148 FISHING FOR PLEASURE 



When fishing on the Elwy with Mr. Whitty, 

 he had told me that Mr. T. Lloyd Jones, who 

 knew the Conway well, would have a day or two 

 with me on that river; he very kindly did so, and 

 in his excellent company I fished all the best 

 pools from nearly as high up as the Granlyn on 

 the Lledr down to the Railway Bridge below the 

 junction of the Llugwy and the Conway. A more 

 beautiful series of ideal salmon pools it would be 

 difficult to find. But sport was hopeless, only 

 two salmon had been killed by rod and line all 

 the season in the Conway, and we had to fish 

 most of the time in such a tearing gale of wind 

 and rain as I have rarely seen equalled " A 

 great gale in North Wales " the ubiquitous 

 " Daily Mail " poster called it. 



It was not a steady gale, but came roaring 

 down from the mountains in a succession of 

 gusts, each stronger than the last, and would 

 then die away for a brief interval, then when 

 you had waded out and got a precarious foot- 

 hold down came the wind and nearly upset you ; 

 in fact, several times I gave up and came ashore 

 for a rest, avoiding big trees, expecting to hear a 

 crash every minute. It was very disappointing 

 to wade down such lovely pools and never get a 

 "rug," but I enjoyed it immensely. You could 

 not expect to do much under such conditions. 



Beyond seeing a couple of salmon jump, we 

 did nothing as far as the fish were concerned. 



