THE FISHING DAY 71 



weed-cutting below had lowered the level of the 

 river. Anyhow the place looked different. What 

 also interested me very much was to find the fish 

 a good deal bigger than they had been before. We 

 saw plenty of two-pounders. It was a thundery, 

 flyless day, and there was little to be done with them, 

 but I got one nice fish of two pounds six ounces. This 

 second visit was in July, a month later in the year 

 than the first had been, and it may be that the big fish 

 are later in taking up their quarters, which was one 

 explanation given to me. I have noticed a similar 

 thing elsewhere, but one expects to find most chalk 

 stream trout in their chosen haunts by June. 



I had a curious afternoon experience on another 

 very wide water, a portion of a beautiful Kennet 

 fishery, not long before the war broke out. It was 

 a bright day towards the end of June, the Mayfly 

 was over, and the trout were as timid as hares, 

 which they also resembled in their speed of de- 

 parture. I was fishing from the bank, and was quite 

 unable to get my fly to any fish without alarming 

 him. In due course I reached the top of the water, 

 where it is at its widest, decided that I was beaten, 

 and started to come down again. And as I came 

 down I became aware that some of the fish which 

 I had frightened were back in their positions near 

 the bank. At one, which looked a portly figure 

 seen end on, I aimed my fly, drifting it downstream. 



