The The Fisherman's Dream of Scotland
By MAURICE IIEADLAM. THE keen and impecunious fisherman may find occupation, both -pleasing and inexpensive—it will shorten- a train journey or a-dull committee -meeting mapping- out- a- year's fishing, such as -he might hope for with no' duties and uhlimited 'means. He Would begin, in January cold, on the Tay, harling the lower reaches -cif that majestic river, or sitting in _a fur coat on the loch, with his feet on a hot-water bottle, with two -rods trailing astern, and the - snow showers coming down from Ben Lawers while he - expects his thirty pounders. Then he would go to an early river in the South of Ireland and catch: his ten- fish a day on the- Blackwater with the minnow. Towards the end of February or the beginning of March he would be on 'the Wye, still with a spinning-rod, on the heavy water of the lower river. At the end of March and in April. he might be anywhere, Tor, most-rivers are -good then ; and he might be, in April,_ on- the Welsh -Dee, using both arts, the fly and the minnow, or on- one of the Sutherland rivers, or in Aberdeenshire; By the.-second week in May he would be on Test or Itchen, and he would see the mayfly out, on Test (on a stretch and where the fly hatches) or the best of the Kennet. Towards the middle of June he would go to Norway and stay there till mid August. Then, after perhaps another week on the Test, he would make for the West Highlands and the sea trout, going across to the North Esk or the Deveron for the autumn salmon, and finishing his fishing, with the season, on the Tweed.
Thus he would end,- as he began, in Scotland ;• and, indeed, he might, if he would forgo his month -on Test or lichen, find in all other respects as good sport, for all his year, if he never moved from Scottish waters. He might even, if he was not bitten by the fascination of the chalk streams and the water meadows, get bigger bags, and bigger individual trout, though perhaps 'not such• a high average weight, could he choose- the right Scottish lochs and rivers in May and June—and then he would see Scotland at- her best. True, there are few things more -exquisitely beautiful than- a fine September morning after rain on the West coast, on Arran or one of the islands ; when the sea is sparkling in the sun, when the delicate light and the clear air bring close the hill slopes with heather still a=bloom, when behind them the high tops rise blue in the distance, range upon range ; when the small rivers flow brimming, brown and amber foam, -and you know the sea-trout are there. True that, if you get the right day and the right water, the crisp air from the North 'Sea will stir the blood -and lighten the spirit as you make 'your way in the bright - sunshine-of an April morning over the moor to the upper Whitadder, when the whaups -are calling and when you may hear the horn and see hounds and a scarlet coat and perhaps a fox. If it clouds up later you may get your ten pounds of trout even on that much-fished water.
But, although September gives the heather,- September days are short and west coast streams run down incredibly fast.: though you may find the water right in April, more often. it is a mere trickle, and, the air harsh and bitter, fishing is a struggle - and a depressing struggle at that.- - - . Now, in late May or -early June, though the heather is still dead, you have the gorse -and broom, sheets and sheets of brilliant colour (0 to hear 'the broom pods cracking in the warm- sun and to smell the whins). Though you may not get sea-trout so early, now is the time for the big trout in the lochs and in the river-flats. If, in some rivers (not by any means all) the run of spring salmon is over, the grilse- are beginning. And you have time to fish for everything. For it is light till midnight, and you may enjoy. the blessing of sunshine all day, the lights on the hills and -the oriflamme - of the gorse, and yet not lose- your fishing. You will have hours of daylight when the sun is off the water, and almost everywhere you will find the fish at their- best. Yes, no fisherman is to be pitied who _has - to give up Hampshire and Norway and Ireland, if, like the-fisherman „of my. dream, - he has the choice of all Scotland.
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