120 TROUT FISHING 



down " has put more anglers into this quandary 

 than any other. I have more than once been present 

 at, even engaged in, arguments which have had 

 some such conclusions as that, on the one hand, 

 nobody but an imbecile or a novice would dream 

 of fishing downstream, and A. may please himself 

 as to which class he belongs to ; while, on the other 

 hand, if anybody ever makes a decent basket by 

 fishing upstream, B. would be very glad to see it, 

 that's all, and meanwhile he will be happy to wager 

 any sum A. likes to name that his friend X. would 

 fish against him on any day and any water and give 

 him at least twelve tails and a beating. 



The clear- water worm is another fi-uitful cause 

 of discord. Start a discussion upon it and you will 

 probably go away halting between the two opmions 

 — (1) that the clear- water wormer is on the whole 

 the highest type of angling man, situate on a finer 

 eminence even than the dry-fly purist; (2) that he 

 is a gloomy survival of the troglodytes, whose 

 motto was " Slay and spare not," and that he ought 

 to be swept away by the broom of civilisation. 



Then, when the light and heavy rod controversy 

 raged a dozen years or so ago, I sometimes had a 

 fear that it might at last develop into an argu- 

 mentum ad hominem baculumque^ in which case the 

 heavy-rod man would have an obvious advantage 

 not altogether justified by the nature of the dispute. 



