86 BLANK DAYS. 



evening after a blank day, with a kink in the 

 small of your back from continuous kneeling, 

 becomes one's last resource time after time and 

 season after season. There is an element of 

 fortune in it, as you cannot do much more than 

 watch the twenty yards of bank ahead; but 

 blank after blank can be broken if a left 

 handed awkward cast is the only one likely to 

 attract a cautious trout or an extra large 

 grayling. 



So often too when they come are they good 

 fish that if one is hooked and netted early in 

 the limited time they allot for their angler- 

 baiting process, there may be a chance of a 

 procession of three all finding themselves on 

 the same scales. With really gilt edged luck 

 this is the time for a solid two pounder so that 

 hope can be continued right up to the end. 



The blank is breakable even on the walk 

 home down stream. Keep a look out especially 

 when a turn in the path brings the western 

 sky, or the moon, over the water close to the 

 rushes. In such a case do not stickle for the 

 upstream cast, but float your sedge down over 

 him and do not strike too soon. He will do 

 the business for you if he means anything at 

 all. I remember hooking and landing a fine 

 trout after a bad day and within a few 

 minutes seeing another not ten yards lower 

 down. The second one took the fly, gave me 

 play right to within a cast of our opening 

 stile, was plunging and splashing in the forget- 

 me-nots, and got off literally on the net the 



