56 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 



turned down, and, getting below them, cast care- 

 fully to where they ought to be. I whipped one 

 fly off ; then with the new fly I rose the first of 

 them — quite a nice fish — hooked him, and lost 

 him after a short tussle. Examining the hook, I 

 found it pulled out nearly straight owing to a soft 

 wire. Whether that rattled me or not I don't 

 know, but I left my two remaining Grannom in 

 the other two fish successively. Having no more, 

 I fell back on the Sedge in vain. Equally vain 

 were Red Ant (dry) and Greenwell's Glory and 

 Tup's Indispensable (wet), and, as there was no 

 evening rise, I finished up with a basket of two 

 and a half brace, which with better handling 

 should have been four brace. 



On each of these afternoons there was no rise 

 of fish or fly ; and on one nothing but a floating 

 pattern did any good, on the other nothing but 

 a sunk pattern. 



The inference that I might have gone back 

 blank on the first occasion but for the supple- 

 mental aid of the wet-fly method does not seem 

 far-fetched. 



