214 TROUT FISHING 



his bait. If he could be sure, he would 

 instantly pull the line away, not wishing 

 to catch an eel ; but he cannot be instantly 

 sure. The eel's nibble causes a slow and 

 lazy-looking movement of the line, and 

 the trout's is usually a smart rug-tug-tug- 

 dart ; but often eel and trout begin in the 

 same way, which is merely by arresting 

 the line. The angler must risk catching 

 an eel to make sure of not losing a trout. 

 On the other hand, he must not wait very 

 long. When a trout finds that he has 

 made a mistake, he has an unknown means 

 of putting things right which is nothing 

 less than marvellous. Sometimes he 

 ejects a hook as neatly as the mechanism 

 of a modern rifle ejects the shell of a 

 cartridge ; often, if he fails in the attempt 

 to do that, you will find, on taking him 

 out of the landing net, that in doing his 

 best he has at least detached the worm 

 from all the three hooks on your Stewart 

 Tackle and blown it a foot up the gut ! 

 The trout must have a strength as magical 

 as that of the mole, which, for its size, is 



