EIGHT FROM ONE HOLE. 149 



head of Loch Lomond, who struck a spoon four times 

 before I landed him, and each time was badly torn by 

 the hooks. 



But, on the other hand, it is generally true that if a 

 trout is pricked by a fly-hook he will not rise to it again. 

 This is, perhaps, owing to the simple fact that he has found 

 no taste of flesh on the hook. In one single instance in 

 my experience I have known an exception to this rule. 

 Casting on a lake in the Franconia Mountains, I pricked 

 a two-pound trout, and pricked him badly. The water 

 was clear, and I saw him rush off, turn, and, as my fly 

 again fell in the same spot, go at it with a fierce dart, and 

 I landed him. I speak, of course, of trout as I have known 

 them. In all that I say of trout-fishing, I beg my reader 

 to bear in mind, what I have elsewhere tried to make 

 plain, that the habits of trout vary with their local habita- 

 tions, and there are many waters full of them of which I 

 know nothing, and where their customs may be quite dif- 

 ferent from those which I have learned. 



When John had landed his old friend, I went down to 

 the log and threw my flies below it. There was a project- 

 ing point of the bank some thirty feet down stream, under 

 which the body of the current was flowing. As the tail 

 fly came up, and swung across this current within a foot 

 of the bank, I had a fine strike, and drew out into the 

 open river a good pound trout. He made fierce strug- 

 gles, but I killed him in two minutes, and struck another 

 at the same spot. In fifteen minutes I had taken eight 

 trout from that hole, averaging a pound each, every one 

 striking the fly at the same point to an inch, and then I 

 could not raise another fin. 



" Try your bait there, John." 



Down went the red-fin tail on the current, and into the 



