CHAPTER III 



SUBAQUEOUS HAPPENINGS IN ART 



OF MEDICINE FOR BULGERS. 



For many a year bulging trout were the despair 

 of my life, and in those days I would gladly have 

 said " Amen " to the opinion expressed in a letter 

 to the Fishing Gazette of March 13, 1909, by the 

 angler who writes over the pen-name of " Bally- 

 gunge/' that when trout were bulging you " might 

 as well chuck your hat at them" as a fly. Many 

 times had I vainly plied them with Gold-ribbed 

 Hare's Ear, as recommended by Mr. F. M. Hal- 

 ford, as well as most of the current imitations of 

 duns on the water, and Wickhams, Tags, and other 

 fancy flies to boot. Hoping against hope, I never 

 gave up trying for those aggravating fish, and one 

 day, towards the end of a bad exhibition of bulging 

 by the trout, I actually caught a brace, and lost a 

 third on a Pope's Green Nondescript — a dun tied 

 with starling wing, red hackle and whisk, and a 

 dark green body ribbed with broad flat gold. 



On many occasions since I have found that fly 

 kill well at the beginning of a rise, and it may be 



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