THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES CHALKSTREAM AND MOORLAND CHALKSTREAM AND MOORLAND THOUGHTS ON TROUT- FISH ING BY HAROLD RUSSELL OF THE INNER TEMPLE AND MIDLAND CIRCUIT Lord, who nuould live turmoiled in the Court, And may enjoy such quiet walks as these ? HENRY VI Part II Act iv. Sc. 10 LONDON SMITH, ELDER & CO., 15, WATERLOO PLACE 1911 All rights rtitrvtd " Peace be at your Labour, honest Fishermen " SH PREFACE IT is incumbent upon any one who writes a new book about fishing to open with an apology. He cannot put forward the novelty and freshness of the subject. When so much has already been written, a man hesitates before presenting his work to the public. I am profoundly conscious that a great deal that is said in the following pages about trout-fishing is stale. Yet I believe that fishing is a subject that is not and, indeed, cannot be exhausted. Like travel, hunting, drinking, love, and other simple and primitive human passions, it is of eternal interest. Most books about fishing have been designed to impart instruction. I am too modest about my own skill to suppose that any one, except a mere beginner, can learn much from my teaching. Yet it is gratifying, as the years go on, to find that one improves in the art of throwing a fly and catches fish which used to defy one. That has been my experience, and I trust that others may share it. We cannot all hope to become what are called beautiful fishermen. I myself gave up that ambition many years ago ; but every one can attain a certain manual dexterity, and, by exercising his wits as well, will learn how to SCS679 vi PREFACE catch trout. It may be that some passages in what I have written about the dry-fly, the sunk- fly, the use of too fine tackle, and the pleasures of filling a creel with heavy trout may invite some of the fraternity to denounce me as a poacher. The border-line between a sportsman and a poacher is hard to define. Big trout in clear streams are so well able to take care of themselves in these days, that the most sportsman- like fly-fisher who wants to catch them must exercise his craftiest powers. I am a firm believer in the efficacy of fishing upstream under almost all conditions, but I will not venture to instruct. It may seem bold to write a book on fishing with the avowed object of amusing rather than teaching. But I myself have derived such great delight from what others have written about fishing, that I cannot help hoping that other fishermen may get a little pleasure from reading my book. Some parts of this volume have already been printed in the Edinburgh Review, National Review, Spectator, Outlook, and County Gentleman. I am grateful for the leave that has been given me to republish. But in most cases I have altered and added so much that little remains of the original form. H. R. LONDON, April, 1911. CONTENTS PAGE I. SOME OF THE PLEASURES TO BE DERIVED FROM TROUT-FISHING i II. THE ANTIQUITY OF DRY-FLY FISHING . . .16 III. THE RESPECTIVE ADVANTAGES OF FISHING WITH A SUNK AND A FLOATING FLY .... 37 IV. THE RIVER TEST IN SUMMER AND AUTUMN . 53 V. ON MAKING THE MOST OF OPPORTUNITIES WHEN FISHING 77 VI. THE SEASONS FOR TROUT-FISHING AND EXMOOR AT EASTER 95 VII. THE MAYFLY ON THE KENNET .... 106 VIII. THE SUCCESSFUL USE OF THE SUNK-FLY FISHED DOWNSTREAM 123 IX. THE CONTRAST BETWEEN SOUTH-COUNTRY AND NORTH-COUNTRY TROUT 141 X. HUMBLE TROUT-FISHING IN SMALL BURNS AND BROOKS 150 XI. LOCH-FISHING IN SCOTLAND AND IRELAND . .167 XII. HILL-LOCHS WHERE THE SMALL TROUT DO NOT RISE FREELY 186 XIII. THE SENSE ORGANS OF TROUT .... 195 XIV. SEA-TROUT FISHING IN Low WATER AND IN LOCHS 218 XV. HOPE IN TROUT-FISHING AND SALMON-FISHING . 239 INDEX . . 249 CHALKSTREAM AND MOORLAND Fish, nature, streams, discourse, the line, the hook, Shall form the motley subject of my book. I EVERY thoughtful angler must, I imagine, some- times ask himself why it is that fishing is so delightful an occupation. Our pleasure begins when we make ready the tackle and lay plans beforehand so that no time may be wasted. Next, there is the actual catching of fish, which rouses excitement of a kind that no person who is not an angler can picture to himself. Lastly, when a good day is over and the basket is laid out for inspection, there is great satisfaction in the feeling that you, as a fisherman, have done well. The pleasures of memory come later, and on these it is but necessary to touch very briefly. Often, B 2 CHALKSTREAM AND MOORLAND when we are far from the streams that we love most, incidents in a day's fishing come suddenly into our thoughts ; and we remember, with the most minute and astonishing fidelity where our fly fell, or how some fish rose. We see in remembrance the exact ripples that broke the surface and some bit of rock or piece of grass that stood by the edge of the water. Why it is that such trivial events of the day should be so indelibly fixed in our memory is not easy to explain. Given a good conscience as to one's past and hope in the prospects of the future, it is probable that nothing adds more to a man's happiness than a mind stored with clear memories of days spent in the open. So the angler always feels that a day spent on fishing has not been quite wasted, though often he may regret having, by bad fishing, wasted precious bits of the day. To discover only when the rise was over what the trout were taking, or to lose a big fish by not testing one's cast or by tying a bad knot, rouses regrets which are as profound but