II 



MY FIRST TROUT 



IS a fly-fisher born or made, or both ? I think 

 that I was both. My first memory of living 

 fishes takes me back to a terrifying walk, at 

 the age of four, along a jetty, with planks wide 

 apart and a view between them of clear green 

 sea-water and little fishes swimming amongst 

 branches of seaweed, swaying with the tide. 

 Then a long sea-voyage, and a whole day spent 

 at anchor at St. Helena. It was a baking-hot 

 day, the sun blistering the pitch caulking between 

 the deck-planks ; but lying on those warm planks, 

 I could see the calm sea through the hawse- 

 pipe and jelly-fish innumerable floating in the 

 clear water. No one could get me away from 

 that hawse-pipe. I had secured a reel of cotton 

 and a bent pin, baited with gingerbread biscuit, 

 warmed in a hot little palm and softened by 

 the sea air. Nothing would persuade me that 

 the morsels would not be as succulent to the 

 taste of a jelly-fish as they were to my own : I 



90 



