26 KILL-DEVIL FOR SMALL TROUT. [PART I. 



of him. Some time afterwards, happening to meet 

 the owner of the water, I took the opportunity of 

 apologizing to him for having unintentionally vio- 

 lated his rule restricting persons fishing it to the 

 use of the fly, and incidentally mentioned the 

 large Trout which I had thus seen and missed, 

 when he told me that he knew him well, and that 

 his weight was at least ten pounds, which was 

 exactly what I had put him at. 



Even in streams where the Trout run small the 

 kill-devil is sometimes very effective. 



I was fishing down the (Devonshire) Avon, 

 between Cot and Gara Bridge, on the 16th of 

 August, 1852, when the river was recovering from 

 a flood, and apparently in good order for the fly. 

 A determined rain from the South-west however 

 prevented the fish from rising, and my basket 

 shewed no more than about a dozen and a half 

 Trout, all of them, with one or two exceptions, 

 being mere sprats. Just before leaving off how- 

 ever, I met a young fellow, an attorney from 

 Totnes, who had, with a kill-devil (one of those 

 constructed to run up the line when a fish is 

 struck) been having great sport, and half filled his 

 basket with fish averaging near a quarter of a 

 pound (large for Devonshire). He had one or two 



