THAMES TROUT-FISHING. 413 



cross his beat attractively. But ' for a' that, and a' that and 

 twice as much as a' that,' give me the open stream-fishing in 

 April and early May, and the fly later in summer forenoons and 

 evenings, for the cream of Thames trouting. 



The second cause, which seems to me to increase the inevit- 

 able difficulties of this sport, and to limit the number of captures, 

 is that spinning for Thames trout is too commonly regarded as ' a 

 thing apart ' utterly unlike the minnow-fisher's sport in other 

 waters, and to be invariably pursued with the heavily leaded 

 trace, showy bait, and elaborate flight of hooks which are need- 

 ful in working strong and broad streams, but those only. Let 

 me give an example to illustrate my meaning. 



About forty years ago I made my first acquaintance with 

 the trout of Father Thames. I had recently taken a cottage 

 at Hurley, hard by the second lock above Marlow, and wished 

 to know what could be done in that neighbourhood at my 

 favourite sport. It was the ominous ist of April, and so un- 

 favourable was the weather that old Andrews, whose services 

 I had secured as boatman, broadly hinted that I had better 

 have stayed at home. Never since have I seen the river so 

 low at that season, and the day was so exceptionally warm and 

 bright that I was fain to fish in my shirt-sleeves, as if it had 

 been midsummer. There were four other boats out in the 

 reach below Boulter's Lock, and my soul was vexed to see the 

 dashing and plunging of baits and leads across the broad 

 sunny shallows ; far more calculated, I should have supposed, 

 to scare than to attract a trout of average intelligence. I at 

 once made up my mind to have nothing to do with the Thames 

 spinning tackle, and fitted up a cast arranged in the fashion 

 which I had found killing in a score of smaller risers. It con- 

 sisted of a small lead to lie within the belly of the bait, to 

 which was attached a lip-hook with two eyes, while on a 

 separate length of fine gut were two triangles. These were 

 threaded with a long needle through the bait, so that the larger 

 was drawn up close to the vent, while the smaller hung just by 

 the bait's tail. I baited with a gudgeon scarcely larger than a 



