438 
THE EISHING GAZETTE 
[Jm^E 10, 1893 
a law, but they can’t raise trout profitably 
for the market under the present law. We 
should legislate for the people and not 
for sportsmen. The largest plant for rearing 
trout artificially at the present time was at 
Plymouth, and there is lots of land in Plymouth 
just as good as ]\rr. Gilbert’s for the purpose. It 
is wrong to assert that no one wants this law but 
Mr. Gilbert. Sportsmen alone oppose it. Sports¬ 
men produce nothing, This bill provides for the 
protection of a life-giving food. 
“ Senator Lawton, of the Seventh Middlesex 
District (Lowell), was the next speaker. It was 
a question of whether they could afford to pass a 
law like this, for the bill proposed, he thought, 
was equal to an abolition of the law on trout. 
There was no need of the proposed law to develop 
a food-producing industry. That had sufficient 
jirotection already, and he was not ready to see 
a close season abolished. 
‘The vote on the question was then taken, which 
resulted as follows :— 
“Yeas.—C. H. Baker, H. L. Baker, Berry, 
Brown, Cushman, Dame, Fitzgerald, Green, 
Hickox, Horton, Kennedy, Kenrick. Merrill, 
Monk, Nichols, Sawyer, E. P. Shaw—17. 
“ Nays.—Bartlett, Buckley, Burnham, Coughlin, 
Dee, Howard, Kimball, Lawrence, Lawton, Leary, 
Parkman, Ratshesky, Ray, Read, Salisbury, E. H. 
Shaw, Stevens—17. 
“ Pairs.—Butler and Arnold, yea, with Milton 
and Kittredge, nay. 
“ The passage of the bill to a third reading was 
defeated. 
“ On AVednesday, as expected, a motion to re¬ 
consider the bill was made and carried, but the 
Senate again refused to pass the bill to a third 
reading by the following vote :— 
“ Yeas.—Arnold, H. L. Baker, Brown, Butler, 
Cushman. Dame, Fitzgerald, Green, Hickox, 
Horton, Kenrick, Merrill, Monk, Nichols, Sawyer, 
E. P. Shaw—16. 
“ Nays.—Bartlett, Buckley, Burnham, Carter, 
Coughlin, Dee, Howard, Kim’oall, Kittredge, 
Lawrence, Lawton, Leary, Milton, Parkman, 
Ratshesky, Ray, Read, E. H. Shaw, Stevens—19. 
“Sportsmen of Massachusetts. — Notice and 
remember who voted in favour of this pernicious 
bill.” 
REMINISCENCES OF AN OLD 
ANGLER. 
{Continued from page 3-^0.) 
By E. M. Ton. 
FiiOM 1869 to 1877 seems a big jump, but, alas! 
I have no diary to guide me during this time. 
In 1871, however, I very well remember my 
first visit to the Tummel at Rannoch ; after which 
I went on to Loch Shin, at Lairg and Overskaig, 
killing some capital baskets. For instance, one 
day, wading in from the shore, I got 171b., five of 
the trout averaging a pound. 1 beat the hoots. 
It was blowing hard, and 1 once got on a large, 
well-greased boulder, nearly all under water. My 
boots simply skated till I landed—an awful 
buster !—on the boulder and got a ducking ‘‘ for- 
bye.” This was below' Overskaig. Another day, 
from Loch (iriam, I killed 201b., wading in during 
a terrific gale, and fishing close to the grass on 
the lee shore, but, stepping over a hidden preci- 
])ice of mud and sand—1 having about 161b. of 
Trout in my creel—I had a very narrow escape 
indeed of leaving my bones in Loch Griam—as 
a memento of my visit. I used the boat and the 
waders alternately, just as 1 felt inclined, but 1 
always prefer the freedom of being on shore when 
1 can manage it. 
1 then went to Aultnacealgach — sometimes 
spelt Anltnagallagach—which by interpretathn 
means “ the burn of the decei ver.«.’' This is 
now so well known as a resort of anglers that 1 
need only say that from the inn one could fish five 
or six lochs—all more or less well stocked. I 
used to kd! from LMb. to •20!b. of trout daily 
during m_> stay of three weeks. But 1 am con¬ 
fessedly a river fisherman, and one day 1 found 
myself, with three or four pounds of trout taken 
in the loch, at the short stretch of river, half a 
mile long at most, which i.ssues fi-om Loch 
A’eyatie and empties itself into Loch Fewn. It 
was two o’clock when 1 arrived, and the boatman 
pulled ashore for lunch, whilst I put on a lilarch 
Brown and fished the somewhat shallow and very 
clear river up. I left off at seven o’clock with 
271b. of nice trout, well satisfied. 
