THE EISHING GAZETTE 
[June 3, 1893 
;Ub. A bright day is preferable for this lake, 
it is about the same size as Loch Ash; both these 
lochs show a fair amount of weed in the middle 
of May, so 1 presume they would be unfishable 
from the shore after the beginning of June. 
Salmon, also sea-trout, come up the Dennett about 
the end of July I believe, but I understood that 
there was very little fishing indeed until pretty 
well the close of the season, as the fish are nearly 
poisoned by the flax water. Flies can be got from 
Kogan of Derry. 
1 have been spending a month on the Maigue 
at Croom, co. Limerick. I was induced to visit 
this stream, through an article by Mr. J. J. E. 
some two months back in the Gazette. Toe river is 
a very good one but sadly poached—what stream 
in Ireland is not P There are not a great 
number of trout in it, but what there are, are 
very fine fish, I have seen many a two and three- 
pounder; a good hand with the dry fly would no 
doubt have excellent sport. The evening fishing is 
decidedly good, but my boy and I generally 
pegged away so all day that we were too tired to 
fish of an evening. The water was so extremely 
low, that it was almost impossible to approach 
within casting distame of a fish during the day 
without scaring it. My two best fish were 21b. 
and l:flb. respectively. Until last year I had never 
regularly thrown a fly, consequently I am but a 
very poor hand. The best months on the Maigue 
arc March and April; the river is preserved up 
to Croome by Lord Dunraven, then a small 
portion above the bridge is also preserved, above 
that there are about eight miles of free fishing. 
About six weeks since, the Shannon conservators 
put two bailiffs on the water, so things may 
improve considerably. Some of the best night 
water lies at “ Glen JBevan.” the genial owner of 
which—Mr. Bevan—is bound to spy you out if 
fishing, and instead of ordering you off will 
assist you all in his power to get sport, and very 
possibly ask if you will step up to his lovely place 
and “ wet your whistle,” when you will be made 
equally welcome by his lady. Many a happy 
hour have 1 spent under this hospitable roof, and 
many a dozen more in the county, and T am 
bound to saj^ that I never met with anything like 
such hospitality anywhere. 1 believe they would 
almost give themselves away, and if you were 
single, and one of the charming girls happened 
to do so, I gainsay you would be far from badly 
off. The best lot of fish I saw on the whole of 
the river, was just above the bridge at Ross- 
temple. You take the train (a few minutes’ 
run) to Rosstemple, cross the bridge, go up 
stream past a farm, and just above the 
stepping-stones is a bit of broken water. I saw 
at least a score of fish here, ranging from :Jlb. 
up to 31b., but on two occasions when they were 
rising madly, not having the wind in my favour, 
1 made such a bungle in casting, that 1 scared 
the lot off. The Comogue, which enters the 
Maigue about a mile above Groom, is a pretty 
stream with some nice deep pools, holding large 
fish of a splendid ((uality. Many a five-pounder 
has been taken out of this stream. At present 
the rapid portions are too shallow and full of 
weeds for successful angling, and in the pools 
the fish would not take the artificial during 
the day. 
The Morning Star, ;which enters the Maigue 
about a mile above the farm of which I was speak¬ 
ing, is also a good stream, but the part which I at 
first saw, when I went to fish it, was so full of 
weed that 1 got disgusted and left it. A Mr. 
Williamson, of Bruff, who is back from India 
for a time, is a most successful angler in this 
stream, and usually accounts for a good fish or 
two of an evening. The tyrant of these streams, 
the Comogue and Morning Star, is Donovan— 
commonly called the “Tinker”—of Bruff (some 
seven miles from Croom). This fellow is one of 
the most persistent poachers Ireland ever knew, 
and that is saying a lot. About a fortnight 
since he got 28lb. of splendid trout, some 2.Ub. 
