CLEAR WATERS 



up for the whole of a rainy day in cramped quarters she 

 can get up as much excitement over the turning out 

 of a good basket on to a kitchen dish as the captor 

 himself secretly feels, though of course he always 

 takes it coolly, as if it were an everyday affair, well as 

 his wife knows it to be nothing of the kind. 



On the two miles or so of dead water between 

 Peniarth and Bryncrug bridge, along whose margin 

 a thin fringe of bulrushes was always whispering, the 

 procedure was curious. At any rate I have never 

 fished any other water in the same way, and indeed 

 I am not sure if I know any quite like this one. We 

 used small flies of ordinary trout pattern, two and 

 sometimes three of them on moderately fine gut. 

 We fished straight up stream, of which last, however, 

 there was practically none, for the sufficient reason that 

 the necessary breeze always blew up the valley. The 

 river was just about a long cast in width, but we did 

 not concern ourselves much with the middle nor 

 exert ourselves to test the opposite bank. Experience 

 and there was a great deal of concentrated local ex- 

 perience in the matter held it to be unprofitable. 

 The sewin seemed nearly always to be within a yard 

 or two of the bank close to the reeds. So, though not 

 wholly neglecting mid-stream, we mainly cast and 

 worked our flies close to the near bank. It was a rather 

 monotonous method, as the river was like a canal save 

 for its clear mountain water and the game fish that 

 swam in it. But against this we had the consolation 

 of remembering that it was only possible to fish it on 

 so many days because of this monotonous character. 

 Had it been a merry, shallow, chattering river, as in 

 118 



