40 AN ANGLER'S BASKET. 



he asleep, mad, or was there some peculiarity in the 

 refraction of light that rendered me invisible to him? I 

 cannot tell. I merely quote the facts. Another peculiar 

 case : it was on Ullswater ; mid-day ; cloudless sky ; end of 

 June ; blazing hot ; not a breath of air ; lake as smooth as a 

 mirror. In ten minutes, with an artificial fly totally unlike 

 anything God ever made, I took six trout weighing as 

 nearly as possible lib. each ; every fish was visible to three 

 of us from the boat before I made each cast ; every fish was 

 seen to rise from about five feet of water and to take the 

 fly; every fish dashed about in a distraught condition 

 among his companions after he was hooked. The boat was 

 within twenty yards, and yet as soon as the fly was on the 

 water another fish rose and was hooked. Business as 

 before. If you asked me to account for these proceedings 

 I could not ; I have always had a pleasant theory that I 

 had come across an aquatic asylum for imbecile trout. 



Another case : Having only an hour to spare, I had gone 

 out for a few throws, having no cast or flies with me but the 

 one attached to my rod. At the first or second throw, before 

 the gut was thoroughly soaked, I rose a fish rather far off, 

 hooked him, and broke my cast short off at the joining with 

 the eighteen inches of twisted hair I always use. I walked 

 back to the inn for another cast, and started fishing again in 

 the same place. In a few minutes I caught a trout with my 

 purloined flies in his possession ; not more than ten minutes 

 elapsed before justice overtook him. Question : Was he 

 conscious or not of the attachment he had formed, or, being 

 desperately hungry, was he reckless ? Instances of a similar 

 kind may be multiplied ad infinitum. 



SECRETS OF SUCCESSFUL ANGLING. 



I will tell you the secrets of successful angling in a few 

 brief sentences, knowing very well that observant anglers 



