'4- THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES ANGLING HOLIDAYS. IN PURSUIT OF SALMON, TROUT AND PIKE, C. W. GEDNEY. FIRST EOITK>N. TELEGRAPH" PRINTING WORKS, BROMLEY, KENT, 1806. ^H (j24, IXDEX TO CHAPTERS. Page DOVEDALE TROUT AND TRENT SALMON 5 ON THE ATLANTIC COAST 12 SOME IRISH ADVENTURES AND EXPERIENCES 19 DRY FLY FISHING AND OTHER THINGS 29 GWEEDOKE, CO. DONEGAL 38 AUTUMN NORFOLK T'ROUTING 50 THE BANN AT COLERAINE 56 THE BANN AT KILREA 59 THE RIVER SHANNON 75 THE RIVER DARENTH 81 MAY-FLY ON DARENTH 88 LAST DAY ON DARENTH Ill THE MOY AT BALLINA 116 LAKE VYRNWY 122 THE RIVER BUSH AT BUSHMILLS 134 AUTUMN PIKE FISHING 140 THE WILTSHIRE AVON 147 THE USK, MONMOUTHSITRE ... 149 KILLALOE ON SHANNON 154 G.ALWAY AND BALLANAHINCH 157 WF.STPORT, CO. MAYO 161 WINCHESTER OLD BARGE 162 CANTERBURY STOUR 165 ANGLING HOLIDAYS IN SCOTLAND 167 908714 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Page ENTRANOE OF DOVEDALE 4 IN DOVEDALE— THE POOL 7 DOVEDALE— NEAR THE STRAITS 9 DONEGAL— THE POISONED GLEN 38 GWEEDORE-THE SALMON LEAP 40 GWEEDORE LOUGH 44 THE BANN AT COLERATNE 56 THE "CUTTS" AT COLERATNE 58 THE BANN ABOVE COLERATNE 59 THE BANN AT KTLREA— PORTNA WEIR 62 THE RANN AT KTLREA 69 THE SHANNON— THE FERRY 75 THE SHANNON RAPIDS 78 SHANNON— DOONA'S FALLS 80 THE DARENTH— ETNSFORD POOL 81 DARENTH— THE AUTHOR AT WORK 88 THE CLTTB COTTAGE ON DARENTH 91 ETNSFORD CHUMS 95 DARENTH AT EYNSFORD— SPRATT'S POOL 106 RIVER MOT— THE GAS WORK'S CAST 116 THE ASH TREE CAST— RIVER MOT 118 LAKE VTRNWY 122 RIVER BUSH AT BUSHMILLS 134 BUSHMILLS-THH FALLS 138 THE WILTSHIRE AVON 147 THE USK AT ABERGAVENNY 149 KILLALOE ON SHANNON 154 SHANNON AT KILLALOE 156 GALWAY BRIDGE 157 GALWAY SALMON FISHERY 158 CLIFDEN CO. GALWAY 159 BALLINAHINCH, CO. GALWAY 160 WESTPORT, CO. MAYO 161 WINCHESTER, THE OLD BARGE 162 THE ITCHEN— LORD NORTHBROOK'S FISHERY 164 CANTERBURY STOUR 166 LOCH LOMOND 167 LOCH KATRINE 168 LOCH LEVEN, ARGYLESHIRE 169 LOCH LEVEN IN GLENCOE 170 LOCH LEVEN AND PASS OF GLENCOE 171 LOCH EARN 172 LOCH TAY 173 RIVER DOOHAET 175 LOCH AWE 176 THE RIVER OROHY 177 PASS OF BRANDER 178 PREFACE. It is with some misgiving that I have yielded to the pressure put upon me by brother fishermen, and thus added one more to the already long catalogue of angling books. But this is not a fishing book of the orthodox pattern ; it is a gossipy record of a sportsman's experiences. If there appears an absence of connection between some of the chap- ters, let me explain that many of them were written as letters at various periods, to beguile the lonely evenings of a solitary angler in remote fishing quarters. These articles were never designed for publication in book form, but the lovers of all that pertains to angling will, none the less, I hope, find some entertainment in their perusal. A few of them have previously appeared — in substance — in the " Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News," and my thanks are due to the courtesy of the proprietor of that journal for his consent to their reproduction. Wherever I could do so, I have given full and accurate details of the places fished, and how the fishing is obtainable ; but this has not been possible in the case of private waters. It has also been necessary to use fictitious names, in a good many instances, in order to disguise the identity of individuals. With these brief words of explanation and introduction, I commend " Angling Holidays " to the perusal of all true disciples of Isaac Walton. C. W. G. Bromley, Kent, 1896. DOYEDALE TROUT AND TRENT SALMON. I liavo spent several very delightful anglinp; holidays in Dovedale, and for early spring trout fishing I know of no place more enjoyable. Later on in the season, the fierce midsummer sun pouring down into the dale — without a breath of wind to temper its rays — is rather too much of a good thing. My first trout fiom the Dove was taken from the stepping-stones shown in oiu* illustration of the " Entrance of Dovedale." The river can there be crossed by a series of stones, Avhich form a little cascade. I was standing upon these stepping-stones, admiring the vista of the opening dale before me, and my cast dragged neglected in the stream beliind me. My day-dream was broken by a iicavy " rug," and I found, to my amazement, that a ])ound trout had " yanked on," as they say in the States. This was polite on the part of the Dove trout to thus come to net uninvited, but I did not find airy more of them so complaiscent. The Dove is a somewhat slow-running river, tlie water beinfj held back by small artificial weirs at short intervals, and these obstructions make some pretty little cascades. In the luns l)elow these falls most of the anglers seek their sport, but I did better upon the deep glassy " flats " at the entrance of the dale with a floating fly. The May fly was just coming on wlxen I arrived at the old Isaac AValton Hotel, and before many days it was up ii^ teeming thousands, that faii'ly enveloped the angler. I never saAv such a rise of May fly in my life, either before or since, and it lasted duinng a period of ten daj's. The natives and visitors fished in orthodox fashion, with light 12ft. bamboo rods and fine Stewart tackle. A small basket, containing female May fly, strapped round the waist, and two of these flies were impaled, one above the other, on the hooks. This class of fisliing- Avas all done in the fast water beneath tlie cascades, and anytliiutr more iiuiideroTis I never saw. I preferred to float an aldei', of large size, on the deep slow-rnnning' water, M'liere I «^ot some very liaiulsome fish, includin<^' two splendid o-iayling- close on 211). apiece. These fish were both dimpling- at the opposite side to the one I was fishing-, and they were moving about some blades of grass which lumg- into the stream. It was a long cast for a wee 10ft. rod but I ultimately got the alder across on to the bank, and worked it gently down on to the water. There it remained, until the sagging line sunk it, and as the fly went under something moved beneath it, and I struck. Then the fun began, for I w^as fast in a big fish, which fought backwards, in jei'ks, doAvn stream, and skit- tered round in quite a different manner to a trout. When, finally, he came to net, I found tliis big grayling had a round turn of the cast around his body, and the alder firmly fixed in the corner of his mouth. It was a grand fish of fully 21b. weight, but I had a horrible misgiving that grayling were out of season. Putting him into my landing net, and fixing the net in the water, with the net handle driven into the bank, I made my way up to the cascade above in search of information. The man fishing there heard my story and my doubts, and he assured me, most emphatically, that grajding were out of season, and fore- shadowed my appearance at Ashbourne Petty Sessions. The result was that I sadly retraced my steps, and still more sadly returned " Thymallus " to his native element. Then the keeper came along, and I told him what had happened. "You don't mean to say you put the fish back?" he asked, in astonishment. I assured him I had done so, and then he told me that the close time for gray- ling had been over for a week ! This was very galling, and the more so as my experiences of two-pound graylings were then very limited. But I set to work again on those bank feeders, and within a dozen feet of where the other fish was hooked I got another under precisely similar circumstances. And, what was still more ciu'ious, this fish wound himself round the cast precisely in the same manner as the first had done. They were the counterparts of each o o Pi a I Q t^ O Q other, but they did not Loth share the .same fate — the second oraylin*)- went into my basket ! That man on whose advice I returned the first fish had a bad ten minutes when we met in tlie smoking-room that evening". lu the middh^ reach of the river, which is showTi in, our second ilhistration, I had some very pretty fishing with an oak fiy — a gaudy, waspish-coloured artificial I spotted a nice little colony of medium-sized trout feeding beneath a stunted overhanging oak tree, which was swarm- ing with the flies which take the name of the tree they feed on. I had not got the artificial, for they are unknown in, our southern streams, but I doubled back to a local man, lower down stream, and he gave me fwhat I wanted. Three brace of trout were taken wdth these oak flies out of a very short length of water, and a very nice little bit of fishing it was. At the upper end of the dale, shown in our third illustration, the water was too low for sport, but the beauty of the place amply compensated us for explor- ing it. Bird life in Dovedale is very interesting, and the habits and customs of the water ousel especially interested me. They are wonderfully tame and confiding, are these ousels of the Derbyshire dales, and we watched them as they walked under water, in search of snails and caddis flies. Some persons say these birds eat trout spawn, but I have never seen any evidence in support of the charge. Even if it was true, I would not lose these pretty companions of the angler for the sake of a few trout. Have you ever had the good fortune to surprise a brood of young sandpipers, or summer snipe ? If yon have not, then there is something still worth living for — presuming that 3'ou care anj^thing for the curiosities of natural history. Unhap])ily the bulk of mankind know little and care less for such things, I fear, but to thf>se who take delight in matters relating to minute natural history, nothing could be more delightful than to come suddenly upon Mother Sandpiper and her brood of little ones. It has not been my good fortune to do it often, but on this occasion, in Dovedale, I passed round a big- rock and saw Mrs. S. and 8 her family preoniiif^ tliomselves in the sunshine. There was an electrical jump of the Avliole party in opposite direc- tions, and they disappeared as if by magic, altliongli they never took flight, and there was not a bush or bit of cover near them. No one, except those whose eyes have been trained by minute natural historj^ study, would have dis- covered those newly-hatched youngsters. They were lying, apparently dead, amongst the stones, motionless, with closed eyes, and my companion could scarcely be made to see them, even when they were pointed out to him ! An old lady, at whose cottage we told a tale of woe of parched and famished fishermen, offered us of her scanty sustenance. But the solids took the shape of sticky tarts, and the liquid was " nettle tea " ! She assured me that this beverage possessed wonderful medicinal properties, that its recuperative powers upon a jaded and exhausted frame were magical. I took one sip of the decoction, and found it the most satisfying liquor I ever tasted in my life, and next to Chinese Samsau I should recommend it for nastiness. My chum threw his lot out of the A\andow, behind the poor old dame's back, and praised it mightily to her face. Declared it reminded him of his boyhood, in the country, when his dear old mother used to make it, and finally got our hostess to give him a recipe for brewing this vile decoction ! She was greatly flattered by liis praise, and finally insisted upon putting a bottle of the stuff into his fishing bag to take home with him. In the Islam length of the River Manifold, which runs at the bottom of the grounds attached to the Isaac Walton Hotel, there is excellent fishing for both trout and grayling. It is private water, attached to Islam Hall, and a little lower down this stream becomes merged into the Dove, which in turn empties itself into the Trent. This Manifold River is a mole for a portion of its length, and there are two distinct underground channels through which it flows. I had a few days' good sport on the Manifold, but killed more grayling than trout, and I was much interested in the way in which " Thymallus" took the fly. Casting an alder on the surface of a deep pool, in which the shadow^' forms of H 1-3 tlie giayling could be seen tkree feet below, a fish would shoot up ^\'itlL a rush, seize the fly, and drop backwards to the bottom. At the end of a very enjoyable holiday I broke my homeward journey at Derby, intending only to spend the night there. We were enjoying a post-prandial cigar in the smoking- room of the Midland Hotel, and amongst the company were two local anglers, who spoke in glowing terms of the resources of the river Trent. I expressed some incredulity about the salmon fishing in a river so polluted as the Trent, and these two gentlemen made a dead set at me to come with them on the morrow and give the river a trial. In vain I pleaded that the tackle with me was limited to the outfit of a dry-fiy trout fisherman. They would take no denial, and so I yielded to their importunities and agreed to join them. They fitted me up with a 15 ft. double-handed, whippy trout i-od and a Nottingham reel, with 200 yards of twisted flax, about the same thickness as a fine trout line ! Of all the unmanageable thinjrs in the hands of an in- experienced person, commend me to a Nottingham reel ! My experiences with these erratic machines had been very limited, and I loved not the rig-out thus generously lent me ; but I was in for it, and therefore made the best of the situation. Within a short railway ride of Derby we got fishing tickets at a quaint little village hostelry, and paid for these permits one shilling each. My shillingsworth w^as signed " William Cooper," and it gave me the right to fish " Mr. Smith's and Mr. Vicker's Avater," and it also informed me, in a footnote, that " Parties breaking fences, or leaving gates open, will be discliarged." I do not pur- posely omit the name of the village where these permits were issued — ^in fact I forget it. Across a couple of fields, and we found ourselves upon the banks of the beery Trent, and along the said banks were disposed at intervals some fifteen anglers — worming for salmon. Within sight, up stream, were some of the big breweries whose refuse pollutes this stream, and sends it down discoloured and frothy, sug- gestive of "half-and-half." The Trent at this point was 10 nl)Oiit a liundred yards wide, and Ave fished from a steep bank, some eijilit or nine feet above tiie level of the water. After vainly striigoling to attain to the " Nottingham style" — which all the local men adopted — I gave it Tip in despair, and also abandoned the two huge " maiden" worms in favour of a Devon minnow. But the local's style of fish- ing interested me greatly. "With heavily-weighted lines and large tapered floats, they turned their backs to the water, and SAvinging their baits to and fro, to obtain the necessary momentum, they suddenly wheeled round and sent their baited hooks flying out to great distances, with a delicacy and precision which astonished me. This was the style of fishing adopted in the deep pools, the angler following his float doAA^n some distance and then returning to the old spot and repeating the process. At the tail of this deep pool the water shallowed, and there a couple of men fished worm with a hea\'y ledger lead, one of the men thus capturing a handsome 31b. trout. It was all strange to me, for, whatever may be my piscatorial sins, I have never yet caught a salmon with a worm ! Going up to the head of the deep pool, which was said to hold several big fish, I span dili- gently, in the Thames style, but the difficulties incidental to doing this with a whippy fly rod will commend them- selves to all practical anglers. The day began to draw to a close, no one had yet taken a salmon, and the prospects of a blank were beginning to depress us all. The locals were greatly interested in my style of casting, and the two men below me invited me to go down over their water. In doing so I got a heavy pull, and found myself fast in a big fish. All the anglers gave up fishing, and gathered round me in a crowd, and I doubt if I ever played a fish so badly in my life. That wretched Nottingham reel nearly drove me frantic, for I knew little or nothing of the mysteries of " skidding " with my finger, as practised by those experts who swear by these crazy machines. With a crowd round me, all proffering advice, and several men importuning me to hand them the rod, the experience was by no means a pleasant one. The fish had got over to the opposite bank, and resoiutelj'- refused to do anything except ru7i up and 11 down under its friendly shelter. Eventually an angler on that side good-naturedly came u]), and beating- the water with Ills net, drove the fish out into niid-streani. By this time I had given, up all attempts to play the fish from the winch, and coiled the line at my feet as I got it in — to the great horror of the spectators. " Stand hack and give me room," was my only rejoinder to their expostulations, and presently I got my fish well in hand, giving him all the "butt" that the rod was capable of. The salmon was now close to the surface, and occasionally broke the water savageh' with his tail, showing that he was nearly done, and presently he rolled over, showing us, for the first time, what a handsome fish he was. Barring accidents, his capture now was only a question of time ; but how to get him out was the problem, for the coil of line made it quite impossible to take him down to the low bank a hundred yards below. We fought it out where I hooked him, and a man lying down, ■with two others holding his legs, gaffed the fish, and he was quickly on the grass — a handsome salmon weighing 22^1b. Thus ended my first and last experiences of fishing in the Trent. 12 ON THE ATLANTIC COAST. I am the guest of a local magnate, on the banks of an Irish salmon river. Let us call our host the General, and let us, also, congratulate ourselves that a pressing engage- ment prevents him fishing this morning. "We will try his favourite pool, which is the most likely place to yield a salmon in the present low state of the water. A small fly, with gold tinsel body, wings and tail of golden pheasant toppings and tippets, and legs of blue chatterer — boasting the appropriate nrane of Lord Randolph — such a fly should lure one of those sulky beggars to destruction if anj-thing will ; so, let us start with Handy. Deftly the glittering- morsel goes thirty yards across the pool, and falls straight and true, with a ti"'ht line, oiving; little chance of a miss, should " Salmo salar " accept the invitation to lunch. A shelving bank, which shallows the tail end of the pool, is the usual " catch," but the fly passes the magic spot, and tlie cast is repeated with varying lengths of line until presently there is a boil in the water, a huge blue back sliows itself, followed by a nine-inch tail, and the screaming winch proclaims the fact that the fight has begun. With a might}^ rush, the big fish takes off line at greased light- ning speed, and, making for some shallows, wallows over them into deep water beyond, followed by the angler, slipping and stumbling over boulders, with an utter dis- regard of broken shins. Panting, and almost exhausted, the quarry is overtaken, but he declines to discuss the matter at such close quarters, and once more there is a furious rush up stream, with more obstacle racing, flounder- ing and blundering, whilst Paddy yells, "Hould 'im up, yer honer ! hould 'im up ! or by the holy Saints he'll cut ye on the shallers !" He does nothing of the kind, but. 13 regainin*;' his old gTouiul, takes to somersault and vaulting, showing him-self to he a grand twenty pounder. ])oggedly he hores to the bottom aud " sniggers " the lim' in a fashion which nearly always indicates an insecure hold on the part of the hook. With another wild dash, he goes tearing the line out — sixty, seventy, eighty yards go oft", as he hugs the opposite bank, and there is a horrid rock in the river, only tliirtj' yards below him. If once he gets beyond it, he will trump my trick, and win the game. Butt him all 1 dare, he holds on his course ; the rod creaks beneath the heavA' strain to no purpose, and in another minute he is behind the snag, gets a dead pull, and the line comes back — the hook has drawn ! There are some griefs too deep and sacred to be laid bare to the public gaze ; and the veil is drawn over the utter desolation of a man who lost in this wa}' the only big salmon that had rewarded three weeks of incessant labour ! For three weeks we have been getting either south or westerly gales in Ireland, accompanied by occasional smart showers, and a leaden sky. One or two bright days only have we had, and these have occurred when the wind chopped round to the north-east ; but the old Cornish fisher- man's proverb, "When the wind goes round agin' the sun, don't ])ay no heed, for back she'll come," proved true — back "she" did come. But the fishing has been fairly good, notwithstanding the salmon's objection to rise to a fly if there is "water over them." That is the way in which Mike describes the presence of rain clouds overhead. He ])layed a mean trick one day this week on a jealous angler. This fisherman set a bank line at a spot reputed to be the haunt of one of those fabulous giant pike, Avhich are said to exist in almost every bit of water in this watery island. Our old frieiid had been beguiled by his attendant — Mike's I'ival — into having a go for the capture of this mythical monster, and Mike having induced me to shoot him a comorant — under the pretence of wanting some feathers for fly-dressing — he, quite unbekno^^•n to me, attached the bird to the bank line of the aforesaid angler. The bait wa.s thrust down the bird's throat, and the hooks were so artis- 14 tically fixfd, tliat tlie owner was imposed upon, and he lias sent the bird to be stuffed as a memento of a very remark- able capture ! I hope he won't see this confession, but should he do so, I trust that he will acquit me of any know- ledge of the aifair, until a week after it occurred, when the hoax was common talk amongst " the boys," and I became aware of it by being asked whether I had shot the bird for Mike. My jealous neighbour has had a bad time of it, for he has seen a twenty-eight pounder killed under his very nose this week, and also seen the opposition boat going home with two, three, and four fish each evening, while his total score for the week has been one poor little grilse, and that taken with a trailing spoon ! No wonder he is sour, because you can forgive a man anything else in the world except catching more fish than you do. By the way, my faithful henchman cooked me a fish dinner the other day in a fashion which must be at once the oldest — and it cer- tainly is one of the best — known methods of roasting. Having excavated a round hole in the earth, and paved it ^^ith pieces of rock, a turf fire is lighted on the stones, and others were arranged around like a grotto to get heated as the fire burnt up. Whilst the fire was going on, a couple of handsome trout, of lib. and 21bs. respectively, were care- fully rolled up separately in well-buttered paper. The oven being hot enough, the red-hot embers were taken offi the stones, and the trout placed upon them. Other hot stones were placed artistically round the fish — without pressing on them — the burning embers of peat were placed around the cairn, and we Aveiit away to catch more fish ^\li^ist the cooking was in progress. A flight of teal comc^i swishing past us as we push oft' from our " dissolute island," as Mike called it, and a charge of No. 5, from the " full clioke," stepped the flight of one of the travellers. He was only winged, however, and by the time he had been bagged shouts from the cook announced that the meal was ready. And what a feast for a king it was! Those trout were simply done to perfection, and when eaten wdth oaten scont^s and butter, washed down with Guiness's bottled stout, he would be a dainty man who, after a hard morning's fishing. 