trouting. 51 



one else is oa the water to-day that we know of. Lunch is packed, weeds 

 lighted, and we make for Pitt's Mill. Behind this, in the mUl tail, there is 

 often a good trout or two ; but it is not easy to fish, for a lot of apple trees 

 and a high bank. Like Adam, I often wish there weren't any apple 

 trees, and like him, too, it is when "'Eve' falls" that I often wish it 

 most. That's one to me. So, though we see a rising fish or two, we 

 don't pause, but walk on down the long deep mill head, which holds some 

 capital fish, but wants a good rough breeze or the dusk of evening 

 to make it give sport. Below Rooksbury — the next mill — is sometimes 

 ovir choicest bit of fishing for good fish. The first meadow is a peculiar 

 one, and wants knowing. Go there in April or early in May, and you 

 wouldn't think there was a fish over half a pound in it. Wait till the 

 warm weather in the middle or end of May and later on, and you may 

 perhaps see, when the fish are moving, a different state of things. But 

 the fish want a lot of catching here ; the ground is high, the water smooth, 

 and you must stoop and do your longest, tallest, lightest casting with a 

 dry fly. 



The very first time I ever fished it I got two brace of fish all over l^lb. ; 

 but it is no use to-day. We'll look at it again in the evening. There is 

 very little fiy, and no wind strikes ; so we get over the stile into the next 

 meadow. 



Here is a nice bit of water, a smart, roughish stream running down 

 to a hatch hole, and then another nice rough bit, which curves round to 

 a bridge over which the road runs. Every bit of this is at times choice 

 fishing, and you may just as likely get hold of a two or three pounder as not. 



" Crayon, my friend, go on down to yon hatch hole, fish both sides 

 carefully, and work down the rough stream. By those trees are two or three 

 sockdollagers ; I've seen them. I'll fish on down to the hatch, or rather I 

 wUl walk down to the hatch and fish up." 



Two years ago this bit of the stream wasn't worth a rap. It held tidy 

 fish ; but it was quite open and clear of weed, and there was no shelter, 

 and the fish wouldn't take the artificial fly in it. Now* there is a ridge 

 of weed down the middle, and it is one of our best bits. I mount a nice 



* In 1877. 



