THE FISHING GAZETTE 
366 
Mat 20, 1893] 
CONTENTS. 
N.B .— All rights reserved in articles published in this 
paper. 
Some Artificial May-flies.flC5 
Scotch Notes .365 
Notes on Trout Pishing' in some of the Welsh Lakes 366 
Notes and Queries .367 
Fishings and Scenery of the Highlands — Dalwhinnie 368 
Characteristic Norwegian Streams .370 
Waltoniana.371 
Correspondence. 371 
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SATURDAY, MAY 20th, 1893. 
SOME ARTIFICIAL MAY-FLIES. 
MR. JAMES OGDEN’S GEMS, &c. 
Samples of May-flies from Mr. James Ogden, 
of 28, Winchcomb-street, Cheltenham, just to 
hand, fully bear out what he says in a note 
accompanying them. 
“ I enclose a few Mays for your inspection, and 
the favour of your esteemed notice of the same in 
Fishing Gazette. I have every confidence in 
saying that these are by far the best I have ever 
sent, every pattern is a real good killing fly.” 
They are grand flies, and we are glad to see 
again one pattern which we several years ago 
christened “ The Gem”; it is improved by a more 
delicate body than as originally made. A new 
“ sunk ” fly, which looks very killing, has a dark 
purple body ribbed with a broad rib of pale yellow 
silk. The same body with summer duck wing 
looks deadly also. The shape and “ set ” of the 
wings in all the patterns is excellent, being espe¬ 
cially so in Ogden’s Dark Mackerel. These 
patterns and many others are dressed on hooks 
on fine gut (not too fine), or on eyed hooks. 
Mr. Ogden is himself very keen on May-fly 
fishing, and makes some big baskets often with 
his “ sunk ” patterns, which are used when the 
fish are refusing the floater. 
We have sent Mr. Ogden’s patterns on to the 
” Amateur Angler,” with the hope that he will 
soon introduce them to the Itchen trout, and 
have sent Mr. Ogden an order for some of the flies 
with dark purple body ribbed with broad rib of 
yellow silk and a ginger hackle, the name of 
which shall be given in our next issue. 
MR. G. HOLLAND’S MAY-FLIES. 
Mr. Holland makes probably more May-flies 
for Hampshire streams than any other maker. 
He knows and makes the favourite patterns of 
Mr. Frederic M. Halford, and any angler possess¬ 
ing a good supply of his flies with wings of 
different shades ranging from light Egyptian 
goose to a very dark olive, will kill trout any¬ 
where. He makes his flies not too large ; we are 
sure there is a better chance of rising and cer¬ 
tainly of hooking with a small May-fly than with 
a large one. 
Mr. Holland’s address is now 29, The Square, 
Canterbury. We had almost omitted to mention 
that Mr. H., following Mr. Halford’s directions, 
pays great attention to the floating powers of 
his flies. 
^cotc^ 
By Mac. 
McBotjncer writeth : “After my digression 
of last week I now feel bound to give a thorough 
good gillie anecdote. The incident happened long 
ago, but, so far as I am aware, it has never yet 
appeared in print. A certain chief in the West 
Highlands, accompanied by a trusty gillie, or 
stalker, went on a deerstalking expedition to a 
lonely hut in the recesses of the forest, where 
the antlered monarch could be outdone by fair 
honest stalking, such as the second Marquis of 
Breadalbane, the sixth Duke of Athole, and other 
highland noblemen, at one time delighted in. 
Such expeditions meant hardships, isolation from 
the world for perhaps more than a week, and at 
times a good deal of personal risk was involved; 
but no doubt these drawbacks were more than 
compensated for by the exciting pleasure of out¬ 
witting the wary stag by fairplay. The gillie 
carried the wallet, containing such articles as 
were considered indispensably necessary for the 
journey. They had not proceeded many miles into 
the forest when Donald, who was an inveterate 
smoker, made the awful discovery that he had 
left his tobacco behind him. What was to be 
done ? Oich, oich ! how could he do for several 
days without a smoke, and live? were questions 
which vexed his brain. He knew that the wallet 
contained a goodly supply of his master’s tobacco, 
but steal he would not, neither did he like to take 
the liberty of asking for it. Donald was, how¬ 
ever, like most of his class, a man of great re¬ 
source, and once a happy thought struck him, 
he did not delay long in putting it into execu¬ 
tion. Fixing a pin to the end of his walking- 
stick, he gave his chief a good prog with it in 
the calf of the leg from behind, and immediately 
commenced slashing the heather about his 
master’s feet, shouting, “ A serpent, a serpent.” 
