164 TROUT FISHING 



it was a black fish and may not have weighed so 

 much as its length suggested. In one or two other 

 rivers I have seen an occasional trout which might 

 be getting on for that weight. One of them, oddly 

 enough, was the Great Ouse, which is as little of a 

 trout stream as any river we possess. It was at 

 Holywell Ferry, and I was drifting quietly down- 

 stream in a boat, looking into the water for some 

 signs of those big perch which haunt that part of 

 the river, when my eye lighted on a great fish with 

 spots, an undoubted trout and a big one. I believe 

 there have always been a few trout in the reach 

 below St. Ives, which is much of it gravelly and not 

 very deep, and recently I have seen accounts of 

 some being noticed in the Staunch Pit below St. 

 Ives' lock. Perhaps they are descendants of the 

 fish I saw. 



For those who have never seen a really big trout 

 in the water and who yearn to do so, the observation 

 post I could best recommend from my own experi- 

 ence would be the great dam at Blagdon. You 

 may not fish from the dam, but you are allowed 

 to walk along the top of it to get to the lake shore 

 beyond. On a bright, calm day you are very 

 likely to see, with its chin resting on one of the 

 sloping concrete blocks, a trout which will make 

 your heart beat faster. On one occasion I saw two, 

 about forty yards apart, which I am sure were fully 



