420 SALMON AND TROUT. 



in the slightest degree shake my belief in the attractions of a 

 small bait, revolving swiftly and steadily. 



A few words now as to the best mode of fishing the streams 

 where you expect to find trout. If the run be a straight one 

 with the likeliest water in mid-stream, let your fisherman drop 

 his punt quietly along shore, choosing his side as best suits the 

 sun and wind, and make your casts across or slightly up the 

 stream, repeating them at regular intervals of three or four 

 yards. Drop your bait on the far side of the stream, and bring 

 it steadily in a downward sweep across the best of the water. 

 Let it be a standing order to your boatman the instant you 

 have hooked a fish to get below him. 



When instead of a straight run the river makes a strong 

 curve, boring under the concave bank, my practice (not, I 

 believe the usual one) is to hug the side where the current 

 sweeps in, and to cast over to the quieter side of the stream, so 

 as to show my bait last in the strongest of the water. Never 

 fail, as you gather in your line before lifting your bait for another 

 throw, to turn your rod-point over, so that the bleak or gudgeon 

 may make a sudden swerve and momentary pause within a few 

 feet of the bank. It is at this moment that your chance of a 

 capture is at the best. Perhaps a fish has followed your bait 

 right across the stream, perhaps he has just sighted it from 

 under the bank ; in either case he thinks it is now or never, and 

 makes his dash with a will. In my experience of stream-fishing 

 on the Thames, I am sure that more than half of my trout have 

 been hooked just at this critical turn, which a careful angler 

 should never omit. 



I do not think Thames trout are particular as to weather, 

 but in a cutting North-Easter there will be little chance except 

 in sheltered nooks when the bleak show at the surface. I 

 remember getting a fish on a ist of April my last ' opening- 

 day ' in the Marlow water in the middle of a snow-storm, and 

 in as cruel a wind as I ever faced. I had tried two or three 

 favourite streams without a touch, and was for retreating when 

 the snow came, loth though I was to begin the season for the 



