14 TROUT FISHING 



policy in each case is to select a point of vantage and 

 wait there till the trouble is over. It wastes time 

 no doubt if he is for filling the creel, and he might 

 do better in point of numbers if he sought easier 

 places. There is, however, a great satisfaction in 

 solving a problem. 



I have often chuckled at the theologian who, 

 meeting a difficulty, looked it boldly in the face 

 and passed on, but I can seldom emulate him in 

 trout fishing. I always have to prove that the 

 difficulty is my master before I can pass on. Some- 

 times, of course, there is a happier issue to the 

 contest. There was once a singularly perfect cast 

 which I made on the Windrush in Mayfly time. A 

 good trout was rising in a fiendish place, between 

 two willows which both drooped into the water, and 

 under a low bough. My fly evaded the willows, shot 

 under the bough, and floated beautifully over the 

 desired spot, the amount of slack line required 

 having been calculated to a nicety. " Ah," said my 

 friend and host, " if only that had happened ten 

 casts ago ! " There had been previous attempts, I 

 must own, and perhaps even a little splashing. The 

 trout, for all I know, is still in the same holt. 



Of another tiny stream I have also an oddly 

 detached memory which is associated with a regret. 

 It, too, was on the coast, running into the sea within 

 view of the Isle of Wight. I had fished it for a 



