180 MOSTLY ABOUT TROUT 



will be less strenuous, and there will be time 

 to amend my ways. It must add much to the 

 pleasure of landing a trout to feel that the 

 fly he has taken is of one's own making. I 

 once knew an old farmer in Staffordshire, a 

 keen fly-fisher all his life, who made all his 

 tackle himself, even his rod, and a wonderful 

 rod it was, fashioned of hard snake-wood, with 

 a greenheart top. I cannot imagine anyone 

 attempting in these days to compete with the 

 professional builders of rods, and certainly no 

 one would aspire to make one of the present- 

 day reels, which add so much to a fisherman's 

 joys. An angler abroad is sorely handicapped 

 if he cannot tie his own flies, and our stock of 

 them at Avlona soon ran out, and could not 

 be replaced. As regards patterns, the local 

 trout were very unsophisticated ; they did not 

 seem to mind the size of the fly much, or even 

 the thickness of the gut, so long as you cast 

 a light line ; their only particular fancy seemed 

 to be for a touch of red in the body of the fly. 

 We had a fairly good day with them, in spite 

 of the terrific heat. I managed, by cajolement, 

 to borrow the wardroom skiff it would have 

 been hopeless for a youngster to approach the 

 commander of a battleship with any proposal 

 to use a service boat, and so withdraw men from 



