248 DRY-FLY FISHING 



a floating fly with all possible delicacy right into the 

 centre of the ring ; if it is done neatly and at once, 

 then a fine fight is certain to ensue. 



Now follows Crookedstane Ford with the "long 

 shallow flat immediately above it. This must be a 

 grand flat for the night fly and, when the water is 

 black after a flood and the wind is right, the angler 

 need not leave it until the day is done. It is an 

 impossible place, if the water is low and clear, and 

 when, in addition, the breeze is absent or down- 

 stream. A stiff wind blowing against the slight 

 current means that, when the deep waving run at 

 the neck, where the grayling lie, is reached, the 

 creel will be very much heavier, unless fortune has 

 arranged a succession of untoward accidents. 



Crookedstane Pool is a fine bit of water, broken 

 up by cairns of stones, built for the purpose of per- 

 suading floods to keep to the river channel, into 

 several deep holes connected together by gravelly 

 shallows. It contains very big trout that know as 

 much about lures as the angler does, but we once 

 tempted one of them, a comparative youngster of 

 if lb., with a floating Greenwell, and it kept us hi 

 good humour throughout a cold, wet, blustery July 

 day. From the topmost shallow, quite a short 

 stretch, we once basketed during an evening rise 

 six magnificent trout, and that denotes sport of the 

 highest order, when the captures are in the finest 

 condition, and few casts are unrewarded. 



With a careless cast or two we pass over the 

 next flat, because it has always yielded only small 

 fish, and the following pool, because the bottom is 

 so soft and muddy that wading is somewhat uncom- 

 fortable. We never have failed to take one good 



