SALMON FISHING WITH THE FLY. 253 
ing his line, and the fish being quiet at the moment he was able 
to pass the end through the rings of his rod, and attach it to 
what was left on the reel. In a few minutes I had the pleasure 
of gaffing the fish ; he was new run, and weighed 20 lbs. The 
pool he was fishing was a quarter of a mile long, and very broad, 
and it was a hundred to one against his recovering the line. 
On looking round after I had gaffed the fish I missed my 
attendant, left in charge of my rod, who did not appear on the 
scene until some time after the fun was over. The fact was he 
had taken advantage of my back being turned to go into the 
hut, which was close by, to eat my friend’s attendant’s share of 
a very good lunch we had brought with, us for an expected 
visitor. He managed, however, to pick up a very good version 
of the story, for shortly after we heard all over the garrison of 
Fermoy how he had been the instigator and prime mover of the 
whole thing from beginning to end, including the gaffing of 
the fish. 
There are stories of monsters that inhabit the deep holes in 
the Blackwater, and the following may be amusing : 
About twelve years ago a man of the name of Maurice 
Hallahan was trailing a bait out of a boat at a place called 
Hallahan’s Rock, between Clondulane Weir and Fermoy, where 
the depth of the hole is supposed to be at least forty feet. He 
hooked a big fish, and having no one to help him put down the 
oars and held on to the rod, the fish dragging the boat and 
man after him down as far as Ballydoroon stream, up again 
past the Rock as far as Mount Rivers, and back again to the 
Rock, where after sulking for hours he took up the Funcheon 
River hard by, when, getting into shallow water, Hallahan put 
the gaff in him, but the fish was so heavy he could not get him 
into the boat, and was obliged to let go. The fish in his 
struggles broke the line, and made a bolt down the Funcheon 
- again to Hallahan’s Rock, and was seen no more that year. The 
year after a gallant Major quartered at Fermoy was fishing the 
same hole and hooked a big fish, which was gaffed after a 
long play—Hallahan’s gaff still in him, with enough wattling 
