FRANKLY IMMORAL 203 



the latter for the beginning of a small pale watery rise. 

 So did the trout to which I offered it, and presently I was 

 turning out No. 1 to leave the landing-net free for the 

 reception of No. 2. They formed a pleasant-looking brace 

 of very even weight, about one pound six ounces each. 

 I was less fortunate with the only other riser I found before 

 reaching the hut, for he gave a flounder on feeling the hook, 

 and was gone. So was my fly. At the hut I deposited 

 my brace on some flags in the corner, and turned my 

 attention to the larger of the two streams. Curiously the 

 fly on this is seldom the same as that on the smaller branch, 

 and I searched an eddy to find what was on. I found an 

 iron blue or two stationary in the surface, and I changed 

 to an Iron-blue nymph. Very little sign of any movement. 

 But after a while I made out a quiet rise under the far 

 bank quite close in, and three or four times repeated. 

 A switch took the nymph, still wet, across to the objective, 

 but it took a number of offers to get it to the attention of 

 the trout at the right moment. Still, at last, I diagnosed 

 a turn under water, and, raising my rod-point, found 

 myself fast in a strong fish. He put up a good fight, but 

 the little stick, though bent to a hoop, was too much for 

 him, and soon I was back at the hut to deposit him alongside 

 the aforesaid brace. He was the best fish of the day. A 

 careful search of the far bank revealed two more similar 

 rises, and I left a fly in one and was entirely beaten by 

 the other — a hardened and experienced fish that went on 

 rising. He came up and looked at a Tup, but thought 

 better of it in time. So I left him, and went down-stream 

 half a mile to a bend where there are nearly always trout 

 rising if there is anything to rise at. Difficult fish they 

 are, for they have as much attention as a fashionable beauty, 

 and are at least as wary. Four fish were moving in this 

 little bay, and I tackled them with the Tup. Two I put 

 down, but I got the third, and turned over the fourth. 



