FLY FISHING FOR TROUT AND GRAYLING. 305 



a half, and decidedly better fed fish than those usually caught in 

 the Club water even at that date, when minnows and May flies 

 still abounded. A finer dish I have rarely seen ; but I was 

 grievously vexed at not being able to beguile one ' most delicate 

 monster, 'weighing, I am sure, full nine pounds, who more than 

 once followed my minnow but was too wary to take it. Two 

 years ago I saw a seven-pound fish from the same water, in 

 perfect condition, and I suppose a score or so of heavy fish are 

 caught there yearly ; but there has been a great falling off in 

 numbers. The size and flavour of these fish I attribute to the 

 abundance of food. 



All along the course of the canal, and especially about the 

 locks below which the trout are mostly found, the small scale 

 fish seem to crowd the water, and one might fancy a trout 

 revelling without effort in one perpetual feast. 



If the Driffield folks had only enterprise enough to turn in, 

 say, three hundred brace of stock fish every year, there would be 

 more first-rate trout first-rate both as to size and condition 

 caught in that short stretch of inland navigation than in an 

 equal length of any English river with which I am acquainted. 



There are doubtless other canals in which similar, though 

 not equal, results might be attained. I remember formerly 

 hearing of some good baskets made in one near Chirk. Of 

 course, where there is a strong head of pike trout will stand 

 but a poor chance ; otherwise, a canal carried through a good 

 trouting country ought itself to be ' troutable.' It is, I repeat, 

 a mere question of food, which will generally abound in large 

 bodies of fairly clear water. 



No doubt the angler in a canal, or in one of those waste 

 reaches of water which border so many of our railroads, must 

 forego the poetry of his craft. Not for him are the ' liquidi 

 fontes et mollia prata' the gushing streams and flower- 

 enamelled meadows which contribute so largely to the enjoy- 

 ment of a fly fisher's ramble by brook or river. Yet to an 

 artisan escaped from the weary town on a long summer's even- 

 ing or a rare holiday, his sport will bring its own enjoyment. 

 i. x 



