18 TROUT-FISHING FOR THE BEGINNER 



a brief stoppage of the line, and a quick move- 

 ment of your wrist drives home the steel 

 you are fast in the first trout of the day. 

 Wildly the fish dashes this way and that, 

 sometimes throwing himself into the air, but 

 by degrees his valiant struggles weaken, and 

 at last he turns on his side and submits to 

 be drawn across the net submerged beneath 

 him. 



It is a lively and graceful art, this luring 

 and capturing of trout by means of a tiny 

 hook and gossamer tackle. There is nothing 

 coarse or clumsy about it, no " pull devil, 

 pull baker " business, but a system of give 

 and take, with hand and eye ever on the 

 alert to counteract the gyrations of the strug- 

 gling captive. Nor does luck invariably 

 favour the angler. A too hasty strike, or a 

 too sudden pressure on the line may instantly 

 sever the cast, and then the rod flies straight, 

 leaving the fisherman lamenting, while a 

 trout with " a fly in one cheek, and his tongue 

 in the other," betakes himself to some hidden 

 retreat, there to cogitate over the machina- 

 tions of mankind. Even your most expert 

 fly-fisherman has his trials. It is not all 

 sweets, when things go right from early 

 morn till dusk. No, there are days when 

 the spirit of mischief seems to be abroad, 



