Apkil 15, 1893] 
THE PISHING GAZETTE 
275 
FISHING ON LOUGH CONN, BALLINA 
Dear Sir, —I liave received a letter froni 
Thomas Clarke, of Lough ConnLndje, informintr 
me that he has enlarged his Iron Lodge. When 
I last visited hirh he could only accommodate 
one gentleman, but now he can accommodate four¬ 
teen. The late Mr. Woodford, of the Piscatorial 
Society, was an annual autumn visitor at The 
Lodge, a capital trout fisher and a moat genial man. 
and knew where the Gillaroo red trout were to be 
found. I am glad Tom Clarke is doing well, as 
he writes he has four double bedded rooms, 20ft. 
by 16ft., and eight single bed and sitting rooms 
Single or double traps from Ballina station, and 
can accommodate all ladies and gentlemen with 
champagne, beer, stout, whiskey, or other drinks. 
He has changed the name to “ Lovgli Conn 
Anglers and Tourists' Hotel, Gloglians, Mayo, 
Ireland." 1 can strongly recommend him as a 
willing and good fly fishermen ; he has excellent 
boats suitable for two or three anglers, and, from 
personal experience, he does his best to procure 
good sport for his patrons. 
The charge for boat and men is 7s. 6d. per day 
—men’s lunch extra. The fishing is free, includ¬ 
ing salmon and trout. My largest Lough Conn 
trout was a Gillaroo of 7|lb,, which was exhibited 
at the Royal Aquarium Fishery Exhibition in 
1892. I also caught three very large perch when 
fly-fishing for salmon, and two perch at the 
same time on one Phantom minnow—always good 
sport there.—Yours truly, 
T. R. Sachs, 
President of the Piscatorial Society. 
[When at Lough Conn about ten years ago we 
went out with Tom Clarke, and found him to be 
all Mr. Sachs says, and hope he may prosper in 
his new venture.— Ed.] 
FISHING IN WALES. 
Siu,^—May I be permitted to correct some mis¬ 
statements which your “ Reprint from George 
Agar Hansard’s Trout and Salmon Pishing in 
Wales ” contains ? 
(a) The 'I’awe (not Towy, which is the Carmar¬ 
then river), has its source in the Swansea valley, 
several miles above Ystradgynlais, and not far 
from Madame Patti’s castle, Craig-y-nos. 
(h) The Ogmore. The fishing in this river has 
very greatly deteriorated, on account of the 
excessive pollu bion which its waters have suffered 
through the agency of a tinworks at Maesteg 
(Llynvi valley), and the rapid development of 
collieries in the Ogmore, Garw, and Llynvi 
valleys. 
(c) The Ewenny. There is still fair fishing to 
be had in this little river, especially in Col. 
Turbervill’s preserves, but the glory of this 
favourite stream has also, co a great extent, 
departed, and pound fish are very seldom cajoled 
into one’s pannier. 
Salmon fishing in both the Ogmore and 
Ewenny is practically nil. The poaching frater¬ 
nity manage to capture a few during the spawn¬ 
ing season, but not for several seasons past has 
one been caught by a rod and line, although a 
few sewin may have been so taken. You are, I 
know, anxious to publish only truthful reports of 
angling resorts, and I am well aware that if any 
of your readers should be tempted to pay an 
angling visit to Bridgend and neighbourhood, 
they would soon find out that their time and 
money had been spent to no purpose. The local 
angling association which is only two years old, 
has been the means of slightly improving the 
rivers; but no material improvement can be 
effected until a thorough system of drainage has 
been carried out, not only in Bridgend, but in the 
now populous valleys above it.—Yours, &c., 
Bridgend. J. G. Jenkins. 
NEW PATENTS. 
The following is a list of piscatorial patents, which is 
supplied to us by Messrs. Hughes, Eli, and Hughes, 
Registered Patent Agents, and Attorneys for British, 
Colonial, and Foreign Patents, Designs, and Trade 
Marks, 76, Chancery-lane, Holborn, W.C. All inquiries 
answered by them free of charge to our readers : 
W. H. Poster, of Church-street, Ashbourne, Derby¬ 
shire, for an improvement in fly boxes for anglers. 
E. H. Ford and J. E. Gunyon, of London, for a new or 
improved means and apparatus for preventing the 
passage of fish in fish nurseries and preserves. 
