236 SALMONID^ OF BRITAHST. 



ironmonger. TLe fishermen cut them out with a pair of strong scissors, shaping 

 them to their taste. A small treble hook is pnt on the phantom, and two yards 

 of strong gut, having at least two swivels, and the remainder of the short line, or 

 " dropper," may be of fine cord. Two lines such as are here described are used in 

 fishing char, one on each side of the boat. 



Having reached the fishing ground, the boat must be rowed slowly, and the 

 sinker is dropped over the side, and the line allowed to sink until the dropper 

 next to it is reached, when the main line is temporarily fixed, until the " dropper" 

 and phantom is put out ; the main line is then loosened and sunk further, until 

 the next " dropper " is reached and put out, and so on until the whole line is out. 

 This having been done, the end of the main line is attached to the top of a strong 

 rod (a young sapling does very well), about fourteen or sixteen feet long, supple 

 at the top, but not too much so, and then the rod is made to rest over the stem 

 of the boat at the side upon which the line has been put out, and the butt end 

 securely fixed in the bottom of the boat. When this has been done the second 

 line may be put out at the side of the boat, in the same way as the first line, and 

 secured with a rod. Care must be taken to have the boat always moving, other- 

 wise the lines will foul. 



It would appear that the preservation of char leads to a substantial increase 

 in their numbers, and augmentation in the food-producing property of the lake 

 where such is carried out. While these fishes are not so very indifferent to bait 

 and files as some persons would lead us to believe, the angler with a bait appears 

 in most waters to have more chance of sport than the fly-fisher, thus although the 

 char of Windermere usually will not rise to the fly, the Welsh torgoch takes it 

 freely. 



Mr. Harvie-Brown observed respecting a chain of lochs in Scotland containing 

 char, that in one small, deep pool of crystal-clear water they are of a larger size 

 than those inhabiting the lochs lower in the valley. In a perfectly dead calm 

 they rise, sometimes freely to a certain fly, but cease whenever a ripple disturbs 

 the surface. As many as six dozen have been taken by one rod in a single day. 

 One can see several feet down into this basin of pure water in a calm, and perceive 

 the fish floating upwards and sucking in the fly, as they seldom dash at it like a 

 trout. 



Char, says Mr. Jackson, except for a few weeks in the year when they appear 

 to live on flies, prey on all small fish and captui'e them, even larger than would 

 be supposed possible by any one who had not taken (as I have) a perch nearly 

 two inches long out of a char about nine inches in length. 



R. H. B. remarked of the char in The Field, January 15th, 1887, that " those 

 of other waters in the North of England, excepting, perhaps, Buttermere and 

 Ennerdale, are smaller in size, and, in place of averaging about three to the pound, 

 vary in weight from two ounces each to about four ounces. This smaller size is 

 particularly striking with regard to the char of Goats Water and Hawes Water. 

 Numerous enough in the latter, specimens of four ounces each are rare, and the 

 usual average is of from two ounces to three ounces. In the other sheet of water 

 they are smaller still, and fairly plentiful ; some eight to the pound being the 

 ordinary size. From this it may be safely inferred that, at some time or other, 

 these smaller waters have been artificially supplied with char from the larger ones, 

 which thus, as it were, become acclimatized. They can scarcely be said to have 

 flourished, for, failing to find the minute larvae upon which the char waxes fat, 

 they have degenerated into little lean creatures, and are to the ordinary char, just 

 what the bum trout is to the handsome brown fellow from the richest streams. 

 Another interesting circumstance in the life history of these small ill-fed char, 

 is that they rise to the artificial fly both in Goats Water and Hawes Water, far 

 more readily than elsewhere ; indeed, they seldom, in late years at least, are taken 

 from the other English lakes by such means. Considerable numbers may be 

 caught on almost any favourable day during the season with rod and line 

 in either Hawes Water or Goats Water, thus a tendency to feed on the surface 

 is shown, and similar remarks apply to the char of Loch Dochart in Scotland." 



