SIR,

WISHING is fools' paradise;" so I must curb the one which has just involuntarily arisen, that I might imbibe, with such aspirations as the renovating influences of Spring naturally induce, a portion of its awakening powers....... Alas! I must prove the force of the old proverb, for I have nothing to offer but dry detail.

We now come to consider Lough Derg in its glory, for certes there is not any other expanse of water in these our happily irrigated Islands which exceeds it either for the variety, size, or number of its fish. In regard, however, to its most remarkable species, the Gillaroo, or trout with a gizzard, it is not singular, as these are to be found in other waters in Ireland unconnected with the Shannon. This is the fish with the gizzard-at least vulgarly supposed so-whence it derives the name of Gillaroo. Although in appearance it decidedly has this organ, in point of fact it does not possess it, as it is the stomach, which is so unnaturally thick and rough as to give it prominently such appearance. It is

Nenagh, April 6, 1833. more abundant in some parts of Lough Derg than others, naturally haunting such places where its favorite food is most abundant

namely, small shell fish-as, on being opened, they are always found in its stomach. Some naturalists affirm that the stomach of the common trout would become as hard as that of the Gillaroo, and present the same appearance of a gizzard, if it fed on the same food, and that it is the shells which harden the stomach and give it this singular resemblance. But that cannot be the fact, as the former are constantly caught in the haunts of the Gillaroo. In appearance it is more bull-headed, shorter, and thicker than the common trout; so much so, that one of three pounds lying on its side would not look heavier than another of two, and the spots on the sides are much larger than the other species. It is a game merry trout, affording excellent sport to the angler, and in quality cannot be surpassed. It does not require any particular fly, rising indiscriminately to the common ones*.

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perch, from seven pounds down wards, from five pounds to three being the common run, though there are many instances of some above seven pounds, shoals of which may be seen by the rippling and swell of the water at a distance, almost incredible in ahot quiet day, when the water is quite tranquil. Some years ago one of these shoals entered a mill-tail, situated on a small tributary to the Shannon, and were perceived by the miller to go up a good way. He dammed up the water below them, and, letting off that into which they had ascended, captured the whole. I am abso. lutely afraid to mention the quantity (to say nothing of the size of many), lest I should incur the suspicion of treating your readers with a regular Yankeeism. They are mostly caught with a worm, but of course take the minnow, and frequently the smaller ones rise to the fly. They are also captured in large quantities by means of drum nets sunk in deep water, baited with a piece of red cloth. They excel in quality, and a large one roasted, without being scaled, in the hot embers of a cabin fire until the whole skin falls off, and with the accompaniments of a well-boiled praty (potatoe) and fresh butter, forms a nunchion the greatest epicure might relish.

The fresh water shark is not wanting, from the delicate jack to the grosser and giant ogre of the deep. The former often rise to the trout fly, and are sometimes caught, provided the gut happens to be single, as it gets between their teeth, and they cannot cut it; but when the gut is double, which it is mostly from the size of the trout generally, they invariably

walk off with the fly. For the full-grown tyrant, gigantic flies on double hooks, four inches long, and of the most preposterously gawdy colours, are used, and tied on gimp. Salmon and trout flies, it would seem, are beneath the notice of the large pike. They afford, as may be supposed, the best of sport, trolling with the usual baits:-and here it may not be irrelevant to mention that twisting a string of red worsted around your bait in trolling will add no little to your success. is on this principle that the killdevil is made:-and for perch (I had not one with me), who bolt at once, might do in some sort; but pike generally taste their bait, and would throw the latter out. As for what I have recommended, I can safely say probatum est.

It

The Monarch of the Flood, the stately salmon, is also to be met with in Lough Derg, but, though plentiful in other parts of the river, is not taken frequently here. In the rapids below Killaloe, and at Castle Connell, they are abundant, and afford in good days good sport. Many excellent anglers contend that they are as plentiful in Lough Derg, but that the great extent of water and want of rapid stream render them apparently scarcer, as they do not rise so freely to the fly, or are so fairly gone over with it.

Tench and carp, too, but in no great quantities, perhaps from being rarely angled for, must yet be named among the piscatory treasures of the teeming expanse, and almost all the minor tribes, which furnish excellent feeding for the different descriptions already named. Among these must be noticed the Loach, in Ireland

termed the Collia rua, the best bait by far for perch or large

trout.

Killaloe is famous for that reputedly dangerous luxury the lamprey; and eels abound in such sort that they are salted down, and obtain the name of Killa loe bacon.

In the rapids below this town, down to near Limerick, trout of both kinds and of all weights and sizes are met with; and here also may be found that as yet non-descript, the par, or brandling as it is termed in Scotland and the North of England. Here it is indifferently called sprat and graveling, and often, as elsewhere, mistaken for salmon fry. Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, has written a paper on this subject, and insists that the scarcity of salmon (compared with the olden time) which exists, is in a great measure owing to the wholesale and indiscriminate slaughter of these fish. In the river Ern in Scotland, which runs within five hundred yards of my door, they are in such plenty, that it is no uncommon thing, if you choose to wade, to kill fifteen and sixteen dozen in a day, in the months of August and September, with a small midge fly, the point of the hook being covered with a magot or gentle. Some affirm that they are all males, and can never propagate their own species; others that they are mules between salmon and trout. Many more such opinions are advanced: two things, however, are certain; they differ widely in appearance from salmon fry when minutely examined, and are never to be found in any rivers but where salmon resort. For the table they are as delicate and savoury as a

smelt. They are mostly from five to three inches in length, the shape of a salmon: sometimes, but not frequently, they reach to six inches.

