148 MOSTLY ABOUT TROUT 



ficial fly need bear any resemblance to what it 

 is supposed to represent, excepting in size, 

 shape and movements, is a debatable point 

 about which some fishermen discourse on paper, 

 but whereon none would dare to express his 

 innermost thoughts in the Fly-fisher's Club. 

 So much for the dry-fly fisher. But what 

 about the trout ? There are two sides to every 

 contract, and if the fisher on the one part is 

 bound by rules and etiquette, what of the fish 

 on the other part ? If trout in dry-fly water 

 never rose to take food on the surface, the 

 fisherman might as well prove his skill in casting 

 by dropping his fly lightly into a wine-glass 

 on his tennis lawn, against half a gale of wind, 

 standing a yard or two in front of the high 

 netting surrounding the court. That would be 

 interesting. It would not be fishing. This is 

 the story of a fish that never, to the knowledge 

 of any human being, came to the surface to 

 take food. If that is his part in the contract 

 with the brotherhood of sportsmen, what should 

 the fisherman's part be, assuming that the 

 sport of fly-fishing includes, even if only occasion- 

 ally, the catching of fish ? But I will tell the 

 tale of this trout. 



My favourite haunt from May to September 

 is a spot already described, a tumble- down 



