88 FISHING FOR PLEASURE 



tion. Fishing up stream I came upon some 

 deep water at the foot of a weir. I cast an Alder 

 across the foot of the pool it was taken in- 

 stantly by a fine trout, and then another, and 

 another, and another, till I had landed five and 

 lost two. These were all fine two-year-old rain- 

 bows; there are other trout of the old regime 

 big brown trout in that pool, but not a rise of 

 one of them could I get, though I fished it well 

 from the tail to the fall of the water over the 

 weir. 



These rainbows, as I have said, had been put 

 into the river lower down a year ago; they had 

 full liberty to wander off seaward, as their habit 

 is supposed to be, and they had not gone. Pre- 

 sumably they were well satisfied with the food 

 they found in that pool, and so had no desire to 

 go farther with the chance of faring worse. Their 

 wandering habit may be thus explained. 



Another characteristic of these rainbows is, 

 that as yet, at all events, they are quite unso- 

 phisticated; they take the lure with perfect in- 

 nocence, and one feels almost sorry that they 

 should be so easily beguiled; but when once 

 they wake up to the knowledge that there is 

 something pricking and tugging at their lips or 

 their throat, then the spirit within them is 

 aroused, and they fight pluckily to the last gasp. 



I have already expressed my admiration for 

 " our village, " and most of all for that picturesque 



