18 TROUT FISHING 



Mr. Senior, I doubt not, could give a 

 reasonable explanation for his preference, 

 and I have suggested a justification of my 

 own ; but these preferences are not 

 bigoted. Serviceable as the Redspinner 

 and Greenwell's Glory are on many 

 occasions, there are times when other flies 

 are better ; but this is a concession which 

 most anglers who have fancies are loath 

 to make. Take, for example, my friend 



J- S . He is remarkably nimble 



with his little greenheart rod and cast of 

 fine gut. Once in a drift of a mile along 

 the north shore of Loch Doine I saw 

 him catch fifteen big trout ; he did not 

 miss a single rise, and did not lose a fish. 

 There could be no more workmanlike 



sport than that ; yet J S is not 



free from a superstition which must cer- 

 tainly be at times a handicap. He has 

 an ineradicable belief in the Alder and 

 the Bloody Butcher, one or the other of 

 which, if both of them are not, is always 

 on his cast. Each of these flies once 

 chanced to be the fly of the hour when he 



