EPISODICAL 231 



predecessor in the bag, a better fish than my first by a 

 couple of ounces. 



A fly or two could now be seen in the air, and Whirling 

 Blue dun was clearly the order of the day. So I changed 

 once more, oiled my fly, and looked out for another victim. 

 I found my next fish a few yards down-stream of the last, 

 in a run under the opposite bank, with still three thick 

 strings of flag between me and the bed of crow's-foot from 

 the shelter of which he seemed to come up. I say seemed, 

 because, though I could see the tail of the crow's-foot bed 

 through a gap in the screen of rushes, I could only hear 

 when he rose, and see the lower end of the ring as it spread 

 down-stream. I dropped the fly over the screen, however, 

 struck at the sound of the rise, and got my fish down- 

 stream and through the gap on the surprise. Once this 

 was done the main part of the difficulty was over. I soon 

 worked him through the rest, and to a place on the bank 

 where there was no mud to prevent my netting him out. 

 He was just over the twelve inches. Thoroughly drying 

 my fly with a sheet of amadou and re-oiling it, I moved 

 up a few yards, not ill-pleased with myself, to find another 

 quarry. I came to an open pool with two or three fish 

 in it, one of them, looking a safe pound, lying close against 

 a deep bed of flags which fringed the opposite side, and 

 then parted to let half the stream run one side and half 

 the other. I first tried a brace of fish in the middle, which 

 seemed in a feeding humour, but though both came and 

 looked at my fly, neither would have it. So I made proffer 

 to the third. He backed slowly before it till he was 

 sheltered by the bed of flags which divided the stream. 

 Here he seemed inaccessible, and I tried the other two 

 again, but in vain. Then looking up a sort of foot- wide 

 little lane which ran slantingly across the phalanx of flags 

 I thought I saw the head and eye of the trout that had 

 dropped down. I have cannoned off the red and pocketed 



