APPROACHING THE WATER. 33 



Have you done anything ' ? * Just look at 

 this.' The moody man had opened his creel 

 and lifts out number one. * About three- 

 quarters,' he grunts. Number two follows. * A 

 trifle over,' he continues; 'that,' referring to 

 number three, ' I hope is a pounder.' Several 

 more of eight, nine, and ten ounces and last 

 but one a thick dark fellow with the scar of a 

 heron's bill on his side ' that's my best, one 

 pound seven do you think ? just six brace.' 



Where did he get them? oh just in the large 

 meadow below the weir. Any marvellous fly 

 unknown to hotel visitors ? * No small blue 

 quill and red upright.' And, he might have 

 added, if he had wanted to be sarcastic, ' an 

 intelligent approach to the water.' 



The excited feeling of wanting to get to work 

 at once is natural and excusable. The only 

 objection to it is that it does not pay. By 

 taking the precaution of putting up your rod 

 leisurely in some position where, without showing 

 yourself you can obtain a fair view upstream, 

 especially of the bend close under your own 

 bank, you may begin the day or the evening 

 well, rising hooking and landing a tidy fish 

 within the first quarter hour and by so doing 

 may put your eye, hand, and temperament into 

 that state of good form which is so suitable for 

 catching more fish. A contrary state of mind 

 is fatal. I mean when one begins badly and 

 becomes careless and almost testy gradually 

 tending toward Charles Keene's purple faced 

 gentleman who cast his fly book into the river 



D 