not as lasting as those evoked by the recol- lection of wasted years in youth. PLEASURES OF FISHING 3 Yet compared with the serious things of life, fishing is after all a trivial business. The thoughtful angler must frankly confess this. It adds to the difficulty of the problem when he asks himself why the pleasure of catching a few trout is so great and failure so disheartening. The eagerness and excitement with which one sets about fishing water which holds big fish is almost childish. The value of the prize is in no way comparable to the desire it arouses. When the fish are rising and showing them- selves, the longing to hook them which one feels is almost insane. And again when we see them feeding regardless of our fly or dashing off terrified at our efforts to delude them, the resentment which the fisherman feels is almost like the anger of a madman. These emotions resemble the longing, the despair, or the indigna- tion of childhood. To tell the truth, fishermen remain always boys so far as their amusement goes. Yet they learn something by experience, and no one will pretend that as we get older the disappointment of losing a big fish, just when it was nearly landed, is quite as bitter as 4 CHALKSTREAM AND MOORLAND it was when we were younger. With youthful envy we watch experienced fishermen catching fish when we only bungle and fail. Admiration at their skilful powers and humiliation at our own clumsy casting make us ready to give years of our lives to attain the art which they possess. Perhaps in time we reach the same degree of skill and find ourselves able to catch those shy and cautious trout which seemed formerly so impossible to delude. The satisfaction is very great and well worth the labour and time it has cost to attain. But perhaps, like many things in life, when we have got our desired object we take it as our due ; and the satisfaction is not as lively as the desire might lead us to expect. So success and failure in fishing show us, as in a mirror, the careers of men in the great world. But it is all in miniature, and the emotions of the actors are those of children. It may be, perhaps, because men become again, as it were, little children that fishing gives those who love it such great pleasure and keeps them young. Most, but not all, anglers are lovers of COMPETITION IN FISHING 5 nature. Many get a large part of their pleasure from the charm and beauty of the surroundings amidst which it is their good fortune to fish. It is not uncommon, on the other hand, to read bald and stolid accounts of fishing which betray no feeling whatever for the happiness of the open air, and which contain nothing but a chronicle of weights, flies, tackle, sandwiches and flasks. It may be that the baldness of these narratives is more due to a small vocabulary than to want of feeling for the beauties of nature and the charms of rivers and lakes. It is, I think, essential that a good fisherman should be keen to catch fish ; and though he may affect a philosophic air over a blank day, he should at heart feel a great sense of disappointment. If others fishing the same water have caught fish, it is right and proper that disappointment should be tinged with humiliation. Competition of a moderate and unselfish kind gives flavour to the pleasure of angling, but angling com- petitions for prizes are detestable. A man may enjoy a day's fishing up to a certain point though he has failed to catch anything ; but if 6 CHALKSTREAM AND MOORLAND he maintains that he does not care whether he catches fish or not he is a trifler. For the end of fishing is to catch the biggest fish possible and to kill them. To catch fish and throw them back is futile labour and unworthy of a serious angler. To return, however, to the question that was originally propounded. Can any fisherman explain, to one that is not an angler, the extra- ordinary pleasure that fishing affords ? I doubt it, and no book on fishing, I fear, conveys to those who have not the taste any real impression of the angler's pleasure. To say that Piscator nasdtur non fit is to offer no explanation and is probably often untrue. Some men become anglers because they have the opportunity in youth, but more have the opportunity and do not avail themselves of it. A man who has the real passion for fishing, so that his mind is constantly occupied with thoughts of it, must be very unfortunately placed if he does not find opportunities. There are, of course, men of very diverse characters who have been fishermen. The notion is deeply rooted that fishing requires PATIENCE IN FISHING 7 infinite patience and is, as the phrase goes, the contemplative man's recreation. Often may patience, wisdom's meek-eyed friend, To every forni'd recess his steps attend ; And then propitious to the vot'ry's skill, Flow soft ye waters, and ye winds be still ! This is a mistaken notion so far as fly-fishing for trout goes, though it may be true when one sits watching a float. In every sort of fly-fishing a man's attentive and observant faculties are stretched to the utmost. For if there is no rise, one waits and watches for the slightest sign of fly appearing or fish feeding, so as to pick up any chance trout that one can. Trout fishing is too absorbing for a man to become impatient. To tell the truth, there is such variety in fishing and the occupation is so absorbing that one can fish day after day through a season and not weary. Much fishing and many bad days take the keenness off the edge of angling