164 THE MAYFLY IN HAMPSHIRE. 



the fish. Should he have been hooked and lost 

 under weeds, we can well imagine that the 

 adventure has made more than an ephemeral 

 impression ; as the process of hauling at a 

 trout of two pounds, which has managed to 

 twist the line round rootlets or tendrils strong 

 enough to cause a break, must be lengthy and 

 alarming. 



To strike and prick the same fish a month 

 earlier with a small fly is a very different matter. 

 The tiny barb catches in the side of his horny 

 lip, he shakes his head perhaps jumping out 

 of the water at the same time and is free. 

 He may hardly realise what happened, beyond 

 that his power of movement was curtailed for 

 a second. He need not necessarily associate 

 this with the fly he rose at : therefore you may 

 get him the same afternoon. As trout feeding 

 on spent gnat in the evening are well able to 

 take as many as twenty in the space of an 

 hour, it becomes obvious folly to cast at any- 

 thing in a hurry. 



Choose a turn in the river if possible, where 

 the current takes all floating matter quietly 

 against the opposite side. If some nasty 

 bushes or stakes protrude from the somewhat 

 overhanging bank, rendering the pitch of an 

 artificial fly extremely awkward, so much the 

 better; for it may easily be that some other 

 rod has rejected the place on that account, 

 finding it too difficult. Depend upon it that 

 is why the ideal places, which catch the eye on 

 a first walk upstream, prove so often delusive. 



