152 MOSTLY ABOUT TROUT 



him up to our feet to land him, if we did. We 

 must try another plan. 



The rod, being meant for casting, or for 

 landing a fish, is clearly of no use here. We 

 cannot cast in a room with only a hole in the 

 floor to cast over, and we cannot land the trout 

 where we stand. We take the whole line off 

 the reel and leave it in the room, carry the 

 rod down-stream, and prop it on the bank 

 beside the shallow, about fifteen yards below 

 the mill. So far, so good. Then we think of 

 the next move. We tie a big cork to the end 

 of the line that had been round the drum of the 

 reel, and coil the line down carefully on the 

 floor of the room, so as to run freely away down- 

 stream if required. Then we do the deed, 

 first carefully searching the surroundings to 

 make sure that there are no spectators. We 

 attach to the fine gut something I will not 

 say what that resembles, or maybe is an actual 

 specimen of, our trout's usual diet. Let us 

 call it, with so many writers on angling, a 

 " lure," and leave it at that. We lower the 

 lure carefully into the boiling torrent, which 

 sweeps it swiftly down for a few yards, and 

 then we gently pay out line we know exactly 

 how much is required to reach the fish, as we 

 have already measured the distance and marked 



