The flies to suit it are, hare's ears, black hackles, red hackles, and furnace flies, varied in size.
THE RIVER ALLAN.
This is a good stream for trout fishing; it enters the Forth below Stirling, just above the town of Aloa. It has an extraordinary winding course, flowing through a picturesque country, and famed in poetic lore as "Allan's winding stream."
"On the banks of Allan water,
When the sweet spring time did fall,
Lived the miller's lovely daughter,
The fairest of them all.
For his bride a soldier sought her,
And a winning tongue had he;
On the banks of Allan's water,
There was none so gay as she."
Sea-trout and grilse run up the Allan in spring and autumn, which afford good sport. The small trout flies in my list suit this river capitally.
A few miles above Stirling there is good fishing up to Loch Katrine, commencing below the town of Dumblane, on the Scottish Central Line, and fish up to "Callander," on the east of Ben Lomond. Dumblane is famed as the birth place of "Charming Jessie," in Burns' poetic muse—
"The sun had gan' doun
O'er the lofty Ben Lomond,
And left the red clouds
To preside o'er the scene,
When lanely I stray'd in
The calm summer gla'ming,
To muse on sweet Jessie,
The flower of Dumblane."
There is another stream that runs down from "Aberfildy" to Stirling, in which there is excellent trout fishing. It has a winding course, falling over rocks, rushing through gorges, down precipices in its way, where it forms deep holes for itself, which in the summer are the haunts of large and fine trout.