15 from r to 12, did not do ample justice to such a feast. Mike has been fed upon trout, salmon, and eels all his life, and he, therefore, preferred to fall hack upon our potted wares. I'lrst he tackled a tin of sardines, and having- disposed of the whole lot satisfactorily, I passed him over a pot of Crosse and Blackwell's highly-seasoned potted game. He toyed with this a hit at first, not being quite sure of his ground, hut eventually, to my amazement, I found that he had raked out the contents into a plate, and was disposing of it in " chunks " about the size of small potatoes. He had by this time eaten about two pounds of bread, but he still looked wistfully at the provision basket, and I, therefore, gave him another course. This time it was an oaten scone of lib. and four hard boiled eggs, two of them being turkey's, and his face expanded with a grin so broad that it made his ears hang down. Mike having finally exhausted the provisions, without having exhausted his appetite, went to the water's edge and, lying down, put his face in the river, and took, a long drink by way of topping np his meal. My faithful henchman, however, is by no means a teetotaller, in fact, he is very frequently much the reverse — in fact, he is an ether drinker. "You are an awful thirsty man," said I to him, at that feast above referred to, and I added, " You must surely have been made of some very dry materials." " Bedad !" he exclaimed, " But your honor's right, 'tis not me own fault at all ; me poor old mother was a Cork woman !" As I have already said, Pat was an ether drinker, and, thanks to his assistance, I have been able to find out many interesting details as to the prevalence and extent of the use of this pernicious spirit. Sixpennyworth of ether will go further — that is, produce more intoxication - — than half-a-crown's worth of whisky. " But it gives you bad heads," Mike assured me, on the " days after." The villages in the North of Ii'eland arc plentifully supplied with ether by wholesale dealers, and I was given the name of a man in an adjacent to^^^l who carries on an extensive trade in this spirit. It is largely used in the adidt^ration of whisky by retail dealers, and those accustomed to its peculiar flavour do not detect its presence in the adulterated IG ni-ticle ; in fact, they like it. AVlien this subject was mooted in the House of Conimous some time ago the Government promised to immediately adopt measures to suppress this tratfic, but nothing- has been done, and the stuft' is openly sold, without restriction, in the village where I am located. Discussing" the subject the other evening with one of tha leadino- Government officials in Ulster, he said he had little doubt that this use of ether as an intoxicant was doing an immense amount of injury, and that it ought to be rigor- ously suppressed. In his opinion, the increase of insanity was attributable to the drinking of ether. On Wednesday I found myself in proximity to a market towm, and there- fore devoted a couple of hours to pricing some of the goods. All kinds of live stock were very cheap, including horses, of which there was an unlimited supply, mostly 3'oungsters. Farmers' wives were selling new laid eggs at 8d. per dozen, and fowls ranged from 7d. to 9d. each, according to size and condition. Geese fetched from Is. Gd. to 2s., and mutton was selling at 7d. to 8d. per lb. for the prime joints, whilst pork went at 5d. and Gd, per lb. It sounds all right to hear of fowls at 7d. each, but they are like the cows, poor little things, and a hungry man could eat two of them for a meal — the chicken, I mean, not the cows. Of an Irishman's fowls you might with truth say : — • " Your salmon are so fat and red. Your chicken are so thin and blue ; 'Tis plain to see TFhich God has fed, And which was fed by rou." Everywhere one hears the same bitter complaints as to the decline of the potato crop in Ireland. I discussed the sub- ject with a lot of farmers, and the}'' were unanimously of opinion that potatoes had been going back, as a crop in Ireland, for many years, and that every season they got worse, and the disease became greater. One old man closed the discussion by saying, "I can mind when 'taties was sixpence a bushel of three stone, and this year I paid 5s. a bushel for seed !" The truth is, that on these small hold- ings the same ground is cropped with potatoes, year after year with the same old seed, until the ground sickens for 17 the want of change, and the tuber deteriorates from the same cause. As this is a question of national importance, which vitally att'ects the subsistence of the poorer people of Ireland, something ought to be done to assist them in the matter. Although the north-western section of Ireland, where I am located, is exposed to the full fury of the Atlantic gales, and catches every capful of rain which collects in that watery waste, the climate here is much less trying to vegetation than in England. Take last winter as a casef^in point. The Siberian winter which visited England, and fi-oze our water pipes six feet below the ground for three months, never touched Ireland ! " There were one or two light frosts, but nothing more," said m}^ host, when I asked how he got over the winter of 1895. Amongst some of the resident gentry in this part of Ireland cock fighting is still a com- mon so-called sport. The police take no notice of the matter ; the official classes, which constitute the bulk of the residents '' who toil not, neither do they spin," being apparent!}^ exempt from that rigorous enforcement of " law and order." As some of these cock fighters are amongst m\ personal friends, I feel constrained not to make full use of the information in my possession. But this much I can say, that cock fights for high stakes are common, and rhat these fights are attended by large gatherings of magistrates, officers, and Government officials. Of all the strange creatures that furnish food for man, commend me to the salmon; and of all the uncertain, but glorious, sports there is none that equals salmon fishing. In spite of all the books and learned essays that have been uTitten upon the subject of how to catch him Mr. " Salmo Salar" is as difficult of capture and as full of whims and caprices, which we cannot overcome, as he was before so much ink and learning had been devoted to his destruction. All their actions are governed by certain laws of nature uhich have 3'et to be understood by man, but that which is true of a salmon in one river will by no means be equally true of a similar fish in another Hver. To illustrate my irieaning I will explain what occurred here last Monday, 18 Tliero liad been a large number of salmon sliowing on a rocky shallow ou the lower portion of the water I am fishing, .liid rhe s})ot liad been coveted by the jealous angler above ri'feued to for the past fortnight. But the fisli Avouli not" take his flies, although he plied them with patterns of every s])ade, and witli every lure that he could think of. On Monday the wind chopped from west to south, and my man Pat remarked, "If this wind holds tln,^ night, we'll have all the hsh up in our pool the morn." Tlie distance Detween the two ])oints is about three miles, and Pat was unable to offer any other explanation of liis prophesy than the fact that the fish always came from the lower to the u])])er pools if the south wind lasted twelve hours. The wind held, and we saw our sour old rival race oft' to secure his pool long before we had breakfasted ! Sure enough the fish had come up, and here they were in scores, at our A'ery door, and in the first hour's fishing we had killed one s])k'ndid clean hsh, fresh from the sea, and played and lost two others. Then, they went olf the fly, and resolutely refused to be further tempted by the brilliantly-tinted combination of fur, featliers, and tinsel with which w-e sought to beguile them. Spoons of silver, and spoons of gold, w^re spun in vain over them, and we even resorted to prawns, with the same nega- tive results, and thus the afternoon wore away, the hsh meanwhile rising around us. Pat was at his A\its end, working and swearing his hardest, whilst Mike exasperated both master and man by incessantly suggesting that, maybe, they would take things that had already been tried in vain. Finally we gave up in despair, and went away to another cast higher up. Here the same bad luck attended us, for we only got one small fish, and lost two big fellows in succession. We gave up at five o'clock, and on our way dowm found a friend of mine in the pool we had left vacant. He liad killed four fish, and -was plajdng his fifth, which he also landed, and he took them all with a silver minnow. The jealous angler got nothing. 19 SOME IRISH ADYENTURES AND EXPERIENCES. What a terrible time we have had of it in Ireland since the foregoing- chapter was wi'itten. Gales of wind and deluges of ruin have followed each other with only short intervals of a few hours between, and the rivers have been, tiu'ned into raging torrents. For seven successive daya angling had — up to Saturday — been quite out of the ques- tion, when a neighbour of mine beguiled me into accom- panying him to a mountain-fed river from which the flood runs oif in a few hours , and the fishing is good in the clear- ing water. After a week's enforced idleness the prospect of sport was pleasant, as was the fifteen-mile drive, in the keen morning air, on my friend's shooting car. We found the river had been over its banks, but the water had now fallen to a reasonable level — although still too hi^h — and no time was lost in getting a shelter for the horse and seek- ing the services of some attendant gossoon to carry our gaff and lunch. But no such gossoon could we find, and we discussed the situation seriously. My friend's car driver was a veritable Handy Andy — rejoicing in the name of Larry — and the idea of taking him with us and sending him back for the car when the day's work was done appeared to me to be the most sensible course to adopt, and I said so. "Ah!" replied my friend, "that would be all very well if we had anyone else ; but you don't know Larry or you wouldn't suggest it. No ; we must carry our packs and let him pick us up at the footbridge eight miles lower down in the cA-ening." This was so arranged, and many and explicit were the details given to Larry to start at half- past four and follow the road straight down till he came to a bridge, and there await our coming. Away we went, with light hearts, and, with true Irish courtesy, my friend insisted upon my taking the lead — he would rather go home 20 without wetting a fly than have it othci-wise. So off we went, over the soddened boggy hind, from which hut a few liours before the flood had subsided, and it was lieavy going- I do assure you. The first two miles of Avater was all fish- able and fish it we did, without moving- a fin ; then we changed our flies, nK)])ped (nirselves, and admired each other's bog-besmeared legs — truth to tell, we honoured the toast of " Health to men and death to fishes.'' Then we went at it again, and floundered on, flogging- the water with redoubled energy, and spiritually inspired anticipations ! Another mile was thus passed, when a famous " carry " was reached, my friend assuring me that if we failed to score 'in this pool the prospects of a blank day were very much against us. But we did score — as I had good reason to repent hereafter — a twelve pounder accepted my line of invitation to lunch, without a moment's hesitation. He made a poor fight of it, as I was somewhat hard on him ; being anxious not to disturb the lower end of the pool. Having- grassed our first salmon, we lit our pipes, and wrangled as to Avhether I should fish the re- mainder of the pool, and let my host follow me, or whether he should first go over the water, as yet undis- turbed. My host was about the most obstinate of his counti'3'men that I ever met, and as he was moreover deaf to every argument, I went over the water first, in order to gratify his Quixotic courtesy towards a guest. Having fished it about as carelessly and badly as possible, I took a seat, relit my pipe, and waited my friend's arrival. He literally searched every inch of the water, and excited my admiration by the patient manner in which he tried every eddy, swirl, and resting- place Avherein an ui)ward bound fish might halt to take breath. From my elevated position the flies Avere easily watched as they danced Avith life-like motion, and Avhen the angler was en the point of lifting them a splendid fish rose and seized the dropper. There was a grand fight, but the result Avas — bar accidents — ncA'er in doubt, and in a short quarter of an hour a Avell-fed, but someAvhat red, scA'enteen pounder receiA'ed his quietus by being- ignominiously thumped on the head with a lump of 21 rock. We shiug- our fish, head aud tail after a brief rest, and hung- them across our shoulders, then we squelched on, throiigh the sponge-like sodden ground, and followed the snake-like windings of that river for a few more miles with- out anything- to vary the monotony except the difficulty of getting' across intervening ditches, clambering' over stone walls, and torcing oneself through blackthorn hedges. How we did enjoy ourselves I But this kind of thing is very satisfying;, and when we had kept it up 'till between two and three o'clock — after five hours' tramping — it was carried imanimously that all the edibles and drinkables in our fi.sh- ing bags should be disposed of. We did justice to the frugal fare, and wished there had been more of it ; Ave did ditto by our flasks, and expressed our mutual disgust at the small capacity of those " wretched things" ; then w.^ had another pipe. How far was it to the bridge ? Oh ! about another four miles, if we followed the Avindings of the river, and that was the best way. I began to think that twelve pounder was not such a good-looking fish as he appeared to be Avhen first I slung- him round my neck. Four miles more, floundering' OA'er boo-o-y oround, canviii": that fish, with a salmon rod and gaft', and a fishing bag' to boot, was not a pleasant prospect, but it had to be done, so on Ave Avent. Here and there, at likely pools I had a few casts, more for the sake of a rest than anything else, and finally, after two hours' hard plodding, Ave reached our trysting- place, the footbridge across the ri\'er. I was fairly done up, and my host, a AvJry fellow, sank down by the roadside, under the load of his seventeen pounder and a bi<>' rod, and groaned out "Where is that blackguard Larry, and the car y" Where, indeed ; Ave were too much pumped out to trouble much at first — it was barely five o'clock — • but soon it began to spit with rain, and an ominous black cloud spread its mantle across the sky, and at half-past five it Avas almost dark, and the rain coming doAvn pretty smaitly. Still no signs of Larry and his car! AVe were sixteen miles from home and the nearest village Avas tei^ miles aAA-ay, in the opposite direction- — -where could that rascally felloAv be ? Perhaps he had passed the bridge and 22 gone lower down ; but presently a man came along that road and no car liad been seen, so we, having waited an Lour in the rain, eventually shoulder our loads and go in search of Larry, "VVe left him eight miles from this spot, and I will leave to my reader's imagination the horrors of that eight mile walk back. I begged a drink of milk at a cabin, half way on the road, and gave the owner of the hovel my salmon for the refreshing draught. I never was so dis- gusted with a fish in my life as I was with that wretched twelve pounder; he got heavier and awkwarder every mile I carried the wretched thing ; and I never gave away a fish with greater pleasure ! My friend sweltered along under his load, and resolutely refused to part with it ; but he did suggest that now I had got rid of my fish we might carry his seventeen pounder between us, turn and turn about ! My reply was not, perhaps, very courteous, but it was very emphatic, and left no room for misunderstanding as to my intentions on the subject. It still rained steadily, and it had now become very dark ; the road was dreadfully rough, and was overgrown with trees, but we blundered along, keeping up a duet of abuse of that vagabond Larry. Another roadside cabin afforded us a temporary rest and shelter from the rain, and this time we get from our hospitable host a share of his supper of potatoes and butter^ milk, seasoned with a sensation of the wine of the country. Here we left the seventeen pounder in exchange for the kindness and hospitality — and the good housewife was much distressed at the idea of our making any payment, even in kind. Between ten and eleven we reached the cabin where we left Larry and our car, and from the cow-shed, where the horse is stabled, comes the twinkle of a candle and the invigorating strains of a tin whistle giving the air of " Paddy Flynn's Wedding," with a high pressure gusto that stirred m}^ companion to fury. Yes, there was Larry, on a heap of straw, with a lighted candle from the car lamp, having a musical evening all to himself, and apparently enjoying it thoroughly ! " Why didn't you come down to the bridge eight miles 'beyant,' as I'd told ye, ye vaga- bond?" roared my host, as he seized the gossoon and shook liiin us a terrier woiild shake a rat. Larry, between liis cutHiigs and shakings, managed to protest that lie did not know the way, and my friend, pausing for breath, and iolding- him at arm's lengtli, said, " What sliall I (hj with the scoundrel)'" "Give him one for me," I replied, and he got such another shaking up as he is not likely to forget, and then he was flung upon the straw bellowing like a mad bull, and invoking all the holy saints to come and save him. We got the horse in the car and drove home, leaving: Larry to get back as best he might, and it was in the small hours ntly lying. When our approach was signalled, no 2G -; nidne ; of pseudimago and imago, and other creatures with terrible names, to the utter bewilderment of the wet fly-men ! But my present purpose is not to discuss either the scientific attainments of the one class or the hard- headed obduracy of the other. Every wet fly trout fisher- man that I have come across in my travels has admitted his desire to learn the art of casting and fishing a dry fly up-stream. I verily believe that to do this successfully is the ambition of nearly every man who waelds a trout rod for sport and recreation. This being so, need we feel sur- prised at the flutter of excitement which was caused amongst the disciples of old Isaac by the announcement that by simply painting your fly Avith petroleum the said fly would " float like a hay-stack." There is a vast deal more to learn in dry fly-fishing- than the mere floating of your fly ; but that is the initial difficulty with the noble army of duffers : and the ]iaraffin " discovery " was hailed by them with delight. Even some of us who claim to have passed the duffer stage thought this petroleum business would save us a lot of labour in the drying of sedges, big wickhams and other large flies, which are resorted to in those precious moments of the late evening rise. But, alas I my experiments with flies painted, and flies soaked 30 in paruttiu, do iiut cunliim tlie wouderful " discovery " as to its fioating'i properties. I am sorry, honestly sorry, to have to condemn this bogus story of the " floating hay-stack." My experiments extended over tliree whole weeks' fisliing, iu the which I used quite fifty or sixty different flies, some soaked and others painted with the oil, and the trout shook their