excite- ment ; but it is rare to find a fisherman sated and indifferent. It is a strange thing, too, that of the famous men in history who have been anglers, few, if any, have been bad men. But 8 CHALKSTREAM AND MOORLAND this is probably a matter of chance, though men's amusements generally give a clue to the inner recesses of their characters. If we split the pleasures of angling into their simplest com- ponent parts, we shall certainly find them placed by different fishermen in different orders. Some would place first the pleasure of being near run- ning water ; but this without the association of fishing would be dull. Then there is the exercise of personal or manual skill ; this may be enjoyed in various games which do not appeal to many fishermen. Besides skill, knowledge is needed in fishing ; and one of the charms of making angling a pursuit is that a good fisherman is always increasing his stock of knowledge and, in most cases, also improving his dexterity. If he does not try to do so, he is unworthy of the fraternity. But what is the good of throwing a long line if we do not hook a fish, and what the good of hooking fish which are not landed ? One of the essential pleasures in fishing is that which lies at the bottom of all true sport. Man takes a delight in outwitting wild animals and catching them by his superior cunning. It is SOLITARY SPORT 9 a taste that has come down, much softened but still powerful, from savage ancestors. Fishing combines all that is most attractive in sport, and for solitary men it is almost the only sport in civilized countries that can be enjoyed in soli- tude. I would, however, repeat that the real thing is the catching of fish. The weight of the bag or basket, especially the size rather than the number of the trout, at the end of the day adds materially to the true fisherman's happiness. There are a few pedants who will be found ready to maintain the contrary. But the power of catching fish is what gives the angler his real pleasure. The more difficult the fishing, the more shy and cunning the trout, the greater the fisherman's pleasure at his skill. It is because big trout are much more difficult to catch than small, that one rejoices so greatly at capturing them. The literature of angling is more voluminous than that of any other sport, and the pleasures of fishing, which Byron called " a solitary vice," have provided a subject for numberless writers. Byron was not a man to whom the amusement io CHALKSTREAM AND MOORLAND of angling would be likely to appeal. Words- worth called it " the blameless sport." The charge of cruelty, which may be brought with more or less truth against all field-sports, is rarely urged against fishing and scarcely ever against fly-fishing. Many humane men, whose feelings revolt against shooting and hunting, still find delight in fishing. Bishops of the Anglican Church, who would think it most unseemly to shoot pheasants or to join in a fox-hunt, see no harm in killing salmon or trout. This may possibly be because fish are cold-blooded creatures and low in the vertebrate ranks. Or perhaps, since the " vice," as Byron pointed out, can be practised in solitude there is less fear of shocking the feelings of others. Fishing is almost the only field-sport that can be indulged in on a Sunday without giving offence ; and many an honest angler who never fishes except upon the Lord's Day remembers the rule with which John Dennys ended his " Secrets of Angling " : " Pray to God with your hearte to blesse your lawfull exercise." * Fishing on the Sabbath has not, however, * J. Dennys, "The Secrets of Angling," London, 1613. FISHING ON THE SABBATH 11 ceased to shock the Puritan feelings of Scotland, and there is a story of a well-known fisherman who sat for a Scottish seat in the House of Commons. His constituents always suspected him of fishing on Sunday and oftened questioned him at political meetings. But they always received this same reply : " By the rules of the club to which I belong Sunday fishing is not allowed." He did not, however, think it necessary to add that on Sunday, when the club-water was closed, he generally secured an invitation to fish elsewhere. I do not believe, as some fishermen do, that when Sunday fishing is not allowed the trout soon recognize the day of rest. " Soon as ever the church bells begin to ring on Sundays," as a friend of Mr. Sydney Buxton remarked, " the trout begin to rise." "But," he added, " one time I dodged them. It was a Good Friday, but they thought it was Sunday, and when they began to rise I was there." On streams within reach of London, where most anglers, having fished on the day of rest, return to their work at the beginning of the 12 CHALKSTREAM AND MOORLAND week, a belief prevails that were it possible to fish on Monday one would always find the trout rising freely on that day. The fascinations of fly-fishing, have been felt by distinguished men of the most varied tempera- ments. I will say nothing about living anglers, and among those who are now dead, I need but mention as examples the names of Nelson, Paley, Davy and Chantrey. Lord Nelson was a fisher- man, as every one doubtless knows, though strange to say, Southey in his biography does not allude to the fact. There is an authentic anecdote of a visit which Nelson paid to the Naval Hospital at Yarmouth when he landed in England after the battle of Copenhagen. He came to the bed of a wounded man and was informed that he had lost his right arm. "Well, Jack," said Nelson, "then you and I are spoiled for fishermen. Cheer up, my brave fellow." The sailor's eyes sparkled with delight, and the great man passed on briskly to the next bed.