USING THE WET FLY. 101 



practice it does not seem to have damaged it even 

 after several years. Three or four smart taps just 

 behind the head are enough to kill a trout. 



When killed it can be slipped into the creel 

 through the opening in the top or side. The creel, 

 by the way, should be prepared for the reception 

 of fish by the insertion of a bed of grass, or, better, 

 nettles. The last are best gathered with the help 

 of a stout duster or a glove. Albeit awkward 

 things to handle, they preserve trout better than 

 other herbage, I think, and seem to keep them 

 cooler. The careful man no doubt will make his 

 creel ready before he begins to fish, but I do not. 

 A lively distrust of my luck in fishing matters 

 always suggests to me that it is not safe. Putting 

 nettles into one's creel beforehand is in a manner 

 like counting chickens before they are hatched. It 

 presupposes fish, and that is fatal. One should let 

 one's first trout of the day come as a glad surprise, 

 and so disarm the malignity of the fates. Other- 

 wise, if one be of too great confidence, the first 

 trout may be prevented from coming at all. Were 

 it not for this superstition, I would recommend the 

 novice to line his basket with a newspaper before 

 he goes out. Paper, three or four sheets thick, is 

 really better than anything for the purpose. He 

 could, to be sure, take his paper folded in his 



