DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 57 



surface to fly in all directions from a fish that 

 showed his tail plainly. Now quickly for a bleak ! 

 I have a steady hand but somehow I am thumbish 

 now and it is a long time I take before I am ready 

 to cast a fly to get the live bleak I need to pay 

 down to the spot. At last I have a bait, a 

 beauty of medium length, stout and strong, and 

 it is held tenderly by the lip hook while a light 

 triangle is falling back against its side, and so it 

 is going to the spot against its will drawn by the cur- 

 rent and a wee bit of cork. It went by the spot and 

 was drawn back without a sign of notice being taken, 

 but I did not cease my drawing ; I rather hastened 

 it to show that the bleak would escape him yet. This 

 proved, as it often does, fatal to the following fish. 



It is a strange fact, attested to by a number of 

 my friends, that, while playing a fish that ultimately 

 escapes, a fisher will often have a presentiment of 

 what is about to happen. I had certainly momen- 

 tarily expected the loss of the big fish while I have 

 great hopes of this the smaller one. Were it not 

 that even this gives me anxious care the battle 

 would be too one-sided for the joy I shall feel 

 should I succeed. Judging by what I saw of him 

 when he leaped at the end of his first rush, that 

 almost took him to the bushes from which the flies 

 had fallen, he is at least five pounds, and his boring 

 to the bottom on his return to deeper water gave 

 me opportunity to put on a strain that told of quite 

 that weight. 



Again he did the journey to the bush and his tail 

 flicked amongst the leaves of the slim sprouts that 

 bend to the water's surface, but no entanglement 

 came of that, and he was steadily coming my way 