heads violently at these nasty flavoured morsels of fur and feather ! At flrst I fancied that perfectly new flies floated the Letter for being treated with ])etroleum, but upon actual test, the new fly was found to keep above water quite as long as the others that were oiled. Those of us who use eyed hooks usually accumulate a goodly number of big g-overnors, coachmen, alders, and such like flies that have lost their floating powers through the natural oil on the feathers being washed out by much use. I carefully treated a lot of these old servants to the paraffin process, and confess that my disappointment at the results was great^ — the flies went down like stones ! So much for the promised " revolution in dry fly-fishing " — it has not come yet ! If this so-called discovery had done all that its inventors claimed for it, the pupil in dry fly-fishing; would still have much to learn. If some one would invent an automatic winding winch, that would keep a tight line as the floating fly comes down stream, then might the noble army of duffers rejoice, for then, and not till then, will they catch fish! Vaseline applied to the body and hackles — ^but not the wings — ^is far superior to petroleum, but I only use it for the big absorbent bodied flies. Yaseline is far and away the best stuff to put upon your winch line in dry fly-fishing, but 13 am compelled to admit that it is ruinous to silk lines. I don't profess to explain the why or the wherefore, but the fact remains that I have used up four new winch lines during the three seasons that I have employed vaseline upon them. And yet I go on using it, because one dressing ^^dll last a whole day, which is more than can be said of deer's fat, or any other lubricant with which I am acquainted. Lines ought not to be greased for wet fly work, either for salmon or trout, as it fishes the flies too near the surface. No doubt we dry £3^-111011 are too mucli wedded to our system, because trout will often take a suuk fly when tlie river is perfectly dead, and when the superficial observer would declare that there was not a fish in the water. AVe all know this to be true, and yet Ave go on casting dry flies that the trout refuse to look at ! The real explanation of this weakness — for it is a weakness — on the part of the dry fly- men is to be found in the fact that when once the art ot floating a fly is acquired, down-stream fishing ceases to have any attractions. But the " chuck-and-chance-it " man occasionally has the laugh on his side, and this was the case last Saturday, when two of our professors of the " fine art'^ went home with empty baskets, and a " canny Scot " wiped their eye with a brace and a half of good fish ! The catching of trout with a floating- artificial fly, cast up stream, is a comparatively modern art, and by common consent it is admitted to be alike the most artistic and scientific method of angling. There can be no doubt that occasionalh' a floating fly was iised by our grandfathers^ because some of the old writers speak of allo^^ing a fly to float down stream under bushes as being a very deadly method ; but this was called " shade fishing," and those old anglers who practised it would never have believed it possible to catch trout in a blazing sunshine, on a calm sur- face, as smooth and brilliant as a mirror. That is what the modern drv flv-men now do, using* g-ossamer g'ut and microscopic flies ; and I have killed many a lusty trout in the Dale that dear old Isaac Walton loved so well, under these conditions. Although my dry fly-fisliing has extended over the past quarter of a century, I am by nO' means disposed to speak slightingly of those brothers of the craft who fish with sunk flies down stream. It is the fashion amongst some men to call them the "chuck-and- chance-it " school of anglers, but on the fast rivers of the North they would " wipe the eye '" of these scoffers. For dry fly work a short, light rod is necessary, and the lighter the rod — consistent with rigidity — the more delicate will be the casting and the greater will be the chances of sport. The best part of my own fishing is done with a ten- '62 foot two-jointed rod, ■weighing- seven ounces, and this is the class oi weapon which finds the greatest favour amongst the most skilful exponents of the dry fly art. As to the merits of sj)lit cane over other Avoods for this style of fishing, there can be no two o})ini()ns, because the glued up rod can be made both exquisitely light and delicate in handling, and yet combine the spring and rigidity of a bar of finely- tempered steel. The great merit of the split cane top is its quick return, i.e., its quick response to the strike, which is of vital importance in dry fly fishing. The tyro should seek the assistance of an old hand in selecting a rod and line suitable to his own height and strength, and to each other, and, when he has obtained these, should avoid change, except for some very great improve- ment. A light cane-built rod and a tapered silk line make a day's casting far less arduous than formerly. The common fault of the costly English cane-built rods is that the}^ are too massive and too clumsy for delicate cast- ing and safe striking, especiallj' where xxx drawn gut is being used. The cheap American split-cane rods err on the other side, being too " soft " (whippy) for this method of fishing. But one of my Yankee rods, that had no more backbone in it than a caterpillar, was converted into a first-class dry fly weapon by Messrs. Foster's steel wire binding process. From being a floppy, weak thing, which the fish played with when hooked, Messrs. Foster converted it into a rod with which I can now cast a long line in the teeth of a doAvn stream wind. Several of my friends have had their rods similarly treated, and all with equally good results. A perfectly balanced trout rod is an absolute necessity to the casting of a dry fly delicately, the slightest top- heaviness being fatal to dropping the fly as lightly as a thistle-down upon the water. A double-tapered winch line of " medium " thickness, and a reel that will enable you to balance the rod on one finger in the middle of the cork handle are the correct things. Do not use more than four feet of gut to begin with, and let the cast commence with stout, natural gut, tapi'iing' down to the finest drawn for the two hottoni links. Loii<>- casts are a mistake if yoii ean throw a fly jjroperly. Various recipes inv given for making' the winch line float and so keeping- the fl}' fi'om drowning', but there is nothing that w ill at all com2)are with vaseline. Carry a little vestas box or bottle of this stuff in jowv pocket and anoint so much of 3'our reel line as is used in casting. A little vaseline put upon your fly before using it will greatly increase its buoyancy, and this treatment is far superior to the use of petroleum, which some persons use and recommend to others. The "inventor" of the vaseline process was Mr. A. C. Baker, of the " Sporting and Dramatic " staff, and we fishers of the dry fly owe him a debt of gratitude for his dis- covery. It wall rejuvenate an old fly and make it equal to new ; and it is especially valuable in the case of large- A\anged May-flies and late evening fishing. Having thus fully equipped the fisherman, let him turn his head up stream, and if he has choice of both banks he should choose the " weather " side, as giving him the advan- tage of tlie wind at his back in casting. Trout are always to be found waiting near the bank on the lee side of the stream for the flies that are blown over. The most successful dry fly-men all cast underhand, using only the wrist action in drying the fly, and delivering the cast with the forearm below the elbow. This delivery should be done with an upward movement, so tliat the fly drops of its own weight gently on the water and does not strike it with any of the force used in casting. On this method of delivery mainly depends the success of the dry fly fisherman, and I know a great many men who scare all the fish they cast for by neglecting to cultivate the knack of letting their fly fall on the water instead of throwing it there. Another common fault amongst this noble army of duffers is the besetting sin of casting too long a line. As soon as the fly falls on the stream it begins to float downi to- wards the man at the wheel, and the line must be shortened as it comes down, or there will be some slack between the fly and the rod top. AYhere such is the case you will miss every rising- iisli, and blame everytliing and everybody except yourself. M}' method of shortening- the line as the fly floats towards- me is to gather in the slack on the thumb and little finger of my left hand, holding the rod horizontally in front of me in my i-ight hand. By this method there is always a tight line, and the risk of missing- a hsh is very small indeed, if he really touches the fly. Some of those writers who pro- fess to teach dry fly fishing, say the line should be tightened by raising the rod top, but the fly cannot be fished properly more than a few feet by that obsolete method, Avhereaa it can be made to "fish" close up to the angler's feet by my method of using both hands. The casting of your fly lightly and the keeping of a tight line are two of the most vital points to be observed, and the third is to float your fly down stream naturally, without the slightest " drag " on the cast. If the finest gossamer gut pulls across the current it makes a tiny ripple which the trout detect. That is why so many men wade when fishing dry fly ; in fact it is im- possible to fish a floating fly properly in some places with- out wading. On a chalk stream which I haunt there is a broad, shallow pool in the village which teems with trout, but it is an utter waste of time to try for them from either of the sides. The fish are incessantly cast over by Cockney anglers, who never by any chance succeed in catching one of these trout, and yet I have seen a dry-fly man, whea the duffers gave up, walk in at the tail of the pool, after hours of useless flogging, and kill a couple of brace without moving from one spot. Of course it takes a past master of the art to do that kind of thing, and it also takes a cast of xsx drawn gut and a ooo midge for the purpose. Speak- ing of midges, reminds me to say in this connection, that a wee Badger hackle, ooo size, with silver tag, has proved the most deadly fly in my hands that I have ever fished with. It beats all the winged black gnats that were ever tied, and, in spite of its small size, it floats splendidly when vaselined. To become a successful dry fly fisherman it is necessary to be something of a naturalist, because the man who knows most about flies invariably kills the most fish. But there 35 are some men who manage to get their share of trout with- out troubling- themselves about the study of minute insect life. For myself, this study constitutes the chief charm of angling, and to master the life's history of all the teeming- insects with which a trout stream abounds, is one of the most delightful studies that an angler can devote himself to. Sometimes I am disposed to think that we fishers of the floating fly are getting far too scientific and far too fastidious about fishing only with flies that are absolutely true to nature and the exact counterpart of the fly that happens to be upon the water. Of course, there are times when the fish are feeding upon some particular member of the ephemera family that they will not look at anytliing «lse, but it IS doubtful whether the man who disregards nature and uses only fancy patterns would not in the long run kill as many fish as the scientific angler. This is little short of rank heresy, I know, but it is the result of my own experience, especially upon water that is very much fished. As to the advantages of eyed hooks for floating flies, there is no room for discussion ; and although it took some time to convert me to their use, I would not use snooded hooks again if anyone would supply them free of cost. Upon the relative merits of turned up and turned •down eyes for floaters there is much difference of opinion, but I am inclined to give the down turned eyes the pre- ference, both for a straight pull and a cocked fly. In this liook you get all the weight of metal in head and barb below the water, and it acts as ballast to keep the fly upright on the surface. Considerable importance is attached to the cocking of the fly when it alights on the water, and those who find them- selves unable to acquire this knack should give up the use of winged flies and adopt hackled quills. I used them very successfully for several seasons, and found them kill even Letter without wings than with them. But the diflScultv of getting natural hackles of the correct shades, to match the various duns, drove me back at last to the orthodox split- winged flies, except for midges. 3G It is much more difficult to cock u fly on the water by overhand casting than it is by the underhand process, for the reason that you tlirow the fly slig^htly u})wards from the water b}^ the latter method, and in falling it comes down by natural gravitation, wings uppermost, like a shuttlecock. Some men adopt the rule of never casting until they find {• feeding fish, but this is a great mistake, because you can often rise a trout by casting in likely places, and I never pass them over. Keep out of sight is one of the golden maxims to be observed ; and never cast your fly across the river if you can get it up stream, is another golden rul« which no one can disregard and become a successful fisht^r- maii. Some exponents of the dry fly art carry this self- effacement to th extent of crawling about on their stomachs with kneecaps on, but these gymnastic performances are not. in ni}' experience, necessary to the catching of tnmt, although they may be very interesting to the spectators. Dry fly-fishing seldom kills well in the early part of the season, except upon those streams which produce a con- siderable amount of surface food in the months of March and April. On the chalk stream where most of my dry fly work is done, I seldom succeed in catching a basket of irout before the month of May — but there have been excep- tions to this rule. Curiously enough, these exceptions have usually resulted from the use of a floating March Brown, although the river in question does not produce this fly, and the fish have not even seen the natural insect. Upon the question of flies, I would strongly urge the beginner not to start with too many varieties. With some trepidation I recommend the following short selection : Olive Duns, dark, medium, and pale ; Ginger and Red Quill Gnats Alders, Governors, Sedges, March Browns, and Badger Hackle Midges. Every dry fly-man would be sure to declare that the list was not sufficient — that some of the best flies were omitted — but the beginner need not be afraid to meet his enemy at the river side with the above stock in his fly-box. He will be able to add to them as he gains experience, but the foregoing flies will kill trout wherever thev are to be found. 37 In conclusion, just ii few hints upon that most important subject oi cutting your fly under overhanging trees and i-usiies. This is very easy when you know how — like a good many other things — but you must do it underhand. If there is a fish feeding close in to the bank, and he is shaded by a bush or a branch, get out the requisite length of line to cover him, swing it to and fro to get the correct aim, and when you make the forward cast, do so before the line gets fully extended behind you. The effect will be to " belly " the line, from which bow the fly will shoot forward after the " belly " has got beneath the branch. This dodge is of the utmost value to the dry fly-man, and the tyro should practise it without putting a fly on, otherwise the process of learning may prove both costly and discouraging. 38 GWEEDORE, CO. DONEGAL. It is ix far cry from London to Gweedore, the " ultima thnle " of the wandering angler, and I undertook it with many grave misgivings. To begin ^\'ith, my chum was a bad sailor, and he stipulated that we should travel via Stran- raer and Larne, involving twelve mortal hours in the train from Euston station. We travelled on a Friday, and the proverbial bad luck of that daj attended us from start to finish. The engine broke an axle at three o'clock in the morning, as we were approaching Carlisle, and the result was six hours' delay ! When, finally, we reached Belfast on Saturday evening, the last tiain to Londonderry had gone, and there were no Sunday trains on the line from 'Derry to Letterkenny, which was to be our first halting place. The Belfast station-master cancelled our circular tourists' tickets, returned us our money, and sent us round by way of Dundalk to Strabane. We arrived there at dusk, and, hiring an outside car, started on a thirty mile drive to Letterkenney, where we arrived close on midnight. To say that we were worn out and weary, would not do justice to our condition — we were worse than that. Miss Haggerty was a mother to us, and her pretty little hotel furnished forth its best for our comfort and consolation, late as it was. I shall always cherish pleasant memories of this kind lady, and the solicitude which she showed towards us. Nothing more home-like and comfortable have I ever met with — and I have travelled round the whole world. Letter- kenney is situated at the upper end of Lough Swilly, and there good fishing abounds in this locality ; but we had made up our minds to "do" Donegal, and my chum was deaf to all suggestions that we should break our journey and explore the angling resources of Letterkenney. And thus it happened that, after an early breakfast, we started o O ^ 39 on an outside car for that memorable drive over the high- lands of Ireland to Gweedore. For rugged barrenness and utter waste of rocky desolation, I doubt if anything in the United Kingdom can be found to approach what we met with in this long drive. Let me here explain that an " Irish mile " is in reality, about equal to a mile and a quarter by oui" English measure- ment — one of the few national institutions which have escaped the reforming hand of "Saxon" ofKcialism ! This drive of thirty Irish miles, over the Donegal moun- tains, takes the traveller through the wildest and most desolate portion of Ireland. There is too much of it for one day's journey, but our car-driver intimated his intention of making the return journey that same night. These Irish car horses are made to do journeys which would not be attemj.teU by an English driver. AVe eased our poor beast by walking some of the steepest bits of road, and even then our horse was knocked up when we were five mile.