SPECIAL CONDITIONS— WET-FLY SOLUTIONS 53 



slashed by me and fled back down the runnel he 

 had ascended, but wriggling in the net which I 

 lifted was a bouncing fish, black, hogbacked, with 

 copper sides and white belly, in first-rate fettle, 

 and weighing better, at a guess, than one and a 

 half pounds, evidently an old inhabitant of that 

 corner. The main was but a few yards off, and 

 I carefully turned in my captive. 



Two days later I was fishing up the bank of the 

 main in blazing sunshine, searching for a rising 

 fish, but finding none, when my attention was 

 attracted by a movement in the water close under 

 my bank some ten or fifteen yards above the spot 

 where I turned the trout in. I dropped my wet 

 Greenwell's Glory a foot or so from the spot, and, 

 answering the draw of the floating gut signalling 

 some under-water adhesion, I tightened on a nice 

 fish, and after the usual preliminary exhibition of 

 coyness, emphasized by sundry jumpings, I per- 

 suaded him to come ashore. The spring-balance 

 said one pound ten ounces. Colour, size, and shape, 

 were identical with the trout I had turned back 

 two days before, and though, of course, I cannot 

 prove it, I have no doubt he was the same. 



Now, why did one of these potted trout take the 

 fly, and the other refuse ? This is my theory : 

 Both had got the exclusive habit of subaqueous 

 feeding, but the big one had his nose in a position 

 where it was impossible to get a wet fly to him 

 so as to pitch above him, or even alongside of his 



