20 FLY-FISHING AND FLY-MAKING. 



as soon as I put a hook through a couple of the live insects 

 and lowered them to him, even using quite against the 

 rule in this style of "dapping" the finest of gut and a 

 small hook, would he retire like a duchess from Queen 

 Victoria, backward into deeper water. The next minute 

 I would see him going for other natural flies. Now, this l 

 fish unquestionably knew and saw the gut and hook, and 

 connected them with me. I don't see how we can 

 avoid that conclusion. And it occurred continually 

 during the three years ; try what I would, he would 

 not be tempted. At the end of the third season, however, 

 I determined to get him oat, for I could see that age had 

 rendered him lank and thin, and during the ensuing win- 

 ter he would probably have become a spawn-eater. Still, I 

 venerated the ''varmint" too much to net him. I wanted 

 to deceive him somehow ; to get even with his transcend- 

 ent wile, and at last screwed my courage to the " stick- 

 ing point" of "foxing" him, as Charles Kingsley would 

 say. This is what I did, and it succeeded : Morning 

 after morning, for a week or so, I fed him on bread of 

 which trout are very fond in some waters, by the bye 

 and he seemed to relish that diet with extreme gusto. 

 One fatal morning I rigged up a single hook on fine gut, 

 and after he had one or two boluses of bread as sweeten- 

 ers, I floated one down with the hook in it. He rose and 

 took it chung ! went the line as I struck the keen steel 

 into his rough old jaw. There never was a madder fish 

 on this side of the Styx, but I landed him. And so he 

 died at the weight of three and three-quarter pounds 

 avoirdupois, with eye undimmed, and natural force 

 unabated. 