each ; all of these were got either cross-lining, or 
with the grey hackle as he calls it, i.e., a very 
large salmon hook whipped on to the running 
line, and the line wound up until only the hook 
projects from the end of his stiff rod, with this 
weajjon he wades the streams, atid stroke-hauls 
the trout as they lie in the weeds. Directly the 
fish is hooked, he gives it line, and plays it in the 
ordinary way. At the Croom Hotel very fair 
accommodation indeed (for Ireland) can be got; 
the charges are reasonable, and a man can make 
himself as comfortable as can be wished. The host 
is a very obliging, good-natured fellow, and is also 
a thorough sportsman; he keeps a pack of harriers, 
and although he never hunted until two seasons 
ago, he last season with his sure-footed Garrett 
(now sold, and in London) cleared obstacles that 
no man in his senses would have thought of 
taking, at least so the affable curate. Father 
Carroll, informed me. A gentleman, a Mr. B., a 
first-class all-round sportsman, who was staying 
at the hotel, advised Mr. McCarthy to go in for 
otter hunting, so that he is now looking out for 
some hounds cheap. There is plenty of first- 
class pike and perch fishing for those who like 
it. The nearest is at Tory Hill Loch, about two 
and a half miles distant. The landlord had never 
fished for pike, and wished to be initiated in the 
mysteries. I had no artificial pike baits, but 
happened to have an “Archer Spinner.” I 
tried to get some small trout, but the half 
dozen I obtained were so large they only just 
barely moved on the spinner. When we got to the 
lake I tried one of the trout to see how it spun, 
and at the second cast hooked a pike of about 
41b., which 1 landed. This put our worthy host 
on his mettle, so I handed him the rod, and, 
whilst I rowed and my boy steered with the 
j)addle, McCarthy trailed, and was almost directly 
in a fish, which he landed; after that he had 
three or four runs, but missed the fish, for he 
could not get on with the winch—a Nottingham 
check one—at all. In fact, I never in my 
life saw a fellow having such a good-tempered 
guarrel as he had with that winch. At 
last he hooked a very heavy fish, and I 
tried to humour it with the boat as well as I 
could, but after playing it for ten minutes without 
seeing it, the tackle gave way—our host held the 
fish much too tightly. When we commenced fishing 
he was under the impression that pike gave no 
sport at all, and, although I did not tell him so, I 
am bound to own that these pike, even in the poor 
condition that they were, fought very much better 
than Thames fish. I feel certain this lake must 
contain some big trout, as there are plenty of small 
ones in the stream that flows from it. Perhaps it was 
a big one McCarthy lost. The lake is very deep, 
forty or fifty feet. I believe the landlord intends 
preserving the lake, if possible. Our catch in two 
hours consisted of six pike and two perch, both 
over Hb., besides many fish lost. Having no more 
baits we had to give it up. 
There is another very fine lake about nine or 
ten miles from Croom, Loch Gur, belonging to 
the Count de Sallas. There is about 100 acres of 
water, and exceedingly large fish have been taken 
outof this lake ; permission to fish is very readily 
granted. When I visited it the water was thicker 
than I ever saw the Thames when in flood. I asked 
a man who was fishing why it was so coloured, and 
hesaidthelasttwo or three years it had been always 
so, and he accounted for it through the swans 
disturbing the bottom or something to that effect. 
1 saw about six or seven swans on the lake. I 
gave a slight cough and walked away. There is 
no stream feeding the lake, but as the weather 
had been rather rough for a day or so, I presume 
the very fine limestone deposit had been disturbed 
by the agitated waters. 1 believe the fellow was 
rather jealous of seeing anybody fishing there. 
Apologising for taking up so much of your 
valuable space.—I am, &c,, J. T. Scott. 
Marlow, May 23, 1893. 
THE LOWER THAMES TROUT PROPAGA¬ 
TION SOCIETY. 
Sir, —In answer to Dtr. Durward Lely’s 
inc[uiries respecting the above society, I will for 
his information and others also, give a short 
description of the same. 
