u8 FLY FISHING 



in their habits altogether different from those in 

 " Old Barge." It once happened to me to have 

 a great triumph and land one of them, which 

 weighed three pounds and a quarter. This 

 fish took a grey quill gnat at about five o'clock 

 one afternoon, but as a rule, all we could do 

 on the mill pond was to see occasionally the 

 first signs of the beginning of the evening rise. 

 In summer we could fish early in the evening, 

 but we had to be indoors punctually at eight 

 o'clock, and this was just too soon in June 

 and July to let us have much chance, either in 

 " Old Barge " or the mill pond, though we saw 

 other and freer anglers coming to the water as 

 we left it. There was more discipline, to be 

 learnt in this way than in any other at school. 

 To have a passion for fishing, to spend an hour 

 by the river evening after evening watching 

 intently for a rising trout, and invariably to 

 tear oneself away just as the rise began was a 

 curious experience. There were other parts of 

 the Itchen, where we used to fish on "New 

 Barge" along the old towing path, and from 

 one side under the old elm trees at St. Cross, 

 but these places were farther away, and we 



