JUNE. 



♦ 



SCOTCH LOCH FISHING. 



By J. W. Fogg-Eluott. 



Loch fishing is not now what once it was. In some of the 

 well-known Lochs there are not half the trout there were ten years 

 ago. Then, any duffer could kill them ; but now the bad fisherman 

 has a very poor chance of sport. The trout have been educated, 

 and it is the duffer who has educated them. He rises fish after 

 fish — when there is enough wind to help him to get his flies out — 

 pricks half of them, and perhaps catches one fish in a dozen rises. 

 In a few out-of-the-way places, however, there still are Lochs where 

 the trout have scarcely ever seen an artificial fly. I came across 

 one of these last summer when climbing over a shoulder of Ben 

 More, in Sutherland, on my way to the Gorm Loch. My gillie 

 contemptuously called it a "peat hole," for in extent it was not 

 more than an acre. It was connected with the large Loch by a 

 small stream. The little pool was full of weed, but I thought I 

 would try it ; so putting on a single fly — a " Zulu " — I cast into one 

 of the openings in the weed. Immediately a trout took the fly, 

 and before I left I had taken five, weighing from four and a half 

 ounces to two pounds each. 



The " Zulu," used as a "top-dropper," is unquestionably the 



