THE TROUT OF THE FOAM 93 



cause trout lie with their heads upstream there 

 is something in that but because it is much 

 easier to hook fish when casting over them. I 

 have experimented at length and have come to 

 the conclusion that rapids always should be fished 

 from below. When the water boils along the 

 bank, if there be a cranny or crevice amid the 

 rock, or a hole in the bank, look for a trout. 

 Even a board or stick of driftwood caught on a 

 rock is pretty sure to shelter a small fish. In 

 fishing a rapid fish skilfully and carefully. Do 

 not allow even a small and unprepossessing ap- 

 pearing bit of water to pass unnoticed. Always 

 drop your flies in every opening. Again and 

 again I have taken good fish where I least ex- 

 pected to do so. It is the patient, painstaking 

 angler who fills his basket. 



It is impossible to offer much advice upon the 

 playing of fish in the rapids, the angler being 

 almost wholly at the mercy of the warring cur- 

 rents. If the rapid be fierce and possessed of a 

 volume of water, there is but one way to play 

 a heavy fish coax him down through the rocks 

 to the quiet pool below and there vanquish him. 

 To attempt to net a heavy fish in rough rapids 

 is suicidal. Witness my disaster as related at 

 the beginning of this chapter. When the cur- 



