22 FLY FISHING 



and it had taken perhaps half-an-hour to land it. 

 There was no physical reason for being exhausted, 

 and yet for a little time I could do nothing. 

 All power had gone from me ; my limbs were 

 trembling, and there was a looseness of the knees 

 which made it difficult to walk. Such are the 

 great times of sheer excitement which happen in 

 fishing. 



It is the plain indiscriminating desire for 

 success which leads us to the second stage in 

 angling, that of taking the pains and trouble 

 necessary to acquire skill. In early years we are 

 content to catch fish anyhow, even with a worm 

 in flooded water. But rivers are for the most 

 part not in flood ; on most days in the season, if 

 trout are to be caught at all, it must be in clear 

 water, and we find, too, except in a certain part 

 of the season, that the greatest number can be 

 hooked by using artificial flies. It becomes our 

 object to learn this art and to improve in it by 

 practice. At first the young angler, wholly bent 

 upon success, may value his skill chiefly for its 

 results : he dwells upon these, compares each good 

 day with his own previous records, is probably 

 competitive and anxious that on any given day his 



