264 FLY FISHING 



nothing to me. That same day another grilse 

 of about four pounds took the same fly. This 

 second fish took with a splash, ran freely and 

 was landed without difficulty. In the course of 

 many seasons I must have had dozens of days' 

 trout fishing in that same river at the same time 

 of year, but never on any other day did I hook 

 or even rise a grilse or salmon with a trout fly. 



These were the triumphs of luck, but they 

 came at an age when youth, not from conceit, 

 but from sheer gladness and simplicity, does not 

 discriminate between luck and skill. The first 

 temptation to become proud of possessing skill 

 came later, and after the use of the dry fly had 

 been learnt at Winchester. It was not on the 

 Itchen that any pride was felt, for I was only 

 a learner there, improving year by year, but with 

 examples of greater skill and success than mine 

 constantly before me. In the holidays, however, 

 I took away with me from the Itchen to distant 

 rivers the art of the dry fly, which was then not 

 nearly so widely known as it has come to be in 

 the last twenty years. So it happened that on 

 west or north country streams, or in Ireland, or 

 on dark smooth water in the Highlands, I was 



