160 THE WAY OF A TROUT WITH A FLY 



unmistakable swirl, and a few minutes later an Orange 

 Quill was offered him, and had hardly lit on the water before 

 he had it. He put up a gorgeous fight, and proved to be 

 a sixteen-inch fish in excellent condition, and to weigh 

 one pound twelve ounces. 



Two big fish were rising in the bend just above — distant a 

 longish cast from cover — and I wanted to try a pattern 

 of Blue-winged Olive which I had picked up the previous 

 year, and had had some success with. So I shifted back to 

 that pattern, and had both the fish up to it. But there must 

 have been something wrong about it, for both rose to it 

 without fastening. The same result occurring with each 

 of the next two fish I tackled, I put up a fresh Orange Quill 

 on a No. i hook, and put it to a fish feeding under the far 

 back above the bend. He was an exasperating fish, never 

 still a moment, and when I dropped my fly just in front 

 of a ring, he would rise above or below, or beyond or nearer 

 me, but always safely. At length the fly pitched right to 

 an inch, and next moment the battle was joined. He was 

 a lustier fish than the last, one inch shorter but two ounces 

 heavier, and I had to run him down one hundred and fifty 

 yards before I netted him out. 



I did not take long to find another fish rising similarly, 

 but I must have made some mistake, for he went down. 

 The next fish, however, accepted the first offer and joined 

 his companions in the creel; he was only one pound six 

 ounces. It was then '9.35 p.m. 



Then, though the fish went on rising for nearly another 

 half-hour, some change came over them; for though the 

 next fish took the fly quite resolutely, it did not fasten, 

 nor did the next. A very big fish, if I am any judge of a 

 rise, was working away, absorbing blue-winged olive, 

 with a smooth head-and-tail action, as regular as the ticking 

 of a clock ; but though I offered him every opportunity of 



