DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 39 



little fishes fly in terror when he rises to pursue them, 

 my lure at times in their very midst as frightened as 

 the rest, and more than once the huge fellow has 

 flicked my bleak with his tail as he has turned to 

 seize his selected quarry. He is not one of your just- 

 at-da3' light-feeding fish that need some one's sitting 

 up to call you early, but one without set hours for 

 meals, and, if he has a preference, it is to wait for his 

 food until the sun has warmed the day a bit. 



On one occasion I started trying for him at six a.m. 

 It was nearly ten when I got a sight of him. He 

 rose and drove a shoal of bleak to midstream, where, 

 doubtless, he got some satisfaction, for over an hour 

 passed before he rose again; then scudding leaps of 

 frightened fish that saw his stealthy rise prepared me 

 for his reappearance. He rose to near the surface and 

 made fruitless snatches to his right and left in his 

 onward rush, which brought him so near the punt 

 that I could see his size and colourings. This and the 

 flashes of the resplendent creature's sides, as he made 

 half turns to seize his prey, so stamped themiselves upon 

 my brain that I could see his likeness in the water long 

 after he had disappeared. 



How many times I have striven to be equal to 

 that fish's capture I do not rightly know, but, for 

 many hours, during many days, oft when the wind 

 was in the east, I have sat, not always feeling very 

 warm, and hoped to catch him. I am hoping still. 



Every hve bait, from a minnow, attached to the 

 smallest hook and finest gut, to an eight-inch roach, 

 has been tried in turn. That sweet morsel, well liked 

 by trout, a gudgeon, I have shown him often. Favourite 

 phantoms, fresh from victories with the comparatively 

 silly salmon, and other spinning lures, have been cast 

 wide outstream and brought cannily to the spot where 

 he must see them; but, as yet, I have not got him. 

 How many times during the lovely month of May 

 alone I have striven to catch that trout I fear to say; 



