113 



drawu gut cast. He was away like a flash of liglitning, and 



I use words wliicli iu print are represented tlius . In 



all my angling experience I never dropped a fisli in this 



manner before, and after calling myself a few names, I 



repair damages and feel Letter. In fact I console myself 



by repeating aloud : — 



" He may swim to the north ; he may swim to the south, 

 But that beggar has got my fly in his mouth." 



Moving upwards, two feeding trout are approached within 

 casting distance, and I solemnly vow to kill them both, or 

 perish in the attempt ! But I was not called upon to fulfil 

 the latter part of this vow, because the first fish took the fly 

 boldly, and, refusing to give him sufficient line to enable 

 him to alarm his friend, I got the hooked trout down 

 stream, killed him with a short shift and little ceremony. 

 The third fish shared the same fate, and, wading to the 

 bank, I cried, " Hold enough." Thus ended my season on 

 the Darenth, and he would, indeed, be a greedy angler who 

 was not well content with three such fish as those which 

 graced my creel. 



Taken altogether, the season has not been such a bad one 

 as might be supposed, having regard to the drought; but 

 as I fish persistently, my record of two hundred and twenty 

 trout can scarcely be considered other than exceptional. 

 Those anglers who have only been enabled to pay two or 

 three A'isits to the river during this season, and who have 

 not been able to pick and choose their days — those are the 

 men who, with sad and elongated countenances, will tell 

 3^ou that there are no fish left in the I>arenth, and that the 

 fishing in our valley has gone to the dogs. 



There is an unwritten law which prevails in Kent, 

 and which ordains that when partridge shooting 

 begins, fishing ends. It is a very absurd tradi- 

 tion, because Darenth trout are now at their best ; 

 albeit they are, at the present time, more like 

 May than September trout, so far as regards condition. 

 The season that closed to-day is the very worst that has been 

 known on the river within the recollection of the oldest 



