ON THE GLOUCESTERSHIRE COLN 183 



found rising almost all day, even when nothing is 

 stirring anywhere else. Also the casting is straight- 

 forward : no trees impede the fisherman on his own 

 bank, and the current glides evenly over its bed, so 

 that at the end of the longest line the fly does not 

 drag. But even here, where all seems so easy, success 

 is hard to come at. From afar, standing well back in 

 the meadow, let us suppose the angler to have observed 

 a trout that rises once, twice, and thrice, and is evidently 

 taking a quiet snack between meals. This is the kind 

 of fish that is as welcome during the slack part of the 

 afternoon as flowers in May. First stooping, then 

 crouching, and lastly crawling, the angler approaches 

 the bank, stopping while he is still some five yards 

 back in the meadow. By all the rules this would be 

 considered a sound enough display of tactics, for the 

 trout is full twelve yards out and rather upstream 

 above the angler, so that a diagonal cast will be 

 possible, with a curve in the gut to give floating room 

 to the fly and to send it down first. The approach 

 has indeed been achieved with success, and it would 

 seem that all that remains is to cover the fish, which 

 has just risen again. Line is lengthened rapidly, and 

 enough is just out, when suddenly from under the bank 

 there issues what looks like a torpedo ; it heads straight 

 for the rising trout, making a great wave and dis- 

 turbing other torpedoes in its passage, until the 

 hitherto placid stream is seamed in every direction, 

 and the fish that rose rises no more. And all this 

 because a miserable trout standing on its head had 

 a bad conscience, and fled on suspicion of human 

 presence, which it could not have detected otherwise ! 



