TACTICAL 189 



left to my right and straightened my line nicely. A wet 

 Alder on a No. 2 hook had been attached before breakfast, 

 and I made my first effort at switching. Drawing up my 

 line till my rod made an angle of about 70 degrees with 

 the horizontal, I dipped the point sharply and brought 

 it round and up, and again down with a circular downward 

 and outward cut which brought a belly into the line carry- 

 ing sufficient impetus to lift the rest of the line, the cast, 

 and the fly, off the water, and, without letting it go behind 

 me at all, carried it across river towards and eventually, 

 after several unsuccessful efforts, over to the trout. Owing 

 to their position they had never been fished for, and were 

 accordingly extremely unsophisticated fish, and it was not 

 long before I was leading one by the nose towards my 

 bank. 



During the rest of my stay I practised my switching 

 under those limes at intervals before and after breakfast, 

 lunch, and dinner, and I collected most of the trout -which 

 lay under that thorn hedge. 



On many an occasion since I have had reason to be 

 grateful for the experience, and on the Itchen and else- 

 where I have found it serve me well. The trout which are 

 protected from ordinary open casting are apt to be singu- 

 larly unsuspicious of a wet-fly cast, delivered across- 

 stream by an angler who has tree or bush or copse behind 

 him, and who is careful not to shake the bank in his 

 approach or casting. It does not matter how smooth the 

 water or how bright the weather provided the wind be 

 not adverse. An adverse wind I find generally fatal to 

 the clean and delicate delivery of the fly. But if all goes 

 well the draw of the floating gut, or the smooth hump in 

 the water, indicates that the fly has been accepted. 



Those who know the Duck's Nest Spinney will recall 

 how it comes so close up to the Itchen side as to leave no 



