In
spring, I believe, the lilies are less in the way, and I fear some one
has put a Berthon boat on the loch in April. But it is not so much what
one catches in Loch Beg, as the monsters which one might catch that make
the tarn so desirable.
The loch seems to prove that any hill-tarn might be made a good place for
sport, if trout were introduced where they do not exist already. But the
size of these in Loch Beg puzzles me, nor can one see how they breed, as
breed they do: for twice or thrice I caught a fingerling, and threw him
in again. No burn runs out of the loch, and, even in a flood, the feeder
is so small, and its course so extremely steep, that one cannot imagine
where the fish manage to spawn. The only loch known to me where the
common trout are of equal size, is on the Border. It is extremely deep,
with very clear water, and with scarce any spawning ground. On a summer
evening the trout are occasionally caught; three weighing seven pounds
were taken one night, a year or two ago. I have not tried the evening
fishing, but at all other times of day have found them the "dourest" of
trout, and they grow dourer. But one is always lured on by the spectacle
of the monsters which throw themselves out of water, with a splash that
echoes through all the circuit of the low green hills.
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