Sea- Trout Fishing. 1 4 1 



above conditions almost certain to rise to some 

 extent. You do not know what size they may 

 be they may be half a pound or five pounds ; 

 you do not know the moment when they may 

 come dashing from the water, or shoot like 

 a silver arrow through the crest of a wave. 

 There is no deep eddy beneath a shady alder, 

 which you, as it were, besiege at your own will 

 and time where you watch a rising trout, and 

 lay your plans for his destruction: you are throw- 

 ing your fly over a rapid pool or on a brisk loch, 

 and at any moment and anywhere the sea-trout 

 may rise. He comes at the fly with a rapidity 

 which requires the utmost quickness in the 

 tightening of the line or he will be gone. He 

 must be struck and played with a dash which 

 a regular south-country angler scarcely under- 

 stands, who is inclined to treat him with a 

 ceremony which causes the gillie to have an 

 unreasonable contempt for his skill as a fisher- 

 man. If the fish misses the fly at the first rise, 

 or is untouched by the hook, he will, unlike any 

 other kind of trout, often be ready, if you give 

 him the chance, instantaneously to return with 

 fresh vehemence ; so that without a moment's 

 loss of time the fly must be over him again. 



