92 THE TROUT. 



advocate for stiff rods, urges that the strike is so 

 much more quickly made than with a springy one. 

 I have never experienced any failure from want of 

 rapidity in striking, and when a fish is struck, 

 though you cannot haul him out of water by the 

 hair of his head, as it were, you are very much 

 less likely to lose him ; and the sport shown by a 

 fish hooked with a springy rod is far greater than 

 when a stiff one is used. To fish up-stream is 

 Mr Stewart's grand specific for sport ; and in slug- 

 gish streams, with the wind blowing up, no doubt 

 it is the true way to fill your basket, and should, 

 where practicable, be adopted. I once found myself 

 fishing in a Hampshire stream of this description. 

 The water was not only sluggish but very dirty. I 

 had one side only, and three gentlemen were fish- 

 ing the other. They fished down-stream and killed 

 three fish; I fished up-stream and killed ten. 



Most trout streams, however, run rapidly ; and it 

 is to me more of a toil than a pleasure to keep 

 perpetually whipping, while your flies are returned 

 almost instantaneously, and, unless you are very 

 expert, occasionally in a state of entanglement. 

 In worm-fishing, no doubt the up-stream fashion 

 is very much the most killing; and as you fish with 

 but one hook and a short line, the objections I 

 have referred to do not apply ; but I hate (I won't 



