BLAGDON 285 



have been. The stock of sticklebacks has since been 

 renewed, with great advantage to the bank-fisher, but 

 that day I flogged sturdily on for a mile or more, and 

 saw nothing except the spectacle of a friend's rod 

 bending in the distance bending to no purpose, 

 because the fish got off after a bit of a fight. 



For another hour there was no further sign of Blag- 

 don fish, but I persevered along the north shore, cast- 

 ing across a strong north-westerly wind. I then decided 

 on a change of fly, discarded the dropper, a Silver 

 Doctor, and replaced the March brown at point with 

 one of the "Field" flies already mentioned. This soon 

 aroused the curiosity of a fish, but he merely followed 

 it and did not take. My first real rise was got in a bay 

 where a deep channel about four feet wide ran out into 

 the lake, showing dark amid the shallower water. 

 Fishing across the bay, dropping the fly just on the 

 far side of this channel and working it towards me, I 

 got five rises in about as many yards of water and in 

 quick succession. But though three of them seemed 

 to mean business, nothing came of it. One fish ran a 

 few yards and was off, another jumped and was off, 

 and the third was off after holding the fly for a 

 second. All three seemed fish of four pounds or there- 

 abouts. 



The series of misfortunes was disappointing, but I 

 consoled myself by thinking that the trout had evidently 

 now begun to feed, and that it would only be a matter 

 of minutes before the first fish was in the bag. But 

 never a rise did I get during the next hour and a half, 

 nor did I see another fish move, and by the time I 

 joined my friend a mile farther on for lunch, I was of 



