A LITTLE CHALK STREAM 43 



they are hooked, is anything but a certainty, which 

 adds of course enormously to the interest of the 

 game. It may be said, in fact, that these small 

 fish are just as hard to land as their heavier brethren 

 in bigger streams, and this is equivalent to a 

 statement that they are entitled to just as much 

 respect. 



If a man wants to make the most of the small fish 

 in streams like this (for it is by no means the only 

 one in the chalk system) he can modify his tackle, 

 or, at any rate, his rod. A miniature rod, such 

 as I have before described, seems designed specially 

 to match those miniature rivers, and its use certainly 

 makes the fishing seem more important. I began 

 the season with a bigger rod, but one day took down 

 the little one in order to fish in a backwater which 

 is so overhung with trees and so beset with bushes 

 that a longer rod would not avail there. I found the 

 toy to answer so well and to handle the fish so 

 cunningly that I afterwards took it to the more 

 open water, and for the rest of the season used nothing 

 else there. These tiny rods rather tend to get you 

 hung-up behind if you attempt a long line, so they 

 necessitate an extra amount of creeping and crawling 

 in the approach of rising fish. As the dry-fly man 

 ought to creep and crawl it is part of the fun that 

 does not matter. A certain advantage is to be 

 found in the delicacy with which such a rod responds 



