72 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 



succeeded in ascertaining what the trout would 

 take, and on such days — and again on days 

 when trains have borne me to the water too late 

 for the morning rise — I might frequently, but for 

 my friend the casual feeder, have brought home 

 a toom creel. 



The places where the casual feeder is to be found 

 at home are various ; but, speaking generally, 

 the casual feeder's position depends on the nature 

 of the fare which the time of day affords him, and 

 the odds are long that from the end of May, when 

 the first of the sedges (the so - called Welsh- 

 man's Button — the " Dun Cut " of the fathers of 

 angling) comes upon the water, that position will 

 be found under the banks where sedge-flies and 

 other bank insects most do congregate, and from 

 which they venture upon the water ; at bridges 

 where a constriction of the current concentrates 

 the food ; at bridges where spinners are apt to 

 dance until their dancing minutes be done, and 

 sedges often shelter in brickwork ; at hatches 

 where woodlice and other insects harbour in the 

 wood, and are prone to drop into the current ; in 

 pockets in the weeds ; and in ditches and carriers 

 where the hatch of duns is sparse and unsatis- 

 factory, and a trout must rely upon other re- 

 sources for his daily sustenance. This may be 

 floating or subaqueous, but is more likely in 

 carriers and swift waters to be subaqueous, inas- 

 much as it is only for a brief period that a hatch 