* Dr. Paley, the famous divine, found his chief * Quarterly Review, vol. xxxviii. p. 521. SIR HUMPHRY DAVY 13 amusement through life in fishing. The dis- tinguished author of "A View of the Evidence of Christianity" was very fond of animals, and, in his younger days, devoted to cock-fighting. Though, according to all accounts, a poor angler, the picture in the National Portrait Gallery, which is attributed to Sir William Beechey, depicts him with a rod in his hand. He was, however, wedded to his sport, and when the Bishop of Durham took him to task for delaying the completion of one of his most important works he answered : " My lord, I shall work steadily at it when the fly-fishing season is over." Sir Humphry Davy, on the other hand, found time to fish in the intervals of his scientific labours, and was, it is said, a skilful fisherman. He is unfortunately, the only one of the four who has left us anything in writing about his sport.* "The most important principle, perhaps in * " Salmonia : or days of fly-fishing, in a series of conversa- tions. With some account of the habits of fishes belonging to the genus Salmo." By an Angler. London : John Murray, 1828. The two first editions were anonymous. Sir Walter Scott reviewed the book in the Quarterly Review (1828), vol. xxxviii. p. 503. 14 CHALKSTREAM AND MOORLAND life," wrote Sir Humphry Davy, "is to have a pursuit : a useful one if possible, and, at all events, an innocent one. ***** " Though I do not expect like our arch- patriarch Walton, to number ninety years and past, yet I hope as long as I can enjoy, in a vernal day, the warmth and heat of the sunshine, still to haunt the streams." Of Sir Francis Chantrey's merits as a fisher- man I know nothing ; but when Malibran, the famous singer, paid him a visit in his studio and cried out with exaggerated enthusiasm, " How happy you must be in the midst of this your beautiful creation ! " it is reported that the famous sculptor curtly answered, " I'd rather be a-fishing." Trout-fishing, which demands the greatest manual skill though not perhaps the greatest knowledge of the ways and habits of fish, stands easily first before every other form of fly- fishing. Indeed, one may be allowed to doubt whether salmon-fishing, however delightful and exciting, deserves to be included under that DIPTERA 1 5 name. A salmon " fly " must be so-called from the analogy of a trout fly, not because it bears any resemblance to a fly. The rod and line of a skilful trout fisherman become, as it were, a part of himself and a prolongation of his arm, with which he can place his fly within a few inches of the desired spot. The lure is a copy of the natural food of the trout, and in dry-fly fishing at all events closely imitates an insect, though it may not be an insect classed in the order known to entomologists as Diptera or flies. The pleasures to be derived from the exercise of this art, when it has been painfully acquired ; the excitement of deluding a shy trout into taking the fly ; the delight of slipping the landing net under a big fish, and the joy excited by all the surroundings among which one fishes cannot, I am afraid, be imparted to those who have not felt them. An old keeper truly observed that when we endeavour to form the idea of paradise we always suppose a trout-stream going through it. And I suspect that if they were not afraid of expressing such pagan sentiments most fishermen would confess that they do likewise. II I HAVE often thought that an undeserved glamour surrounds the dry-fly fisherman. The art is well worth learning, and though it must of necessity be difficult to attain perfection, it is not hard to acquire tolerable skill with a dry-fly. Many who have never had a trout rod in their hands or seen a trout caught, have heard of " dry-fly fishing." Some, perhaps, have only the vaguest notion what the expression means. There are, on the other hand, many who are skilful anglers but whose flies have only been cast in northern streams and highland lochs. They only know about dry-fly fishing by repute as a wonderful art practised in the South. Some may affect to despise it, and others frankly confess (as Mr. Thackeray did when he wrote about the Whigs) that they are not dry-fly fishermen, but oh ! how they would like to belong to that select body. 16 DRY-FLY AND WET-FLY 17 Whether dry-fly or wet-fly fishing be the more amusing is a matter of taste. In dry-fly fishing, where the angler is bent on capturing a particular trout under peculiarly difficult con- ditions, the element of sport is present in its noblest form. The man matches his skill against the natural cunning of a timid fish. I should like, in describing the mysteries of the dry-fly, to remove some misconceptions as to the novelty of the method. I shall also attempt to show when a floating fly is efficacious and when, in my humble opinion, it is absurd to restrict oneself to it. Now, reduced to the simplest terms, dry-fly fishing means presenting a floating fly to the trout as opposed to a wet or a sunk fly. As a rule, though this is not absolutely essential, the dry-fly fisherman will cast up-stream. It is some- times possible to float a dry-fly down to a trout which is rising below one. The wet-fly fisherman may fish indifferently up-stream, allowing his fly to drift