. Then we had glorious sport 

 with the sea-trout on the lower Ballinahinch lake. I found 

 that the most killing fly was the " Zulu " not that with 

 the usual red tag, but sporting one of a dull buff colour. 

 When the surface was fairly rough I found this fly most 

 killing. Later on I tried an experiment, using various tags, 

 red, yellow, green and blue affixed to the orthodox black 

 hackle, and I found that particular conditions suited each 

 in turn. 



The largest fish fell to my rod a four and a half pounder 

 and between us we accounted for many, running from one 

 and a half pounds to three pounds each together with dozens 

 of herling ; but though there were plenty of salmon in the lake 

 and the river, they were very stiff and dour. 



We had arrived at our destination about the middle of 

 August, but it was not until the end of the first week in Sep- 

 tember that, when fishing a stretch of river between the 

 lower lake and the Castle, I became attached to a lordly fish. 

 I was not expecting one of these ; my flight being made up 

 of sea-trout flies, attached to a fine-gut cast. Under these 

 circumstances I had not much hope of landing the joker, so 

 was not altogether surprised when, after ten minutes' careful 

 manipulation, he made a terrific run and smashed me to 

 smithereens ! 



A week later our head boatman, Larry Coleman, informed 

 us that there was a cast at the head of the Castle Lake known 

 as " Sna Beg " (which, being translated from the Erse, 

 signifies " small swim "), where, now that the water was at 

 the right height, a grand chance was offered us of taking a 

 salmon or two. 



