312 DRY-FLY FISHING 



on each of two similar occasions the little stretch 

 yielded six pounds, but the flat itself grants but 

 a single fish, a lively quarter-pounder which falls 

 victim to the Black Spider, a modest but withal 

 satisfactory beginning. 



If Bodsbury can do no better than this, prospects 

 are bad indeed, and we may as well retire now 

 as endure further disappointment, but round the 

 bend there is a deep hole into which a brisk stream 

 enters, one of the readiest bits we know, a cast 

 that is almost certain to grant a trout. It is not 

 an easy place to fish at any time, being narrow 

 and very steep, demanding a short line and a cast 

 straight up the middle of the run if the fatal drag 

 is to be circumvented, but to-day the adverse breeze, 

 half a gale rather, adds enormously to the diffi- 

 culties. The fly takes only a second or two to 

 complete its journey, a rise has to be observed and 

 answered without a moment's hesitation, but if 

 fortune favours and enables the cast to be neatly 

 and correctly executed and the dangers to be over- 

 come, then a rise from a trout beyond the average 

 is almost a certainty. 



With an effort we succeed in cheating the wind 

 and laying the Black Spider exactly as and where 

 required. At once a trout gleams through the wave 

 and we strike quickly and firmly ; the reel sings out 

 that the hook is fast and screams in protest as the 

 fish bolts through the current towards us down to 

 the depths of the pool below. We follow, and in 

 the brilliant sunlight see it flashing, gleaming, and 

 boring ten feet below ; it searches the irregular 

 sides apparently striving to reach some hidden 

 recess ; we observe, too, that the hook is fast in the 



