246 THE TROUT ARE RISING 



Then, with a gradually lessening line, a fine trout 

 came in sight, and at last, completely exhausted, 

 he was received into the landing net. His weight 

 proved to be 2 Ibs. On the other great occasion, 

 the capture went a single ounce better. This 

 was at the magic hour of sundown, just prior to 

 packing up on the Friday for the Rand. Ambi- 

 tion suggested an effort to land a good-sized 

 trout to take back to Johannesburg for evidence, 

 as the lawyers say. A little earlier, a big one had 

 been lost. He had broken the cast just above 

 the tail fly, on which he had been hooked, leaving 

 an unwanted scaly on the second fly, and the torn 

 mouth of the scaly showed what a tragedy tandem 

 driving had been to him. So in order to try and 

 even things, I carried on with one fly only, the 

 good old March brown. Very soon a good trout 

 was pricked, but was no sooner on than off. 

 Then, a few casts later, the hook went into 

 another. Demanding much line, away he sped 

 into the pool, for he had seized the fly at the tail 

 of the rapid, always a desirable spot to try with 

 wet fly. It had been an unlucky pool, for I had 

 lost several hard-pulling trout there, but this time 

 confidence came with the knowledge that only 

 one fly was on, and that therefore no scaly could 

 be a spoil-sport. All the confidence was wanted 

 when he began to leap out of the water what must 

 these trout be like in Leap Year ? Lowering the 

 rod was the instant treatment. At last he rolled 

 over on his back, and was landed, a perfect trout. 

 No sooner was he in the landing net than the 



