120 TROUT FISHING 



another, till all be thoroughly tried, and don't 

 despise a little spot because it looks meagre or 

 hardly grand enough to hold anything but a very 

 small one. You will often find good large trout 

 lying out in very shallow and insignificant-look- 

 ing places; on the other hand, you will sometimes 

 be disappointed to find only a little one in a place 

 where a large one should have been ; in this case 

 probably the fault is yours you have not fished 

 it sufficiently well to attract a large one, and he 

 has allowed some little imp to dart in and take 

 what he was too wide awake to be gulled by. It 

 is impossible to describe the variety of places you 

 must fish, but generally whenever a stone in the 

 water is large enough to interfere with the direc- 

 tion of the current, look out, throw so that your 

 fly pitches close to the stone, at the very head of 

 the turn. If it falls only in the middle, or at the 

 end of the little eddy, you cannot expect success 

 you do not deserve it. In getting at these 

 several little holes and currents, don't be afraid 

 of your knees ; keep down close to the mother 

 earth; go on your knees or crawl on your stomach; 

 remember the trout is there, and you can catch 

 him if you work properly, and do not frighten 

 him away. I must again impress the necessity 

 of self-concealment ; without it your best efforts 

 will assuredly be unavailing : and in throwing 

 with precision, I have found in my experience that 

 a little splash in rapid water matters not at all. 

 I advise a beginner, however, to learn to throw 

 as lightly as possible, for in quiet water, un- 



