268 SALMON AND TROUT. 



the outline of your figure. Even the colour of your clothing is 

 not unimportant. Black or white are on a bright day equally 

 objectionable, especially for your hat. It should be remem- 

 bered, too, that a screen is useful behind as well as in front of 

 you. When there is barely footing between a high hedge and 

 the water — I have a few such spots in my mind's eye — the fish 

 will hardly be aware of your presence unless you exhibit some 

 violent contrast of colour. But a far commoner illustration of 

 my meaning may be found in the neighbourhood of mills and 

 factories, where a dead wall lies near the margin of an inviting 

 stream or pool. Move cautiously with your back close to the 

 brickwork, and you often find to your surprise and satisfaction 

 that while you see the trout on the feed, they fail to see you. 

 Casting from such a position no doubt requires a peculiar 

 knack, but that difficulty once overcome the game is all in your 

 favour. The fish to whom you have thrown takes the fly in the 

 most confiding manner, and till repeated experience has fami- 

 liarised you with this result the whole affair seems almost un- 

 canny — as though you had the fern seed and walked invisible. 

 There will, of course, be great danger of betraying your presence 

 when landing your fish, and I can only recommend you to keep 

 as close to the friendly wall as you can till you have led your 

 trout some way down the stream, and not to use the landing 

 net till he has made his last rush. 



There is another aid to concealment which I think is not 

 generally recognised, but to which in certain waters (notably in 

 Foston Beck in the East Riding) I have owed many a brace of 

 heavy fish. Every angler has obtained some bold rises by 

 casting somewhat heavily so as to break through the coating of 

 foam — 'beggars'* balm,' Walton calls it — which forms over 

 eddies for some distance below a fall or strong rush of water. 

 But m calm hot weather there often forms over the shore-ward 



1 I have always suspected a mis-spelling here on Walton's part ; there is 

 nothing suggestive of fragrance or healing in such scum. Beggars' barm must 

 surely be the true word — yeast which costs nothing. — [No doubt this is so. — 

 Ed.1 