The day before I had fished at the head of Loch 
Veyatie, killing some nice trout, one (when trol¬ 
ling) Tglb. AVe then walked over the watershed 
and fished Loch Shenashink, and, getting the 
loan of the shepherd’s boat, we rowed out, and I 
killed a few pounds of trout, when it blew a gale, 
and, the oars being rotten and the boat ditto, we 
had to pull ashore. I had another nice trout, 
3ilb , on a ten-foot fly-rod with a small phantom, 
taken on the way home, and perhaps 61b. of 
ordinary trout—say 141b. in all. AVe stayed all 
night in the shepherd’s hut, peat-smoke and fleas 
being in very pronounced abundance. I had no 
wish to repeat the experiment, although I had 
served five years’apprenticeship to discomforts of 
all kinds in the Queensland bush— Pulex irritans, 
and all the rest of it! 
I don’t want to spin out this, and will only 
touch on my last day, when I got a very fine 
trout of 12Rb., with a phantom minnow, from 
Loch Yeyatie, on my fly-rod, for I am no lover of 
trolling, and was simply rowing down to the 
little river for my last day. We had made a late 
start, and had to put back to the inn, after going 
a mile or so, for a joint of my rod. The drive to 
Loch Veyatie is about five miles, I think, and then 
we had to put up the trap, and slowly troll down 
the loch, which is three and a half or four miles 
in length—crossing in order to fish every sandy 
bay, as it is here that the large fish in Loch 
A^eyatie lie—so-called ferox. AVe wasted more 
time admiring and toasting the fish, which now 
hangs over the door of this room, in the hall, or, 
rather, passage. 
Then we arrived at the river, and had lunch, 
and again I found it was nearly two o’clock before 
I tackled the river, but by 7.30 o’clock I had a 
total of 351b. of trout. I was quite satisfied—and 
when I say troiit I mean trout —fair weight, and 
none of your cockey tricks, such as prevail at so 
many angling hotels and other such resorts in 
Scotland, where the basket is weighed alwaijs —a 
monstrous piece of fraud, in my opinion, and quite 
unworthy of sportsmen, but which is far too 
common a custom, though “honoured in the 
breach rather than in the observance.” 
Later on I had a little fishing in the Tay at 
Aberfeldy, but as the river was at its lowest, and 
the weather was blazing hot, I did not do much 
amongst the salmon, killing three fish from 71b. 
to 161b., and losing one by “Black AVillie’s” 
idiotcy, after he had been firmly gaffed. His 
gaff straightened like tin, and he sat down up to 
his armpits, and then, losing his head completely, 
took the fish in his arms—a beauty of about 221b. 
•—which smashed the line round Willie’s body, 
and kept rising in the pool with the broken line 
trailing behind him for some time afterwards. 
I did nothing remarkable during that brief 
visit of ten days or so in the way of trout ; but 
my aggregate all round that season was a heavy 
one ; only, worst luck, I have lost my diary. 1 was 
three weeks or so at Aultnagallagach, and killed 
a heap of trout during my visit; indeed, I after¬ 
wards sent a diary to the innkeeper, starting it 
with my own record. A^’ery likely it was never 
used. 
The next record 1 have is in 1877. I had 
recovered from typhoid fever, only to find myself 
under the hands of the surgeons for an internal 
operation, and was at last so completely worn 
out with sickness and suffering that ’ 1 was 
pereinptorilV ordered off to Scotland for six 
months, at least. 
On March 29 1 began fishing the Teviot with 
minnow, at Ormiston, killing 131b., including two 
sea-trout, 21b. and 31b. each; 30th, Teviot (fly), 
71b.; April 2nd (Tweed, at St. Boswell's), six 
trout and one sea-trout (fly), the sea-trout 31b. 
(two best trout, 2.jlb., lib. 2oz ), in all 8Gb.; 7th, 
5Gb. (Teviot); 9th, i31b., including a sea-trout 
2Gb., &c. Then I made one or two eveursions to 
the Kale and the Jed, and killed in all 881b. 
I went now to Rannoch, and began on April 31, 
amidst wintry surrounding-!, and killed eighteen 
trout, 9.Gb, with fly. AA^hilst here my youngest 
son was born in a cottage where I lodged. 
The River Tummel reijuires skill—for the trout 
have been hard fished for years, and are fairly 
“ well educated.” 
