CLEAR WATERS 



ment. For it was another warm and windless day. 

 The quick glides where the fish sometimes rose well 

 to the wet fly and even the swirling tails of the lashers 

 were irresponsive. The still waters were like glass 

 unruffled by the faintest puff. So the dry-fly expert 

 had all the fun and I, not altogether unprofitably, a 

 good deal of looking on. 



They are better and larger trout, too, than those 

 of the upper Avon, which are white of flesh and far 

 less palatable, in spite of a fair supply of mayfly, none 

 of which hatch out higher up the Kennet than Rams- 

 bury. But the Kennet trout, mostly of a pound or 

 a bit over — those that rise, that is to say, for there 

 are monsters in the water — are flrm and usually pink- 

 fleshed, and for chalk-stream trout the best of eating. 

 In the mayfly season lower down, at Ramsbury, 

 Littlecote, and on into Berkshire by Hungerford 

 and Kintbury bigger fish than pounders, of course, 

 are taken. In the commoners' water at Hungerford, 

 which, on account of their municipal privileges, is alone 

 in the chalk counties, so far as I know, a town of fisher- 

 men, huge trout have been taken on a minnow and 

 even fly within my memory. Doubtless they are 

 taken still. Ten and eleven-pounders were at least 

 annual events. I believe, as a matter of fact, the 

 Kennet is recognised as having the largest record of 

 heavy trout in the kingdom. But we didn't catch 

 these sockdolagers either with a sedge or Wickham 

 dry, or an alder and blue dun wet, about Marlborough 

 — not much ! The miller's net mentioned in a previous 

 chapter used to scoop out an occasional whale or two 

 of five or six pounds, and no doubt a live minnow, 



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