THOUGHTS ON BIG FISH 165 



twelve pounds apiece. One was a light fish, the 

 other a dark one. The next evening I was in a boat 

 and I need hardly say that I made for the dam in 

 the hope of stirring one of the giants. Nor need I 

 say that I might just as well have fished away at 

 Ubley for all the response I got. You can often 

 in calm weather reconstruct big fish at Blagdon 

 from certain signs, the tip of a nose at one point, 

 a back fin behind it and a tail behind that. Some- 

 times there are appalling distances between these 

 objects as some veteran lazily rolls among the olive 

 midges after sunset. But that is not the same as 

 actually taking in the length and width of the 

 creature at your leisure, as you can from the 

 vantage-point of the dam. Therefore I recommend 

 that promenade for the purpose. Sometimes, of 

 course, one sees nothing there except a three- 

 pounder or so, but I am always disappointed if I 

 have passed along without spotting something out 

 of the common. 



To the end of one's angling life, I suppose, one 

 will continue at times to be misled by the appear- 

 ance of things, and of fish among them. Every 

 season I get an occasional disappointment on catch- 

 ing some trout which, seen at a distance, had struck 

 me as being beyond the common in point of size. 

 But a short time ago I had a rather ignominious 

 experience of the kind. In a tiny stream in which I 



