158 TROUT FISHING 



the trout will be sure to come at it. I confess 

 that for many years I over-estimated the value of 

 the maggot, and seldom or never ventured on the 

 small streams (as the Bray, &c.) without a 

 goodly store of them by me, which I almost 

 invariably fished with on my stretcher fly, when 

 the waters were very low in bright summer 

 weather. I used to be successful, and attributed 

 rny success to the maggot. And well can I recall 

 the meeting of brother fishermen after many a 

 day's sport, when they had been viewing and ad- 

 miring the trout I had killed ; one perhaps would 

 say, I suppose you must have used the maggot, or 

 you would not have killed such numbers and such 

 fine fish as those ? This was always said with a 

 sort of knowing smile of facetiousness, and I ad- 

 mit that I myself believed that the secret of my 

 success was in the maggot. It chanced one very 

 bright morning, in the month of July, when the 

 Bray was low, that on opening my maggot tin to 

 put on the highly prized maggot, I discovered the 

 tin to be empty ; the lid as I had galloped along 

 to my fishing ground had opened and all my mag- 

 gots were lost ; I had not one, and my disappoint- 

 ment was extreme. I was a long distance from 

 home, and had no other bait to use. I thought I 

 should not be able to obtain any sport whatever ; 

 still as my rod and the collar with the large flies 

 I always used with the maggot on it were now 

 ready, I determined to make the best of a bad 

 business, and exert myself a little to see if it were 

 possible to take trout with large flies tied on No. 7 



