CASTING AS A BEGINNER. 19 



for not another rise took place even under the 

 overhanging bushes where the natives of the 

 deep pool might know themselves to be safe 

 from feathered steel. So much so that I began 

 to look below me at the weir pool which was 

 so alive with rings the previous evening. There 

 the fish began just as they had before, two 

 especially rising in the same positions. 



Slipping down to my old place it took but 

 little time to make a cast for the first and as 

 though by magic this was taken at once by 

 something heavy. He hooked himself almost 

 as he plunged down and kindly made away to 

 the shallow water instead of collecting his 

 thoughts and running under the fir poles with 

 the line or the cast round an occasional rusty 

 nail. Backwards and forwards he went boring 

 down to the bottom, feeling on the long line 

 as though he must be a two pound peal. 

 After exhausting himself nobly among the 

 stones he came lamblike to the net and proved 

 my best of the month (i Ib. 3 oz.) This was 

 evidently my No. i of the yestereve. Before 

 completing his laying out in a wrapping of 

 dockleaf, No. 2 was more than ready, swallowed 

 the same fly as though it were a jujube far 

 down its gullet as it proved and after a 

 vicious kicking on the top of the water where 

 it was held hard joined its companion in the 

 creel. 



During the ensuing half-hour nine or ten 

 trout took that fly, mostly between 8 and 14 

 ounces, and of these all but two were landed, 



