MINOR. TACTICS 
 
 OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 G-E-M-SKUES 
 
IFRKELEY 
 
 GE;vERAL 
 LILHARY 
 
 UKIVfRSITY OP 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
MINOR TACTICS OF THE 
 CHALK STREAM 
 
AGENTS 
 
 AUERIOA 
 
 AUBTRALASIA 
 
 CANADA 
 
 OTOIA 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 64 & 66 FIFTH Avenue, NEW YORK 
 
 OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 
 ao5 FLINDERS Lane, MELBOURNE 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA, LTD 
 27 Richmond Street west, TORONTO 
 
 MACMILLAN & COMPANY, LTD. 
 MACMILLAN BUILDING, BOMBAY 
 
 309 Bow Bazaar Street, CALCUTTA 
 
±^^ — cHr — 
 
 
 y 
 
 Rough Spring 
 No. I. 
 
 Oi 
 
 LIVE. 
 
 Iron Bli 
 
 No. 
 
 UE Dun. 
 
 00. 
 
 
 Greenwell's Gloky. 
 No. 0. 
 
 
 
 Greenwell's Glory. 
 No. 00 Double. 
 
 
 Watery Dun. 
 No. 00 Double, 
 
 Pale Summer 
 
 Greenwell's Glory. 
 
 No. 1. 
 
 
 
 Pale Summer 
 
 Greenwell's Glory. 
 
 No. 00 Double. 
 
 
 Black Gnat. 
 No. 00. 
 
 Tup's Indispensable. 
 
 Wet. No. o. 
 
 
 
 Tup's Indispensable. 
 Wet. No. oo Double. 
 
 
 Olive Nymph 
 
 No. 0. 
 
 Dotterel Hackle 
 
 Tied Stewartwise 
 
 No. 00. 
 
 Tup's 
 
 Indispensable. 
 Floater. 
 No. 0. 
 
MINOR TACTICS OF THE 
 CHALK STREAM 
 
 AND KINDRED STUDIES 
 
 BY 
 
 G. E. M. SKUES 
 
 {SEAFORTH AND SO FORTH) 
 
 ^ 
 
 LONDON 
 ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK 
 
 1910 
 
2)et)icate& 
 
 TO MY FRIEND THE DRY- 
 FLY PURIST, AND TO MY 
 ENEMIES, IF I HAVE ANY 
 
 -<r^73li 
 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 Rising from the perusal of " Dry -Fly Fishing in 
 Theory and Practice," on its publication by Mr. 
 F. M. Halford in 1889, I think I was at one with 
 most anglers of the day in feeling that the last 
 word had been written on the art of chalk-stream 
 fishing — so sane, so clear, so comprehensive, is it ; 
 so just and so in accord with one's own experience. 
 Twenty years have gone by since then without my 
 having had either occasion or inclination to go 
 back at all upon this view of that, the greatest 
 work, in my opinion, which has ever seen the light 
 on the subject of angling for trout and grayling; 
 and it is still, as regards that side of the subject 
 with which it deals, all that I then believed it. 
 But one result of the triumph of the dry fly, of 
 which that work was the crown and consummation, 
 was the obliteration from the minds of men, in 
 much less than a generation, of all the wet-fly lore 
 which had served many generations of chalk- 
 stream anglers well. The effect was stunning, 
 hypnotic, submerging ; and in these days, if one 
 excepts a few eccentrics who have been nurtured 
 
