FLY FISHING. 75 



first fish I have landed for the day, and we should call him a good 

 sized trout in many of the streams I have angled in. 



Old Angler. But we don't consider him so here ; the sportsman's 

 law in these parts being never to destroy a fish that weighs less 

 than a pound. 



Scholar. If that were the case I don't know how the anglers are 

 to manage in some of the crack streams in the West of England, 

 in which, though an angler may average his two or three dozen a 

 day all through the season, he does not five times in the year 

 amongst the whole of them meet with one that comes up to the 

 standard weight you require here ? 



Old Angler. Your observations are very easily answered. In 

 most of the streams in the West of England the trout usually run 

 small, and their increase is so great, that an angler may conscien- 

 tiously kill almost every one he catches without any apprehension 

 of causing a scarcity thereby. But it is very different here. The 

 fish, though they grow large, do not increase in any thing like the 

 same ratio, and if " all was fish here that came to hook," a dimi- 

 nuition in numbers would be very soon perceptible. 



Scholar. Well, then, here he goes again if it's not too late but 

 it's all right I see he has already so well recovered the use of his 

 fins as to waddle away from our sight, and I've no doubt will 

 soon recover his usual health and spirits. 



Old Angler. And now you've spared the life of your little cap- 

 tive, I'll point out to you a spot where, if you cast in your flies 

 cunningly, you are very likely to meet with a fish more worthy of 

 your skill. You see that abrupt gravel bank on the opposite side, 

 which you may perceive owes its steep sides to being worn away 

 by the floods when the river is overcharged. Now in the deep 

 water under this bank there always lurks a good sized trout or 

 two, and at such a favorable time as this, if you'll attend to my 

 instructions I'll insure you a rise. In the first place keep well 

 back from the brink, and get ready line enough for a long cast. 

 And then try if you can throw so that your stretcher fly may strike 

 the gravel sides of the bank before it drops into the water. That's 

 right, you've hit the mark to a nicety, and got a rise too almost 

 before the fly touched the water. 



Scholar. Ah! but he's gone again tackle and all why I 

 might as well have tried to lug out a rhinoceros as such a 

 monstrous trout as that, and he's actually walked off, not only 



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