TROUT-FISHING 



but even so, the natty upstream fisher will pull many a good trout out 

 of side rills and runs near the bank which the downstream fisher would 

 pass by untried. 



These remarks apply chiefly to streams in a low state. When the water 

 Is high and stained with peat, which fishers of the old school considered 

 indispensable to success, trout lose their excessive shyness, and may be 

 taken quite readily upon flies cast downstream. Thomson, poet of "The 

 Seasons," and a Tweedside angler, well knew how to take advantage of 

 such conditions. 



Now, when the first foul torrent of the brooks 

 Swelled with the vernal rains is ebbed away, 

 And, whitening down the mossy-tinted stream, 

 Descends the billowy foam — now is the time. 

 While yet the dark brown water aids the guile. 

 To tempt the trout. The well-dissembled fly, 

 The rod, fine-tapering with elastic spring, 

 Snatched from the hoary steed the floating line, 

 And all thy slender wat'ry stores prepare. 



Under such conditions, indeed, it is easy to fill a basket from a well- 

 stocked stream; but the finished craftsman derives more satisfaction 

 from such spoil as he may seduce from clear waters under sunny skies. 



A word about the trout-fisher's outfit. First, as to the rod. Every tackle- 

 maker's catalogue contains descriptions of double-handed trout-rods 

 fourteen feet long; one may even occasionally see one of these in use; 

 but for the life of me I cannot divine what purpose they are intended to 

 serve which may not be effected equally well, and with more comfort 

 to the fisher, by using a single-handed rod nine feet or so in length. 



No trout that swims in British waters, and can be persuaded to rise 

 to a small fly, will prove too powerful for such a rod. Of course the longer 

 the rod, within due limits, the longer is the line that may be cast; but, 

 except on the shore of a boatless loch, when and where need one wish to 

 cast further than he can with a nine footer ? One such rod I purchased 

 five -and -twenty years ago, a neat split-cane when split-canes were some- 

 what of a novelty. It consists of two joints only, with a bayonet fastening, 

 and although I have seldom used any other trout rod since I got it, I am 

 ashamed to say that it has only been back to the tackle shop once, and 

 that was to get a coat of green paint to dull the glitter of varnish. Yet it 

 has been put to rough work in its time: it has landed a Test trout of 6 lb. 



109 



