SEA TROUT FISHING 165 



Ordinary sea trout flies seemed double their 

 proper size on such a day and by such water. 

 One could not think of trying them, and one 

 shuddered at the thickness of undrawn gut, and 

 yet there was the river, and the day, and the 

 fish, and I was alone and seven miles from the 

 lodge. Something had to be done. So I took 

 out a well-tapered trout cast ending in fine 

 drawn gut, and added about a yard of trans- 

 parent stout gut to the thick end of it. On 

 the fine end I put a plain black hackle fly of a 

 size suitable for brown trout. A really heavy 

 basket was of course out of the question, and I 

 did not rise any large fish, though there were 

 some to be seen at the bottom of the pools ; 

 but by using a small rod and this very fine 

 tackle, I did succeed in getting about ten pounds' 

 weight of the smaller fish, and though the largest 

 was under one pound, I had many a good fight. 

 The conditions made the fishing interesting, 

 there was enough success to keep me at work, 

 and if the result was not very remarkable, it 

 was at any rate enough to give a feeling of 

 having overcome difficulties, and saved what 

 seemed at first a hopeless situation. It was very 