^ short of our destination. Lough Veagh, shown in our picture of the " Poison Glen," is a very pretty piece of trout water, but the fish it contains are only small " brownies," that are white-fleshed, and not particularly good eating. Xt th(! bead of this valley stands a beautiful mansion erected by the late Mr. Adair. There is a police barracks at our end of the lake ; and when we express astonish- ment to find such an establishment in this desolate wilder- ness, we are reminded of the fierce conflicts which occurred between Mr. Adair and his evicted tenants. He cleared the whole countiy - side of its scattered population, and the peasants ruthlessly retaliated by murdering his agents. After some very stiff climbing, we eventually emerged from a gorge where the Loughs Dunlewy and Nacung spread out before us bathed in the golden rays of the setting sun. This view was exceedingly beautiful, and, tired as we were, we loitered to note the chief points of interest in this pan- orama. I'pon arrival at Gweedore Hotel we were calmly informed tlat there was no bedroom disengaged ! As we had engaged our bedrooms ten days in advance, and had wired from Belfast advising the hotel people of our cominii;, 40 we were cDiisiderubly annoyed. But tliis was only tlie beginning of our annoyances — there were worse ones, from an angler's point of view, to follow. By dint of much plead- ing, we were eventually ])rovided with a shake-down in the wash-house, an out building, where washing operations had that day been carried on. But for the strong smell of suds, and the presence of a hen with a brood of chirks, we might have grumbled less, and slept better. As it was, we spent a ghastly night, and rose unrefreshed with splitting head- aches. My chum declared that he would clear out at once and go on to Carrick or the Glenties — anywhere out of this wash-house, with its suds, its chicken, and its fleas. After a frugal cup of coffee and a scrap of dry toast, he sought the manager, and requested to be furnished with our bill and also to be supplied with a car. But the manager blandly replied that our car had gone back, that there was no car kept at the hotel, and that we should have to wait imtil some fresh guest arrived before we could get away. What mj chum said upon hearing this can be better imagined than de- scribed. I was exceedingly rejoiced to find that we were not — after this journey of 500 miles — going away without exploring the ajigling resources of Gweedore and its sur- roundings. To begin with, we made up our minds to re- connoitre the ground and decide upon our plan of action afterwards. We had seen the previous evening that there were two loughs to the south of the hotel, connected with each other by a narrow channel, and we had also noted that from these loughs flowed the Clady river. It was to fish this river for salmon and sea trout that we had journeyed these 500 miles, and when we went, on this black Monday morning, to prospect the stream, what we found will be seen in our picture of the " Salmon Ladder at Gweedore." Yes, the river was almost dried up, and the chances of getting a fish were hopeless ! And yet I had been beguiled into undertaking this journey by the statement that " The river is in good order, and there is a fair stock of salmon and sea troiit." When we looked upon that salmon ladder, as de- picted in our illustration, my chum gave vent to his feelings in strong language. But we really got some pretty sport f c 41 attiT ;ill, and, what was more, we spent a very pleasant ten d;iys at (iweedoie. Of course, salmon fishing was out of the (question, and although we did waste one w^hole day in vain attempts to get a " fish" by trolling on the Lough, we devoted ourselves mainly to the sea trout pool at the mouth of the Clady river. This pool is tidal, but the sea trout crowd into it, waiting for a flush of fresh water to enable tliem to run up the river. Should you ever journey to this " ultima thule " of the wandering fisherman, the village of Bunbeg, you will there find this ideal sea-trout pool. And, " by the same token," you are ver}' likely to find there — at least we did— a very charming and skilful lady angler, in possession of the '" rock " cast. We had been told by the courteous agent for the lessee, that the " rule of the river" was to give up a cast after fishing it fifteen minutes, if any one else claimed it. We had the " rock " cast — which was the best — and the ])ool being tidal it teemed with sea-trout. They literally jumped over each other's backs after the fly — a small Alex- andra — and the fun w^as fast and furious. How lim^:^ this fun had lasted is doubtful — probably more than an hour, for there were four lovely brace of sea-trout upon the sward — when we suddenly became aware that a lady angler, with her attendant, were sitting on the rocks above us, M-aiting for her reversion in the " rock cast." Gathering up our catch, we retired with as good a grace as could be expected of men leaving a pool full of sea-trout tiiat rose with a bany; and fouo-ht like demons. But we made our way to a cast above — in a deep gorge — and there brought u]) our score to ten brace, weighing 251b. The lady at the rock ])()ol did equally well; in fact, she beat us, in >]iite of our starting with four brace to the good. But she fished with a light double-handed rod, and used three flies, whilst we had been using a ten-foot 7oz. split cane, with onlv one The fair sex are swelling the already overcrowded ranks of fly-fishers, to the great annoyance of the ''old sciiool " of anglers, who fuss and fume at the sight of a petticoat by the riverside, and declare that " a woman's place is at home, 42 sir." We have happily outlived this stupid nonsense. Every season adds to the ranks of lady anglers, who not only catch fish, but who show that in delicacy of casting, keenness for sport, and readiness of resource in moments of emero'cncy, they can hold their own against their egotisti- cal so-called " lords and masters." And those moments of emergency are by no means infrequent when the lady happens to be fishing for sea-trout, because they are amongst the gamest fish that swim, and they take nearly as much killing as a cat. The estuaries of all the Donegal rivers frecpiented by these fish are swarming with them - — ■ only waiting for freshets to induce them to run up In the salt water they will take small spoons, silver Devon minnows, and the arti- ficial sand eels, but sea - trout are very tender - mouthed creatures, and they fight so furiously, that a great many are lost when spinning is resorted to. Most of the stock flies dressed by the tackle makers for sea-trout are much too large and much too coarse for low and clear-water fishing. In fact, some of the patterns are apparently intended to frighten the fish out on to the bank. One of the best baskets of sea-trout that ever fell to our rod was killed on a dark olive dun, with quilled body, ribbed gold. If any of my angling readers have never enjoyed the splendid sport of sea-trout fishing, let them lose no time in repairing their (icficiency, either in loch or river, even if they have t. journey to the Hebrides in order to do so. Although these fish usually take with a rush in fast water, they often rise very gingerly in lochs, and Mill follow the fly some distance ■without touching. We had some good fun with the small brown trout, which teem in incredible numbers in both the Loughs which feed the Clady river. One evening we had an exciting bit of sport on the lower Lough. The day had been too bright and calm for sport. The sun had gone down in a blaze of fiery red, lighting up the western sky in billowy masses of golden glory. We had ceased fishing in order to watch the panoramic changes of this gloiious sunset — much to the disgust of our boatman. "Isn't it a magnificent sight?" I asked him enthusiastically. "Aye, 43 aye," lie replied, "maybe, but there's a rise away by tlie rushes there " — indicating a short cast on my left. More to mollify him than with any intention of trying for a fish, the fl}' was dropped on the spot indicated, and there came a dimple such as would be made from the rise of a three- ounce " brownie." Striking lazily, the effect was like that of a match applied to a rocket. " By jove ! you're into a whacker," exclaimed my friend, as the fish tore the line off the reel, and the boatman rowed madly in pursuit. It was a grand burst, followed by a succession of skittering leaps along the surface of the water, showing us that we had a sea-trout on that would take a lot of killing. Without a wink of warning he came straight at the boat, and underneath it he went in spite of all attempts to turn him. But he reckoned without his host, for the rod was dipped around the stern and the line went clear of the keel — barring accidents his fate was now sealed. " He's a wild deil," sajs our boatman, as the fish makes another ugly rush and throws a somersault out of the water, and I catch a muttered malediction upon the folly of people going out "fushin' with childer's playthings." This in reference to my wee ten-foot of split cane. But the wild fury of the hooked fish was too great to last, and although the fight was a stubborn one, the little rod eventually won, and we lifted into the boat a lovely 51b. sea-trout as bright as burnished silver. The time taken up in killing him, however, had somewhat soured our attendant, and he cut short our admiration of the fish by telling us that " there are more of them waiting to be caught if ye would only go on fushin'." Thus rebuked, we hurriedly per- formed those pagan rights which all true anglers observe upon such occasions, and set ourselves seriously to making th(? most of the last half-hour of daylight. A couple of liTown trout were all that rewarded our efPorts with the fly, so mounting the minnows we trolled home. My companion had the good luck to kill a 61b. grilse within a hundred yards of our destination, and we thus went to our homely qiigrteis well pleased with our evening's sport and at peace with all mankind. 44 The acompanying' illustration shows a quiet corner of Louj^h Dunlewey, Avith Blount Erij>al looming- in the back- gTound. This is the highest mountain in Irehmd, and the Donegal folk think a lot of Mount Erigal. One of the places of interest which the visitor to Gweedo.'e ought not to miss seeing is Skull Island, It is close to the sea-trout ])ool already referred to, and you ran reach the island wit'iout getting wet-footed at low tide. The island is simply a mound of sand, lying off the harbour of Bunbeo' ; which villao-e is three Irish miles from the Gweeiloi-e Hotel. That is a somewhat comjjl^x sentence, but the information it contains Avill be useful to intending visitors. And we ^d\l now get back to Skull Island and its human bones. The loose sand is here literally full of human remains, and A\e duu' up skulls and other bones Avith our landing-net handles close to the surlace. No one appears to know anything about the history of this singular deposit. The popular belief, amongst the natives, is that these bleached bones are the remains of the thousands who perished on this coast in the wrecked Spanish Armada. There is excellent sea-fishing at Bunbeg, but there is great difficulty in obtaining the use of a boat for the piu*- pose. By the Avay, I may mention that the cost of a boat and man on the Loughs is only five shillings per day, l)ut the OAvners of the hotel are also the owners of the fishing, and they booked us a guinea apiece for salmon licenses. This we refused to pay, because we already possessed licenses. The hotel charges were reasonable — ten shillings per day — the fare was plain and plentiful, but the accommodation could not be called luxurious. The flies Avitli which I killed best were olive duns, on PenuelFs No. 1 hooks, Wickham's fancy, and Alexandras, on No. 2 hooks. For salmon, the flies used are small, and all the standard patterns will kill, provided the size is proportionate to the height of water. Of the fishing in the loughs there is not much to be said ; they teem with AVTetched little brown trout — ^locally called "Jen- 45 kins " — and you might fill a pail with, these small creatures if so disposed. I did get a two-pound sea-trout in the lower lake, on small quill gnat, but that was the only exception to the small run of " Jenkins."" Trolling in the upper lough is said to yield a salmon now and then, but we verified this information, and the trout taken when spinning were none over half a pound. Late autumn is about the best of the time in which to visit Donegal, but most anglers go there in the latter end of August and the early part of September. There is another very pretty lough not far fi'oni the Gweedore Hotel, where fishing can be had fi'ee for the asking ; and as the trout there run to a better size, it is a place worth visiting. The name escapes my recollection at this moment. Leaving Gweedore and going westward, the wandering angler can coast round on the mail cars and get somo fishing at almost every village he comes to, with accom- modation varying fi'om fair to very good. Yoiir journey, to begin -u-ith will take you through the Rosses to Dun- gloe, some fourteen miles, and there will be found a little river, with a lough at its head, and a temperance hotel, clean and comfortable. As there are sea-trout to be caught here when the river is in tune, by all means break your journey and try your luck. This little town stands on the seashore, but here, as elsewhere around the coast, the "harvest of the sea" is unreaped for the wont of boat and nets. The next village where fishing is to be got is Gwee- barra, with its long tidal estuary of soft sand : but the accommodation here is shady, and a prolonged stay is not desirable. The surroundings of this quaint little village are of the wildest and most desolate character, and the total absence of vegetation adds greatly to the rugged desolation of the place. But there is a capital river, and the sea-trouting is excellent therefore the angler will not mind roughing it for the sake of sport. You must obtain permission to fish from the agent in the village. The next halting place on the journey round the coast is Glenties, where a fairly comfortable inn will afford you 4G all thai a IVug'al-iiiiiult'd ani^k-r iici'tLj in tlu^ way <>f crea- ture c.Dmforts and a clean bed. Hero more trontiii^- can be liad for the asking'. On h>avin<^' this litth» town, the coiintiy through wliicli yon pass ini])roA'es soniewliat in fertility, and the beautiful Glen Gesh, which leads you to your next halting- phuie Ardara, is a g-len in which you would like to linger and idle away a few hours. There is plenty of fishing at Ardara in lakes, wliich abound. But we must push on, for the end of this stage will land you at Carrick, and you will there find yourselves in clover, at Musgrave's hotel. There is a meiiy little river here, runm'ug over a rugged bed composed of huge rocks and big- boulders, and the salmon leap is one of the sights of the place. But here, as elsewhere, around the Donegal coast, wet weather is absolutely necessary to sport, if you want auything better tnan "Jenkins." The bold sea- coast about Carrick adds greatly to the attractiveness of the place and there is splendid sea-fishing in addition to the angling afforded by the rivor. You can put in a week here, without wanting to leave it; and when you do tear yourself away, it will be with a full determination to come again. Killybegs is the next to^ii in which the wandering angler halts, but the fishing in the river there is poor by comparison with some places previously visited. This portion of the drive, however, from Carrick to Killybegs, and thence on to the old town of Donegal, will delight you. It is a " famine road "■ — -made to give relief to the distressed in the bad times — and it runs through lovely coast scenery, skirting the shore. As for old Donegal town, there is little beyond its antiquity to commend it to the angler's favour. But there is a river passing through the town itself, and form- ing the only outlet for the waters of Lough Eask. There are some disputes about the rights of fishing both upon lough and river at this place, but the Saxon visitor will be cordially welcomed, and need not trouble himself about the local squabbles. The fishing here is best in the late ^sumnler, as sea-trout are then plentiful, and their presence compensates for all other shortcomings. At Donegal town you again strike the railway — at least there is a station three miles out of the town — the money failed at that stage ! A word of advice in conclusion; burden youiself with as little luggage as possible, carry only one rod, avoid talking politics and as you value your peace of mind, never look into an Irish kitchen ! The way to see Ireland pro]:)erly is to discar;iiiyiiio- illustrations will aftoicl the readei- a veiv good idea of the magnitude of this splendid river weir the river is tidal, and salt water, at spring tides, forces its way up to the town, which is half a mile below the " cuts." These are salmon traps, which occupy the centre portion of the weir, a " queen's gap " being- the only s]iace left throuoh which ascending fish can escape the trap])prs. Below the weir, the fishing is free, but above this barrier the Bann Club charge a guinea per week for the right to fish. The weir-])ool and race are often crowded with fi'esh- run fish, and it is a good fly water, the best flies being the Dunkeld, Judge, and Silver Doctor. A narrow ])latfor7n, extends across the top of the weir, and the lessees of the "cuts" use this platform to enable them to net out the salmon which are captured in the traps. The number of fish thus taken is enormous, as mav be inferred from the fact that the lessees pay an annual rent of £5,000 for their rights. These tra})s are reall}^ square cages of lat- tice-work, into which the ascending salmon are able to enter, from whence they cannot escape. Upon the occa- sion of our inspecting these " cuts," my companion was fired with a desire to become the possessor of a grand twenty-pounder Avhich entered one of the traps Avhilst we were looking on. It was my chum's first salmon-fishing experience, and he had yet to catch his first fish. But the idea of sending home that splendid salmon, and allow the wife of his bosom to suppose he had caught it, took possession of his mind, and do it he would. Giving his card and a sovereign to the man in charge of the "cuts," my friend directed the fish to be sent to his address in Kent. My friend A^Tote, announcing to his wife the cap- o H ^ H 57 ture of a mag-uificeut salmon and telling her it was on its way to lier home. The clever little woman wrote an ecstatic letter, eulogising- the beauty of the fish and the prowess of her lord and master. And he fairly beamed with delight over this successful piece of deception; but Nemesis is sure, though slow of foot. That man at the " cuts " not only forwarded the fish, but he subsequently sent a note, explaining that he found that the sahnon did not Aveigh quite so much as they supposed, and he therefore enclosed 2s. 6d. in stamps, as change out of the sovereign ! The AA-ife kept this communication to herself until fully a week after her husband's return, and until he had involved him- self in a labyrinth of falsehood as to the full details of how he caught that first salmon. Then she gave him the letter and the stamps, and then he wanted to go straight off to the " cuts," at Coleraine, and pitch that wi'etched man over the weii% into the whirlpool below ! But, in justice to my chum, I must say that wdiat he told his w^fe about the catching of that fish was what happened when he really caught his first salmon. Only he did not tell her that it was only a poor little eight-pounder, nor did he say that he trembled so much with excitement that he could scarcely hold his rod and begged me to take it from his hands. He also omitted to mention that he went down on his knees before his prize as it laid upon the bank and stroked it lovingly, declaring it to be the very finest salmon he ever saw in his life ! A woman's first baby is not to be compared with a man's first sahnon. The free water between the weir and the town of Coleraine holds some very fine trout, but they are not much fished for, and, considering the size of the town, I was astonished at the absence of local anglers. We put up at the Cloth- workers' Arms during our stay, and were infliienced in doing so by the fact that some members of the Eoyal Irish Society were stopping at this house. I relied \ipon the sound judgment of these London Aldermen, and was not disappointed. This committee of the London Cor- poration come over once a year to inspect their possessions, 58 and to hear applications or representations from their tenants. I may here conveniently explain that the River Bann, from the sea to the lough from ^vhence it flows, is the property of the London Corporation. They lease the whole of the fishing rights to a limited liability company, of whom Mr. Moore is the managing director, the rent ])aid by the company amounting to £5,000 per annum. The company carry on all the- salmon netting and trapping themselves, but they have sublet the rod-fishing from Coleraine " cuts " to Portna Weir — about twenty miles — ■ to the Bann Angling Club. These gentlemen reserve the best portion for the Use of their own members, and issue weekly tickets at a guinea per week to strangers. Trout- fishing, from the bank, is free to all-comers ; and I know of no river in Ireland which produces such trout as the Bann, either for quantity, size, or quality. It is a slow liver, except in the vicinity of the weir, and a dry-fly trout fisherman will find it an ideal stream for the exer- cise of his scientific method of fishing. . Pale Olive Duns, Claret Spinners, Brown Sedges, of varying shades, Iron Blue Duns, Wickhams, and Black Gnats are amongst the best flies to be used as floaters. X r 59 THE BANN AT KILREA. AUTUMN ANGLING. Paraphrasing a well-woi^a adage let me preface nay remarks upon autumn fishing by sa;ying that none of it is bad, only some forms of it are better than others. Per- sonally, I have a predilection for the catching of freshly- run, autumn salmon, and I am prepared to join issue with all and sundry who speak contemptuously of this branch of our sport. It is not the capture of " potted " fish — as red as a copper coal-scuttle — that delights me ; it is those big, heavy fellows that I go for, who defer their return to fresh water until the autumn floods give them a clear course to their breeding grounds. There are not a great many Irish rivers which get this late run of clean fish, but I Icnow a few that do, and on these it has been my habit, for many years past, to wind up the back end of the fly- fishing season. With your gun to fall back on, when the river is running as thick as Dublin stout, there are snipe to be had for the asking in this hospitable island, wherever a bog exists — and where is the watershed that does not abound in bogs, and " snipes " ? Sea trout there are, too, in plenty ; if you only go to the right places ; but with the approach of October, I am satiated with the slaughter of " trouts," I want something more sub- stantial. With that craving for " fresh fields and pas- tures new," which is common to our craft, I have wan- dered from one river to another, in pursuit of autumn sport, but I always drift back to my old love, the Bann, and confess, with something akin to shame, that in run- ning after something better, I have — like the dog in the fable — grasped at the shadow and lost the substance. Taken all round, the Bann, from the middle of September 60 to the end of October, is one of the best rivers in Ireland for autumn salmon fishing. This river has a distinct run of late fish, heavy fellows, clean and full of fight. But rod fishing- now closes at the end of September. This Kilrea section of the river is the favourite location of those ang'lers who fish the ' guinea water," and as I have o]ily missed visiting it one season, out of the past sixteen years, I ought to know something about it. But first let me say, for the information of English anglers, that the very Avhen it reaches the ]a^t weir, at Coleraine. Helow this best route to the Bann is via Liverpool to Belfast, and thence by Northern Counties line. If you Avant to go to Loleraine, this is the direct route, and if you decide upon going to Kihea, book to Cullabackey from Belfast. The mail car will take you to Kilrea for half-a-crown., or you can charter a private car to carrj^ you the ten-mile drive for five shillings. After a long journey, by rail and sea, this drive on an " outside " car — taking care to sit on the left side — is most