BLANKS AND TROUBLES 195 



the right moment, possibly the trout come short, 

 possibly something is wrong with the hook. 

 Whatever the reason, nothing goes right. The 

 only comfort I ever had on such an occasion was 

 when a Devonshire lad at Lifton sagely observed 

 to me : " Them as you miss don't count, sir." 

 That was at any rate a new point of view. 



One of the worst experiences of this sort I 

 ever had was on the old Tern which I was fishing 

 once more after several years abroad. I missed 

 every trout that rose to my fly, and the rises were 

 many. I imagined that they were coming short 

 and thought out other convincing excuses. But, 

 when in despair I handed over the rod to my 

 brother, he succeeded in hooking nearly every 

 fish that rose and made a handsome bag. So my 

 excuses lost much of their plausibility. A day or 

 two later, 1 remember, on a lower reach of the 

 same river 1 happily redeemed my credit, getting 

 almost every trout that came at me fairly. And 

 one of them was a beauty of 3^ Ibs., which took 

 that excellent fly for big trout, the Sarcelle. 



