Related article: some of them the trout run three
to the pound, while in others
quite eight of the lively little
brownies are required to make up
that weight. One small sheet of
water, indeed, is supposed to
contain no fish under a couple
of pounds, but the scoffer of our
party, a Buy Intagra friend with a hand-
camera, who angles not, declares
that in it are no trout whatever,
and in support of his contention
i897.]
IN SUTHERLAND.
185
points out that no one at the inn,
nor any of the gillies, can give a
single instance of a fish having
been caught out of it. Still the
tradition lingers that it contains
monsters.
Then there is a certain loch
within a hundred yards of the sea
and connected with it by a tiny
bum. To this several shoals of
sea-trout ascend during a spring
tide, and some of our party decide
to fish it.
The salmon river flows out of
a considerable expanse of water a
mile or so from the inn, and here
lie a few large fish which ran up
during the last spate. One of the
anglers, who has the salmon fever
strong upon him, decides to spend
the day — fruitless enough, as all
but he knew — in the endeavour to
rise one of these stale fish. The
others disperse in search of
brownies and sea-trout, and the
boat on the sea-loch is thus left
vacant.
Well satisfied with the result of
the breakfast conclave, we take a
stout rod from its box, and in
company with stalwart, brown-
bearded Angus and our old friend
K., go down to the little stone pier
where the boat is moored. Angus
has no faith in fishing-rods when
in the sea boat ; he has never seen
them used before, and neither his
father nor his grandfather used
them, therefore they are bad.
For the first time since we have
been in Sutherland he prophesies
evil, for as a rule, with that desire
to please, common both to the Irish
and the Highlanders, he will assure
you that everything, whether it be
loch, fly, or weather, is " guid for
fesh." It is useless to show him
a single fly and ask him what he
thinks of it ; the answer is invari-
ably the same.
When K. wants to get an opinion
from Angus worth having, he shows
him his book, and tells him to pick
out the best fly. Even then Angus
sometimes evades the point by
saying that they are ** all guid for
fesh." But if there be a Zulu
among them he vnll certainly
choose that, for if Angus believes
in any one fly more than another,
it is the Zulu. This, it should be
explained, is simply a large black
hackled fly with a red top-knot.
Black and red have been shown
both by experience and experi-
ment to be the two colours which
when contrasted are the most
visible to the fish in peat-stained
water, and the fly has proved a
very killing one in that peaty part
of Scotland.
To-day we require no Zulus, for
we are after larger game than the
brown trout. The herrings, as
is customary in September, have
entered the sea loch, and the lythe
{Anglice, pollack) have followed
them in, and are feeding right
well. We have a variety of baits in
our tin cases, but of artificials the
two best are the red rubber sand
eel, named probably by an Irish-
man for the reason that it bears no
resemblance whatever to a sand
eel, and the red phantom minnow,
which is no phantom at all, as the
fish find when they have it in their
mouths.
Angus has some more killing
baits than these — to wit, certain
little black eels, four or five inches
in length, which he has found
under the stones in the brackish
water at the mouth of the river.
These, which I opine are youthful
congers, he has placed for safety
alive in his pocket ! For the rest,
our tackle is much the same as
would be used by the pike spinner
in England, only it is, and has to
be, very strong for reasons which
will be obvious as we proceed with
this relation.
A soft wind from the west is
blowing up the narrow gorge from
the sea and slightly rippling the
1 86
BAILY S MAGAZINE.
[Skptember
water. As we leave the pier, K.,
who has prepared some very fine
gut tackle, spins a tiny Devon
minnow behind the boat in the
hopes of attracting one of those
sea -trout which we have lately
seen leaping in the salt water. In
this he is unsuccessful — at least,
to-day, for later on we have real
good sport with these lively little
fish. Lower down the loch the
hills slope abruptly to the water's
edge, indicating a considerable
depth, and we trail, one a red
phantom, the other a natural eel,
close to the fringe of seaweed with
which the rocks are adorned.
It is not often that a boat passes
so far down the loch, and the sea-
gulls appear to be extremely in-
dignant at this invasion of their
solitudes. Half a dozen of them
wheel round the boat continuously
shrieking, some apparently in
anger, others with a sort of jeer-
ing cry which is very irritating
when the fish will not bite. There
is, indeed, an unusually large
quantity of wild fowl of all kinds
in the loch just now — come hither
to feed on the unfortunate herrings
which, harassed from below by
lythe, saithe, dog-fish, and other
predatory creatures, are attacked
from above by cormorants, the
larger gulls, and other sea birds.
We are rounding a rocky point
when K. and I together call to
Angus to stop, for a sudden strain
has come upon our rods. ** Is he
on,*' we ask one another anxiously,
and reply in the affirmative ; but
the Intagra 100 he is not a fish, but simply a
submerged rock, the weedy top of
which, coming near the surface,
has attached itself to our baits.
We are not fishing for rocks, so
disengage our tackle at the earliest
opportunity.
Anglers may have observed that
when the fish are feeding at all
shyly they usually take advantage
of any inattention on the part of
the fisherman (as when he puts
down his rod, lights his pipe, or
unscrews his fiask) to seize the bait.
K. is examining his tackle-box in
search of some very killing artifi-
cial which has been recommended