IN PURSUIT OF THE MAY FLY 97 



every insect, and leave nothing for a fish to 

 rise at. 



By a short cut we get above them, and by shoo- 

 lagging and pelting we succeed, after much cack- 

 ling and abuse, in turning their heads down-stream. 

 Then for a few minutes we get a bit of quiet fishing, 

 and a brace of nice trout come into our creel. 



No sooner have we got rid of the geese than we 

 are haunted by hundreds of ducks and ducklings. 

 You make a nice cast over a rising trout, and out 

 from under the bushes darts a week-old duckling 

 one of a score or two and the others scurry after 

 him, and make a dash at your " barbed betrayer." 

 You must quickly remove your insect or hook the 

 little innocent, and so it goes on. This is one only 

 of the minor incidents that help to mar your sport 

 on this pleasant river. 



Now I may pause to tell you that by good luck 

 I have found a very remarkable boy a born angler, 

 ,and no mistake. Born he was on the margin of 

 this river ; he is twelve years old. I will call him 

 Izaac, but that is not his real name. "Ever since 

 I can remember," says he, " I have loved this river. 

 I began to fish in it, I think, as soon as I could 

 walk," and now at the mature age he has reached 

 he is an expert angler. His favourite method is to 

 fish with the minnow, but he knows how to cast a 

 fly with graceful precision. After toiling fruitlessly 

 with me all day this young " Iz. W." will go out of 

 an evening and, somehow or other, bring home a 

 brace of trout for certain. My pleasure in catching 



H 



