DRY FLY FISHING 41 



ference of one or two brace to his basket, but ten 

 pounds' weight of trout should make him content, 

 fifteen pounds may be considered very good, and 

 twenty pounds and upwards exceptional. 



The number of trout in different parts of 

 the Itchen and Test is in inverse proportion to 

 their weight ; but in the parts of these rivers 

 where the trout are not overcrowded and average 

 from a pound and a half to two pounds, they 

 rise freely and their appearance in a good season 

 is splendid. The extraordinary fatness to which 

 they attain, and the brilliancy of their colour 

 and condition in May, June and July, surpass 

 anything it has been my good fortune to see 

 amongst river trout, and anything I could have 

 believed, if I had fished only in north country 

 rivers. On the other hand, the chalk stream 

 trout do not fight so strongly in proportion 

 to their size as the trout in rocky or swifter 

 rivers with rougher water and no weeds. It 

 is not that the southern trout is less strong, 

 but it thinks too much of the weeds : it is 

 always trying to hide itself instead of trying 

 to get free by wild desperate rushes, for which 

 indeed the presence of the weeds and the gentle- 



