A Sportsman at Large 293 



caught in a very beautiful pool just above the Castle 

 named Corrah More. 



About the last week in September the fish in the river 

 began to move , but as a blazing sun poured remorselessly 

 down day after day, our only chance of securing one was to 

 wait until Phoebus had retired to rest on his western couch. 

 As soon as his last golden rays had disappeared below the 

 horizon, it was our custom to commence operations, and by 

 these tactics we managed, between us, to pick up a fair 

 number of fish. The salmon in these parts do not run to size, 

 the biggest of the bunch which fell to our lot being but fifteen 

 pounds, which was quite five pounds above the average. A 

 few monsters were to be seen, bulging and rolling in the pools, 

 but we never had the luck to get hold of one. 



About the end of the first week in October the fish woke 

 up with a vengeance, and developed a gargantuan appetite. 

 Then they would take almost any fly that was presented to 

 them, though they showed a decided preference for a local 

 pattern termed " The Fenian," a medium-sized fly, with a 

 body half-green and half-orange, with a mixed hackle. So 

 voracious were the salmon now that I believe an old boot 

 attached to a meat-hook, on the end of a rope, would have 

 been eagerly snapped up. 



I flatter myself that I put in a rather good performance 

 one day on the further lagoon below the Castle. This piece 

 of water holds a good many salmon and sea-trout, whilst 

 others are continually running through it, but, according 

 to Larry Coleman, no device that any angler could put in 

 force would have the remotest chance of meeting with a 

 response ; the reason given being that the pool was very 

 deep, and had a black peaty bottom without any submerged 

 rocks or other hides from which the fish could rise to the fly. 

 On the occasion to which I refer, the salmon had been ram- 

 paging throughout the lower reaches of the fishing. I had 

 caught three in a strip of river which joined the two lagoons, 

 all of them gravid hen-fish, which I returned to the water 

 after marking them. 



Seeing that the salmon were well on the move in the lagoon 

 below, I determined to test the accuracy of Larry's informa- 



