ix FESTIVAL OF GREEN DRAKE 149 



now he is hardly recovered from the spawn- 

 ing season. The coming ten days will make 

 a new fish of him, and when he is heartened 

 up with good cheer he will be worth fishing 

 for, or anyhow his heavier brethren will. 

 You see that row of piles sticking out of the 

 river under our own bank ? It is round 

 them that you will find the biggest chub. 

 Last season a man took one of full five 

 pounds there with the May-fly, and lost 

 another even heavier. 



The flies are coming down faster now, 

 and the dace are beginning to rise freely. 

 There, we have hooked one ; mark how he 

 fights. He has the cunning of the grayling 

 combined with the dash of the trout, but on 

 this tackle we have him safe. We will 

 weigh him. Three-quarters of a pound by 

 the balance a very creditable weight for 

 his species. He shall be kept, for dace come 

 into season here on this day, and a few of 

 these big ones look very well lying on the 

 long grass in the creel. I could wish they 

 rose as well to small flies as they do to the 

 drake. Very seldom can you get such dace 

 as this with the black gnat, though it does 

 come about now and then, generally rather 