Owing partly to the pain so suddenly and unex¬ 
pectedly inflicted by the pin, and partly to a dread 
of the consequences of a snake-bite, especially on 
a lonely mountain side, far removed from medical 
aid, the laird for about the space of half a minute 
performed some gymnastics which might be 
described as a Highland fling, an Irish j ig, and an 
Indian war-dance thrown into one. Although his 
agile evolutions, with his tartans floating in the 
breeze, did not by any means add to the dignity 
of a Highland chief, they might, if properly 
imitated, be the means of earning one’s fortune at 
the Aquarium or Alhambra. “ Oh Donald,” he 
says, “ the serpent you have seen has bitten me. 
See, as fast as you can, if any cure can be got.” 
Donald lowered his chief’s hose, and there sure 
enough the inflamed puncture could be seen with 
a little hlood oozing at the orifice. Donald pro¬ 
nounced the case a bad one, but if tobacco were 
immediately applied, fatal consequences might be 
averted, as it was capital for extracting the poison. 
No sooner said than done; a cake was applied, 
then another, until Donald ostensibly thought the 
cure was effected, though in reality it was when 
he thought he had sufficient tobacco for the 
journey. Not only did he enjoy his pipe during 
the expedition, but special favours were after¬ 
wards conferred on Donald for the semi-mira¬ 
culous manner in which he had saved his master’s 
life.” 
Our Ross-shire correspondent writes ; “ Very 
little has been done on the Ross-shire rivers for 
the last few weeks. The continued drought has 
caused them to get very low, and the hope of 
hooking any salmon has now been abandoned 
until there come a few days’ rain. Some good 
trout are being got, however, on several of the 
rivers, and on Friday of last week fresh trout 
were for sale on the Dingwall “ cross,” an occur¬ 
rence which has never before taken place at this 
or, in fact, any other season of the year. In this 
case they came from one of the west coast rivers, 
and appeared in fine condition. While our whole 
matters are here very quiet, there are two very 
interesting facts to record. About ten days ago 
Mr. Nisbet, Inspector of Conon Fisheries, turned 
into this river and its tributaries about 50,000 
salmon fry, hatched and reared in a hatchery 
established at Conon under his supervision one 
or two years ago. The ova were last year got 
from the Brora, and the hatching was most suc¬ 
cessful, not more than 2 per cent, of the total 
having addled. Up till last season the Conon 
hatchery was the only one within the bounds of 
the county, but last summer Mr. Frederick Shool- 
bred, of London, who recently purchased the 
small estate of Gildermorie to the north-east of 
Ben Wyvis had another erected there which has 
done exceedingly well. Through the courtesy of 
the Dee and Forth Fishery Boards supplies of 
ova were obtained from the rivers Dee and Teith, 
and Mr. Cramb, Inspector of the Alness Fisheries, 
who superintended the hatchery, had the pleasure 
the other day of turning into the river several 
thousands of fry, having lost but a very trifling 
percentage of ova.” _ 
I HEAR from Mr. Grant, of the Gordon Arms, 
Huntly, that “owing to the drought still con¬ 
tinuing, the Deveron and Bogie are getting 
lower, and the trouting on them poorer than 
ever.” He says he can offer no encouragement 
to anglers to come North, and that there will be 
no fishing worth a “ rap ” until there is a spate. 
Notwithstanding the adverse circumstances, 
there would, however, appear to be some trout 
taking, for he mentions that, “ one day last week 
a loon had ll|lb. of trout on the Bogie.” 
Mr. Angus Morrison, of Melvich Hotel, 
writes “ that the lochs that he has been stocking 
for several years past with fry of native and 
imported strains are likely to do splendidly in a 
few years. In several of them the young fish 
appear to be particularly numerous, and to be 
as a rule between five and seven inches in 
length.” _ 
A FRIEND at Braemar writes me: “ The fishing 
on the Dee and all about here has at last gone off 
—is just now at a perfect deadlock owing to the 
scarcity of water. More than ever rain is 
needed.” 
I HEAR from the Garry of Inverness-shire “ that 
never was the salmon angling so poor there at 
this time of the year. Not a thing is doing on 
the Ness, Loch Ness, the Morristown, the Oich, 
Loch Oich, the Garry, Loch Garry, or Upper 
Garry. Anglers have all gone off perfectly 
dotvn-lugged by reason of the utter want of sport. 
Trout anglers, however, are doing fairly well on 
some of the waters, but nothing like what they 
should do at this time, which is usually the com¬ 
mencement of the best of the season. The 
Garry gillies maintain that half an ordinary 
season’s head of fi.sh have not yet got into 
the river, and they therefore expect that they 
will come with the next spate; but not unlikely 
this year the next spate will not come in 
time. The weather hitherto has been so 
mysterious as to knock all reckoning on the head 
—it still is dry as a Hielanman, and the glass 
keeps steady.” _ 
Our North Esk correspondent writes; “ The 
rain that fell last Friday only raised the North 
Esk one inch and a half, which was no use, as it 
was not enough to bring in more fish into the 
river nor let them get up. The salmon are im- 
