136 ANGLING SKETCHES 



like a rake-hook in disguise. He did not look 

 as if any fish could fancy him. I, therefore, sent 

 a messenger across the river to beg, bu}-, or 

 borrow a fly at ' The Xest.' But this prett)- 

 cottage is no longer the home of the famous 

 angling club, which has gone a mile or two up the 

 water and builded for itself a new dwelling. My 

 messenger came back with one small fatigued- 

 looking fly, a Popham, I think, which had been 

 lent by some one at a farm-house. The water 

 was so heavy that the small fly seemed useless ; 

 however, we fastened it on as a dropper, using the 

 sniggler as the trail fly ; so exhausted were our 

 resources, that I had to cut a piece of gut off a 

 minnow tackle and attach the small fl\- to that. 

 The tin}' gut loop of the fly was dreadfully fra}-ed, 

 and with a hea\-)- heart I began fishing again. 

 i\I}- friend on the opposite side called out that big 

 fish were rising in the bend of the stream, so 

 thither I went, stumbling over rocks, and casting 

 with much difficult}-, as the high overgrown banks 

 permit no backward sweep of the line. You are 

 obliged to cast hw a kind of for^^'ard thrust of the 



