i6o WATERSIDE SKETCHES. 



It is, however, as I hare before said, in September and 

 October that the best sport is obtained in the Main river. 

 Great trout up to twelve and fifteen pounds then run out of 

 Lough Neagh, and salmon also ; and there is a numerous 

 congregation of anglers from all parts of the country so long 

 as the sport lasts. But the Main is not what it was, and a 

 bare-legged peasant woman confidentially told me why : a 

 few years since a gentleman from London came and took 

 out certain fish, from which he extracted the spawn, and 

 returned them again to the stream. For a couple of days, 

 she said, there were strange disturbances in the pools, as if 

 the fish were sitting in conference on the business. The 

 end of it was that on the evening of the second day, as she 

 was leading her goat to new pasture, she observed a move- 

 ment on the surface as if an orderly procession were passing 

 down the middle of the river. It was not for her to judge, 

 she concluded, but her private belief was that the fish so 

 summarily deprived of their spawn had, in dignified resent- 

 ment, retreated into tlie lake, never more to return. 



At Toome Bridge there is a beautiful stretch of trouting 

 water. The waters of the lough, broad and clear here, 

 tumble over a weir forming the vigorously rocked cradle of 

 the River Bann. Not only can, you take fish close under 

 the fall, but by bringing your boat to within a foot of the 

 uproar you may cast your flies into the lake itself, and fre- 

 quently hook a blithe two-pounder within a yard of the 

 edge. Whether you land him or not is another business, 

 for as he has a habit of projecting himself over the weir, 

 the chances are more in his favour than yours. 



This river must be fished from a boat, and it literally 

 swarms with trout. Using fine tackle and small flies in 



