76 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 



than three capital trout from those few yards 

 in one day, turning each as hooked down into 

 the Highland Burn, and kilHng him there. 



OF THE NEGOTIATION OF TAILERS. 



Authority hath it that " the best policy is, per- 

 haps, to leave tailing fish alone "; but the busy 

 man, who only gets an occasional day's fishing, to 

 whom that advice is too trying and disappointing 

 (meaning me), was recommended to try an 

 Orange Bumble or a Furnace. With an excep- 

 tion I shall presently refer to, it is some years since 

 I have had any experience of tailing trout, for an 

 alteration in a weir has made such a difference in 

 the pace and level of a length on the chalk stream I 

 most do fish, that whereas in the old days the tailer 

 used to be a common sight there, nowadays it is 

 the greatest rarity. But in those old days the 

 tailer was my stand-by. If — as was frequently 

 the case — I made naught of the morning rise, I 

 would betake me to this length and sit down 

 gaily to the siege of each tailer in succession, with 

 the confidence that, unless I made some mistake 

 and scared the fish — and tailers are not too easily 

 scared — sooner or later he was my fish. It was 

 often later, for I had to go on casting, casting, 

 casting, in the hope that the moment might come 

 when my fly would be passing over the trout at 

 the moment when his head was raised, and he 

 was taking breath before another big go at the 