Having now briefly noticed the fish which prevail in this water, before I proceed to the mode of fishing for the large trout especially, a very peculiar one), I will take upon myself to say a few words in general upon some minor matters: and first of all, being in the vicinity of Limerick, the hooks for which that town has been so long celebrated naturally present themselves. The late O'Shaughnessy of Limerick was the first hook-maker of his own or perhaps any other man's day, and his skill obtained for him such a monopoly that he could not answer the demand. Though this sounds finely, it led to no great results. O'Shaughnessy did nearly all his own work, and, being a fisherman himself, spent all he made. How he hit upon his superior mode of tempering can only, I believe, be attributed to perseverance.

"Labor omnia vincit

Improbus, et duris urgens in rebus egestas." That this was O'Shaughnessy's motto is more than probable, as though, as may be believed, intelligent and discriminating, he was almost uneducated. He was, I might say, intimate with every Gentleman angler in the southern parts of Ireland, and many others, and sent hooks to the Continent and the New World. He lived in a two-pair of stairs room in the old town of Limerick, and never refused to communicate to a customer and a Gentleman anything he asked. In this room I often was, and my present host still oftener. I am aware Sir H. Davy

has mentioned the Limerick mode of tempering, but if memory serves me right, he alludes only to salmon hooks. I had no need to allude to this, but I scorn the idea of plagiarism, and hold the medium of your pages too high to try, were I ever so base as to imagine it. What I have seen, my memory moreover being refreshed by one who saw all O'Shaughnessy knew, I have a right to attempt describing. His one perfection lay in filing even his trout hooks out of the solid, consequently the tongue of the barb was as strong as any other part: his second, in leaving that part of the bend or bowl of the hook, where the leverage or strain is when in the fish's mouth, a leetle stronger than usual: his third, gradually filing or tapering away the shank of the hook to the top or end.

I do not conceive that there is any reason to attempt explaining the second; but the third was pregnant with advantages, which even the Carlisle hook-makers have at last been forced to adopt; and which, coupled with the second, embrace so many excellences that they cannot be passed over. It might at first sight be apprehended that the sharpness of this point would cut the gut; but experience proves to the contrary, and it has been found to wear sooner with the old-fashioned hook, which is of the same thickness from the bend to the top of the shank. This tapering gave an elasticity to his hooks which none other then possessed, and which, while it ensured an additional security against breaking, eased also the strain when a heavy fish was on, and thus again caused the lip or hold of the fish

less liable to be broken. In dressing a fly, it afforded an incalculable advantage, as it gave the option of using double gut, by splicing it at the point of insertion under the hook. This is of such paramount importance where anything but sprats are to be encountered, and so little generally practised, that I shall endeavour to decribe it. The link of gut to which the hook is to be fastened must be in tension that the silk may be firmly wound. Having well waxed the finest silk, it is to be twice coiled round that end of the gut intended for the hook, about the eighth of an inch above the exact place of junction. Another short piece of gut, about an inch long, and delicately pointed with the pen-knife, may then be joined to it (the tapered part in front), by winding the silk firmly round for the eighth of an inch: then, thus united, both are to be strapped to the hook in the usual way until about three-fourths of the way down to the bend; then cut off and taper the other end of the short gut, and whip the remainder of the long link in the usual way. By this simple plan the danger of the gut breaking off close to the hook is prevented, and the angler has the advantage of using double gut with a single strand, and can work with double confidence when playing a heavy fish.

The manner in which O'Shaughnessy tempered may now be described (I speak of trout hooks). He heated a common household smoothing iron considerably above that necessary for the laundress; the hook was then laid on it; and when it had acquired the necessary degree of heat, which was

just previous to the steel assuming the blue colour, for its metallic lustre did not vary when exposed to this heat, it was touched with the end of a farthing tallow candle, and thrown off. By this process it was tempered immediately above the bending or spring temper. When touched with the candle end, the metallic lustre was destroyed, the grease dissipating in a cloud of smoke, and giving the hook a black colour, which is permanent, and which materially prevents them from rust. Any amateur flydresser, who is partial to the crooked bent hook, but who may wish this temper and black colour, may obtain them by heating his hook red hot in the fire shovel, and then pursuing the above named method.

The Carlisle hook-makers, in my humble opinion the best in England, have now adopted filing the shank of their hooks taper, after the Limerick fashion: their temper, the common blue, is very good, and their salmon hooks not being so heavy, makes them in such respect preferable to the Irish. Like them they are plain in the bend; that is, the barb lies fair under the shank, and is not turned out to either side, but the bend is a fair round instead of an oval in one instance, this is better, as the oval turn is more likely to wear or break the grip sooner, but the latter will take quickest.

In endeavoring to describe some of the niceties of this art, I am aware I may be accused of

almost trifling: but as it is eminently one compounded of minutiæ, for which reason it is eschewed by many, I have less reason to apologise for being thus circumstantial, and, when I make an observation, to assign a Having premised thus much, I shall proceed to notice that important sinew in the angler's warfare, silk-worm gut. This substance was first manufactured for jewellers to string pearls, &c. on. It soon superseded the use of horsehair with the angler, though the latter is returning partially into vogue both in Ireland and Scotland, on those rivers which are much beaten with the line, and where consequently trout are shy and scarce-two words, which, as regards this subject, may always be put in couples. No person who has not seen it can have an idea of the strength of good horsehair: the animal must be at grass, and that of a stallion is far the best. The goodness of gut is best ascertained by its transparency, that of a dull colour being inferior, and wearing away in flakes. Such can only be used with safety double twisted, the twists by their folding preventing the flakes from descending. It is extremely singular, that the finer it is the more comparative strength it possesses. This cannot be mathematically ascertained or accounted for, but such is the fact, and facts set mathematics and philosophy at defiance.

In the year 1817 gut of great length, nearly two feet, made its