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my little 7 oz. ten-foot rod did not enable me to fish the 

 broad sliallow properly, but the shallow contained a goodly 

 number of rising trout, who Avere taking a pale, watery, 

 olive dun, and I stuck to this hundred yards of water nearly 

 the whole day. It had not been cast over for several 

 months, and the fish were not at all gut shy, but they 

 were feeding fully twenty yards from my bank, under the 

 shadow of some big timber trees that made fishing from 

 the opposite side impossible. It was hard work, and the oozy 

 nature of the soil prevented- wading — you sank to your 

 knees in a tenacious quagmire that held you fast ! My 

 score was only three brace, but they weighed 81b s. ; and 

 he would be a greedy fisherman who was not content with 

 such a basket. The other fisherman had not fared so well; 

 but he had turned his back to the wind and gone down 

 stream with the keeper, who initiated him into the art of 

 floating a worm before him, close in to the bank. A brace 

 of trout, 3 lbs., were thus ignominiously killed ; and we 

 went home to find ready for us another meal from the 

 domestic pig ! Next day it blew great guns down stream, 

 and rained in torrents, and dry-fly flshing was therefore 

 an utter impossibility. We sheltered ourselves as best we 

 could behind the stems of some big trees that overhung a 

 deep pool, and there wasted the forenoon until, having dis- 

 posed of lunch, our attendant keeper suddenly remembered 

 that the squire had a lot of minnows stored in a tank ! 

 Away went "Velveteens," and presently returned with a 

 stable pail containing a lively lot of bait, and we had, 

 meanwhile, stripped some old May flies of their dressings, 

 and mounted natural trout gut casts. The keeper produced 

 a cartridge, loaded with No. 5 shot, which we split, and 

 then we were ready for the fray. I tried a cast in the pool 

 beneath the tree where we had stood all day; got a run 

 first time and struck, with the result that the line came 

 back minus minnow and hook ! Then I mounted another 

 bait, and repeated the performance, with exactly the same 

 results ! My friend, a few yards below me, had been more 

 successful, for he was fast in a pike of four or five pounds, 

 and the fish did just as he pleased. Away he went tearing 



