i8o THE WAY OF A TROUT WITH A FLY 



a fish forging upstream may be turned in precisely the 

 same way if you keep opposite him or but little below. 

 And no doubt most of us have used the method many a 

 time. But I for one am glad to have been made aware 

 of the cause of its efficiency, and I thank the stranger. 



There is another development. At times your trout 

 may keep so close in with a high bank above him that it 

 is impossible to apply the side-strain. Then if you can 

 exhibit the landing-net so as to drive him out with a rush 

 into mid-stream it will give you a chance for a resolute 

 application of side-strain, and the fish will be brought 

 round and turned upstream again. One morning in May, 

 1920, I was on a sedgy bank in difficulties with a big fish 

 which, boring close under the tussock, was forcing his way 

 down towards a hedge with barbed wire in it past which 

 I could not hope to follow him. In despair I shortened 

 line all I could, caught up to the fish, and proffered the 

 net. He rushed out at once more than half-way across- 

 stream, when the rod, held low and horizontal, forced him 

 round not ten feet above the hedge, and I kept him going 

 upstream till he was out of danger. Twelve hours later 

 the keeper weighed him — three pounds good. 



OF POCKET-PICKING. 



As summer advances and the weeds are unusually high, 

 there is to be found in a momentarily neglected fishery 

 a chance of chances to find the trout in most unsuspecting 

 humour for the fly, ofttimes for the dry, but more often 

 for the wet. The celery beds are thrusting themselves, 

 big and bold, out of the water, and the long sword blades 

 of the ranunculus trail along the surface in dense masses 

 at a little distance from the bank, coming closer at intervals 

 and dividing the smooth run under the bank into a series 

 of little pools. The day is perhaps hot and sunny, the 