Clear water worm fishing 1 seldom found worth 
wasting time over — occasionally the creeper in 
low water and blazing sun would kill a fine dish 
of trout — and once in a way only the smallest 
sized gold-bellied phantom minnow would account 
for 6lb., 71b., or 81b. of trout; but for ninety-nine 
days out of every hundred, the artificial fly is 
the only lure worth using—at least during Alay 
and June, the pick of the season for the River 
Tummel. I find that I averaged half a pound 
each trout almost daily' during these two months, 
an excellent average with the fly on any Scotch 
river, where the basket is not included as part 
of the capture! 
I had not a single trout over 2Gb. with the 
fly, but I lost one before a dozen spectators, 
weighing fully 31b. if not 41b., as the g llie was 
about to put the landing net under it — -but I 
killed a large number of trout of 11b. each, and 
a good many from this to Iflb., with a rare one 
of 21b. 
My object now is to condense matters, and 
please remember, dear reader, that I arrived in 
bad health, and though I fished almost daily, I 
often fished only a few hours — for, hang it all, 
1 cannot make a toil of a pleasure ! Here goes ! 
April 31, 9Gb. In May, my record for days and 
parts of days stands thus — and I may add that 
all with hardly any exception were taken with 
the /??/—8ilb., 9Gb., 51b., 61b., 141o., 12,Gb., 12Gb. 
81b.. IRb., 111b., 911b., 14Gb., 4ilb., 3lb., lOjlb., 
8Gb., 5ilb., 51b., 31b.. 2Gb., 4Gb., in all 168jib. 
for May. June record is as follows ; 111b., 6Gb., 
5Gb., -I'.Gb., ipb., 71b., 101b., 171b.. 121b., 61b., 8|lb., 
ISjlb., 4Ilb., 151b., 101 b , in all 131flb.; and now 
for July: 7ilb., 111b., 2Gb., 21b., 111b., 4jlb., 91b., 
6.Gb., 81b., 91b., 8Gb., 8Gb., 81b., 31b., 81b., 61b., 
71b., 2Gb., 31b., in all 125Gb. 
In August (which is generally a poor month 
for this river, save in the evening, with fly) a 
very noticeable falling off will be observable: 
31b., |lb., 51h.. 71b., 1Gb., 7Gb , Jib . 51b., 31b.. lib., 
2Gb., 21b.. 7Jlb., 81b, 4lb, 31b.; total, 61Jlb. I 
find that I seldom fished till the sun began to 
set. I was getting stale and sick of the poor 
sport during the day. 
The lake (Loch Rannoch) is often excellent 
when the river is all but useless; but I love river 
fishing, and don’t care for loch fishing in com¬ 
parison, where the skill is reduced to a minimum. 
I had one day on the loch during June, and killed 
18lb. of excellent trout, and during my entire 
stay 1 only fished the loch other three days, some 
of them wading in from shore—total for the four 
days on ihe loch with fly, 41Gb. My total for 
that season was as follows : 
Teviot and Tweed . 881b. 
River Tummel.. 500Gb. 
Loch Rannoch . 41Gb. 
Total . 6301b. 
It may not look a very big record, and cannot 
compare with the average I was making, for 
instance, when at Aultnagallagach; but then this 
was all. or nearly all, loch fishing from a boat, 
and with a short rod and line, and good big loch 
flies, on stout gut, trout only four or five to the 
pound—no sportsman can compare the two ! Any 
tyro can kill trout in a Highland loch if he is 
fairly smart, but it needs a practised hand to 
make a good and continuously good record on the 
River Tummel, at Rannoch. I was peculiarly 
fond of that river in the old days, and the very 
fact that the trout needed catching, lent a charm 
to the sport in my eyes. 
Although I did not fish the loch myself, I saw 
some very fine baskets with an occasional ferox 
from it; but I was not to be tempted, and how¬ 
ever grand a show I would witness, I would be 
found plodding away at the river next day as usual, 
even if 1 killed next to nothing. Such is sport. 
It will be observed that 1 have some very poor 
records, but I am awfully down on any gillie who 
tries his games on me. 
Poor Archie Dew'ar, who died of phthisis many 
years ego, good-natured and civil as he invariably 
was, one day broke out testily with, “ 1 never saw 
a gentleman so perteeklar!” Ah, poor Archie, 
I caught him neatly one day holding the spring 
balance, instead of vertically, re.sDing on the 
wrist, so that it was at an angle of several 
degrees; the consequence being that when, say 
121b. of trout, with a large wet'basket, weighing 
other 31b., came on the balance, down it went 
with a jump, but, of course, was unable to rise 
