86 AN ANGLER'S YEAR 



rapidity ; while if their heads are once pulled so that the 

 current plays on their broadside, their power of direc- 

 tion is gone, the current carries them past their hiding 

 places, and if one can run fast enough the fish is into 

 the net before he quite realises what has happened. 

 Half an hour yielded two more trout out of this run 

 nicely-conditioned fish of 21bs. and l|lb. respectively, the 

 roofs of whose mouths were packed with May flies, many 

 not hatched out, retained in position by the vomerine 

 and palatine teeth : these structures, curved backwards 

 and inwards, are best developed and most persistent in 

 those trout which are practically dependent for their 

 livelihood on a diet of flies and larvae. The capture of 

 these fish put down the others in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood, so I moved further down, and tried if any of the 

 Kennet monsters were on the move in the deeps. 



Here I found my friend, who had been in grips with 

 something large, which smashed him, but otherwise had 

 had hold of nothing save dace, which he had risen galore 

 and hooked occasionally. The rising of dace during the 

 Mayfly season is full of information to those who care to 

 learn. How often do we find dace, and dace only, rising 

 to the fly which is fluttering feebly on the surface. 

 Suddenly the rise comes on, and the fly begins to hatch 

 out. The scene at once changes a dash, a rush, and 

 half a dozen Kennet trout are at work, and not a dace 

 is seen to move. How different also is the manner in 

 which the dace takes the fly. The quick, impatient 

 plop, made by the dace, the frequency of the fly being 

 missed, as if the fish strikes at his prey to drown it, 

 preparatory to swallowing it. 



In the deep, quiet water, where the big trout live, one 

 must not look for the dashing rise of the fish on the 

 shallows. Close in under yon trailing tress of weed, with 

 its buttercup-like flowers, one sees a tiny dimple and a 

 bubble left where a mayfly was. Cast there an upstream 

 line, which shall drop as light as thistledown 

 about a foot or less above, and within an inch or 

 two of the weed. As it passes the fatal spot it 

 is gone, and you are fighting with all your power, all 