Early in the year 1 called on ilr. Mar.ston, the 
Editor of the Fishing Gazette, and told him I 
proposed starting a society for the improvement 
of the trout fishing in the Lower Thames, i.e., 
below Bell Weir, Egham, and Mr. Marston very 
generously offered to give me his support with 
a handsome donation of ten guineas, and also 
printed free of charge some six hundred circulars, 
which I forwarded to all the trout fishermen 1 
could obtain the names of, also to the angling 
clubs. Up to the jirescnt I regret to say there 
has not been that response one would have 
expected from those who fish for trout in the 
Thames, and therefore must have an interest in 
the improvement of the trout fishing, as up to 
the present I have only had promised me and 
collected about thirty pounds, which is not sum- 
cient to start buying fish to turn in, especially 
as there seems to be a general wish that nothing 
less than two-year-old trout should be purchased, 
and these come very expensive. I' rom the 
experience I have had of asking personally tor 
subscriptions the reply I mostly got ^ras. How 
much have you collected ? or. Has So-and- So 
you a subscription,as he is always fishingP I 
only reply accordingly, and the answer was, \Ve 
will subscribe if others will, but we certainly do 
not see why we should put in trout for others to 
catch who can well afford to subscribe; and so 
there the matter rests at present, one waiting to 
see what the other will do. I hope those who 
read this wull put on one side any such idea, and 
subscribe for their own benefit, and not wait for 
others who no doubt, directly some active 
steps are taken, will support the society. 
Several suggestions have been made to 
me from differerff quarters. Some say why not 
try and see if it is possible to make a trout 
licence; nothing will be able to be done for the 
lasting improvement of the trout fishing until 
there is a licence. I answered that there was a 
certain amount of opposition to a licence, on 
the ground that the Thames was a free fishing 
river, and there would be a certain amount of 
opposition to a trout licence from the clubs, &c. 
I can remember when all the locks on the 
Lower Thames were free also, no charge was 
made for boats, rafts, &c.; now there is a charge 
for every lock, also a licence for keeping a 
boat, &c. The public were never invited to give 
their opinion on these new laws before they 
were passed, so 1 see no reason why, if the 
conservators thought proper, they could 
make a trout licence and leave the coarse fishing 
free. I do not think it would be any hardship 
to the present run of anglers, as there are not 
many trout fishermen who could not afford to pay 
a small annual sum to improve their sport. 
Another suggestion was that I should write to 
each holder of a weir pass and ask them to 
support an application for increasing the weir 
pass to a guinea instead of ten shillings, and 
the surplus above the present charge to be 
devoted entirely to the purchase of trout to be 
turned in at the different weirs. I should like 
to hear the opinion of some of the holders of 
weir passes before I take any steps in the matter. 
I hope all those interested in the improvement of 
the trout fishing will give me their support, and 
so not let the present effort made to improve the 
trout fishing fall to the ground from want of 
that support. Also, communications and sub¬ 
scriptions will be duly acknowledged. I am, &c., 
' A. Burrow, 
Hon. Sec. Lower Thames Trout 
Propagation Society. 
Colne Cottage, Staines. 
PICKERING FISHERY ASSOCIATION. 
Sir, —The May-fly is now on the Pickering 
stream in goodly numbers. Anglers have had 
excellent sport during the past week. On the 19 th 
May, Mr. Baker took seven trout weighing 5.Ub. 
On the 20th the Secretary basketed four trout 
weighing 3jlb. 
On the 22nd the Secretary caught five weighing 
51b. 2oz. The largest weighed 2oz. short of 21b., 
and the next 11b. loz. 
O n the 25th Mr. G. Manners bagged six weighing 
51b. 
Many other catches have been made, but these 
are the most notable. The fish are in excellent 
condition, and a “pounder” at the end of a fine 
cast gives the angler rare sport before he is finally 
landed. 
For the benefit of those of your readers who 
have not had an opportunity of visiting the 
Pickering stream, 1 may mention that the season 
tickets are £1, fortnightly tickets 7s.t)d.,and daily 
ones 2s.— 1 am, &c., _ J- S. Guffick. 
HE FISHING NEAR CRIEFF. 
— J). A. F. cannot do better than write 
to Mr. William Muir, Turret View, Crieff, for 
information. As a practical fisherman, he 
would know where to fish and what flies to use. ' 
I am, &c., C. M< PuER.soN. 
()2, High-street, Southampton, 
May 29,1893. 
