26 KILL-DEVIL FOR SMALL TROUT. [PARTI. 
of him. Some time afterwards, happening to meet 
the owner of the water, I took the opportunity of 
apologizing to him for having unintentionally vio- 
lated his rule restricting persons fishing it to the 
use of the fly, and incidentally mentioned the 
large Trout which I had thus seen and missed, 
when he told me that he knew him well, and that 
his weight was at least ten pounds, which was 
exactly what I had put him at. 
Even in streams where the Trout run small the 
kill-devil is sometimes very effective. 
I was fishing down the (Devonshire) Avon, 
between Cot and Gara Bridge, on the 16th of 
August, 1852, when the river was recovering from 
a flood, and apparently in good order for the fly. 
A determined rain from the South-west however 
prevented the fish from rising, and my basket 
shewed no more than about a dozen and a half 
Trout, all of them, with one or two exceptions, 
being mere sprats. Just before leaving off how- 
ever, I met a young fellow, an attorney from 
Totnes, who had, with a kill-devil (one of those 
constructed to run up the line when a fish is 
struck) been having great sport, and half filled his 
basket with fish averaging near a quarter of a 
pound (large for Devonshire). He had one or two 