enjoyable. As you leave Culla- backey pull up on the bridge, and have a look at the course of the River Maine. It is an exceedingly pretty stream fi'oni this point up to Carryford, running through a richly wooded valley, and it holds some splendid trout, the fishino- beino- free. Later in the autumn the salmon come up fi'om Lough Neagh, and I have had fair sport in the Maine after rain, when the Bann was too high and too thick to fish. The scenery on the road to Kilrea will gratify both the eye and mind of an angler escaped from the toil and moil of City life, and the panorama of moor and moun- tain wjll amply compensate him for adopting this route instead of travelling to Kilrea by rail. Yes, you can do it by rail from Belfast, if jou possess your soul with suffi- cient patience, and can find any recreation either of mind or body in a weary railway journey. But you will save nothing — or next to nothing — in money by Avasting half a day in doing a train journey, which can be done in half the time by the Cullabackey road route. As regards quarters at Kilrea, to those who take their ease at their inn, there is the Mercers' Arms, newly rebuilt, where 61 Host K^rk will treat tliciii well, and make them comfort- able. I have always found a warm welcome with frugal farmhouse fare, and lovely beds to sleep on, at the foot of Kilrea Bridge. My old friends, John Blair and his wife, are there the ideal host and hostess of a wandering angler, who is content with such good things as a farm produces. The river is within a stone's throw of their house, and this is no small consideration to a man who is keen on sport, and who does not want to waste his time and strength by tramping to and from his quarters. John is a dear lover of fishing, and a goodly portion of his life has been spent beneath the shade of a beloved " sally-bush," with a big bunch.of worms on, waiting for one of those "bully trouts ' to gorge the tempting morsel. And there are such " trouts " in close proximity to Kihea Bridge, and John's " sally-bush," as would fire the imagination of any angler. Looking over the parapet of Kilrea Bridge — down stream — I have seen a score of big trout, ranging fi'om a poimd to four pounds apiece, sucking in Duns, from the surface, with a steady persistence that showed they were in earnest. The difficulty is to approach them in a boat, without put- ting them down, and when you hook one look out for squalls. I have seen them take fifty or sixty yards of line off the reel at one dash, and fight with all the stubborn resistance and sustained energy of a salmon. In fact, I played one of these three-pound trout on a light salmon rod and was so fully convinced I had a " fish on " that we went to the bank to gaff him. Although some of the Bann trouting can be done from the bank, a boat is leally necessary to enable you to command the best fish- ing. And you cannot use a boat unless you possess a guinea ticket for salmon fishing. These guinea tickets confer the right to fish for salmon and trout from a boat between Portna Weir and Movan- agher "Weir, a distance of about four miles, or it may be a little more. As the river is navigable, and the water is held back by these weirs, it follows that the stream is too slow for effective salmon-fly casting, but there are a few flv casts which invariably hold fish. Commencing- at 62 the upper extremity of the guinea water, at Portna Weir, our illustration of McCarroll, the lock kee})er, gaffing a salmon, gives us the first bit of " fly water." The break shown in the weir is a sabnon ladder, and running fish that are waiting to ascend it hang about in the easy water below on this side of the river ; the force of the stream being greater in the centre and on the; opposite shore. With a fairly good height of water, this quiet corner is always a safe find for a salmon; and the next bit of fly- water is from the "pier" down to the " Camlet," along the left bank of the river. There is a shallow bit along the eastern shore, after passing the " Camlet," which alwaj's holds fish in high water, and then you go through the arches of the bridge. From the post, in the river, opposite John Blair's '" sally-bush," will pay for fishing carefully with a fly, as there is a ridge which runs across the river's bed at this point, and the salmon rest behind it. This is locally called a " stank," which, being interpreted, means a wall. The Bann abounds in " stanks," and w^henever you come across one you may count with certainty upon finding a fish there ready to take a fly — that is, if there are fish going. Captain Armstrong's cast is a good bit of flj'-water, but there is not enough stream to make it duffers' work, and you must be able to manipulate a fly pretty fairly in order to score at this point. This is one of the first places on the guinea water which fish a fly after a flood, and a big Jock Scott will often yield a fish here before the porter tint has gone out of the water. The same remarks are true of the shallows beneath the wood, at Moor's Lodge, which is situate nearly at the lower end of our guinea water. It will be gathered from the fore- going that the Bann is not a first-class fly-fishing river for salmon, but to that noble army of duffers who do not disdain to troll a minnow or spoon, or even to "liarle " his salmon flies, this river is an ideal amateur angler's para- dise ! Without quite ranking myself as a duffer, I have found the Bann fishing good enough to tempt me, over a long period of years, and I hope yet to pay many more visits to the " Bann shore." 63 The <^lorioiis uncertainty of salmon fishing- is provei- bial, and therein lies one of its chief charms With water very low and stale, a scalding- snn, and an east wind, ^y& commenced operations last Saturday, an dirtiest slum of an Asiatic city, and make our way to the principal street which Limerick boasts. TVe must, of course, go to Cruez's hotel, and there present our credentials from that fiery patriot. Father Kelly. Although for historical interest Limeiick has a history second to no city in the United Kingdom, yet few relics of its famous past survive. King John's castle is in a ruinous state, but enough remains to show what a noble Norman stronghold it was, with its seven massive towers and high walls of vast strength and thickness. The stone on which, the famous treaty of capitulation of 1791 was signed stands on a pedestal by the river side, and, having seen this, and looked over the cathedral, we shall have exhausted the lions of the place. The chief characteristics of Limerick are high houses and dirt — the back streets liter- ally reek with filth. The return journey can be done by Tail — two trains each day — and the distance traversed, fifteen miles, is covered, on an average in a trifle under the liour — not bad work, that, for travelling on an Irish branch line. The fishing at Castleconnell may be said to commence at the World's End weir, and to end at the Doonas Falls. Within the recollection of living men, this two miles of water was free to all comers — so say the local Hampdens — but the adjoining owners of the soil have for years asserted their riparian rights, and fabulous rents for the fishing are now obtained. Our illustration shows the New Garden salmon pool, which is but a hundred yards from the hotel door, and this pool is about the centre of the Castleconnell fishing. The old man, in the foreground of the picture, is the blind ferryman, Dan Enright. He was, in his day, one of the best boatmen on the Shannon, but he lost his eyesight through the branch of an overhanging tree striking him in the face. Across the fierce stream of the river, to and fro, be plies, guiding his cot into a little bay cut out of the bank on either side, with unerring accuracy, and earnins; a 79 miserable pittance from the poor country folk who are his scanty customers. He was a very old man when I last saw him, and his recollections of famous men and women who had fished at Castleconnell, or been attracted there by the sylvan beauties of the place, are very entertaining, but, if you listened to them, you must be prepared to be told at the end that your entertainer w^as as poor as Lazarus. Poor old Dan, I pity you from my very soul in your life of per- petual darkness, and admire your christian spirit of resigna- tion and thankfulness, that has in it no shade of repinmg. " I used to grieve," the old man said, " when the spring came and I heard the boys tell how they had taken, may be, a thirty-five pounder on our water and me not seen it — but the Lord's will be done." Old Dan's post, when waiting cus- tomers, is close beside the famous ruins of an old castle built by one of the O'Brien's, king of Munster. This stronghold, perched high upon a huge pedestal of natural rock — and only approachable by a narrow path hewn out of the side — overlooks the river, and in the wars of William and James the strength of this fortress gave great trouble to the besiegers. 'Now let us follow the path by the river side down about a short mile to the rapids of Doonas, and you must confess that such a magnificent sight is worth a 500 mile journey. The accompanying illustration will convey some slight idea of this turljulent rapid where, hemmed in on both sides by rocky banks and overhanging trees, the river rushes in a foaming cataract for the length of a quarter of a mile, the enormous body of water pouring over huge masses of rock which impede its progress, and the noise of the rushing flood can be heard at a considerable distance. Lady Massy owns the adjacent land — an aged lady, living a solitary life, in a house falling to pieces with decay. In the midst of this tumbling cataract is a smooth piece of water behind a stupendous mass of rock, and in this slack water the salmon in their upward passage sometimes rest. This rock will be seen in our third illustration of the pool below Doonas fall. To kill a salmon on that rock tests to the utmost the skill of an angler, but it is done occasionally. 80 and tlie man who accomplishes it may fairly claim to have established his right to be considered a master of the art. I was very unfortunate in my choice of a visit to Castle- connell, for the fishing- was rascally bad, to say the least of it, and this was aggravated by the tricks of the people at the Killaloe weir. Some works were there in progress, and the waters rose and fell several feet in the course of each day. None the less my month on the Shannon was a verj^ pleasant one, and as a holiday it was very enjoyable. Fishing from a shallow cot, held in the fast, broken water by two men — one at stem and the other at the starn — armed with iron- shod punt poles is not easy work, and, truth to tell, the uneasy motion of the boat made my chum sea-sick, to begin with. The sight of huge salmon, from 201b. to 301b., rising in mid-stream, was too tempting to be resisted, and go for them he would, and did, regardless of "mal de mer." In the early part of the season, six inch blue phantom minnows account for most of the Shannon salmon, or big yellow flies, the size of a canary bird, containing about 10s. worth of gold pheasant toppings, are the correct thing. The water is so fast that the fly fishes itself and requires no " working," but cutting the flies (trailing) is a method much in vogue on this river. Our illustrations show three sections of the Shannon, from the pool opposite the village, down \o the easy water below the Doonas falls. C 5: 81 THE DAEENTH. This pretty little trout stream lias its source at AVester- haui, in a small lake upon ihe " Squerries " estate. T'lence it flows tlirougli Brasted Sundridge, Riverliead, Otford, Slioreliam, Eynsford, Farningliam, and Horton Kirby, eventually discliarging into tlie estuary of the Thames at Dartford. Various tributary springs help to swell the Tolunie of this little river, the principal contributions being derived from Brasted, Riverhead, Bradbom'ne Ponds, and Greatness Farm, in the lower end of Sevenoaks. Having regard to its size, there is no trout river in England so prolific as the Darenth. And it is equally true that in no river, of my acquaintance, are the trout so highly educated ! I have fished this Queen of southern trout streams for fully thirty years, and I love every turn of the happy valle}^ through which it flows. Thirty years is a big span to look back upon, and many men have come and gone in that period whose names and faces were once familiar as anglers on the Darenth. In that period, too, the various lengths of water that once were accessible have one by one been closed against the public and fancy rents are commanded for every scrap of fishing right now obtainable. The only open portions of the river that can now be fished, by day tickets, are at Dunton Green Mill, the " Plough " water, at Eynsford, the " Lion," at JFarningham, and the " Fighting Cocks," at Horton Kirby. Upon the principle that no trout fishing is bad, only some is better than others, I offer no expression of opinion as to the sport which any- one is likely to get for their half-crowns on these day ticket waters. There are some two or three exclusive clubs whose members possess the enviable right to fish certain well-stocked sections of the Darenth, but they would not thank me for q-oing into details. vSuffice it, the Darenth 82 fishing is becoming — indeed it has become — an expensive luxury, which is no longer within the reach of anyone save those blessed with long purses. If I have taken heavy toll from the Darenth — and I own to a basket of ten brace weighing 381b. — yet have I made ample and handsome restitution to the stream, in the way of restocking. For every fish that I have taken out of our little river I have certainly j)ut ten into it. This is the only way in which a good head of trout can be maintained in a stream so heavily fished, where ducks, swans, pike, and herons work their wicked wills upon the redds and amongst the young fry. I said something, in the foregoing, about the fine size and quality of the Darenth trout, and in proof of this assertion I may point to tTie fact that two trout have been captured within recent times — between Eynsford and Farningham — weigliing respectively 4flbs. and 81bs. llozs. They both died ignominious and inglo- rious deaths, at the hands of rustic poachers, but that fact is not recorded upon the glass cases in which thej' are en- shrined. Before passing away from the question of keeping up the stocJi of fish in our Kentish trout stream, let me say a word or two upon the havoc wrought of late years upon its trout by the pike. The Darenth is infested with pike, and the sooner this terrible fact is brought home to the upper riparian owners, the greater will be the chances of ridding the river of these pests. We are on the eve of the spawn- ing season, and some concerted efforts are necessary to secure the gravid pike and thus prevent them reproducing their species. Up to some six or seven years ago, no one ever heard of a jack being seen in this charming trout stream. There is no mystery surrounding the introduction of " Esox lucius." A pond, fed by springs at the source of the river in Westerham, maintained a few trout, but they did badly, the flow of water being very small. Some clever person persuaded the owner to put pike in the water, and he, knowing nothing of the habits of the "varmint," acted on the advice thus given. In three years the progeny of these imported pike had escaped from the pond, dropped 83 down stream, and distributed themselves along fully fifteen miles of the river ! Pike from six to eight pounds apiece are now common thi'oughout the whole course of the Darenth, and there are no end of smaller specimens — every holding pool has some of them. Unless a war of extermina- tion is declared against these creatures, trout fishing on the Darenth will be utterly and irretrievably ruined. To run a net through deep pools here and there, once in the season, killing fi'om fifteen to twenty pike, is all very w^ell, but it is utterly insufficient and I appeal to the riparian Owners and tenants of club waters to take up this question and do all that can be done by an unrelenting war to rid the Darenth of these vermin. What they will do in the way of damage to the trout is well exemplified by what has recently occurred within my own knowledge. A small back stream — no larger than a small ditch — and Hot a hundred yards long, contained a goodly stock of yearling trout. They were nice fish, ranging from six to seven inches long, and with the autumn floods they would, no doubt, have gone down to increase the stock in the river. But a wretched little pike, scarcely two pounds in weight, found his way into the nursery, and before his presence was discovered, the whole of the young stock were devoured ! When killed, this hungry pikelet had in his pouch a trout nearly one quarter of a pound weight ! To me, these facts are a source of deep concern, because I foresee that, failing prompt and vigorous action, trout fishing on the Darenth will be ruined. Artificial re-stocking may do something to counteract the ravages of the pike, but it is hopeless work to go on putting young trout in for these rapacious savages to eat. The recent floods have cleared the weed beds away, and a net could now be run through the river with ease. Why not do it? In a short length of less than half a mile of the Darenth five pike have been snared ranging from four pounds to eight pounds, in a few weeks ; and this fact is of itself, a strong proof that the state of affairs is indeed serious. For myself this condition of things is a source of grave anxiety, for I have done all that in me lies to increase the stock of trout, and 84 iuipruve the sport of those favoured anglers Avho are privi- leaeJ to fish the Darenth. But all our efforts in the direc- tioii of re-stoeldug- are wasted, so long- as the young trout are devoured by the insatiable pike. A war of extermin- ation against the common enemy is necessary, and it must be persistently maintained and unceasingly waged, if the sport of the trout angler on the Dareuth is to be kept uj) in the futiu'e. Another serious enemy to the trout in this stream are the herons. They are not numerous, but so sure as you turn in a lot of yearlings on some shallows, so surely will a heron make those shallows his feeding- ground. Where these birds come from is a mystery, because we have no heronry anywhere in the Darenth valley, so far as I am aware of. For weeks past we have been sorely troubled by the number of dead fish, upon the shallows of our Eynsford club water. But last Sunday morning I caught sight of the culprit — a huge heron standing knee-deep in the stream. I am not sure that a heron has got a knee, but that does not matter. This big bird flopped up clumsily, and, rising to a great height, sailed away over the hills to the w^est. I propose to save him the necessity of catching his own trout in future, by baiting some rabbit gins w^ith small fish. Kingfishers, like the herons, find their way to our trout nurseries, and what is more they come to stop, when they find their larder well stored. I know of three kingfishers nests upon our length of the Darenth this season, and I would not have them interfered with on an}^ account. They take toll of the trout fry, no doubt, but they eat more minnows than trout, and I do not begrudge them their share of our fish. What has always astonished me is the fact that none of the Kentish riparian owners have ever gone in for arti- ficial trout breeding. The needful apparatus cost next to nothing and, gi-\-en a constant supply of water, nature will do the rest. I once turned a thousand Loch Leven year- lings into the Eynsford length of this river, and they grew rapidly to half pound fish, retaining their white silvery So uppearuuce quite distinct from the Darentli brown trout. But when their third year came we had a big push of water doAvu, aud everyone of those Loch Levens went away with it to the sea. I know very well that some of my angling, naturalist friends will say that these Leven trout became assimilated to the native trout and thus became indistinguishable. It is an ingenious theory, but it will not hold water ; because I and others are able to fix the period of migration, and to prove that some of these fish Avere captured in the eel traps as they went away to the sea. I am not prepared to deny that Loch Levens when crossed with common brown trout, lose their distinctive characteristics, but once a pure Loch Leven, always a Loch Leven. Since the construction of the Darentli Valley main drainage system — with its outfall sewer laid beside the course of the river — there has been a marked decrease in the volume of water in the stream. This has, in turn, affected the fishing prejudicially, by making the trout more shy and difiicult to approach, upon the shallows. In fact some of the best spots, in former times, are no longer worth fishing over, as there is no longer water enough to cover anything larger than a yearling. It must not be imagined, however, from these fore":oino: remarks, that I consider our charming little trout stream is in a bad way. On the con- trary, it is well stocked with very fine trout, and my only desire is to stimulate those who fish it, to each do something towards keeping up the reputation of the Darentli. AVith regard to the best killing flies on this river, if I was condemned to select and use only one pattern my choice would be a blue-winged, ginger-hackled, quill-bodied, gnat. But as I am not so restricted in choice, my fly-box contains some fifty stock patterns, to say nothing of fancy produc- tions. One of the most curious things about the Darenth flies is that you may have a run of unprecedented luck on some particular fly, which will be taken greedily by the trout for a whole season. And then you will never see another counterpart of this fly for two or three years. This is true of the big olive duns, the whirling blues, primrose SG yellow tluns putty-coloiiied oplieinera. Giavi'l-l)i'(ls were, at oue time, the commonest of our early flies, on all the shallow, gravelly bottomed lengths of the river. But I have not seen a single living specimen upon this stream for the past three years. No doubt these mysterious dis- appearances are due to the hatch-out of flies being killed oft" by frost}' nights. There is no royal road to the selection of the right fly for this river, but the angler should en- deavour to match the insects upon which the trout are feed- ino-. Taking- the months in their order I should recom- mend the following : — AjDril. — Dark, medium, and pale olives, whirling blues, claret spinners, and March browns. May. — Iron blues, black gnats, grey quills, and alders, during the day, and govenors for the evening rise. June. — May-fly, as long as it lasts, yellow duns, blue winged, badger hackle midges, and small soldier palmers, in addition to any of the other flies that may be seen upon the water. July and August. — Pale watery olives, tail-to-tail midges, grey quill, with flat silver body and badger hackle, red quill, with gold body, for use in bright sunshine. These flat tinselled bodied flies are very effective in a blazing sun- shine on a perfectly calm and glassy surface when the " sky is of copper and the river of brass." E-ed spinners, brown sedges, and silver-ribbed white moths, may be added to govenors for the evening rise. As to the size of flies, IN'o. is the most useful, after the first month of the season, but the flies for evening fishing should be dressed on TsTo. 1 hooks. I do not profess to have given an exhaustive list in the foregoing, but the angler who fishes the Darenth with the flies named will not go far wrong. Too much stress cannot be put upon the absolute necessity of using fine tackle for the water is so shallow and bright that it is waste of time to cast over fish with coarse gut. I use the very finest natural gut down to the three last links and these taper from x to xx and xxx drawn at 87 tlie tip. My gut casts are never longer than 4ft. Gin. long, and I tie my own, but I occasionally use two links of xxx at point when casting over very shy fish. 80 much by way of introduction. It was not my in- tention originally to attempt any such instruction in the art of catching Darenth trout, but the foregoing has been wi'itten in the hope that it may prove useful. 