SUNDRY CONSIDERATIONS 6i 



willow-fly, which was out in quantity that day, 

 was no good. The trout wanted duns, and willow- 

 flies were no use to them, or probably there, away 

 from the banks, were practically unknown ; but 

 under the alder and willow-fringed banks on either 

 side the trout took the spent willow-fly freely, 

 and, of thirty-seven trout, no less than thirty-four 

 fell that day to the willow-fly under the banks, 

 but not one from mid-river. Many a time the 

 trout will take a sedge or an imitation of the grass- 

 moth under the banks when quite shy of them in 

 midstream. In connection with this I may 

 record an incident which is framed in my mind as 

 the strange disappearance of Wary Willy. 



Wary Willy was almost a public character. He 

 inhabited a club water not far from Winchester, 

 and was always at his post when duty called. But 

 he was of an obliging turn of mind, and always 

 ready to show sport to the new-comer who might 

 be tempted to put a fly over him. Yet it was not 

 for nothing that he had earned his name, for, though 

 many had risen him, none was recorded as having 

 hooked him. His holt was under a grassy bank 

 (right of the river), about three yards above the spot 

 where a willow stump extended a solitary branch at 

 right angles to the current, a foot above and about 

 two yards out into the stream, so that any angler 

 who paid his respects to Wilham had to send his 

 invitation across the willow-bough, a state of 

 things which led to difficulties and language for the 



