CHAPTER VIII 

 MAINLY TACTICAL 



OF THE DELIBERATE DRAG. 



Of all trials of the chalk-stream angler, perhaps 

 drag is the worst. Yet even drag may be made 

 use of on occasion, to add to the weight of the 

 creel. Years back, on the Erlaubnitz in South 

 Germany, I sat by a mill-head on a blazing 

 and wellnigh hopeless September afternoon. The 

 water was low, much of the head having been 

 run off by the sawmill, and such little current 

 as there was confined itself almost entirely to 

 the centre. Brown and dirty-looking weeds topped 

 the surface along my side of the head. Suddenly 

 I detected a tiny dimple in a little spot where, 

 among the weeds, an eighteen-inch square of clean 

 surface showed itself. I despatched my fly — a 

 Landrail and Hare's Ear Sedge on a No. 3 hook — 

 and by good luck or good management it dropped 

 neatly on the spot. I waited. Three minutes 

 passed. Nothing happened. Then I thought to 

 recover my fly and drop it again in the hole, but 

 with rather less delicacy, so as to attract attention 



81 II 