88 MAY FLY OX DARENTH. The May-fly season upon the Darenth is supposed to begin on the Saturday" before Whit-Monday, but the rise of fly has, up to the time of writing this note, been very small, and the trout have taken it badh'. I am located in our angling hut, on the banks of the Darenth, and I have there- fore been able to keep my eye on the river through all the hours of daylight. As a matter of fact I am completing mj' book, "Angling Holidays," amidst these congenial surroundings, and I am sandwiching in some May-fly fish- ing between the spells of grinding out " copy." What are the exact proportions of fishing and work, it is not necessary to sj)ecif j\ The other evening, I was full of good resolutions ; came in at sunset, hung up the rod, brewed myself a jorum of tea, and ate a Robinson Crusoe meal. My companion for the day went away to towTi, taking the day's catch with him. Yes, I really would put in a square six hours' work. And at it I went with a dogged deter- mination — for fully ten minutes I Then I remembered there was nothing but a very stale lump of bread and some butter for breakfast ! Moreover, the evening was deliciously calm and warm, and there was not a breath of wind stirring. The air was laden with the perfume of hawthorn, the river looked very inviting, and there was a rascally old trout of my acquaintance, down at the first bend of the stream, not a hundred yards away ! It really was a shame to shut oneself up in the hut on such an even- ing, and— well I yielded to temptation ! But that trout at the corner was sucking in black gnats, and paid not the slightest attention to my May-fly when placed a few inches in front of his nose. He evidently knew the pattern. Xor would he respond to any of the lines of invitation which I sent him, including an exact imitation of the wee w I H a H K o 89 insect upon wliicli lie "vvas feeding. The light was still g'ood enough to enable him to see fine silkworm gut to which the fly was attached. To sit on a bank, smoke a pipe of peace, and listen to the nightingales, is not a bad way of waiting for the light to fade. In the gloaming I dropped a large "governor" at the right spot, and the trout took it with a sousing rise immediately. I had no end of a fight with him, for he was feeding on the edge of a big willow branch with a lot of floating weeds attached to it. Truth to tell he got into the fringe of this haven of safety in spite of all I could do to keep him out. But he tore the lump of weeds away eventually, and I fought it out with him thus enveloped in a mass of green stuff ! None the less he eventually gave up the unequal contest, and proved to be a handsome, well-fed fish, of fully Iflb. avoirdupois — not fisherman's — weight. And what a break- fast he made, both for myself and our man Friday. The corn crakes are very numerous in our valley this year, and a pair of these birds are breeding within sight of my bedroom window. By the aid of a powerful glass I watched their movements and saw the old cock-bird run about amono'st the o-rass ierkino" his head from side to side, uttering " crakes " as he did so. The direction of the bird's head as each '' crake " was given produced the ventrilo- quial effect of making the call appear to come from different quarters. The old birds leave us usually, on their autumn migration, early in August, whilst the youngsters, if a late brood, remain quite a month longer in the meadows where they are hatched. These birds, to look at, appear to be quite incapable of a long- sustained flight, and they seldom go more than a couple of hundred yards when flushed by the partridge shooters. It is placed beyond all doubt, however, that in their annual migrations, spring and autumn, th deep ; Where the greet iy trout doth he, li«ady lor th' eusuaj'ing fly : Who so free irom weeping son'ow, And from care, as I? Tliut description accurately represents tlie state of affairs on this particular Wednesday, for the weather was all that heart could desire, the lovely Kentish valley in which I fished was looking its best, and the trout rose continuously for fully six hours, myriads of water-flies rising from the river's bed, bursting their chrj-salis cases, and taking flight in the glorious sunshine. If you would like to stroll with me for a short distance, let us start together from this broad shallow, which was, until recently, a mill-tail, but the mill- wheel has disappeared, and left a piece of slack water on the opposite bank to where we stand. Some hawthorn biishes, in full bloom, overhang this quiet little pool, and at least a dozen lusty trout, who make it their home, are sucking in iron-blue duns, as they are lured out of the river's current by the false, fair prospect of smooth water beneath the bushes. Let us see if we can reduce the number of that colony ; and in order to do so I must go back a little distance, and wade slowly up in the water. This spot will do ; and now, with an underhand cast, the fly falls as lightly as a fleck of thistle down, and is imme- diately snapped up by a deluded troutlet. He shoots down stream like a flash of lightning, as he feels the hook, and I am grateful to him for his haste, because by this move his companions remain undisturbed. "With twenty yards of line out, he bores away for the shelter of a friendly weed- bed, but the pressure of my supple nine-foot lancewood rod wins the unequal battle, and with struggling but enfeebled protests, the fish presently comes wobbling safely to net ; he is a nice one, a trifle over a pound, with a bloom upon him like a peach, and with spots as brilliant as rubies. Let us try again : " He's got it ! " you exclaim. Yes ; and the rascal flings himself out of the water, dances a jig, lashes round, and scares the whole colony; then he bores under the stump of the bushes, and manages to get round 103 a stick, and as the water is too deep to admit of my wading to him, there is nothing for it but to put on some pressure, and either break or take. Bravo ! we will now basket the pair of beauties on a soft bed of grass, and move on. Some- one else has been less successful than myself at this spot, for, hanging upon a branch of the hawthorn bush, dangles a dead sand martin, suspended by a fine trout-line, which, apparently, an angler could not recover without waders. The bird is a young one, with the artificial fly firmly fixed in his lower mandible ; and he has been dead about two days — the victim of some preceding fisherman. As it is useless to attempt to catch fish from the bank in this bril- liant sunshine, let us go a little higher up, to a stretch of the river which can be waded; and the prospect of sport is here most inviting, rising fish being on the feed as far as we can see ahead of us. We must, however, change our fly, for here no iron-blues are showing, but there are swarms of small black gnats skimming the surface, and tempting the trout to jump half out of the water to capture them. Here is a beautiful little imitation of the black gnat, made from badger's hair, the hook being no larger than one of the capital letters in the type you are reading. AYhy not put two flies on, do you ask? For the reason that one fly casts truer, and floats more naturally than a greater number; and in bright weather and clear water such as this, to be successful you must cast lightly, and present your lure as much like the natural floating, living insect as possible. Now, let us make a start, and — keep well behind me, do, or our sport will be spoiled. That was a slashing rise, and I quickly get the hooked trout down stream, to prevent his disturbing the water. He is about the same size as the others, and matches them very nearly in the basket. But, look ! there comes the first May-fly of the season ; and, by jove ! that was a capital fish which snapped him up in a twinkling. "Wonder if Mr Trout will condescend to look at my wee midge, after such a luscious mouthful. Tust a foot above his nose I place the inviting morsel in the most insinuating manner; 104 tluTc is a Hash in the water, and a turn of tlie wrist, fol- lowed by ix rush down stream which means mischief, though it does none ; and again the tiny little hook scores another lusty victim — the best trout of the lot. Passing on, we eventually succeed in bringing the contents of the basket up to four brace. This has taken us two hours, and it is now past noon, so let us go over to yonder fallen tree, and do justice to the frugal lunch which a thoughtful better half has stowed away in that little haversack. Hoav ex- quisitely beautiful appear the spring tints in this flood of sunlight ! Men who profess to entertain something akin to pity, only a shade removed from contempt, for those of us who find delight in angling, know nothing either of the mental and physical recreation which the sport affords, or the great love of nature which it engenders in those whose tastes and opportunities have induced them to peep into the mysteries of Dame Nature's many kingdoms. It is very pleasant to sit here on this old log, sunning ourselves, and feasting on the varied beauties of the landscape ; whilst, soothed by a pipe, and the lullaby of the river at our feet, we vie with each other in declaring this to be the most delightful valley out of Paradise. But I am drifting doAvn with the stream of time. It is the tendency of all anglers to do so ; we are a race of men doubly blessed ; the memories of the past are cherished, for they are full of green fields, babbling brooks and pleasant reminiscences, which no other sport can yield. An angler, if he be worthy of the name, must be something of a natura- list, and if the mysteries of nature are to him a sealed book, then he is only a mere pot hunter, past whom a thousand and one subjects of minute study and keen plea- sure glide unheeded and unseen. In the heat of a mid- summer day, when the trout refuse to rise, the angler naturalist can lie down upon the river's bank and in the stream beneath him find an inexhaustible source of study that will absorb him and excite his keenest delight. How many of my thousands of readers for instance have ever studied the habits of a water spider? Ton see the little creature on the surface, and wonder at her ability to walk 105 ubuut the water, as if it was a sheet of glass. Let us lie down aud watch the performances of this little insect. A few seconds of close inspection will enable you to see that the wee spider has a single filament of submerged web attached to her. Presently she gives a frisk of her body ; and you see an air bubble caught between her legs, and down she goes, by the aid of the rope ; the air bubble glistening like a diamond attached to her. She dives be- neath a tiny web the size of a sixpence, attached to some aquatic plant, and there loosing the air bubble, it expands her net, like a small umbrella. Look closer, and you will see that beneath this bell-tent are fastened a clustering ball of eggs, upon the safe keeping of which the fond mother expends all her time, returning only to the surface either to obtain food, in the shape of minute insects, or else to re- plenish her stock of fresh air. How she catches those bubbles with her legs, and conveys them unbroken to her nest, for the sustenance of herself and her young, and how she occasionally takes down with her a small midge as well, are details worthy of the close study of a minute philoso- pher, and you will assuredly rise from such a study with the humbled conviction that you have yet much to learn. But there are trout waiting to be caught, and I have vowed either to go home with six brace, or else never to go home again. There are some fine timber trees away up yonder meadow — chiefl}" horse chestnuts, overhanging the stream — and these generally shelter a few good fish ; but the water is very deep, making it impossible to wade, so I doubt whether we can tempt these " whoppers " to their destruction. At this place, another change of fly, you see, is necessary ; because that little crowd of insects flitting to and fro in the shade are grey gnats, and there are a couple of good fish sucking them in whenever they touch the water to deposit their eggs on the surface. All the water-flies lay their eggs in that manner, and the egg, sinking to the river's bed, hatches in due course, producing a minute maggot, which, when fully fed, spins about itself a shell- like cocoon, in which it develops into a perfect fly, and only waits until a fitting state of the atmosphere causes it to rise lOG to the surface of the water, break its skin, and take flight. Poking" about under trees is not much adapted to our style of dry fl^'-fishing, but these fellows here are worth trying for, and — by George ! I've got him ! He's a good one, yon can see, by the manner in which he bores low down in the deep water, and refuses to show himself ; but the strain upon him will soon tell its tale, although his efforts to rub the hook out against a stone, in spite of the severe pressure of a rod well-nigh bent double, shows he is one of the right sort. "Without a wink of warning, he shoots down stream like an arrow from a bow, and when we again come within fight- ing distance of each other he is entangled in an ugly bunch of brambles, thrown into the river when hedge-trimming went on. I can see the plucky fellow in the clear water, tugging backwards like a dog, turning somersaults like a street arab, and doing his level best to break away, but the bushes yielding, prevent the smash which he is trjdng to bring about. I try to get the net under him, but the attempt is hopeless, and finally the thorns catch the meshes, and there is work for more than one pail- of available hands, especially as the wretched net will not come fi'ee. But, why j^rolong the agony of that inevit- able end, which jovl, fair reader, can foresee ? It came at last, and I — no, you are mistaken ; I said nothing of the sort. I merely rigged up a new fly, went back to the tree, and killed a fish in very little more time than it has taken to recount this episode — then I felt better. The sun has been gone some time, but the air is balmy. I have been wading some four or five hours, altogether, and have got the requisite number of fish to enable me to return and say triumphantly. " There they are ! I told you I should get 'em." And I therefore decline to yield to the keeper's sug- gestion to fish on. My cry is " enough " ; my basket is heavy ; there is a good tramp before me ; I am hungry as a fisherman, and thirsty as a fish ; so, away by a short cut through the meadows, wet with dew, and the air richly laden with the perfume of the hawthorn, I presently repair the wasted tissues at a snug little hostelry, and catch the last train home to Bromley. H Of d lor It is satisfactory to find that the trout have recovered their appetites, after the May-flj' gorge, and what splendid fighting trim they are in, as the result of their late high feeding ! iVot that the hatch of " ephemera, vulgata " was at all a heavy one, or at all equal to those we can remember in years gone by, but there was enough to put the big fish into good condition. The long drought has reduced our sparkling merry little river to so low an ebb that the trout are as sh}- as trout can be, and it is lost labour to try for them in the shallows ; they are off like scared sheep the moment a line goes over them, no matter how deftly you cast. The day is dull and cloudy the wind has chopped round to the south after a long spell in the north-east ; which has sorely tried the proverbial patience of the dis- ciples of the gentle craft, and sent them home -uath light creels for weeks past. To-day, however, things look better, there are a good few flies upon the water, and occasional rises of fat blue-winged duns — favourite morsels those — make the big trout jump and souse about in a manner quite refreshing, after their long sulk and steadfast refusal to be tempted to the surface. If the rain will only hold ofP we may possibly score as good a record as we got upon the same date last year — in a steady downpour of rain which lasted the live-long day. But horror of horrors ! I cannot find any blue duns in my fly-box, and the more I hunt fruit- lessly, the more miserable I become from the inward con- viction that the only flies these trout will take to-day have^ been lost out of my box ! Let us, at any rate, do our level best, and it may be that these olive duns will serve as a make-shift because they match the body colour of these luscious " ephemera " upon the water, and we may make up by industry for the imperfections in our lure — it is your lazy fishermen who fail to catch trout, and always rail against their luck. There are a couple of fine fellows under that bough sucking in the duns with a zest which shows that they will not care much about the colour of the wings and here goes my little olive a foot in front of the speckled beauty's nose. She has got it in an instant, and is racing do^vn stream in a manner which admits of no denial, tug- 108 ging vigorously, altliough ineffectually, to reacli a fi-iendlj' weed bed, but her head yields to the rod pressure, and with open mouth she wriggles helplessly into the net — ■ a beautj' of nearly a pound, and as "handsome as paint." lier mate is still making big rings undisturbed and inno- cent of the tragedy which has just been enacted so 'dose at hand, so we'll just get the fly nicely dried by a few artistic floui"ishes, and present it for his acceptance. He's snapped it ! yes, and flings himself out of water jumping up and down in a manner which shows that he is lightly hooked and he'll soon be off — by jove ! he's gone ! Whenever a trout dances in that way you may be sure he is only caught by the slightest of holds, and the fish usually gets rid of the hook by a series of jumps. Those blue duns now increase upon the water, and my olives are no longer looked at, a dozen rising fish cast over carefully and unsuccess- fully, and then we try in despair red gnats, yellow duns, and everything else that is at all likely to pass muster. This is dreadfully vexing and tantalising, for with the right fly there is no reason why ten brace of fish should not be cap- tured, and we will waste no more time, but make for the village, and hunt up those local " quid nuncs," the parson, schoolmaster, and tailor who sometimes wield the rod, and see if they can help us to a blue dun. " He's gone for his holiday, sir," is the answer at the house of the dominee. "He's in London, sir," is the result at the parsonage, and the tailor shows us half-a-dozen dilapidated old flies that none but a lunatic trout, far gone in brain softening, would look at, and Mr. Snip candidly confessed that he " catches most with shrimps ! " It is disheartening to have tramped all this way in waders and heavy brogues, but with patient resignation we will visit yon snug little hostelry, and order tea to be ready when the day's work is done, borrow a bit of sewing silk from the landlady, and see if we cannot manage to tie some flies to match those upon the water. The stableyard furnishes the needful blue feather from a pigeon, and having trudged back to