CHAPTEE III. 



ON THE LOSING OF TROUT. 



"On, me ! " exclaims Piscator in Izaak Walton's 

 classic. " He has broke all ; there's half a line and 

 a good hook lost." " Ay," laments Venator, " and 

 a good trout, too." To which Piscator promptly 

 replies, " Nay ; the trout is not lost, for pray take 

 notice no man can lose what he never had." 

 Mindful of this pertinent correction, let us, there- 

 fore, rather consider why trout so often escape. For, 

 with some dry-fly fishermen it is a growing evil, 

 nor are a few who have the reputation of being past 

 masters in the dry-fly art exempt from failure on 

 occasions ; otherwise we should not read that 

 during a day of particularly bad luck (that is the 

 euphemism when skill is really sometimes at fault) 

 three out of every four fish hooked got away, nor so 

 commonly hear of six to eight escaping during a 

 day's practice, and probably more than that on some 

 days which the angler makes no mention of 

 perhaps the wiser course ! That there are excep- 

 tions to such marked misfortunes as these is certain, 

 for some men will bring most of their well-hooked 



