THE THAMES TROUT. 281 



hook, and then the question becomes one of Man v. Trout. Very 

 often the trout wins, where it would not be the case if a spinning tackle 

 were in use, and very often he does not ; but in no case can it be said 

 that the fish is " skull-dragged," as is undeniably the case with the 

 ordinary gorge live bait tackle. 



The working of both the spinning bait and this in the boiling water of 

 the weir requires much ambidextrous skill, but of the two the manipu- 

 lation of the latter is the more difficult, and is, perhaps, commensurately 

 more successful in the " rising," if not the actual capture, of the fish. 



Fly fishing for Thames trout is by no means so much in favour with 

 Thames anglers as the two preceding methods, and I must confess that 

 the throwing of a grilse fly which is that most in use continually, 

 day after day, perhaps for a week, without a rise, is at least dishearten- 

 ing. Yet this is the constant experience of such a use. Nevertheless, 

 occasionally the end crowns the work, and a fine ten-pounder comes to 

 bag, having given all the glorious pleasure in its resistance, of which a 

 fly rod is perhaps the truest magnifier. Several well-known anglers of 

 late years have reported favourably of this style, and it therefore may 

 be admitted in the list of methods. 



Natural fly fishing for Thames trout is really nice work, requiring a 

 lot of patience and skill, and very sharp eyesight. Very few practise 

 it, however, though I am persuaded that it would pay if tried with the 

 stone fly, or the drakes, or other large fly. The particulars of the method 

 have already been described, and are, therefore, identical with that for 

 the ordinary brook trout. I have used a cockchafer or beetle for Thames 

 trout, and once took one of 4lb. with a spider. When quite a child, I 

 captured my first Thames trout, from Chertsey waters, by using a cock- 

 roach, nasty as the bait was to handle. 



And well do I remember the capture of that first Thames trout. Many 

 a morning had I watched from behind the gnarled old willow whose roots 

 concealed his home, and peered over into the silent smiling lucid depths 

 till I beheld the smooth brown head and great lustrous eyes, which, as he 

 lay poised and still, seemed to gaze, like the eyes of a man in a trance, at 

 something far beyond his immediate ken. Ordinarily, the brown trout 

 of our brooks keeps up an incessant, though almost imperceptible, move- 

 ment of these organs, probably for the purpose of examining each tiniest 

 of insects borne on the current lest one particle of food pass by unheeded. 

 With the fish to which I now refer, however, no movement of the eyes 

 was apparent, and, save that the expanding gills gave notice of life, one 

 would have aptly compared its stillness and immobility to the quiet of 

 death. No ; the full orbed brilliance of this lOlb. fish's eyes was a quiet 

 absorbed sheen, which clearly demonstrated the calm of this patrician's 



