EPISODICAL 249 



the same distance beyond. I selected the banker, on a 

 comparison of the rises, as the better of the two fish which 

 rose alongside of each other, and I sent my little Greenwell 

 on its errand to him. The cast was a trifle short, but the 

 fish turned and came for it with a boil which indicated a 

 very big fish indeed. But either he missed or I did — for I 

 did not feel him. And as neither he nor the other fish 

 showed any symptom of rising again, I moved on in search 

 of the third, whose ring I had noted. He too, however, had 

 stopped, and I had not placed him accurately enough to 

 make a cast or two on speculation worth while. 



At the bend immediately above there are two or three 

 perennial feeders — very good fish, but extremely wary 

 and gut shy. A friend coming up on the right bank en- 

 deavoured to lure me to spend my time on them ; but, with 

 my mind's eye on an upper stretch, I was not for wasting 

 time on them, and I moved on. 



The next stretch, however, proved very disappointing. 

 Not one of these big fish which I had counted on to give 

 me a chance was at home; and in the next three or four 

 hundred yards the only rises I saw were made by two 

 grayling. I felt sure from the size and nature of the rings 

 they made that they were taking sherry spinner, and I took 

 off the Green well's Glory and knotted on a home-made 

 Sherry Spinner with a rusty dun hackle too priceless to be 

 wasted on grayling. Each of the two, however, took it at 

 the first offer, and after an obstinate resistance was netted 

 out — one pound ten ounces and one pound eight ounces 

 respectively. It was not nine o'clock, and I had reached 

 a bend where, on a gravelly shallow, the fish, both trout and 

 grayling, seem to be rising if they are rising anywhere. But 

 not a dimple broke the surface. The blue- winged olives 

 which were coming down were too few to bring on the fish. 

 Moreover, the moon was up and bright and behind my 



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