ON SEA TROUT 



quantities of the fish move up the river, and when the water 

 is still high, but falling, the angler has his great opportunity. 



Let us suppose that he has been for some days on a good 

 sea trout river towards the end of July, that there has been no 

 rain for some weeks, and that he has wandered about for a 

 few days catching hardly anything, but knowing that fish are 

 showing freely at the mouth of the river and waiting to come 

 up. At last there comes rain. First the dust is laid ; then 

 the water begins to show upon the road ; and presently little 

 white streams appear on the sides of the hills. Still the rain 

 becomes heavier and continues, and the angler goes out in it 

 late in the evening to watch the river beginning to rise. He 

 listens to the sound of rain upon the roof at night, and with 

 the increasing certainty of a really good spate a sort of corre- 

 sponding current of excitement rises in him. If the morning 

 is fine, small rivers will be high but will soon be falling, and 

 he goes to a favourite part almost with the certainty of good 

 sport. Wonderful indeed is the delight of standing by a pool 

 which for weeks has been too low, the stream at its head a 

 weak trickle, its deep part smooth and almost stagnant, the 

 end of it shallow, clear and hopeless, and of seeing it now full 

 of agitation, life and rich colour. The stream, which was so 

 desultory before, now sweeps right down and through it, 

 rough and noisy at the top, smooth and quiet in the deep parts, 

 but always a good current ; and the whole pool seems full of 

 character. Anything may come in such a pool as this, it 

 may be a small sea trout or one of two, three, or four pounds, 

 or a grilse, or a small salmon. That is the first charm of this 



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