our fishing ground let us spread a macintosh upon this sloping bank, with the river at our feet, and here smoke the pipe of peace, whilst I tie a 109 CH'uple of blues. It's mighty pleasant to sit ilius beside the crystal brook, and listen to its lullaby, as bubbling and gurgling over the stones it hurries on to presently lose itself in the mighty ocean. What a world of scientific wonders lie hidden in this stream, and how profound and widespread is the iunorance which makes these wonders a sealed book to the vast majority of mankind ! Of the myriads of insect life which people these waters, who amongst our acquaintances can give us the most superficial description, or possesses even the most elementary knowledge ? That fresh water mussel shell, for instance, might furnish a theme for an essay upon aquatic boring insects. Those tiny holes which perforate the shell are the work of a minute beetle, no greater than a barley-corn or more formidable in appearance than a lady-bird, yet he has compassed the destruction of the mollusk which tenanted that shell. The subtle ami persistent attacks of tliis little borer were neither unknown or unheeded by the mussel, for deposits of fresh shell-making material over the place attacked, show that the instinct of self-preservation — call it what you please — made him alive to the necessity of guarding against the danger by which he was assailed. But we are going a- fishing and I will not plague you, gentle reader, more than I can help with pryings into the habits and doings of the minute creatures which inhabit the watery world. By the way, that belt of valerien is worth a passing glance, for the drought of the past two years has left it high and dry, and it has thrown out long tender roots above ground, which extend many feet down towards its beloved water ; the source from whence it draws its sustenance and luxuriance. Is it "instinct" which teaches these water-loving plants tc» throw out their feelers in the right direction ? Don't, talk to me about the "laws of attraction " ; that is a lame and insufficient attempt to explain one of nature's subtle mysteries. Now then for a trial of my home-made fly, for along this shallow of rippling waters several feeding fish show themselves, and they are less likely to be fastidious than are those shy fellows in the smoother surfaced runs of the river. Yes, I've got him, and he comes down stream as gently as if he knew it was wrong to disturb the water 110 and thus give warning- to his friends of the presence of xin enemy. The blue dun is once more sent flying thi'ough the air, and again another trout falls a victim to the imita- tion ; two others quicldy follow to swell the total slain and then the threatening clouds carry out their threats, and proceed to pour out their contents in a steady and business- like fashion. Insect life disappears from the river's sur- face, and the swallows no longer skim its waters, but hawk in mid-ail', thus indicating that the flies have mounted Mgher in order to avoid being beaten down by the rain, and are there awaiting the finish of the passing shower. It is useless to fish in this downpour ; so let us join those liappy schoolboys who are paddling under the arch of yonder road bridge and catching cray fish. The youngest of the trio, a big-eyed, curly-headed mother's pet, holds the spoil ; he is too timid to venture into the water ; and, liaving won his confidence by admiring the little fresh water lobsters which he hugs in an old meat tin, he is- heguiled in his youth and innocence, into telling me all about himself, his brothers, and his baby sister at home — who is to have one of the cray fish for herself. " "\Yhat is the best way to keep them ? " he asks, "uith his big eyes looking at us and reflecting his implicit belief in our knov/- ledge of all such matters and it is sad to tell that the poor Taoy, deceived into the belief that the only proper way to keep a cray fish and bring liiin up in a respectable manner was to put him in a canary cage, give him some wet flannel ior a bed, and teach him to whistle. That boy made things unpleasant at home in the evening, because he was not allowed to carry out these instructions ; and his clerical papa expostulated with us subsequently upon the ^Toag; done by destroying the confidence of youth ! Whether it was a visitation upon us for our unintentional offence against the laws of serious sober truth, I know not, but bad luck attended our fishing for the remainder of the afternoon until the light began to fade, and then a grand rise of red- quilled gnat came up from the river's bed, and a capital hour's fishing made a good ending to the day's trouting. Whatever may be the feelings awakened in other men by Ill the sight of stubble fields and corn in " shocks," to the fly- fisherman they bring very sad reminders that his rod and flies will in a few short days have to be laid aside, because the close season upon the Darenth commences with the opening day of partridge shooting. Saturday's trout fishing in the Darenth was a capital wind-up to a bad season, and I had our length of the river to myself. There was a blazing sun and an easterly wind, and these are my favourite conditions. It not only gives, you an up-stream wind, but it ahvays produces more insect life from the Darenth than any other state of affairs. AVhat Avith mooninjT about after mushrooms and cooking some of them together with a chop, in our hut by the river side, the sun had got sufficiently westward to put the best length o£ our water in shade from overhanging willows when I began fishing. It was hopeless to attempt to fish this stretch of the river from the bank, so, getting into a pair of long boots, I entered the stream at the extreme end of our beat, and waited to catch some of the natural flies as they came down upon the surface. It is a curious fact that the water bred flies which are common during the early spring months, and disappear during the summer, always put in an appearance again as the autumn advances. Whether these late hatched whirling blue-duns, and dark olives, are the produce of the spring flies, or of those hatched twelve months ago, is a debateable point, but I incline to the latter theory. Some students of minute insect life declare that the members of the '"' ephemera " family take two years from the dropping of the egg on the water until they rise to the surface, burst their case, and take flight. My own observa- tions lead me to believe that twelve months elapse between the deposit of the egg and the flight of the perfect fly. But to return to our fishing. There were a few fitful rises ahead of us, and a few scattered flies of various kinds came down at intervals. But they varied from big olives to sherry spinners, and the "fisherman's curse" — a midge begotten of east winds and hot suns. When in doubt play a trump, is a golden maxim in whist, and when in doubt put on a red-quill gnat, is equally sound advice, when fishing the 112 Dareutli. Mounting one of these small flies, on tlie finest of treble-drawn gut (of doubtful strengtli), we put the temjjting morsel in front of an old stager. But he will have none of it, although the fly passed directly over his nose. He is a war}- old trout, lying close under the bank, "behind a clump of water- valerien ; and I have spent hours over that old rascal on many previous occasions. Whilst meditating what to substitute for the red-quill gnat, I see a fly coming down over him, which looks in the distance very much like a small sedge. He snapped it up without a second's hesitation, and thereupon I changed my lure to a golden-tinselled bodied fly, with a red hackle and sedge wings. Dropping this tempting morsel a foot above his stronghold, the eddj' carried it round ; there was a dimple, a turn of the wrist, and in a twinkling the hooked fish was dashing up stream, fighting for life. Holding him all I ■dare, to prevent him disturbing the water above, he stopped short, flung himself out of the water, and returned, with a wild rush to his old quarters. But the automatic self- winding reel gave him no breathing time, and the cruel pressure of the rod compelled him to abandon his haven of rest. Down stream he goes, with a dash, passing close to my' legs, and I follow as best I can, ^-ith my little finger on the trigger of the reel, and the rod bent double. Will that wretched drawn gut — as fine as human hair — stand this strain? is the thought which fills me with fear. But the trout turns and heads up stream, doggedly boring to the bottom and working round in circles, vainly seeking' some friendly weed to aid him in the unequal struggle. But he presently rolls to the surface, and in the twinkling of an eye he is scooped out and thrown out on the bank. The spring balance shows him to be a trifle over 21bs., and having given him a merciful tap on the head, I admire liim for a few minutes and then re-enter the river. Wading up- wards, a good fish in mid-stream takes a natural fly, and, at the first cast, I am fast in him. After a game fight he comes to net, a beauty of fully l^lb. To avoid disturbing the water, I proceed to extract the fly in mid-stream. The fish slipped through my fingers, and in falling snapped the 113 drawu gut cast. He was away like a flash of liglitning, and I use words wliicli iu print are represented tlius . In all my angling experience I never dropped a fisli in this manner before, and after calling myself a few names, I repair damages and feel Letter. In fact I console myself by repeating aloud : — " He may swim to the north ; he may swim to the south, But that beggar has got my fly in his mouth." Moving upwards, two feeding trout are approached within casting distance, and I solemnly vow to kill them both, or perish in the attempt ! But I was not called upon to fulfil the latter part of this vow, because the first fish took the fly boldly, and, refusing to give him sufficient line to enable him to alarm his friend, I got the hooked trout down stream, killed him with a short shift and little ceremony. The third fish shared the same fate, and, wading to the bank, I cried, " Hold enough." Thus ended my season on the Darenth, and he would, indeed, be a greedy angler who was not well content with three such fish as those which graced my creel. Taken altogether, the season has not been such a bad one as might be supposed, having regard to the drought; but as I fish persistently, my record of two hundred and twenty trout can scarcely be considered other than exceptional. Those anglers who have only been enabled to pay two or three A'isits to the river during this season, and who have not been able to pick and choose their days — those are the men who, with sad and elongated countenances, will tell 3^ou that there are no fish left in the I>arenth, and that the fishing in our valley has gone to the dogs. There is an unwritten law which prevails in Kent, and which ordains that when partridge shooting begins, fishing ends. It is a very absurd tradi- tion, because Darenth trout are now at their best ; albeit they are, at the present time, more like May than September trout, so far as regards condition. The season that closed to-day is the very worst that has been known on the river within the recollection of the oldest 114 auglers, and yet there never ^^■as a better stock of trout. But they have been difficult to catcli througli the long drought, and the absence of Ay ; and it is ttoubtf ul whether the bulk of them will si)awn until the turn of the New Year. "What- ever may have been the habits of the trout in this river — ■when the opening day for fishing was fixed for Good Friday, and the closing for August 31st — those conditions have now entirely changed. May 1st ought to be the day for commencing, and September 30th for closing ; because the trout caught in the first few weeks have not got a wag in their tails — poor things ; whereas a September trout, in the Darenth, is full of fight, and the odds are all in his favour — given gossamer gut and a handy weed bed. But there are no weeds, and there have been none this season ; and for one fish that broke the surface of the water with his head, a hundred did so with their tails, shrimping and root- ing at the bottom for o-round food. The same condition of things has prevailed upon all the South of England chalk streams, and the dry-fly men have, as a consequence, wasted their science and their artistic skill upon the desert air. Many of the weed beds, which should have furnished clouds of '■ ephemera," have been high and dry throughout the whole season, and there has been a great scarcity of surface food. Even the rise of May-fly was of the lightest as to quantity, and the briefest as to duration, that any of us can remember, it was up and gone in ten days, instead of lasting three weeks. Ely fisherman, like farmers, are credited with a disposition to grumble, but they have shared in common the dire effects of the drought of the past season. It has been a good season for the poachers, the men who habitu- ally resort to the Alexandra, the dusty miller and the silver doctor. These pot hunters have scored amongst the tailing trout, when legitimate fishermen have gone home with empty creels and clear consciences, and I am much afraid that the force of these bad examples have tempted not a few from the paths of virtue. It is no part of my present pur- pose to discuss the ethics of fly-fishing, but we must not judge too harshly the man who, with an empty creel after a longday'sfishing, kills a brace of fish on a small salmon flv. 115 It is an outrag'e upon our art of dry-fly angling; but tlie jirovocation is undoubtedly great, when the river is alive with tailing fish, and they will look at nothing on the sur- face, however tempting in pattern and however skilfully presented. There have been times in which my valedictory notes on the closing season have been written with a sense of self-satisfaction, and a consciousness that the depleted river deserved a rest ; but no such feelings animate me at the present moment, for the season just closed has been the worst I have known in the past twenty-five years, notwith- standing that the stock of trout in the river was never so great as it is at the present time. IKi THE MOY AT BALLINA. If I was asked to recommond the best and cheapest grilse fishino' in Ireland, I should nnhesitating-ly say, " Go to Ballina." And the best time to go is usually in that part of June when the fish are running up, relying upon some trusty correspondent on the spot to wire the magic word, '* Come ! " The route from London is via Holyhead to jS'orth "Wall, Dublin, thence across the centre of Ireland, passing through Athlone and Eoscommon, and branching off for Ballina at MauruUa Junction. It is as well to give the guard a tip, and tell him your destination, because I have known men carried on to Westport through ignorance of the fact that Ballina is on a branch line. This long journey lies, for the most part, through a very flat and uninteresting — not to say dreary — tract of country, in which bog land predominates. By engaging Frank Hearns beforehand as your boatman, you will find everything plain sailing upon arrival. I sent a friend of mine over there recently, and Frank met him in Ballina station between five and sis a.m. when the train arrived. A cup of coffee with the stationmaster, and away Frank Hearns took his man, straight to the boat. The tide served, it was Monday morning, and the gasworks' pool Avas full of fish, and my friend hooked and played nine grilse before break- fast. The Moy divides the town of Ballina, and the banks are walled in by massive stone walls, and the river is spanned by a handsome bridge of many arches. Between this bridge and the " cutts " above is about the best pool in the river. The reader will see it in our first illustration of the Moy. This pool is within a hundred yards of the centre of the town, and the competition for this mtich coveted cast is often very keen. Of course, the river below the " cutts " is tidal, and this cast only fishes when the tide 117 serves. There is a rock, just below the " Queen's Gap," which is another good position when fish are running. The angh>r, phiced on this rock, fishes a very fast, but narrow, channel, in which the ascending fish lie, and it was here that my friend hooked his nine fish before breakfast. But in this pool the angler is never allowed to follow his fish, for fear of disturbing the water, and losing the cast. Directly you move someone occupies your position ; such are the rules of the Moy. The fishing belongs to Mr. Little, and he gives free permission to visitors to fish, but the salmon have to be given up at the " cutts," and they can be retained at market price, which is usually 6d. per lb. The river is severely netted, in addition to the row of salmon traps which span the stream, as will be seen in our first picture of this river. But the stock of fish is still very great, thanks to the free passage given from sunset on Saturday until sunrise on Monday. Some of the fish whicli run up from th? sea during this period congregate in the pools, instead of pushing through to the Lough. As it is Monday njorning we ^\'ill dro]) do^um stream and see the first haul at tlie netting place. That row of corks wliich you see across tlie river, are fixed to the shore at one side, and held by a boat at the other, and the seine will be hauled as so(jn as a second net has been got ready in its plnce. When that is done the boatmen bring their end of the net ashore in a circle, and three men at either end then proceed to haul in the seine. Gradually the crescent of corks narrow, and it is evident tliat the haul will be a productive one, for salmon break the water in their rushes to and fro seeking in vain for an outlet. The purse comes up at last, and the water is lashed into foam by the 274 imprisoned fish, which are the greatest number thus taken in a single haul during my visit. In the good old times, only a few years ago, it was no uncommon thing to get 500 or GOO salmon at one pull of the net, but, thanks to the excessive greed of riparian pro- prietors they have now killed the goose which lays the golden eg^. The salmon, when lifted out of the nets, are struck on the head with a staff, packed in boxes, and sent off to Dublin and England. The Moy is a very short river, 118 iuul this is the secret ul why its fish have survived tin; ex- cessive netting and trapping which goes on. In the weekly open time a sufficient number of salmon run through into Lough Conn, to replenish the stock, and pro- vide a good head of fish. But what glorious fishing there would be, alike in the river and loughs above, but for this excessive over-netting ! A favourite pool of mine is the " Ash Tree Cast," shown in our second picture, and this is below the nets. Whatever fish j'ou hook here are but just out of the salt water, and you may rely upon meeting foe- men worthy of jour steel. A little lower down-stream is the "Dock Cast," a narrow channel with a very fast cur- lent through it, where a good many fish get of¥, especially the tender-mouthed grilse. On the opposite side of the river the little Bunree stream empties itself into the Moy, and it is a curious fact that the sea- trout all turn off into this stream out of the Moy. There is a shallow bar of rocks extending across the river from the T^unree side over to the dock, and below this shallow bar is the favourite haunt of sea trout. The "boys " fish from this narrow reef when the water is low enough to make it wadeable. Following their example, I had some capital fun with the sea trout, which ran a good size, as did also the brown trout of the Moy. But these latter were remarkably well educated, and, except in the dusk of the evening, I found them shy even of a floating fly. A blue- winged dark olive dun was one of their favoiu'ites, and this pattern the natives called a " wall fly." With regard to Moy salmon flies, the Hearns have produced patterns of their own which have acquired a world-Avide reputation. A^isitors could not do better than trust to the Hearnes for the right fly of the right size. I had a very awkward expe- rience at the gasworks cast, where I hooked a good-sized fish that bolted for one of the arches of the bridge. I was fishing with a very light 14 feet grilse rod, and it was use- less to restrain, or even check, the mad rushes of this mid fish. My boatman was in agonies, but nothing I could saj Avould induce him to drop the boat. That salmon fought his way some distance right through the arch, and then the 119 rascal came up stream tliroug-h the next arcli ! Of course, he smashed me, and my comment of " Thank God, he's gone I " received a responsive " Amen " from the boatman. But he was very ^vrath with me notwithstanding, and said it was just foolishness to be using "a thing like that" — referring to my favourite rod — for such fighting fish as those of the Moy. But we set to work and repaired damages, which were nothing more serious than the loss of a couple of links of gut. Our luck appears to have for- saken us, with the lost fish, and the " Goshawk " has no charm for them. I am a great believer in a bit of tinsel for salmon just out of the sea, and I mount a small silver doctor, in spite of my boatman's misgivings. At the second cast there was a splendid head and tail rise, and then the fun began. Like an arrow from a bow he bolts down stream, and then, turning suddenly, races back, throwing somersaults in the air at every few yards as he makes for the broken water beneath the weir. If you want to try what strength a salmon has in fast water try him under con- ditions like these, on a 14 feet rod and fine tackle. Round the pool again goes the courageous fish, now "jiggering " his head like a dog shaking a rat, now high in the air, now deep under water, now making .short rushes and flying leaps, whilst the cruel bending rod continually goads him to further frenzied eiforts to regain his lost liberty " Bear harder on him," says Mike, who does not like my fine tackle and gentle treatment, and I therefore give the " butt " until the trembling vibrations of the rod convey the telephone message that the struggle is nearly over, and, barring accident, victory mine. A few more short rushes and the noble fish rolls over on the surface, and slowly, but surely, yields, inch by inoh, to the winding line which draws him to his fate. He makes a final struggle, but it comes too late — the net is beneath him, and, in the twinkling of an eye, this silvery fourteen-pounder finds himself in the boat. I see you casting a wistful glance at the basket, Mike, and you shall keep up the traditional custom of the country by wetting him with a drop of the "crathur." This bit of good sport restores the good temper of my attendant, and W3 kill u coujjle more before the tide fails us aud the fish go off the feed. Yes, my friends, I uTOte those last four words deliberately, for I am as strongly convinced that salmon feed in fresh water — when they can get food — as I am that anglers drink water — when there is nothing else obtainable. By the way, I may here mention that the charge for boat ar.d man is 7s. Gd. per day, plus the usual luncheon, or an allowance in lieu thereof. There are two hotels in the town — the Imperial and the Moy — and I, from force of habit, prefer the latter. They have a branch establishment on the shore of Loch Conn, and anglers can — without extra charge — locate themselves in either house. This is an immense boon to Moy anglers, who are often condemned to considerable spells of enforced idleness, waiting for the tide to serve. The Moy boatmen do not love Loug'hs Conn and CuUen, neither do they love the men who there cater for the wants of anglers. But the visitor must not be influenced by these local jealousies, because the lough fishing is really very good, and cross-lining has now been abolished. There is a good deal of trolling done with both spoon and Devon minnow but I preferred to drift and cast over " The Strand," and troll back to windward when we finished our beat. The salmon upon entering Lough Conn all follow the same cotu"se, passing over the shallows of " The Strand," where they take a fly. The fishing is here fi'ee, and the angler can keep all he catches. Perch are a nuisance to the troller, as they will take a spinning bait half as big as themselves, and thus cause much waste of time and temper. Lough Conn is connected mth Cullen by a narrow chaiuiel, but whether the local legend — that both loughs flow into each other — is true, I do not pretend to say. The theory of my two boatmen was that Cullen flowed through one side of the channel, and Conn went through on the other side. I got several of the famous gillaroo trout — with thickened stomachs like a fowl's gizzard, and I hurt the feelings of my men by declaring that they were only common brown trout. The thickening of the coats of the stomach is due to the fact 121 of these trout feeding- on water snails, in the digestion of which much friction must necessarily occur. AYe had much, argument upon the subject, but I silenced my men by ask- ing " Did you ever see a young gillaroo — say a yearling ? " Of course they had not, for the reason that these trout do not take to a snail diet until they attain to a good size. Of the mighty pike which are occasionally caught in these loughs I heai'd many tall stories, but the biggest was that of a fifty-pounder gaffed by Mike Heaims, who found the monster choking -udth an eight-pound grilse half way down, his throat. Allowing a discount oif the weight of the grilse, I see no reason to doubt the rest of the story. Ordinary loch flies kill trout on both Conn and Cullen, the three favourites being claret and mallard, olive and grouse, and black and mallard, ribbed silver. Greenwell's glory is another good spring fly, but the local patterns appeared to me rather too large except for a rough water. And it can be rough on Lough Conn, as I proved, for we had half a gale of wind, which lashed up big waves that broke over the gunwale of our stiif boat. But the troulj were mad on, and the discomfort of wet clothing, standing in the water up to your ankles were minor considerations ! And how the bi": trout foue:ht in that rouffh water ! It was net the pleasantest part of my holiday to this part of Mayo, hut it was one of he best bits of lough fishing I ever had the luck to meet with. In order to enjoy lough fishing, the angler should provide himself with a macintosh petticoat ; they are easily carried, and there is no other garment equal . to them for boat work in bad weather. A short macintosh and sou' -wester should complete the outfit* 122 LAKE VYENAVY, NORTH WALES. '' AVhere can I get some really good trout fishing, com- bined with comfortable quarters and fine scenery, within a few hours' ride fiom London!"'" This is a question which you my friends, are no doubt constantly asked, especially at this period of the year. Symptoms of trout fever are beginning to make men restless, and incline them to seek fresh fields and pastures new for the coming season. To all such I say, Go to Lake Vyrnwy, where every one of the above enumerated conditions will be found to exist, and where — ^no matter wind or weather — real good sport, and plenty of it, can be absolutely relied upon. Lojidon anglers do not appear to have realised what a veritable fisherman's El Dorado there lies waiting them, within a reasonable railway journey from Euston Square. But before going on to describe the sport, let me first say a word or two about the journey, and what the angler will find when he gets there. To begin with, this magnificent sheet of water occupies a valley five miles long on the southern side of the Ber^vyn range of mountains, and ten miles south of Bala. This in- formation will enable my readers to fix the locality. There are several ways of getting to the lake from London, but the best is from Euston to Llanfyllin, 205|- miles ; but passengers should be careful not to miss changing on to the Cambrian branch at Llanymynech Junction. As it is a hopeless task for a southerner to attempt the pronunciation of these TVelsh names, the safer way is to write them down in a pocket-book. An ofiicial at the aforesaid junction is a choleric man, and when I asked if I changed there for Llanfyllin, he slammed the carriage door and shouted " No ! " As the train was on the point of starting, a fellow-passenger came to my rescue, and I jumped out in 123 the uick of time. Then that red-faced and irascible official gave me a lesson in Welsh pronunciation, and vowed that I had never asked for Llanfyllin. Neither had I, as he pro- nounced it. Intending- visitors, note this fact. There is a lovely drive of twelve miles from Llanfyllin to the lake, and, given fine weather, this portion of the journey will be much appreciated by lovers of the pictur- esque. Conveyances from the Lake Hotel meet visitors at the station by appointment, and it would not be wise to risk the chance of getting a vehicle at Llanfyllin, as it is a very quaint little one-horse place, although it is a chartered municipal borough. The drive, as I have said, is a very pretty one, and, as the end of the journey is ap- proached, there are some awkward places in the road that you would not care to drive through on a dark night. Dipping down into the valley of the river Yyrnwy, a merry stream, about equal to the Dove, in the Dale, the expectant angler finds himself in close proximity to the lake, but fails to get a view of it until the height, on which stands the liotel, is reached, and then you see stretched out before you the panoramic view of this beautiful sheet of water. You, my angling friends, care little or nothing about who made the lake, or how it was made ; it is a thing of beauty, and it will, let lis hope, remain to the lovers of fly-fishing a joy for ever. It fills a lovely valley, five miles long, with mountains rising from the water's edge ; and no one would imagine, to look at it, that this beautiful expanse of water was artificially constructed. But such is the case ; and how it was done, why it was done, and who did it, can all be found in the records of the Corporation of Liverpool. We fishermen are not interested in the details. What we want — having arrived at our destination, and feasted our eyes upon the glorious panorama of Yyrnwy valley — is to make the acquaintance of the enterprising sportswoman who has the pluck to develop the angling resources of tliis fisherman's Eden, and then to test what she has done for the creature comforts of those who pay Lake Y\Tnwy a visit. Trust me, brother anglers, you will not be disappointed; and do not be disconcerted either by the luxurious ap- 124 j)earance of the liotel, or the admirably-served meal with which you will be regaled. The lessee of this estabb.sh- ment — who also holds tlie sporting riglits over the whole of the mountains which form the water-shed of Lake Yyrnwy — 'is one of the best iiostesses in the United Kingdom and tliose who visit here are treated upon those generous terms which are calculated to induce you to come an-ain. The hotel is, in truth, replete with all the comforts of a well- ordered house, and a man who comes here on fisli.ing bent, can be talcen in and done for at an inclusive charge of three and a-half guineas per week. Of this comfortable hostelry some grateful anglers have ■Nviitten, with poetic fervour : " We -n-ere out for a spin, and we stopped at tliis inn, Wliere tliere's plenty of grub for inflating the skin. The fishing was splendid ; Miss Davies was good ; Stop if you can ; we would if we could." The lady immortalised in the foregoing verse is the manageress and lessee of the establishment, and a real good (uie she is, too, as every grateful brother of the rod will testify who visits Lake Vyrnwy Hotel. It is perched on tlie top of a bold bhiff promontory, a thousand feet above sea-level, and from your bedroom windows you command a view of the whole lake. So much for the hosteby ; but let me add that it contains all the resources of a good family hotel, including a ladies' drawdng-room, and a first-class billiard table. Now let me briefly describe the lake. To begin with, this noble sheet of water fills a bottle- shaped valley, with the neck end blocked by a mighty dam of solid masonry, which looks like a bridge of many arches, as seen from the lake itself. The hotel is situated at this narrow end, and the distance to the other extremity of the water is five miles. The lake covers an area of eleven hun- dred acres. At the upper end are three sequestered bays shut in by mountains clothed with pine woods, dwarf oak, and heather. The shores are covered with verdure, and ferns abound everywhere in great profusion. In one or other of these deep indentations from the main lake you can always find plenty of sheltered fishing water when the lake- 125 itself is lashed into fury by a raging gale, and no boat could live on it. I had one suck da}- last July, in the bay shown in the illustration, when the trout rose fmiously over the whole of the water, and not one of the seventeen which came on board was much below a pound. They scored 151b., as the hotel log-book will bear witness. There is at all times good fishing in these bays, but they are, as I have already explained, five miles away from your base, and there is equally good fishing close at home. As a matter of fact, there are trout to be caught around the whole of the twelve (or is it fourteen ?) miles which form the margin of this lake ; and some of the best I took were taken along the bank near the tower. But the trout rove, and you are just as likely to strike a shoal in mid-lake as around the margin. I ought, before going farther, to explain that the lake is encircled by a good level road, cut out of the mountain- side, and those who prefer shore fishing can enjoy it to their heart's content. The most successful method is to take a boat, and coast round the margin of the lake, casting in to the bank, and working your flies outwards. It is not often that you get taken more than six feet from the bank in this method of fishing deep water; but in the bays above referred to the whole of the water should be fished over in the usual style of lake fishing, because the bottom can be there touched ^dth an oar. AATiat grand fighting fish the Loch Levens are ! My little ten-foot split cane rod — on which I have killed many 31b. chalk-stream trout in the May-fly season — was no better than a child's toy against a pound Loch Leven in Lake Vyrnwy. I had to mount a substantial twelve-footer, and even then some of the fish took as long to kill as a fresh- run sea-trout. To enable intending visitors to identify by name the various portions of the lake, let me briefly enumerate them. To start from the boathouse, two hundred yards from the hotel, the visitor will there find a fleet of some fifteen stifp- built, sea-going craft, moored snugly in Cynon Bay (fed by two streams) ; and passing out of the stone arch, whicJ) shelters it from the westerly gales, we will skirt the northern 12G shore. The picturesque tower, which is used for filtering- purposes, generally shelters a good fish or two about its walls, waiting for flies to drop therefrom — a word to the wise. Thence we reach Cedig Bay, a pretty indentation, into which flows a mountain rivulet, which is of consider- able volume in times of heavy rainfall. Still hugging the shore, we reach the bay shown in our illustration — RhiAvar- gor Bay — this has a good-sized river running in at its head. This bay is shut in by bold mountains, rising abruptly from the water's edge, and it is altogether about as delight- ful a spot as an angler could wish to find himself in. Pass- ing round, Ave find ourselves in Eunant Bay, with a river flowing in at its head, and a little island around which good sjiort is often got. The upper end of this bay is now com- monly called the Mayor's Parlour, but I fancy the name has recently been given in honour of the late Mayor of Liver- pool, AA"ho here made record scores. Passing hence, we turn our faces down the lake, and presently reach the in- dentation of Llw^m Rhiw Baj-. Along this shore are several mountain rivulets, and one delightful waterfall, which you reach by pushing your boat beneath a big stone bridge. Look up at the roof of the arch as you go through, and you will find it hung with white stylactites of considerable length. The waterfall descends from a considerable height, and if you get out of your boat and stand on a rock at the left-hand corner of the arch, you can command the whole pool, and ought not to leave it without a brace of good ones. That you will be charmed vnth the sylvan beauty of this nook, goes without saying, provided you have any appreciation for what is beautiful in Nature. There are a few more nooks — -which I need not describe — on the way down to the dam, and it will pay to cast into the stones of this structure, for good trout often lie there. Thus we reach the shore in front of the hotel — • which is as good fishing as any part of the lake — and pass into the boathouse bay from whence we started. There are two lands of trout in the lake — the aboriginal brownies, and the four hundred thousand Loch Levens put in some four years ago, which have thriven amazingly. U7 several iu excess of 21b. liaving already been takcii. There are some monster trout in the lake, and I saw a magnificent rise of these big fellows, one Sunday evening, when the water Avas like a sheet of plate glass, and if there were not fish amono-st them rano-inefore. I mention this as an encouragement to Mr. F. C. N'ash, and other fi'iends, who are endeavouring to establish a May-fly hatchery in the Lower Stour fishery. 167 ANGLING HOLIDAYS IN SCOTLAND. T]ie land o' cakes is essentially the liappy limiting «TOund of well-to-do Englishmen, and as there is a fashion in holiday-making, as in everything else, it is considered the correct thing to go to Scotland. And what grand fish- ing is there to be got, if only your purse is long enough to ■enable you to obtain it ! The new line of railway through the Highlands has greatly cheapened the cost of travel to many of the most beautiful angling resorts, and, what is equally important to a good many men, is the enormous saving of time thus effected. In the limited space left at my disposal I can, in the present volume, do little more than touch briefly upon a few of the angling holiday resorts that are open to the wandering fisherman. Taking these fishing stations in the order in which they will be met with in a railway journey through the Highlands, our first halt- ing place is Tarbet. Here we strike Lough Lomond. 168 c o K r c c 169 HEAD OF LOCH LOMOND. Lomond is an enormous slieet of water, some twenty odd miles long", and its principal feeder is the Arklet, whose famous falls are one of Scotland's many " sights." A steamer, the " Lady of the Lake," will enable fishermen to vary their location in search of trout, and they will do well, in times of rain fall, to cultivate the many brooks and bm-ns with which the whole of this watershed is inter- sected. There is excellent hotel accommodation at various points about the loch, " Inversnaid " and " Ai'dlin " eom- mandini^ one end, " Tarbet " and " Howardenwan " op- posite sides in mid-distance, whilst " Luss " is the spot for cruising" about the islands, and " Balloch " for the lower extremity. Before leaving Tarbet do not omit to pay a visit to Loch Long and the stream connecting it with Lomond. All the ordinary Scotch flies kill well in these Highland lakes, and the visitor cannot do better than put himself into the hands of Mr. W, J. Cummins, of Bishop Auckland, who will set him up with an assortment of the best patterns. Within easy reach of the Inversnaid Hotel are several famous sheets of water, which are now made accessible, and of these the next in order is Loch Katrine. 170 LOCH KATRIXE. The fishing in this beautiful loch is limited to trout, which is free, the charge for boat and man being 5s. per day. The Trossachs Hotel is the best house to command this queen of Scottish lakes ; also lochs Achray and Yen- nachar. There are no boats upon the last-named water. There is another little lake, connected by a stream with Vennachar, which will well repay the trouble of getting at it. I refer to Drunkie, which contains remarkably good trout, both in size and quality. As to the natural beauties of Katrine, it would be im- possible for me to do them justice; but, by common con- sent, this loch is admitted to have no equal in the United Kingdom. 171 LOCH LEVEN, AEGYLESHIRE. The wandering" angler has liad this district ojiened up to him by the Highland Eailway, which lands him at Fort "William. From thence he can go, by steamer, to Balla- chulish, and do the rest of the journey by coach. The drive through the famous Glen of Coe — following the course of the river of that name — a:ffords one of the finest sights in Scotland. For rugged grandeur and sublime solitude there is nothing equal to it in the United Kingdom. The river Coe receives the rainfall of the mountains which environ this famous pass of Glencoe, and thus forms the main feeder of the Argyleshire Loch Leven. The Coe is also the breed- ing ground of the Leven trout, who head up this stream, and there afford good sport to the few anglers who visit it. In the journey through the glen, comfortable quarters will be found at various stages, vrith. a modest tariff and free trout- ing, amidst the wildest of nature's solitudes. For a jaded man, seeking mental rest, combined with good Scotch trout fishin"-, the ano-lino' holidav-seeker will not make a mis- take who goes to the Aro'vleshire Loch Leven. But he must not aspire to do anything heroic, in the way of slaughter- ing big fish, nor must he expect to have his deeds recorded 172 «*. O H O O m Xfl t1 O o 173 in tlie sporting' })apt'is, as tlie doings of a miglity liunter m the sight of our Lord. If lie is jnst content to appre- ciate the sport of killing good baskets of medium- sized trout, and enjoj-ing the homely comforts of roadside inns, in which he will be treated as one of the family, then let liim go to this out-of-the-Avav corner of Scotland. Tho THE LOCH IN GLENCOE. 174 coming- and going of the dailj' coach-load of visitors will not interfere Avith his sport, and if these scurrpng tourists do look upon him as a harmless lunatic — wasting his time after ticut, instead of ''doing" Scotland — he can well afford to accept their sympathj- in a becoming spirit of humilit}'. The loch itself is a very fine sheet of water, of considerable frxtent, and the stream fishing is everywhere excellent in thi? little fished watershed. From Ballachulish the coach drive through the glen extends to a distance of thirtj' miles, and all this is over historical ground, for is it not the home of the once mighty clan of the Macdonalds ? The angler will do well to break his journey at various stages, where accommodation is obtainable, commencing at the entrance of the glen, where there is a very comfortable little hotel, and then following the course of tKe river through the sublime solitudes of this beautiful glen. There IS a capital hotel — the King's House — at the further end of the pass, and there is excellent trout fishing close at hand. 175 } J . A '^S^ vj>-r.^ 3 z K 170 OX LOCH ERNE. The best quarters for commanding these Avaters is the Drummoud Arms, at St. Fillans, where the fishin