BLANK DAYS. 83 



disturbing the shallow; whereas th.e getting up 

 and back into position in order to use a net 

 may make certain of the one fish but also of 

 no other. 



A fine series of blank days can generally be 

 counted upon by those who fish in July and yet 

 are debarred from stopping on until the evening 

 rise. A really hot July day with a low water 

 when brother anglers, who hanker after false 

 gods, whisper treason about clear water worm, 

 can promise as much in the way of a blank as 

 a Barking creek could perform. But it is no 

 use grumbling : if you are out for a day you 

 must fish. Seek out a shady deepish run under 

 some bushes and then from the shallow side try 

 your most artistic casts on a longish line; 

 pitching a dry fly, a small olive or pale watery 

 dun, yard by yard upon the surface, letting it 

 float for five or six feet under bushes which 

 almost touch the water. It will be taken 

 within forty casts, probably at a particular 

 moment when you have looked away. You give 

 a furious belated strike, as though you were 

 trying to fix a meat hook into the jaws of a 

 dolphin, and your point with the fly is left in 

 the lip of a really good fish, the cast flying 

 back into an inconspicuous gorse bush yards 

 away in the thistles. 



But for this permanent hitch up you would 

 again have cast at the spot where the demon 

 disappeared. We all do this, I don't know why 

 and have often smiled when thinking of the 

 method of reasoning it out. If a ' badly 



