A BOOK OF FISHING STORIES 



wearily home with aching back after flogging the river all day 

 for salmon, and with never a rise, " I hope you won't have any 

 more blank days." " I hope to Heaven I shall. If I have 

 no more blank days I shall have very little more fishing ! " 



But two blanks, unfortunately, don't make a fish. 



My largest bags when dry-fly fishing for trout have been : — 



In June, 1892, at Cassiobury on the Gade, in Hertford- 

 shire, fifty trout over a pound ; weight 66f lb. Many others 

 under a pound were put back. May-fly. 



At Littlecote on the Kennet, 1898, thirty-five fish weigh- 

 ing 37 lb. On loth of June, 1899, forty of 42 lb. May-fly 

 and small flies. 



The next day — to make one remember that one was mortal 

 — ^my bag was four fish only ; yet the May-fly was just as 

 fully " up " as the day before. 



For weight, the best bag was on the Bean in 1899, twenty- 

 three fish of 38I lb. On the Colne at Munden, 1892, fifteen 

 of 225 lb. On the Mimram (both of these before the Water 

 Companies fatally sapped the Hertfordshire streams), at 

 Marden, in 1882, twenty-three fish of 46 lb. ; and in 1893, 

 in three days, fifty-one fish of 71 1 lb. Most of the above on 

 May-fly, or at May-fly time. The best bag on the Itchen 

 was in August, 1905, when a " beasterly easterly wind" pro- 

 vided fifteen fish of 21 lb. The next day a mild and gracious 

 south-west wind produced only four. 



The best wet-fly day (on a river) was on the Deveron at 

 Netherdale, in 1900: 23rd April, forty-two of i6f lb. ; 25th 

 April, forty of 18 lb. — fish that played like Trojans. 



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