TROUT FISHING 



Homer's heroes wore their koruthous and phalerous, to make 

 3'^ourself look taller and more terrible to your foes. 



' Shorten your line all you can — you cannot fish -w-ith too 

 short a line up-stream ; and throw, not into the oil-basin 

 near you, but right up into the darkest corner. Make your fly 

 strike the brick-work and drop in. So ? no rise ? Then, don't 

 work or draw it, or yoiir deceit is discovered instantly. Lift it 

 out, and repeat the throw. 



' "What ? You have hooked your fly in the hatches ? Very 

 good. Pull at it till the casting line breaks, put on a fresh one, 

 and to work acrain. There ! vou have him. Don't rise ! 

 fight him kneeling ; hold him hard, and give him no line, but 

 shorten up anyhow. Teat and haul him do\\-n to you before 

 he can make to his home, while the keeper runs round with 

 the net. . . . There he is on shore. Two poimds, good 

 weight. Creep back more cautiously than ever, and try again. 

 . . . There. A second fish, over a pound weight. Now 

 we will go and recover the flies off the hatches ; and you will 

 agree that there is more cunning, more science, and therefore 

 more pleasant excitement, in ' foxing ' a great fish out of a stop- 

 hole, than in whipping far and wide over an open stream, where 

 a half-pounder is a wonder and a triumph. And as for physical 

 exertion, you will be able to compute for yourself how much 

 your back and knees, and fore-arm will ache by nine o'clock 

 to-night, after some ten hours of this scrambling, splashing, leajj- 

 ing and kneeling upon a hot June day. This item in the day's 

 work will of course be put to the side of loss or of gain, accord- 

 ing to your temperament ; but it will ctu-e you of an inclina- 

 tion to laugh at us Wessex chalk-fishers as cockneys. So we 

 will wander up the streams, taking a fish here and a fish there, 

 till — Really it is very hot. We have the whole day before us ; 

 and the fly will not be up until five o'clock at least ; and then 

 the real fishing will begin. VThy tire ourselves beforehand ? 

 The Squire will send us luncheon in the afternoon, and after 

 that expect us to fish as long as we can see, and come up to the 

 hall to sleep, regardless of the ceremony of dressing. For is 



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