D. Allan, H. Stonehouse, and G. E. T. Smithson, of 
52, Fawcett-street, South Shields, for “Allan’s” 
patent simplex method of long lines for deep sea- 
ishing. 
WINDERMERE AND THE LAKE 
DISTRICT. 
By Gilnockie. 
A DEAR old friend of mine, writing from 
Langholm, Dumfriesshire, concludes his welcome 
epistle with the following: “ I saw your article 
in the Fishing Gazette of February 11, on the 
Lake District. I have often thought I would like 
to take a run through it, but have not yet done 
so; now I shall surely visit the Lake Country. 
I have seen a good bit of Scotland, and if it beats 
the Highlands it is good indeed.” Well, the proof 
of the pudding is the eating thereof. Try it, my 
dear old chum of the past, and you’ll be satisfied, 
I will guarantee that; and in travelling from the 
north, change at Oxenholm, and snatch a view 
of the delightful valley wherein the picturesque 
little town of Kendal lies before taking the train 
Windermerewards, and mind you take your fish¬ 
ing tackle with you, as Coniston Lake, Esthwaite- 
water, Easdale Tarn, Grasmere Lake, Derwent- 
water, Bassenthwaite Lake, Ullswater, and other 
charming lakes and rivers, to be hereafter 
mentioned, will all afford some capital sport to 
he keen angler. For many reasons it will be 
found that the tourist’s or angler’s first visit to 
the Lake Country will be most enjoyed by making 
Windermere his starting point, especially if he is 
a lover of nature in her most attractive garb. 
The run from Oxenholm is superb, and when 
Windermere itself is reached, the delightful 
scenery approaches its climax, and forms a charm¬ 
ing contrast when compared with the rugged 
and majestic districts of Ullswater and Derwent- 
water. Let me repeat here too, that the stocking 
of the Queen of the English lakes is progressing 
rapidly, and that very recently over 10,000 
trout were turned into the lake at various points 
from Lakeside up to Graythwaite on one side 
of the lake, and to Storrs on the other. That 
stretch of the lake from Bowness Bay to 
Ambleside has also received the contents of 
eighteen tanks of yearlings, all in good con¬ 
dition. This in addition to 140,000 fry from the 
hatchery at Storrs, placed in the tributaries of 
the lake, form not a bad instalment to commence 
with. “ Soon Lake Windermere,” says a corre¬ 
spondent, “ will be fit to take its place at the head 
of the fishing-waters of the country. With the 
excellent feed the lake affords these fish should 
thrive, and will in twelve months give good sport 
to anglers. Good fish are to be obtained now, 
and should favourable weather continue the 
lake, with its magnificent scenery and pleasing 
associations, may be thought worthy of a 
visit.” Thought worthy of a visit! thought 
worthy of a visit! The entire district bristles 
with reminiscences of the past. Rydal Mount is 
still preserved, once the residence of the poet 
Wordsworth at the time when Robert Southey, 
when Poet Laureate, dwelt at Greta Hall, and 
Coleridge occupied a cottage close to Keswick, 
and Professor Wilson, fresh from Oxford, abode 
at Elleray. Why,’tis classic ground! Winder- 
mere as seen from Elleray, it is said by a com¬ 
petent authority, is seen at its best—every point 
and bay as viewed from that lofty standpoint lies 
unveiled directly the morning mist clears away 
and the whole landscape is revealed. Thomas 
De Quincey, who for years resided at Elleray with 
“ Kit North,” and shared his purse, in a charming 
letter to the Edinburgh Literary Gazette, in 1829, 
gives a striking description of Elleray, Professor 
Wilson’s home:—“ With the usual latitude of 
language in such cases I say on Windermere, but 
in fact this charming estate lies far above the 
lake, and one of the most interesting of its 
domestic features is the foreground of the rich 
landscape which connects by the most gentle 
scale of declivities this most aerial altitude with 
the sylvan margin of the deep water which rolls 
a mile and a half below. When 1 say a mile and 
a half you will understand me to compute the 
descent according to the undulations of the ground, 
because else the perpendicular elevation above 
the level of the lake cannot be above one half of 
that extent. Seated on such an eminence, but 
yet surrounded by foregrounds of such quiet 
beauty, and settling downwards towards the lake 
by such tranquil steps as to take away every feeling 
of precipitous or dangerous elevation. Stepping 
out from the very windows of the drawing-room 
you find yourself on a terrace which gives you a 
feeling of a “ specular height,” such as you 
might expect on Ararat, or might appropriately 
conceive on “ Athos seen from Samothrace.” 
