18 ANGLING SKETCHES 



actually catch fish with fly, and since then I have 

 scarcely touched a worm, except as a boy, in burns. 

 In these early days we had no notion of playing 

 a trout. If there was a bite, we put our strength 

 into an answering tug, and, if nothing gave way, 

 the trout flew over our heads, perhaps up into a 

 tree, perhaps over into a branch of the stream be- 

 hind us. Quite a large trout will yield to this 

 artless method, if the rod be sturdy none of your 

 glued-up cane-affairs. I remember hooking a 

 trout which, not answering to the first haul, ran 

 right across the stream and made for a hole in the 

 opposite bank. But the second lift proved suc- 

 cessful and he landed on my side of the water. 

 He had a great minnow in his throat, and must 

 have been a particularly greedy animal. Of course, 

 on this system there were many breakages, and 

 the method was abandoned as we lived into our 

 teens, and began to wade and to understand some- 

 thing about fly-fishing. 



It was worth while to be a boy then in the 

 south of Scotland, and to fish the waters haunted 

 by old legends, musical with old songs, and re- 



