If
they grew up, and retained their beauty and sprightliness, they would be
excellent substitutes for sea-trout. Almost all experiments in stocking
lochs have their perils, except the simple experiment of putting trout
where there were no trout before. This can do no harm, and they may
increase in weight, let us hope not in wisdom, like the curiously heavy
and shy fish mentioned in the beginning of this paper.
LOCH LEVEN
I had a friend once, an angler, who in winter was fond of another sport.
He liked to cast his _louis_ into the green baize pond at Monte Carlo,
and, on the whole, he was generally "broken." He seldom landed the
golden fish of the old man's dream in Theocritus. When the croupier had
gaffed all his money he would repent and say, "Now, that would have kept
me at Loch Leven for a fortnight." One used to wonder whether a
fortnight of Loch Leven was worth an afternoon of the pleasure of losing
at Monte Carlo. The loch has a name for being cockneyfied, beset by
whole fleets of competitive anglers from various angling clubs in
Scotland. That men should competitively angle shows, indeed, a great
want of true angling sentiment. To fish in a crowd is odious, to work
hard for prizes of flasks and creels and fly-books is to mistake the true
meaning of the pastime.
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