THE WEEDING TROUT 115 



OF THE WEEDING TROUT. 



It has been shown how it was frequently 

 possible to extract a big trout from an apparently 

 impossible fastness by a tactical trick. Every 

 angler knows that a trout who is, or conceives 

 himself to be, lightly hooked will thrash about 

 upon the surface in his effort to dislodge the fly, 

 very often with success, though not always; for 

 occasionally the hook will have a small but suffi- 

 cient hold in some inaccessible place, such as the 

 corner of the jaw, and all is well with the angler. It 

 is by playing upon this idiosyncrasy and slacken- 

 ing on a fish immediately after it is hooked that the 

 trout may frequently be induced to run from an 

 impenetrable holt into the open in order to kick 

 himself free from the surface. The same idiosyn- 

 crasy may be worked upon with a weeding fish, 

 with gratifying results. If the angler hooks a fish 

 which turns and bolts downstream below him, he 

 will note that the fish will not go to weed until 

 he is held. The moment he is held he will whip 

 into the first available weed-bed. That is the 

 first step in our argument. The next is this : The 

 harder he is held the more frightened he becomes, 

 and the deeper and the more desperately he will 

 burrow in the weeds. 



But one day it occurred to me to try upon the 

 trout that has got to weed the tactics of inducing 

 him to believe himself lightly hooked. To let him 



15—2 



