T8 A Sportsman at Large 



might suppose. Imagine the salmon sulking behind a rock 

 or some such object, head up stream. The whole length of 

 the cast, gently oscillating, would float down stream almost in 

 a straight line, and parallel to the surface and the bottom. 

 The angler, casting another line over this, would stand a 

 very good chance of engineering his fly so as to hitch up at 

 some point in its length. As he drew in, it would slip along 

 the submerged cast until it reached the loop, and then it 

 would not be such very long odds, that the barb did -not 

 become attached. See ! " 



When you come to think of it, there is some logic in this 

 argument ; but nevertheless the occurrence was certainly 

 an astonishing one. I believe it has never previously been 

 recounted. My young friend had a hunch to send an account 

 of the adventure to The Field, but on second thoughts 

 refrained from so doing, being in deadly fear lest his veracity, 

 hitherto like unto that of the immortal " G. W.," should be 

 fatally impugned. 



The second case is equally illuminating and somewhat 

 similar ; but does not entail such a sporting flare. 



When fishing my friend Lord Cork's water on the Pang 

 (the little river which runs into the Thames at Pangbourne) 

 during the may-fly rise ; in attempting to place my green 

 drake in front of a leviathan trout which was taking down 

 the nymphs with great gusts, I got hung up in the branches 

 of a tall ash tree, in my rear. It was a hopeless entangle- 

 ment, so after trying coaxing methods in vain, I had to 

 exert a breaking strain, chancing my luck as to how much 

 of my cast if any would be salved. It gave at the juncture 

 with the line, and the whole of it was left dangling aloft, 

 some twenty feet out of my reach. It was no good crying over 

 spilt milk, so I affixed a new cast and fly, and went my way, 

 as the big fellow was now " down " no doubt, scared by my 

 antics in trying to free my cast. 



The following day, when I arrived at the spot, His Nibs 

 was busy again. So I prepared my attack. It was a very 

 awkward job, with those confounded trees in my immediate 

 rear, so I was not over hopeful of presenting my offering to 

 the trout in anything like efficient style. My fears proved 



