STALKING TROUT 129 



A trout usually rests where the hang and eddy of the stream 

 will give him the best chance of the greatest amount of 

 provender with the least amount of trouble, and very often the 

 angler will see, by carefully studying the spot, that by pitching 

 a fly (dry perhaps is best) well above the fish, and letting the 

 stream take it where it will, the eddy will do for it what the 

 angler could not, and will at any rate bring it within sight. 

 A fly thus brought to a fish is almost certain to be taken, 

 provided you do nothing glaringly wrong, because, in the first 

 place, the fish usually takes every fly that comes, and, secondly, 

 he seldom or never sees an artificial fly in that spot. I know of 

 nothing so agreeable in fly-fishing as the outwitting one of these 

 cunning old stay-at-homes, who, having gotten to themselves 

 good fat places archidiaconal stalls, with only archidiaconal 

 functions attached to them fancy they have a vested interest 

 in them, and that they are to be safe sinecures for ever. I once 

 took five such fish in one morning on the Arrow, and they were 

 all extra good fish, and not one of them would many anglers 

 have thought it worth while trying for. It was a bit of fishing 

 which I have always felt rather proud of. Indeed, nineteen 

 times in twenty, a fish feeding in his lair or under a branch will 

 rise and take better than a fish in the open water in mid-stream. 

 It is quite needless to say that the angler should avoid 

 showing himself to the fish as much as possible, and should 

 always take advantage of any bush or tree which may easily 

 afford him a screen ; when the banks are too open to the river, 

 he should even go down upon one knee nay, I have known 

 good service done by an angler lying prone upon his stomach. 

 In many places and streams it is quite impossible for anyone 

 to approach within casting distance of the stream in an erect 

 position without seeing every trout for some distance rushing 

 off to his hiding-place. In places of this description, the angler 

 will find much service in sticking a loose bush or two into the 

 ground in a favourable spot, should he design to come there 

 again the next day ; and he should always bear this in mind, 

 that the higher up in the air he is the more likely the trout is to 

 see him. Shy fish will often take alarm at the angler as he 

 comes along the bank, even while he is twenty or thirty yards 

 away ; but if he could get down on a level with the water, with 

 the bank at his back, so that his head did not appear above the 

 sky line, they would not appear to see him at all, and would 

 take the fly without hesitation, provided no sudden or violent 

 motion were made to attract attention. Height, therefore, is 



