Barker calls salmon roe 'an experience I have found of late:the best bait for a trout that I have seen in all my time,'and it is the most deadly,in the eddy of a turbid water.
Perhaps trout would take caviare,which is not forbidden by the law of the land.Any unscrupulous person may make the experiment,and argue the matter out with the water-bailie.
But,in my country,it is more usual to duck that official,and go on netting,sniggling,salmon-roeing,and destroying sport in the sacred name of Liberty.
Scots wha fish wi'salmon roe,Scots wha sniggle as ye go,Wull ye stand the Bailie?No!
Let the limmer die!
Now's the day and now's the time,Poison a'the burns wi'lime,Fishing fair's a dastard crime,We're for fishing FREE!
'Ydle persones sholde have but lyttyl mesure in the sayd disporte of fysshyng,'says our old Treatise,but in southern Scotland they have left few fish to dysporte with,and the trout is like to become an extinct animal.Izaak would especially have disliked Fishing Competitions,which,by dint of the multitude of anglers,turn the contemplative man's recreation into a crowded skirmish;and we would repeat his remark,'the rabble herd themselves together'(a dozen in one pool,often),'and endeavour to govern and act in spite of authority.'