down towards him, or across, letting the fly come round with the stream, or down-stream, pulling his fly back against the current. More- over, the dry-fly angler generally tries for a specific i8 CHALKSTREAM AND MOORLAND fish which is already feeding or which he can see in the clear water of a chalkstream, and judges by its expectant demeanour to be ready to feed. There is, however, no reason, though the purist is alleged to consider such a practice obnoxious, why the dry-fly man should not float his fly over likely bits of the stream on the chance of tempting an unseen trout to take it. And the wet-fly man must be strangely un- observant if he has not discovered that to cast into the rings left by a rising trout often results in hooking a fish. It would seem then, on a little reflection, that the difference between what are frequently believed to be two opposing schools is less than is commonly supposed. Even if we go back to a fundamental distinction, that in one case the fly floats on the surface and that in the other it is sunk under water, it is hard to draw the line between dry and wet. A new fly floats for a time whether it be cast by a professor of the art of dry or wet-fly. So, too, an old fly gets sodden and water-logged and refuses to float. Yet trout may be caught by the one or the other, and who shall say whether UP-STREAM FISHING 19 the fly is dry or wet ? Perhaps it will be safest for the angler to answer, as the young wife replied to the inspector who asked whether the gas-meter were a wet or a dry meter : " I think it is rather damp." This does not mean that the much vaunted efficacy of the method is a delusion ; but a great deal more depends on the skill of the fisherman in fishing up-stream than upon the floating properties of the fly. Success turns quite as much upon selecting particular large feeding fish, and persistently trying for them. This practice chalkstream fishing encourages. Trout in running water, as most persons probably know, invariably lie with their heads to the current. The angler who fishes up-stream has the enormous advantage of approaching from behind and is therefore unseen. His fly, whether it floats or sinks, comes down- stream towards the fish as the natural food does, instead of being jerked against the current as no fly would move. And lastly, when his fly has passed once unnoticed over the trout without scaring it, the fisherman, still unperceived, can pick his line off the water 20 CHALKSTREAM AND MOORLAND and try another cast, which is rarely possible in fishing down-stream towards a shy trout. If a man devotes himself to a rising fish and casts up-stream, keeping out of sight of his trout, I am convinced that (as a general rule) he will do equally well whether he offers the fly floating perfectly dry, or saturated and sinking below the surface. There are, however, occasions when trout are feeding exclusively on floating insects, and others when they are taking sunk food and will not look at a winged or floating fly. Then, as it seems to me, a rational angler will adapt himself to the occasion, still keeping below the trout and throwing up-stream or across. When trout are taking shrimps or larvae under water it verges on insanity to persist in offering them a dry-fly anointed with paraffin to make it float. A really skilful Northern wet-fly fisherman, who habitually fishes up-stream, will find very little difficulty in acquiring the art of fishing with a dry-fly as it is practised on the Test and the Itchen. But he will find, if his experience has been gained on the rocky streams of the COLONEL HAWKER 21 North or the peaty burns of Scotland, that he has much to learn about the food, habits, and behaviour of the trout in South of England chalkstreams. A chalkstream differs from other waters usually inhabited by trout in several respects. The flow of the current is gentle, the surface smooth and glassy, the water of crystal clearness. The even height is maintained by springs and is almost undisturbed by drought or rain. Aquatic weeds flourish in great profusion, and the trout are big, fastidious, cunning, well-fed and in most cases much fished for. The chalk- stream fisherman reckons his bag by the brace ; the Northern angler counts fish by the dozen or the pound. It is under such conditions that the so-called dry-fly has supplanted the older method of fishing the water at random with sunk-flies. But the real discovery, as I have all through endeavoured to point out, was not the use of a floating fly but the enormous advantage obtained by casting up-stream. Colonel Hawker, the famous sportsman of Longparish, used to fish 22 CHALKSTREAM AND MOORLAND the Test from the back of a pony. Apparently he fished down-stream with a long line, and there are plenty of dull, rough days when a fair bag may still be got by that method. But for one trout fit to kill, a dozen undersized fish will be caught and many more touched, pricked, and lost. It is for this reason that clubs, and owners of well-preserved bits of chalkstream, make rules directing the use of dry-fly only. In fact, what is objectionable, though they do not say so, is down-stream fishing and not fishing with a wet-fly ; and as long as a man directed his efforts when fishing down-stream to one particular killable trout his conduct would not be seriously resented. To fish at random with a sunk-fly down-stream is rather like firing into the middle of a covey of partridges instead of picking your bird. It is