172 GOLDEN DAYS 



Brittany that an attempt at its description 

 is surely worth while, if it can help but 

 one brother angler and so save him even a 

 tithe of the trout and salmon flies that 

 the writer has thus retrieved in days gone 

 by. When my fly first caught on the 

 further side of the snag the position seemed 

 hopeless, as each pull would drive the hook 

 further into the obstruction. But Jean 

 Pierre took my rod, and paying out some 

 yards of slack, he cast the looped line above 

 and beyond the imprisoned fly. The 

 looped line sank, and was slowly borne 

 down in the current till it reached a point 

 opposite to and beyond the snag. Then 

 Jean Pierre struck and the fly jerked free. 

 The pull, be it noted, was now indirect, 

 coming from a new direction — not from 

 the near bank, but from the sunk line 

 close to the far bank. So was the fly 

 plucked out from the snag, whereas each 

 tug, direct from the rod, must have em- 

 bedded it further in, till the east or barb 

 finally gave way. 



Below the brushwood pile was good 

 open water. Just the place for practice 

 and instruction. Here the big fish from 



I 



