SPRING FISHING IN LOCH ARD. 237 
The size of fly in most successful use is remark- 
ably large for a loch so much fished, and where the 
fish do not run large—what is known as the full- 
sized Loch Leven fly, or even, when the surface is 
rough, the still larger size in use on Loch Tummel. 
The colours in favour, at least in the early season, are 
reds and purples for body, and “white tops” and 
drakes for the wings. Trolling with minnow, either 
natural or artificial, is not much in use till the fly- 
fishing season begins to wane—it seems, indeed, a 
fixed idea ofthe boatmen that there is no use in try- 
ing minnow till May ; but that that rule may be too 
much relied upon we have had evidence—and even 
in the earliest part of the season a phantom minnow 
sometimes beats the fly. 
The best portions of the loch in the early season 
are towards the upper end, which “lies better to the 
sun,” and is shallower, and with a warmer and richer 
bottom than the lower end, which, however, gives 
good fishing in June. The best winds are those be- 
‘tween south and west; the nearer south the better, as 
a straight-west wind is apt to be rather hard in both 
senses ; an east wind is bad if dry, but good if moist ; 
and the north is, as almost everywhere else, the worst 
of all. What is ordinarily called “a coarse day” is 
generally the most productive. The prevailing winds 
are those from the west and the south of west; and 
on a day when the wind has set in from that direction, 
