BLANKS AND TROUBLES 195 
the right moment, possibly the trout come short, 
possibly something is wrong with the hook. 
Whatever the reason, nothing goes right. The 
only comfort I ever had on such an occasion was 
when a Devonshire lad at Lifton sagely observed 
to me: “Them as you miss don’t count, sir.” 
That was at any rate a new point of view. 
One of the worst experiences of this sort I 
ever had was on the old Tern which I was fishing 
once more after several years abroad. I missed 
every trout that rose to my fly, and the rises were 
many. I imagined that they were coming short 
and thought out other convincing excuses. But, 
when in despair I handed over the rod to my 
brother, he succeeded in hooking nearly every 
fish that rose and made a handsome bag. So my 
excuses lost much of their plausibility. A day or 
two later, I remember, on a lower reach of the 
same river I happily redeemed my credit, getting 
almost every trout that came at me fairly. And 
one of them was a beauty of 32 lbs., which took 
that excellent fly for big trout, the Sarcelle. 
