270 FLY FISHING 



anywhere. These trout, however, at first upset 

 my calculations. They brought me face to face 

 with a difficulty which did not exist on the 

 ticket water at Winchester they were un- 

 approachable. Never was an angler more put 

 upon his mettle. There were trout visibly and 

 audibly rising, which had never seen an artificial 

 dry fly, and would probably take it at once. 

 They were evidently also big trout. There was 

 splendid sport to be had, and reputation and 

 glory to be won in catching even one of them, 

 and yet so shy were they, that I could not get 

 my dry fly to them. 



For two days they defeated me utterly. I 

 walked and knelt and waded and laboured and 

 perspired under an August sun without success. 

 Some of the trout were put down by my approach, 

 some were scared by the first waving of the rod, 

 and some, which had been successfully stalked, 

 turned tail and fled when the gut floated over 

 them without even the least drag ; at last, on the 

 second evening in a fading light, I hooked a 

 fish which went off up stream at once with a 

 mighty rush, and came to rest somewhere out 

 of sight at the end of a lot of line. I waded 



