A LITTLE CHALK STREAM 45 



wards, the fish seems to be hardly aware of anything 

 wrong. If, liowevcr, you have struck Iiard and 

 begun to pull hard, he becomes a violent opponent 

 at once. 



In one important feature our little chalk stream 

 differs from some of its peers — the difference is 

 possibly more noticeable on this part of it than on 

 others — and that is in the matter of fly, and the 

 consequent rising of the fish. I should hardly like 

 to say that fly was less plentiful, but it is certainly 

 less concentrated. The time of the rise is not 

 nearly so well defined as on the Itchen, for instance, 

 and it is not often that you could lay your hand on 

 your heart and say, " Why, every trout in the 

 stream is on the feed." On the other hand, it is 

 not often that you could say with gloomy certainty, 

 " Not a blessed trout is moving anywhere." For 

 nearly always there is something moving, or willing 

 to move, somewhere, and you can get rises at any 

 time of day if you are persistent and alert. You 

 can catch fish, moreover, by speculative casting in 

 likely places, a method which is of doubtful value on 

 the Itchen in most parts that I know. 



This freer habit of the trout is wholly commendable 

 to busy men whose fishing days are few, for it means 

 that less hours are absorbed in mere contemplation. 

 The catch may not be more numerous in the end — 

 an Itchen rise is often a busy and crowded time — but 



