io8 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 



eighteen inches out from the bank. The willows 

 were two yards apart, and their roots formed a 

 mass of snags below him, while just downstream of 

 them was a plank bridge a foot above the river. 

 Here again it was a case of kneeling far out in 

 the meadow and dropping the Yellow Dun exactly 

 over the nose of the fish. He came with the most 

 confiding simplicity. Had he been checked he 

 would have been in the snags before one could say 

 " Knife," but the angler, mindful of his lesson, held 

 him not. So it befell that he rushed out into mid- 

 stream and leapt four several times, much as does 

 a pricked fish that is not hooked at all. But ere 

 he could do more the angler was on terms with him, 

 and held him out from the bank, up from the 

 bottom, and away from the plank bridge, till the 

 landing-net received his one pound six ounces. 



Finally, let the tale be told of a trout of the 

 Kennet that had his holt in a corner of a little 

 bay, whence a willow-bush had fallen into the 

 river, leaving on the bank side a tangle of broken 

 roots, in the river to the right, some three yards 

 off, the half-submerged willow, while above and 

 below were heavy patches of long swaying weed. 

 It was an ideal place for a trout to feed in — and 

 to break away. The water came into the bay in 

 a little defined channel between weeds, and in this 

 a foot below the entry a sizable neb was show- 

 ing at intervals. A small Green Champion May 

 dropped exactly in the channel, and trotted down 



