124 FISHING WITH THE FLY. 



clouds and we all went out to the reef ; the boys, as 

 before, in one boat, and I in the other. And then oc- 

 curred sport such as is seldom seen in genuine trout- 

 fishing. My friends stuck to their minnow and grass- 

 hopper bait, while I retained the fly. I induced them 

 to anchor quite close to the edge of the reef, so that 

 they might, if necessary, drop their lines perpendicu- 

 larly down its face. They had not fished five minutes 

 when " Bluffy " gave a whoop, which might have 

 awakened a petit-juror or scared a witness out of his 

 boots. I glanced that way, and found the man of law 

 standing up in the boat with curved and straining rod 

 and a glow of intense satisfaction pervading his jolly 

 countenance. "I've got him, Governor! He's a 

 whopper ; an old he fellow ! None of your three 

 pounders," he yelled in great excitement. Sure enough, 

 he had him, and after ten minutes of skilful play, 

 landed a trout of over four pounds. 



This beat me all hollow ! Indeed the largest S. fon- 

 tinalis I tooTk on this trip weighed three pounds, one 

 ounce, being two ounces lighter than the heaviest I 

 have ever yet caught. 



" Squills " now got his hand in and brought out a 

 dashing fish of three and a-half pounds, in a manner so 

 pretty and artistic as to elicit a warm eulogium from the 

 " G-overnor," who, of course, had not meantime been 

 idle himself. In fact, I had taken a double and single 

 while the boys got their two ; but these outweighed my 

 three. All through our excursion the largest fish were 



