ANGLING AS A REAL FIELD SPORT 27 



the flies that are a compromise between the March 

 brown or alder and the Jock Scott or Wilkinson, 

 offer you salmon fishing in miniature. The sea trout 

 are regular visitors to the rivers which are honoured by 

 their periodical visits, but they never linger as long as 

 salmon in the pools, and must be taken on their pas- 

 sage without shilly-shallying. 



A good sea trout on a 14-foot rod, and in a bold run 

 of water fretted by opposition from hidden rocks and 

 obstinate outstanding boulders, is game for a king. 

 The exquisitely shaped silver model is a dashing and 

 gallant foe, worthy of the finest steel tempered at Kendal 

 or Redditch. No other fish leaps so desperately out 

 of the water in its efforts to escape, or puts so many 

 artful dodges into execution, forcing the angler with 

 his arched rod and sensitive winch to meet wile with 

 wile, and determination with a firmness of which 

 gentleness is the warp and woof. While it lasts, and 

 when the fish are in a sporting humour, there is no- 

 thing more exciting than sea-trout angling. Perhaps 

 for briskness of sport one ought to bracket with it the 

 Mayfly carnival of the non-tidal trout streams in the 

 generally hot days of early June, when the English 

 meadows are in all their glory, and the fish for a few 

 days cast shyness to the green and grey drakes and 

 run a fatal riot in their annual gormandising. 



The greatest happiness for the greatest number in 

 angling, I suppose, must be credited to the patient 

 disciples of Izaak Walton who take their sport at their 

 ease by the margins, or afloat on the bosom, of the 

 slow-running rivers which come under the regulations 

 of what is known as the Mundella Act. They are mostly 

 the home of the coarse fish of the British waters pike, 

 perch, roach, dace, chub, barbel, and the rest. Some 

 of them also hold trout and one or two salmon in their 



