LOCHLEVEN'TEOUT. lOt 



siderable commercial value ; it cannot be bought in Edinburgh 

 or London except at a fancy price ; and if it was properly 

 cultivated might yield a large revenue. I have not been 

 able to obtain recent statistics of " the take " of Lochleven 

 trout, but in former years, during the seven months of the 

 fishing season, it used to range from fifteen thotisand to 

 twenty thousand pounds weight, and at the time referred 

 to all trout under three-quarters of a pound in weight were 

 thrown, back into the water by order of the lessee. Eighty-five 

 dozen of these fine trout have been known to be taken at a 

 single haul, while from twenty to thirty dozen used to be a 

 very common take. As to perch, they used to be caught in 

 thousands. Little has or can be said about Lochleven trout, 

 except that they are a specialty. Some learned people (but I 

 take leave to differ from them) consider the Lochleven fish to be 

 identical with Salmo fario, but never in any of my piscatorial 

 wanderings have I found its equal in colour, flavoiu:, or shape. 

 It has been compared with the Fario Lemanus of the Lake of 

 Geneva, and having handled both fishes, I must allow that there 

 is very little difference between them ; but still there are differ- 

 ences! Netting is not now allowed on the loch, but there is a 

 large fleet of boats, which can be hired at Kinross for an hour 

 or two's fishing on Lochleven. 



I need not go over all the varieties of fresh-water trout 

 seriatim, for their name is legion, and every book on angling 

 contains lists of those peculiar to districts. If anglers' fishes 

 ever become valuable as food, it wUl be by the cultivation of 

 our great lochs. With such a vast expanse of water as is 

 contained in some of these lakes, and having ample river accommo- 

 dation at hand for spawning purposes, there could be no doubt 

 that artificial breeding, if properly gone about, would be 

 successful. The Lochleven trout is already of great money 

 value commercially, and could be systematically cultivated so 

 ' as to become a considerable source of revenue to the proprietor 

 of the lake and amusement to the angler; an experimental 

 attempt at cultivation took place some years ago, but no regular 

 plan of breeding these fish has yet been organised. 



There are some pretty big pike in Lochleven. As every 

 angler knows, the pike affords capital sport, and may be taken 

 in many different ways. Pike spawn in March and A^ril, when 

 the fish leaves its hiding-place in the deep water and retires for 

 procreative purposes into shallow creeks or ditches. The pike 