somewhat strange that fishing with a floating fly did not become general in Southern England many years earlier than it did ; for no one can be upon the banks of a chalkstream without noticing a hatch of duns, as the sub- imago forms of the Ephemerid* are called. A CLAUDIUS jELIANUS 23 great hatch of mayflies is one of the most extraordinary scenes in nature. Even the little olive and iron-blue duns are conspicuous, sitting erect upon the glassy surface of the stream, their wings closed above their backs and their tails cocked in the air. Nor can any observer of the habits of fish fail to notice the movement among the trout when the hatch of fly is on. Every fish takes up his position to suck down the living morsels as they pass over his head. No doubt the vast bulk of the trout's food is found beneath the surface and among the weeds. Float- ing flies, it has been said, are only caviare ; the sunk food is beef and mutton. But a trout feeding at the surface cannot fail to attract attention, and it is, therefore, not surprising that the first mention of fly-fishing in literature, and, apparently, also the first artificial fly should have been suggested by this spectacle. The passage has been reprinted before, but few fishermen seem to know of it. Claudius ^Elianus, who taught rhetoric at Rome in the third century A.D., describes the flies called Hippurus (which appar- ently are not mayflies), and gives an account 24 CHALKSTREAM AND MOORLAND of the catching of fish (believed to be trout) that are taken by anglers with a rod and line in the River Astraeus in Macedonia. The flies are described as bold and troublesome, in size a hornet, marked like a wasp and buzzing like a bee. It is clear from his description that floating flies led to the invention of the artificial. " When a fish observes one of these flies floating down towards him on the surface he advances quietly swimming underneath as he fears to disturb the upper water lest his quarry be scared away, draws nearer into its shadow, and then, opening his mouth, sucks down the fly, as a wolf snatches a sheep from the flock or an eagle a goose from the yard, and then sinks under the ripple." According to the classic author, fishermen cannot handle these flies because of the delicacy of their wings. So they wrap crimson wool round the hook, attach two cock hackles, and with some wax make up the semblance of a fly. Six feet of line is attached to the rod, and the fly is dropped to the fish. They gulp it CHARLES KINGSLEY 25 down ; "and bitter does their feasting turn out." * Let us pass now from Ancient Macedonia to Hampshire in the nineteenth century. There is a very amusing picture of mid-Victorian angling methods in Kingsley's " Chalk-stream Studies." The description of the chalkstream on a June day is charming ; the habits of the fat trout and the natural history of the various insects on which they feed is, with some excep- tions, accurately observed. Kingsley was fully imbued with the essential importance of casting up-stream. He constantly dwells on the advan- tage which an angler on a clear stream thereby obtains. The first thing is to remain out of sight. " The next mistake natural enough to the laziness of fallen man is that of fishing down-stream, and not up." It is when we come to the flies and the method of presenting them to the trout's notice that we find the divergence from modern dry-fly practice. A brace of noble fish are observed in the swirling clear water beneath a hatch-hole. The * De Natura Animalium, lib. xv. 2 6 CHALKSTREAM AND MOORLAND tyro who is receiving instruction is adjured to "take off that absurd black chimney-pot" and crawl up to the fish. " One of them you may be sure of if you will go the proper way to work and fish scientifi- cally with the brace of flies I have put on for you a governor and a black alder. In the first place you must throw up into the little pool, not down." The fish will take fright soon enough if you do not do so. The advice about stooping and crawling is frequently re- peated. Kingsley knew well how tiresome and ignominious the beginner finds it. " If you wish to catch large trout on a bright day, I should advise you to employ the only method yet discovered." The next advice is to fish with a short line ; you cannot fish with too short a line up-stream. " Make your fly strike the brickwork and drop in." " Then don't work or draw it, or your deceit is discovered instantly." " There ! you have him. Don't rise ! Fight him kneel- ing ; hold him hard, give him no line, but shorten up anyhow. Tear and haul him down THE WINCHESTER FISHERS 27 to you before he can make to home, while the keeper runs round with the net. . . . There, he is on shore. Two pounds, good weight." It is plain from this description that the hooks must have been large and the gut stout. Indeed, Kingsley speaks of " our large chalk- stream flies," and asks "why are the flies with which we have been fishing this morning so large of the size which is usually employed on a Scotch lake ? " On the North Country clear streams anglers were already using the smallest gnats, but he argues that "a large fish does not care to move except for a good mouth- ful," and propounds the theory, "the bigger the bait, the bigger the fish." He admits, how- ever, that on some chalk-streams " midges " were needed, and that on the Itchen at Win- chester hardly any flies but small ones were used after the green-drake was off. But the Winchester fishers confessed that