Chats on Angling

FORMERLY, and indeed not so very long ago, no one in the Highlands of Scotland was considered free of the hill, or indeed of any account, unless and until he had slain a stag, a...

IT would ill become a humble follower of the art to enter into a minute description of the various methods of casting, seeing that the subject has been so fully thrashed out by...

DISAPPOINTING Days! How well we all know them, and how terribly frequent they are. Full of ardour and keen as mustard, we anticipate great things, only to find that another day...

FOR his size and weight there is no more sporting fish in the wide world than the sea trout. His play when hooked is so full of vivacity, so strenuous, you never know what he is...

LOCH fishing for trout is carried on for the most part amidst glorious and romantic scenery. There is a sense of repose in the drifting boat and the rhythmical cast. As a means...

THE River Awe, in Argyllshire, presents, to my mind, the perfection of angling water. A fine brawling stream, a constant succession of pools, some easy to fish, some only fishab...

SOME years ago, when Ireland was greatly disturbed--it was the year after Lord Leitrim's assassination--a party of three, of which I formed one, decided to fish the Clady, in Co...

THE May fly is up! Every year, about the first week in June, telegrams to this effect are hurriedly despatched to those favoured few who own or rent water where this member of t...

MODERN glued-up cane rods have practically done away with hickory, blue gum, or other wooden rods--at any rate, as far as dry fly angling is concerned. Their action when well ma...

WHY does a salmon take a salmon fly, and what does it represent to him? These are conundrums that are not readily answered. Obviously it cannot be because it represents any part...

HAVING recorded my heterodox views about May fly fishing, I fear I shall run counter to the opinions of many if I venture to state my ideas relative to the evening rise. For my...

RAINBOWS are a comparatively recent importation into our native waters, and appeared just at the time when they were most needed. It is but a few years since our British waters,...

GRAYLING have one advantage over trout in that they extend your fishing season by at least three months. Whereas trout may be called spring and summer fish, grayling are autumn...

THE methods of the "Dry Fly" Fisherman, as compared with those of his brother of the "Wet Fly," are absolutely distinct, and demand totally different characteristics. It is idle...

SURELY angling with the dry fly can be claimed as the highest branch of the gentle craft? It cannot be doubted that those who have once experienced the fascination of "spotting"...

THIS form of angling has been brought to a fine art in Ireland, and on many Irish loughs, in the May fly season, the heaviest trout are brought to book by means of the natural i...

THE upper waters of the Bourne and Test flow through Hurstbourne, Lord Portsmouth's beautiful park, and were tenanted until a few years ago by portly trout of aldermanic weight...

IT has always been an enigma to me why, having been endowed by Providence with two hands, we should knowingly and deliberately minimise the boon. All ranks and conditions of men...

ALL dry fly anglers owe a deep grudge to modern sub-soil drainage, which hurries, helter skelter, all the rain that falls into the river, thus doing away with the former gentle...

TO those who love angling, with all its associations and surroundings, no apology may be needed for inflicting on them in book form certain short articles which have mainly appe...