22 AN OPEN CREEL 



that was spent by the brook. In the interval I had 

 learnt on other and more troutful waters some of the 

 mysteries of fly-fishing proper, and when the spring 

 holidays came round again I proudly renounced all 

 baser lures and sought the place with a fly-rod. At 

 the top of the backwater was a little weir, or, to be 

 more accurate, a shallow slide of water from a flood- 

 gate in the mill-pound, which ran for some yards along 

 the side of a brick wall. It had always been marked 

 down as a likely spot, but had been diligently fished 

 with the worm in vain. This year, however, there had 

 been a good deal of rain in February, and the brook 

 was full, with the result that the water-slide was in- 

 creased in volume and capacity. It was not easy to 

 get at, for it was overgrown with brambles, and on 

 the side away from the wall was an osier-bed ; but, by 

 standing in the six inches of ripple below, it was just 

 possible to flick a fly into the rough water, and let it 

 come down by the edge of the wall. 



These tactics were at once adopted, and a large 

 March brown was flicked into the foam. There was 

 an immediate check; I tightened, thinking the fly 

 might have caught in something, and found that the 

 something was a trout, which at once jumped out of 

 the water, and then rushed madly all over his circum- 

 scribed abode, to my great alarm, for he seemed much 

 bigger than the one of the year before, and it was 

 almost certain that he would get off or break me. 

 Yet, in spite of forebodings, all went well ; he did not 

 attempt to run down towards me ; his exertions merely 

 exhausted him to no purpose, and in the fullness of 

 time I got him safely into the net a really nice fish 



