62 AN ANGLER'S YEAR 



river is that morning and evening, when the average 

 resident angler can get away from business, are the best 

 times for finding trout feeding. When the w r eather 

 comes warm it is difficult to choose any hour that is too 

 early or too late for trout to feed. Certainly these 

 trout feed during the day, but not with the light-hearted 

 abandon with which they dash at the bait, say, between 

 seven in the morning or after eight at night. 



In conclusion, I may remark that any angler com- 

 mencing Thames trouting must be prepared to suffer 

 disappointment and to remember that the amusement 

 requires, perhaps more than any other form of angling, 

 great skill and patience combined with a fair proportion 

 of good luck. 



Some of the cleverest of our Thames spinners seem 

 uniformly unfortunate, while every now and then the 

 veriest duffer gets hold of one of those monsters the bare 

 mention of which make one's mouth water. In the long 

 run, skill and patience will be bound to bring reward ; 

 and the result will be all the more prized, if it should 

 have been a long time being achieved. It will be noted 

 that I have not given any record of a day's sport. In 

 this section such a thing does not exist. One may fish 

 half a season without getting a sizeable fish, but the 

 excitement when a good fish is taken almost com- 

 pensates for the weeks of waiting. 



TROUT IN A MIDLAND RESERVOIR. 



FISHING for trout in lakes is a sport with which, per- 

 sonally, I can claim but little practical acquaintance. 

 The average practice does not seem to me so much a 

 sport as an occupation. 



Eight hours' hard labour with a fly rod drifting over 

 deeps and shallows, where there may or may not be 

 trout, is hardly my idea of soul-engrossing sport. Such 

 is the angling usually provided on the lakes of the 

 United Kingdom for the would-be loch fisher. The 

 author would not, for one moment, deny that skill is 



