JULY 157 



operation was fatal to the char and highly beneficial to 

 the trout ; the last char recorded was taken in a net in 

 1837 near Kinross House Pier. The char of Lochleven 

 must have been far superior to those of any other 

 Scottish waters, unless the local fishermen were ' pulling 

 Pennant's leg' when they told him, about 1773, that 

 they ran to a length of 2J feet. 



The habits of British char prevent its being reckoned 

 a good sporting fish. Far less patient of warmth than 

 the common trout, it lives and feeds in deep water; 

 and although it is said that bumble-clocks and winged 

 ants do tempt char to the surface in cool autumn 

 calms, it can scarcely be worth anybody's while to go 

 fly-fishing for them. The utmost one may expect, even 

 in a lake containing thousands of char, is a brace or 

 two of these lovely fish in a full basket of trout. They 

 are taken in Windermere and the neighbouring lakes 

 on a spoon-bait attached to a plumb-line, but that is 

 not a very exhilarating form of the gentle art ; neither 

 is the method employed by a local angler in Gaits 

 Water, who, as recorded by Mr. John Watson, took 

 seventy char in a day, using a grub as bait. ^ By far 

 the largest number of char are netted, the annual 

 average from Windermere alone being about 4000 lb., 

 valued at Is. per lb. Net fishermen have to pay 

 £1, 13s. 4d. for a licence, and plumb-liners 5s. As the 

 close season for char on Windermere is the same as for 

 trout — from 15th September till 10th March — the fish 

 of this lake enjoy a salutary protection which is with- 

 held from Scottish char. These are netted, sad to say, 

 ' TheEhiglishLakeDistrict Fisheries, hy John W&taon (1899), p. 207. 



