go THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR.. "]
work on " Fishing " which appeared in your issue of August 13th. I have not yet read the book, but I take it that your reviewer is expressing his own opinion when he questions Mr. Hutchinson's judgment in devoting the whole of one of the two volumes to the salmon, trout, and sea-trout, on the ground which he somewhat bluntly states in a single sentence,—" The salmon is almost absolutely out of reach."
If your reviewer means by this that salmon-fishing is beyond the reach of the average middle-class angler, owing to its cost, I think he rather exaggerates matters. Surely there are some waters in the United Kingdom where salmon and sea-trout, as well as brown trout, fishing can be got by the "ordinary individual" even without "taking a ' rod ' in some proprietary water." I cannot speak as to English waters, but angling holidays in Ireland and Scotland are nowadays not beyond the possessor of even a limited income, provided the angler knows where to go. May I instance the case of the free fishing on Lough Corrib in Ireland, and at the same time refer your angling readers to a valuable report upon that sheet of water which ap- neared in the Fishing Gazette of July 23rd ? The report is signed by the honorary secretary of the Corrib Fisheries Association, Oughterard, and is at once a tribute to the fishing obtainable and to the value of the work done by that body in conserving the fishings for an angling public who too frequently forget that the sport obtained (albeit free) is in a great degree due to a necessary but costly supervision.
While giving this Irish instance of free salmon-fishing (others will readily occur to your readers), might I. bring under your notice more particularly an instance from Scotland ? That I do so as an official of a body similar to the Irish Association referred to may vitiate my testimony to some extent, but many English anglers who yearly visit Loch Lomond will readily testify to the excellence and cheapness of the fishing in that noble sheet of water. The right to fish for salmon being a "proprietary" right in Scotland, that right has, in the case of Loch Lomond, been aciuired for the public behoof for an annual rental, and the netting rights in the River Leven, which unites the loch with the sea, have not only likewise been acquired, but the nets have been removed. Moreover, the salmon- fishings in the Clyde estuary have also been taken on lease, to ensure control of them in the interest of sport, and netting is now carried on simply to pay rent and outlays. The result is a practically free run of migratory fish to the whole vast watershed of the loch. In the spring, with trolling tackle, good salmon are taken-37 lb. and 27 lb. being the records these last two seasons—and the writer has seen three boats playing salmon at one and the same time. In summer and autumn fly-fishing alone is resorted to, and many fish are thus accounted for; but while twenty or thirty " fish" may be risen in a day, few anglers bring in more than a couple, but of sea-trout last August baskets of from six to ten good fish were of almost daily occurrence. For such fishing (poor enough, doubtless, from your reviewer's standpoint) no charge is exacted, but a fluctuating and increasing body of four hundred anglers voluntarily tenders a like number of guineas annually.
When such magnificent haunts of salmon and sea-trout as I have instanced, easily accessible and surrounded by hotels and cottages for the accommodation of visitors, are still open to the angling public at the cost of nothing more than the customary incidental expenses of an angling holiday, plus the voluntary con- tribution expected, it cannot, I think, be fairly maintained that salmon-fishing is "almost as inaccessible to the `ordinary indi- vidual' as the moon."
May I add that the Fishmongers' Company of London has this season put an effective stop to the wholesale illegal destruction of kelt sea-trout in the sea by a drastic series of prosecutions, and thereby postponed, for Scotland at least, the early doom of the "simple-minded" sea-trout foreshadowed by your reviewer?
—I am, Sir, &c., HENRY LAMOND,
Secretary, Loch Lomond Angling Improvement Association. 163 West George Street, Glasgow.
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