you have the whole
boat to yourself, play your fish in any way that it will be most
expeditiously brought to basket. The angler ought to be well assured of
the strength of his tackle, and when he has confidence in that, he will
soon learn to judge of the proper strain to which it may be subjected.
In the case of COMMON YELLOW TROUT, averaging, as most loch trout do,
about three to the pound, there is no occasion to put off time with any
one of them; but in some lochs, such as Loch Leven, where the average is
fairly one pound, and where two and three pounders are by no means
uncommon, some care and a little play are absolutely necessary. But do
not, even in such a case, give him too much of his own way. We can
assure our readers that a three-pound Loch Leven trout, in good
condition, on fine gut and small irons, gives as nice a piece of play,
and exercise to the eye, hand, and judgment, as could well be desired.

The SEA-TROUT is, for his size, the gamest of all fish. He is bold as a
lion, and fights harder for his life than a salmon twice his size. A
fish of three pounds will run out a considerable piece of line, and make
a splendid leap, or series of leaps,--and then is the trying time. As
often as not, your flies and the fish part company in the air, and you
have to sit down muttering "curses not loud but deep," till an
application to the flask soothes your wounded spirit, and invigorates
you for fresh effort. A beautiful sight it is to see a sea-trout rise.
No half-hearted attempt is his, but a determined rush for the fly, and
down again like thought, leaving you the tiniest part of a moment to
strike, and hardly time to admire his beautiful silvery coat. If you
have been fortunate enough to get the steel into him, you will have time
to admire him when you get him into the boat. Fishing for sea-trout with
the fly is, we consider, the most exciting of all kinds of fishing--that
is, if the fish run to a fair average weight. But we are sorry to say
that lochs where it is to be enjoyed are, with the solitary exception of
Loch Lomond, usually far out of ordinary reach,--and in the case of Loch
Lomond, it is only _habitues_ who usually come much speed on it; but
once the angler gets a fair day there, he finds his way back often.
True, there are some excellent sea-trout lochs in the north, and on the
west coast and islands, but they are a far cry from civilisation.
Nevertheless, if our readers can spare the time, let them fi