THOUGHTS ON BIG FISH 167 



found the forcing tactics unexpectedly successful, 

 the reason being clear when the fish came to the 

 spring balance and made no more than one pound 

 five ounces. Seldom have I been worse deceived by 

 a fish; I suppose the confined space in which he 

 had his abode made him seem disproportionately 

 big. Fortunately on the same day I discovered 

 another trout in a little hatch-hole which enabled 

 me to stick to the " up to two and a half pounds " 

 account. His head and shoulders must have 

 weighed that, though I question whether the rest 

 of him weighed anything. He was a lamentable 

 twenty inches of trout. 



I fully expected to catch him when I saw what 

 he was like (though as a matter of fact I did not), 

 for the reason that if there is a decrepit fish anywhere 

 about which only weighs half what it should, it is 

 almost certain to come and take my fly. Possibly 

 my fondness for fishing in odd places, backwaters, 

 carriers, millheads, and the like, lays me open to 

 this, for bad old fish certainly tend to inhabit the 

 quieter and less vigorous parts of a water. Even 

 the well-known monster which lies under a bridge 

 often turns out to be mostly head, and presumably 

 he has some easy nook behind a buttress or in an 

 eddy where he can avoid the exertion of constantly 

 breasting a strong stream. You do not often 

 catch one of these bridge trout, and when you do it 