they lost three good fish out of four on their very small flies. The artificial flies to which Kingsley pinned his faith were four in number, but all copies 28 CHALKSTREAM AND MOORLAND of live insects the Caperer, or caddis fly ; the March-brown; the Governor; the black Alder. He also refers to various large palmers or hairy caterpillars. Nowadays over nine-tenths of the chalkstream trout fall victims to flies which are more or less perfect copies of the little duns or sub-imagos of the Ephemerida^ which float over them as naturally as the real insect does. The Governor, Alder and Palmer are not insects which are found upon the water unless they have been blown by the wind or fallen from the bank. It is remarkable that an obser- vant man like Kingsley should not have dis- covered that the vast bulk of the floating insects at which chalkstream trout rise are duns. Yet he pronounces the duns to be " uncertain flies," and asks, " did you ever see any large fish rise at these Ephemerae ? And even if you did, can you imitate the natural fly ? " The mayfly or green-drake does not come on until five o'clock, and in the meantime the anglers rest and comfort themselves with sherry, biscuits, and cigars. So far there has been no mention of the dry-fly or of fishing for rising CHARLES COTTON 29 fish. But when the trout are glutting them- selves with mayflies he advises throwing wherever you see a fish rise. "Do not work your flies in the least, but let them float down over the fish or sink if they will ; he is more likely to take them under water than on the top." So much, then, for the dry-fly in the mid- Victorian era : Kingsley, at all events, had not discovered its efficacy. Anglers seem to have practised fly-fishing for trout for some two hundred years before discovering the advantage of casting up-stream. Charles Cotton published his " Instructions how to Angle for a Trout or Grayling in a clear Stream," in 1676 ; and though there is little to be learnt from it, the curious fly-fisherman will be rewarded by a careful study of this immortal classic. It formed Part II. of the fifth edition of " The Compleat Angler," the last that was published in Izaak Walton's lifetime. Cotton, of course, was writing of down-stream fishing when he recommended a very long line as a mighty advantage. " To fish fine and far off is the first and principal rule for trout angling" This 30 CHALKSTREAM AND MOORLAND often-quoted phrase contains good advice for those who search the water with a sunk-fly fished down-stream ; but for the dry-fly fisherman and all who have acquired the art of throwing up- stream, the best advice would be fine and dose behind your fish. It is surprising how near one can approach a trout from behind and with what boldness one may cast over him by keeping out of the limited range of his vision. In the middle of the nineteenth century Stewart was one of the pioneers of up-stream fishing. In his " Practical Angler," a book which has never received the praise it deserves, he argued at great length on the advantages of fishing up-stream where the pace of the current admits.* Stewart, who was a Northerner, does not mention the dry-fly. There is no doubt, however, that fishing with a floating fly up-stream is very much older than is commonly supposed. Some evidence exists for believing that it first came into general use * W. C. Stewart, " The Practical Angler ; or the Art of Trout Fishing," Edinburgh, 1850. 8vo. A second edition was published in the same year, and was followed by numerous other editions. THE ANGLER'S DESIDERATUM 31 on the Itchen, where the water is clearer and the trout are more cautious than on other chalk- streams. Its growth was gradual, and it spread slowly, until it became suddenly recognized as the most effective method of capturing the biggest and shyest of the chalkstream trout. Perhaps the first stage was to cast where a trout had been seen to rise. In "The Angler's Desideratum," by Captain Clarke, which was published in 1839, there will be found instructions for fly-fishing in a calm or in sunshine. " This mode of fishing is by dropping the fly in the centre of the circle a trout describes on sucking down a fly ... Keep a sharp look- out for a circle to enable you to drop your fly with quickness and precision in the centre. . . . The largest trout are taken this way." * Here we have the rudiments of what is now called " fishing the rise " as opposed to fishing * "The Angler's Desideratum, containing the best and fullest directions for dressing the artificial fly ever offered to the public ; with some new and valuable inventions by the author, from a practice of nearly half a century." [Edinburgh], 1839. I2m - I have never seen a copy of this book, and am compelled to quote at second hand. 32 CHALKSTREAM AND MOORLAND the water at random. The next stage, perhaps, was the practice of throwing up-stream, which has such obvious advantages with shy trout, that it seems incredible that it should not have been general long before Stewart enlarged upon its merits. When fishermen had come to casting up-stream and to directing their efforts to rising fish, it was but a step to let the flies float down over the trout. There, then, is the fully developed dry-fly system. Some little while since an article in The Field on the origin of the dry-fly evoked some interest- ing letters from old Wykehamists, who remem- bered the Itchen half a century ago. We have the evidence of one, whose memory went back to the years 1844 to 1848, that the systematic use of the dry-fly, as we know it, was unknown at that time on the Winchester College water. The boys had only a short time for fishing, but they used to look for a rise and made a point of putting their fly, while it was still dry, over the trout. After a few casts it got soaked, and they went on fishing in the usual way. On changing flies they gave the new fly a similar GEORGE PULMAN 33 chance by floating it over a rise. Occasionally a man would change flies merely to get a dry one.