40 MOSTLY ABOUT TROUT 



as a long-handled one will get between one's 

 legs, somehow, wherever it is slung. All this 

 sounds rather critical and not in holiday mood, 

 which only means that we have not got into 

 things properly yet, but we soon shall. In 

 a few minutes we get an extraordinary bit 

 of luck : a kingfisher flits by in a flash of blue. 

 We put one or two snipe up as we go through 

 the water-meadow and a wild duck as we 

 get near the bank. Then, as we wander away 

 from the road, comes complete solitude : not 

 a sign of life anywhere ; at least, none visible 

 or to be heard. With the silence and solitude 

 comes peace, and soon keenness, as the bait 

 goes out and is wound in past a likely place 

 for pike. Time after time it goes out, swings 

 round with the stream as I wind in slowly, 

 dwelling under the near bank, and leaving 

 the bait spinning under water till close to 

 my feet. Sometimes a pike will follow it all 

 the way round and only take at the last 

 moment, and here and there are patches 

 of reeds along the bank and likely spots for 

 pike to lie amongst them. 



So it goes on for an hour or two : swing 

 across, reel in, recover, swing across, reel in, 

 recover, monotonously and with no success, 

 until the face of the water looks blank and as 



