24 ANGLING SKETCHES 



more cunning than of old. Then, if they were 

 feeding, they took the artificial fly freely ; now it 

 must be exactly of the right size and shade or they 

 will have none of it. They come provokingly 

 short, too ; just plucking at the hook, and running 

 out a foot of line or so, then taking their departure. 

 For some reason the Tweed is more difficult to 

 fish with the dry fly than the Test, for example. 

 The water is swifter and very dark, it drowns the 

 fly soon, and on the surface the fly is less easily 

 distinguished than at Whitchurch, in the pellucid 

 streams. The Leader, a tributary, may be fished 

 with dry fly ; on the Tweed one can hardly manage 

 it. There is a plan by which rising trout may be 

 taken namely, by baiting with a small red worm 

 and casting as in fly-fishing. But that is so hard 

 on the worm! Probably he who can catch trout 

 with fly on the Tweed between Melrose and 

 Holy Lee can catch them anywhere. On a good 

 day in April great baskets are still made in 

 preserved parts of the Tweed, but, if they are made 

 in open water, it must be, I fancy, with worm, or 

 with the ' screw,' the larva of the May-fly. The 



