PREFACE 



WHILE it would scarcely be cricket to 

 lay the blame of presenting the 

 public with yet another book about 

 Trout-fishing upon the shoulders of that 

 thorough sportsman, my dedicatee, I have a 

 vague idea that he cannot escape all responsi- 

 bility. For the first lines I ever penned on 

 angling appeared in the correspondence columns 

 of The Fishing Gazette, and related to the capture 

 of a huge pike in lough Conn by one of my 

 sergeants who, producing the skull-bones in 

 evidence, assured me that the monster scaled 

 63 Ibs. Since then, most of my piscatory 

 scribbling has found place in the same famous 

 journal. Nevertheless, the inexcusable conceit 

 which has led to my coming out in book form is 

 my own. Yet, after all, why inexcusable ? 

 Although, a " satchelled schoolboy," I caught my 

 first dish of Trout in a river, and have exploited 

 waters of size ever since, the brooks have ever 



V. 



