IMITATION OF THE NATURAL INSECT 167 



deep hole which is the home of a very large 

 trout a fish that has sorely tried the patience 

 of the few anglers who have attempted to take 

 him. An overhanging tree prevents the deliv- 

 ery of a really effective cast from below, and 

 this undoubtedly accounts for a great many 

 failures. In three successive years I have raised 

 this fish seven times (a very small proportion of 

 the times I have tried for him), on four occasions 

 leaving my fly with him, and not fastening 

 solidly on the others. An old tree-stump to 

 which the fish rushes immediately upon being 

 hooked accounts for the smashes. The fish will 

 not rise to a fly on coarse gut, and the fine gut 

 will not hold him from the stump. If there ever 

 was a trout that could convince the angler that 

 exact and even minute imitation was abso- 

 lutely essential, this is the one. He feeds reg- 

 ularly, and may be seen rising steadily for hours 

 at a time. No amount of casting will put him 

 down, unless clumsily done, and he will rise 

 to a natural insect within a few inches of the 

 artificial, time and again, ignoring the latter 

 totally. On one occasion the last time I tried 

 for him I failed so signally with all my favour- 

 ite patterns, that I might have been convinced 

 that exact imitation was necessary had it not 