The whole course of a noble lake, about eleven 
miles long, lies subject to your view, with many 
of its islands, and its two opposite shores so dif¬ 
ferent in character, the one stern, precipitous, 
and gloomy, the other (and luckily the hither 
one) by the mere bounty of nature and of acci¬ 
dent—by the happy disposition of the ground 
originally, and by the fortunate equilibrium 
between the sylvan tracks, meandering irregu¬ 
larly through the whole district, and the propor¬ 
tion left to verdant fields and meadows—wearing 
the character of the richest park scenery; except 
indeed that this character is here and there 
modified by a quiet hedgerow, or the stealing 
smoke which betrays the embowered cottage of 
a labourer. But the sublime, peculiar, and nots 
to-be-forgotten feature of the scene is the great 
system of mountains which unite about five mile- 
off at the head of the lake to lock in and enclose 
this noble landscape. The several ranges of 
mountains which stand at various distances 
within six or seven miles of the little town of 
Ambleside, all separatelv various in their forms, 
and all eminently picturesque, when seen from 
Elleray, appear to blend and group as parts of 
one connected whole, and, when their usual 
drapery of clouds happens to take a fortunate 
arrangement, and the sunlights are properly 
broken and thrown from the most suitable 
quarter of the heavens, I cannot recollect any 
spectacle in England or Wales, of the 
many hundreds I had seen, bearing a local, 
if not a national reputation for magnifi¬ 
cence of prospect, which so much dilates the 
heart with a sense of power and aerial 
sublimity as the terrace view from Elleray.” 
Thus wrote the immortal “ opium eater ” anent 
“ Christopher North’s” residence on Lake Winder- 
mere. I shall come to the fishing directly, but 
“ Kit North ” was not only a mighty angler, he 
wasastill mightier pedestrian, afoighter,alouper, 
and a wrestler, and in that connection makes 
mince meat of the entire kit (no pun) of the lake 
poets. He caught his first fish when three years 
old in a “ wee burnie ” up Paisley way, where the 
blue eyed, yellow haired laddie first saw the light, 
and when about two years older he was in the 
habit of delivering a weekly sermon to his sisters 
and the servants trom the subjoined text chosen 
from his fertile brain. This was the text, “ There 
was a fish, and it was a de’il o’ a fish, and it was ill 
to its young anes.” It is related that in this un¬ 
fledged sermon he displayed an amount of 
eloquence that was perfectly astonishing in one 
so young, and without doubt these weekly 
harangues foreshadowed his future greatness. But 
what an angler ! One day Wilson took a hundred 
and thirty out of Loch Awe, and by his letters to 
his wife even larger numbers were taken by him. 
But listen to the “ Shepherd ” anent his mode of 
fishing on Windermere. Firstly, let me mention 
Wilson’s letter to Hogg about the year 181£, 
“ My dear Shepherd,—i am in Edinburgh, and 
wish to be out of it. Mrs. Wilson and I walked 
350 miles in the Highlands, between the 5th of 
July and the 12th of August, sojourning in divers 
glens from Sabbath unto Sabbath, fishing, eating, 
and staring. I purpose appearing in Glasgow on 
Thursday, where I shall stay till the circuit is 
over, I then go to Elleray, in the character of a 
Benedictine monk, till the beginning of November. 
Now pause and attend. If you will meet me at 
Moffat on Oct. 6th, I will walk or mail it with 
you to Elleray, and treat you then with fowls and 
Irish whisky. Immediately on receipt of this, 
write a letter to me at Mr. Smith’s book shop, 
Huicheson-street, Glasgow, saying positively if 
you will or will not do so. If you don’t, I will 
lick you, and fish up Douglas Burn before you 
next time I come to Ettrick. After sucn a 
striking invitation, of course the shepherd went 
to Elleray by way of Moffat, but I don’t recollect 
whether they mailed the distance or walked it.— 
“ Through flood and through mire 
Over bush and over briar.” 
At any rate here is Hogg’s description of the 
Professor’s modeof fishing on Lake Windermere ; 
“ In he used to gang, out, out, out, and ever sae 
far out frae the point o’ a promontory, sinking 
aye further and further doon, first to the waist- 
