142 AN OPEN CREEL 



surprised. I told my companion that they were 

 coming short, and that one always misses more than 

 one catches ; but the fault was probably mine. A 

 critical eye on my proceedings always makes me 

 nervous. 



Presently he went on upstream, and I caught a third 

 fish one pound three ounces immediately ! By 

 lunch-time (on that occasion moved to somewhere 

 near 3 p.m.) I found myself sitting by the first little 

 weir possessed of two brace. Despite losses and 

 mistakes, I had had a good morning, for, beside little 

 ones, two other trout had been returned because I 

 could not remember what the size-limit was, and they 

 only just reached twelve inches to an impartial eye. I 

 found out later that they were well over size. After 

 lunch I briskly hooked and lost the big trout in the 

 weir-pool on which I had had my eye, returned a third 

 twelve-inch fish, and so wandered slowly and without 

 incident back to Bell Mill and tea. 



A great place for evening fishing at Driffield is what 

 is called the Parks. A backwater meanders through a 

 large meadow, and when the mill stops work a nice 

 stream flows down it. At other times it is almost 

 stagnant, and the fish are very wary indeed, though 

 not exactly shy, since they see a good deal of human 

 beings. I made my way here after tea, hoping that 

 the mill would stop, as on previous occasions, about 

 6 p.m. Meanwhile I settled down to try some of the 

 fish which I could see smutting in the little pools 

 among the weeds. The fly was a hackle red quill on 

 a short oo hook and 4X point ; the procedure was to 

 cast it on to a pool and let it float there until a cruising 