* The extraordinary thing is that, having got so far, no one discovered that by whisking the fly briskly through the air it was possible to keep it dry and make it float. About this time (1851) there appeared the " Vade Mecum of Fly-fishing for Trout." The author was George Pulman, and he gives the most precise instructions for the use of a dry- fly. He points out that when trout lie near the surface waiting for floating flies, a wet one sinks beneath their line of vision because they happen to be looking upwards. " Let a dry fly be sub- stituted for the wet one, the line switched a few times through the air to throw off its super- abundant moisture, a judicious cast made just above the rising fish, and the fly allowed to float towards and over them, and the chances are ten to one that it will be seized as readily as a living insect. This dry-fly, we must remark, should be an imitation of the natural fly on which the fish are feeding, because if widely different, * The Field, March 3, March 24, April 7, 1907. D 34 CHALKSTREAM AND MOORLAND the fish instead of being allured, would be most likely surprised and startled at the novelty pre- sented, and would suspend feeding until the appearance of their favourite and familiar prey. " * We come back to the Itchen in the 'sixties, by which time, if we are to believe old Wyke- hamists, no one thought of employing any other method than dry-fly. Flies were got from Hammond in those days, and they were tied to float with upright wings. Mr. Francis, the well-known author of " A Book on Angling," writing a little after this, recommends Ogden's floating mayflies, and a floating fly sold by Hammond of Winchester, f In the first edition of his work, published in 1867, he recommends, when a fish has risen and missed, that the angler should give him a rest. " If he again comes * George P. R. Pulman, " Vade Mecum of Fly-fishing for Trout ; being a complete practical treatise on that branch of the Art of Angling." London, Longmans, 1851. 8vo. This was the third and enlarged edition of a book first published in 1841. t Francis Francis, "A Book on Angling," being a com- plete treatise on the art of angling in every branch, with explanatory plates, etc. London, Longmans, 1867. MR. FRANCIS 35 short, give him another rest and try a dry fly over him. . . . Taking then two or three turns of the fly in the air instead of one, so as to dry the tackle, let him deliver the fly straightly and well, a yard above the fish, and merely raising his rod as the line comes home, allow the fly, sustained by the dry hackle and wing and by the dry gut, to float down on the surface like the natural fly, without motion." Mr. Francis had discovered that " it is quite wonderful at times what can be done under apparently adverse circumstances with a dry-fly." At the same time he was far removed from the stern modern purist who would rather catch nothing than use a sunk-fly. For my own part, I become more and more inclined to approve of the sentiments which Mr. Francis gives vent to in the following passage : " The judicious and perfect application of dry, wet, and mid-water fly-fishing stamps the finished fly-fisher with the hall-mark of efficiency. Generally anglers pin their faith to the entire practice of either one or the other plan, and argue dry versus wet, just as they do up-stream versus down, when all are right at times, and 36 CHALKSTREAM AND MOORLAND per contra all wrong at times. It requires the reasoning faculties to be used to know these times and their application." Since many anglers believe that the dry-fly is quite a modern discovery, it is worth noting that the passages I have quoted were written more than half a century ago. Ill IT is difficult apparently, even for a philosopher, to engage in controversy without exaggerating the merits of the system he supports and attri- buting imaginary faults to the school he opposes. For this reason, the battle, if one may use so strong a word, about the advantages of dry-fly and wet-fly fishing, still continues fitfully. It may, I think, be safely assumed that every angler who is skilled enough, who places size of fish killed above numbers, and who is fishing in water not too rough and rapid, will throw up-stream. The respective merits of wet and dry-fly in such a case will depend a great deal upon the weather and upon what the trout are doing. The first concern of every fisherman is the weather. . The first matter that occupies his attention by the riverside is the force and 37 38 CHALKSTREAM AND MOORLAND direction of the wind. The next question that he asks himself is : " What are the fish doing ? " Now trout on an ordinary chalkstream may lie like stones at the bottom, or if they are stirring, they may be doing a variety of things. They may be " rising," " bulging," " tailing," " smut- ting," or "minnowing." When they are "rising," which means taking from the surface of the water floating insects, for the most part Ephcmtrid