A LUCKY EASIER HOLIDAY. 175 



he next doubled quickly back_, and before we could reel 

 in the slack or run back, the fly came away and he 

 was gone. 



He showed rather yellow on the belly and had pro- 

 bably been up since early spring ; nevertheless, as he was 

 undoubtedly a fresh fish, we were sorry the acquaintance 

 was so short. 



This apparently tiu'ned our luck, as we did not get 

 another pull, so ended our day and Easter holiday, one 

 of the most enjoyable that has fallen to our lot. 



Now and again when fish would not take the fly we 

 tried them with a boiled salted prawn, rigged up ou 

 regular prawn tackle, but beyond getting a gaunt trout 

 of 2 lb. could make neither head nor tail of them, so 

 gave it up as a failure, and made up our mind not to 

 be bothered with them again. 



One day, while casting in swift water flowing over a 

 rocky bed, the fly was taken ; we made sure it was a 

 fish at first, but soon perceived it was something smaller, 

 for he soon lay on the surface without showing an ounce 

 of fight ; he turned out to be a chub (or skelly as they 

 are there called) of 2 lb. weight, of which many exist 

 in the flat reaches bordered by clay banks ; he must 

 have lost his way, for chub, as a rule, are not great 

 explorers. 



During the greater part of this outing we experienced 

 very rough weather, what is locally termed the " helm 

 wind " having been prevalent. This is an east wind 

 which causes a bank of dark clouds to form in a direc- 



