24 TROUT FISHING 



bigger than that which yielded me a minnow, a 

 dace, and an eel, and much better furnished with 

 trout, may be worth giving, since it illustrates some 

 of the difficulties which attend the brook-fisher. 



" Difficulties," I said to myself airily, " add to 

 the fascination of angling. This stream was quite 

 beyond me last time, but now I'm prepared for it 

 and know what to expect." Last time had been 

 five years before and a rod of ten feet three inches 

 had been greatly prejudicial to success. For the 

 brook winds along like a very sinuous serpent 

 between lofty banks on top of which is an almost 

 unbroken succession of trees and bushes. It presents 

 a delightful little pool at every corner with a pretty 

 little ripple running into every pool, but all my efforts 

 had failed to get a trout out of it ; though several 

 had come at a cochybonddu, when I managed to 

 get it onto the water after many struggles, all had 

 kicked themselves off before I had made up my 

 mind how to get them out. I came home " clean," 

 and with a great respect for the accomplished angler 

 who, as I had been told, always managed to get a 

 dish whenever he visited the place. I had noted his 

 traces here and there in the clearing that had been 

 done. It was enough to make some of the pools 

 approachable for a very clever fisherman with a very 

 little rod, but it was of no use to a bungler with 

 more than ten feet of split cane in his hand. 



