12 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS. [cHaP. 1. 
lakes ofa considerable size, where the pike were plenty, the trout 
have improved very much in size and quality, and not diminished 
even in numbers to any great extent. In fact, the thing to be 
complained of in most Highland lakes is, that the trout are too 
numerous, and consequently of a small size and inferior quality. 
The only way to kill the larger trout is by trolling. In Loch 
Awe and several other lakes I have seen this kind of fishing 
succeed well. If the sportsman is skilful, he is sure of taking 
finer trout in this way than he would ever do when fly-fishing. 
In trolling there are two or three rules which should be care- 
fully observed :—Choose the roughest wind that your boat can 
live in; fish with a good-sized bait, not much less than a herring, 
and do not commence your trolling until after two o’clock in the 
afternoon, by which time the large fish seem to have digested 
their last night’s supper and to be again on the move. You 
may pass over the heads of hundreds of large trout when they 
are lying at rest and not hungry, and you will not catch one; 
but as soon as they begin to feed, a fish, although he may have 
half a dozen small trout in his stomach, will still run at your 
bait. The weight of sinkers on your line, and the depth at 
which you fish, must of course depend on the depth of water in 
the lake. A patient fisherman should find out how deep every 
reach and bay of the lake is before he begins to troll. The 
labour of a day spent in taking soundings is well repaid. The 
strength and activity of the large loch trout is immense, and he 
will run out your whole reel-line if allowed to do so. Some- 
times he will go down perpendicularly to the bottom, where he 
remains sulky or attempts to rub off the hooks: get him out of 
this situation, and away he goes, almost towing your boat after 
him. Then is the time for your boatman to make play to keep 
up with the fish and save your line; for a twenty-pound Salmo 
ferox is no ignoble foe to contend with when you have him at 
the end of a common fishing-line: he appears to have the 
strength of a whale as he rushes away. 
I was crossing Loch Ness alone one evening with my rod at 
the stern of the boat, with my trolling-tackle on it trailing be- 
hind Suddenly it was seized by a large trout, and before I 
could do anything but take hold of my rod he had run out 
eighty yards of line, and bent my stiff trolling-rod like a wil- 
