ok bodily at the heads of the trout and bid them take their choice
of its contents. That method of angling would be quite as successful as
angling for large southern trout in the northern manner. So the novice
either loses his temper and walks away to take his ease and some shandy-
gaff at the Bear, or he sits down to smoke, or he potters botanically
among the flowering water-weeds. Then a southern angler comes near, and
is presently playing a trout which the northern man has not "put down,"
or frightened into total abstinence for the day. Then the true method of
fishing for trout in a clear stream is illustrated in practice, and a
beautiful and most delicate art it proves to be.

First, the angler notices a rising fish. Then he retires to a safe
distance from the bank, outflanks the trout, and comes round in his rear.
As fish always feed with their heads up stream, it is necessary in such
clear water to fish for them from below, from as far below as possible.
Every advantage is taken of cover, and the angler soon acquires the
habits of a skirmisher. A tuft of rushes, an inequality in the ground,
or an alder bush conceals him; behind this he kneels, and gets his tackle
in order. He uses only one fly, not two or three, as people do on the
Border. He carefully measures his ground, flicking his cast through the
air, so that the fly shall be perfectly dry. Then the trout rises, and
in a moment the dry fly descends as lightly as a living insect, half a
foot above the ripple. Down it floats, the fisher watching with a
beating heart: then there is a ripple, then a splash; the rod bends
nearly double, the line flies out to the further bank, and the struggle
begins. The fight is by no means over, for the fish instinctively makes
for a bed of weeds, where he can entangle and break the line, while the
angler holds him as hard as he dares, and, if tackle be sound and luck
goes not contrary, the big trout is landed at last.

This is no trifling victory. Nay, a Kennet trout is far harder to catch
and kill than the capricious salmon, which will often take a fly, however
clumsy be the man who casts it. There is a profane theory that several
members of the Hungerford Club never catch the trout they pay so much to
have the privilege of trying to capture. A very sure eye and clever hand
are needed to make the fly light dry and neat so close above the fish
that he has not time to be alarmed by the gut. "Gut-shy" he is, and th