FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD 

 combed in one direction, and it requires little experience to prove how 

 necessary it is to work with the grain. Instead of standing still and tug- 

 ging helplessly at the imbedded trout, Piscator moves down to a point 

 below where it lies, keeping a steady, gentle strain on the line. For a 

 minute or so nothing happened: the trout may have freed itself, leaving 

 the hook fast in the weeds. Ha! there is a movement; a sullen tug — then 

 another; slowly the fish yields to the steady pressure, and presently is 

 swimming in the open, whence the landing net soon scoops it ashore.* 

 A pretty fish it is, with a small head set on thick shoulders, and a beauti- 

 ful bloom on its finely rounded flanks. It pulls the index down to lib. 12 oz. 



The rise of duns is fairly on by this time, and trout are well on the feed. 

 There is a stretch of swiftish shallows above where Piscator has landed 

 his first trout, in which a number of fish are moving, chiefly small fellows 

 under or just over the takeable limit of one pound; so, knowing how soon 

 and suddenly the rise may cease, he passes quickly forward to where a 

 dense grove of alders screens a favourite haunt of big trout. Here the river, 

 dammed by a weir and hatch to feed a sawmill, is still, deep and clear — 

 so clear that the pool has been dubbed the Aquarium, because it is so 

 easy to see the fish therein. Easy to see, but not very easy to catch, for- 

 asmuch as their too visible presence has such a fascination for anglers 

 as to cause the Aquarium to be more sedulously fished than any other 

 part of the Avington water, with the result that its inhabitants have at- 

 tained a keen sense of discrimination and very highly strung nerves. 

 Howbeit, here as elsewhere, trout must feed, and when the food is on the 

 surface, to the surface they will come. 



The fly on the water is a pale olive dun, to which the red quill on Pis- 

 cator's line bears resemblance only in its form; in colour it is several 

 shades darker and more fiery. He hesitates whether to change to a closer 

 imitation, but time is precious. He decides to try the red quill before dis- 

 carding it, and the result proves that he is right; for, by the time he has 

 reached the waggon bridge which marks the top of the pool — about 

 100 yards from the foot — the bag on his shoulder is several pounds heavier 

 than when he started. 



We need not follow him any further this morning, for the manoeuvres 

 in approaching a rising trout vary only in accordance with its position, 

 the strength of the stream and the nature of the river bank. 



•There ii no foundation in fact for the fable that a trout can anchor itself by holding on to the vreedi with iti 

 teeth. 



116 



