104 TROUT FISHING 



that he always used the coachman. I think he 

 always fished it dry wherever he might be. And 

 though my memory of that visit is one of rather 

 inclement spring weather, when one would have said 

 that dry-fly fishing would be badly handicapped, 

 that angler certainly used to bring back fish, not 

 many perhaps, but good ones. I fancy he gave 

 himself a biggish size-limit. My red tag friend 

 is similarly a devotee of the dry-fly method, and I 

 know that he has done quite well with his red tag 

 on all mountain streams as well as in the chalk 

 district, and likewise with coarse fish, for which he 

 also angles. 



At one fishing inn which I have often visited a 

 certain angler has left an enduring reputation 

 behind him. I never had the pleasure of meeting 

 him, for his visits had ceased shortly before mine 

 began, but I know him by repute as well as any 

 angler in history — so often have his name and 

 achievements come up for discussion in the smoking- 

 room of an evening. Never did any visitor at 

 the inn ever bring back such distinguished trout — 

 indeed I am not sure that he did not achieve half- 

 pound averages, which is a thing almost incredible 

 in that district — and, his chroniclers will always 

 conclude, " he never fished with more than one fly, 

 a very big cochybonddu." Early spring, high 

 summer, or cool autumn, it was apparently the same 



