50 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 



comes round, and the season of minnowing is indi- 

 cated, the big trout once more make their way, in 

 search of minnows, into the narrower irrigation 

 channels of the water-meadows. So ardent are 

 they at times in pursuit of their quarry that on 

 occasion it is possible to net them out without their 

 becoming aware of their danger. 



On one occasion I got three good trout thus from 

 behind at one scoop of the landing-net, and turned 

 them back into the main. 



Often, if they get into a channel with a constant 

 flow and a steady food-supply, trout will not care 

 to drop back to the river, and will take up a 

 position of strength, where, inaccessible to the fly 

 of the angler, they daily increase in size and lusti- 

 hood. Such potted fish are almost entirely sub- 

 aqueous feeders, a floating dun rarely crossing 

 their field of vision. They grow dark and copper- 

 coloured, and very unlike the fish of the river from 

 which they hail. 



One such fish do I remember, who took up his 

 holt in the eddy just above a hatch-hole, through 

 which ran the whole of a brisk stream some two to 

 two and a half feet wide, turning at right angles to 

 do so, after impinging on his eddy as on a sort of 

 water-buffer. It was not hard to approach the 

 place without being seen, but the moment one 

 looked over the edge his troutship would flash 

 down through the hatch-hole and into the racing 

 stream beneath. Several times I mounted a 



