154 AN OPEN CREEL 



abundant through a lovely valley flanked by bold airy 

 downs, and, what is more, its fish are worthy of all 

 respect ; they have a goodly bulk and a flavour on the 

 table that is more than excellent. Nor are they 

 without those arts which confound the fisherman from 

 time to time, the skill to discriminate between real 

 flies and false, the ability to get rid of a hook in mid- 

 air or to break gut by burying themselves in weeds. 

 There are several fine fellows to whom, calmness being 

 now recovered, I take off my hat. 



After such a summer as we had been having it 

 would have been churlish to repine at a hot day, and, 

 as a matter of fact, I would always postulate bright 

 sunshine for making the acquaintance of new water. 

 It may not be very good for fishing, but it helps vastly 

 to make things interesting. The shallows and deeps, 

 the likely bends and corners, the awkward weed-beds, 

 posts and other dangers all are revealed to one's eager 

 eye. And, best of all, one can see the fish, poised 

 close to the surface, swimming lazily at mid-water, or 

 meditating on the bottom. With a clear chalk-river 

 and a bright sun one need never be dull, even though 

 fly be sparse and rises few. 



Fly was sparse enough on my two days on the Avon 

 indeed, I hardly saw a dun the whole time. Smuts 

 there were in plenty and sedges, but they were not 

 enough to set the fish rising freely. Also it was hot 

 hot as it used to be in days of old when we had real 

 summers ; the wading-stockings were both heavy and 

 fatiguing, and the ditches into which one stumbled 

 now and then seemed very numerous and unavoidable. 

 But everything was pure joy, from breakfast in a- 