 vii 
 
viii FOREWORD 
 
 on the wet fly on other waters, and have httle ex- 
 perience of chalk streams, one would find few with 
 any notion that anything but the dry fly could be 
 effectively used upon Hampshire rivers, or that 
 the wet fly was ever used there. I was for years 
 myself under the spell, and it is the purpose of the 
 ensuing pages to tell, for the benefit of the angling 
 community, by what processes, by what stages, I 
 have been led into a sustained effort to recover for 
 this generation, and to transmute into forms suited 
 to the modern conditions of sport on the chalk 
 stream, the old wet-fly art, to be used as a supple- 
 ment to, and in no sense to supplant or rival, the 
 beautiful art of which Mr. F. M. Halford is the 
 prophet. How far my effort has been successful 
 I must leave my readers to judge. I myself feel 
 that in making it I have widened my angling 
 horizon, and that I have added enormously to the 
 interest and charm of my angling days as well as 
 to my chances of success, and that, too, by the 
 use of no methods which the most rigid purist 
 could rightly condemn, but by a diflicult, deli- 
 cate, fascinating, and entirely legitimate form of 
 the art, well worthy of the naturahst sports- 
 man. 
 
 In the course of my too rare excursions to 
 the river-side, I have elaborated some devices, 
 methods of attack and handling, which I have 
 found of service, some applicable to wet-fly, some 
 to dry-fly fishing, or to both. In the hope that 
 
FOREWORD ix 
 
 these may be of interest or service, I have included 
 papers upon them. 
 
 In conclusion I should like to express my 
 gratitude to the proprietors of the Field, for 
 permission to reprint a number of papers con- 
 tributed by me to that journal over the signature 
 " Seaforth and Soforth," which come within the 
 scope of the work ; and to Mr. H. T. Sheringham, 
 for his invaluable advice and assistance in the 
 arrangement of these papers. 
 
 G. E. M. SKUES. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 FOREWORD - - - - - - vii 
 
 I. OF THE BEGINNING OF THINGS - - - I 
 
 OF THE INQUIRING MIND - - - I 
 
 II. SUBAQUEOUS HAPPENINGS IN NATURE - - 8 
 
 OF THE DROWNING OF DUNS AND OTHER 
 
 INSECTS ----- 8 
 
 OF THE STAGES IN A RISE OF DUNS - - 9 
 
 III. SUBAQUEOUS HAPPENINGS IN ART - - - I4 
 
 OF MEDICINE FOR BULGERS - - - I4 
 
 OF UNDER-WATER TAKING, ITS INDICATIONS, 
 
 AND THE TIME TO STRIKE - - "I? 
 
 OF ROUGH WATER AND GREY-BROWN SHADOW 20 
 
 IV. SUPPLEMENTARY IN THE MATTER OF FLIES - 24 
 
 OF WET-FLY DRESSINGS FOR CHALK STREAMS - 24 
 
 OF THE IMPORTANCE OF COLOUR OF TYING SILK 29 
 
 OF THE IMITATION OF NYMPHS, ETC. - "31 
 
 V. SPECIAL CONDITIONS AND WET-FLY SOLUTIONS - 36 
 
 NERVES - - - - - 36 
 
 OF THE TROUT OF GLASSY GLIDES - "38 
 
 OF THE WET FLY IN POOLS, BAYS, AND EDDIES 4I 
 
 OF THE JUDICIOUS USE OF THE MOON - 44 
 
 OF THE WET-FLY OIL TIP - - "45 
 
 OF GENERALSHIP AND THE WET FLY - - 47 
 
 A POTTED TROUT, AND ONE OTHER - "49 
 
 OF TWO SATURDAY AFTERNOONS - - 54 
 
 xi 
 
xii CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 VI. UNCLASSIFIED - - - " "57 
 
 OF HOVERING - - - - "57 
 
 OF THE PORPOISE ROLL - - "59 
 
 VII. SUNDRY CONSIDERATIONS - - - - 6o 
 
 OF THE RELATION OF PATTERN TO POSITION - 6o 
 
 OF THE USE OF SPINNERS - - " ^3 
 
 OF GENERAL FEEDERS - - - • ^7 
 
 ON ATTENTION TO CASUAL FEEDERS - - JO 
 
 OF THE FREQUENTATION OF DITCHES - - 73 
 
 OF THE NEGOTIATION OF TAILERS - - 76 
 
 OF THE FASCINATION OF BRIDGES - " 7^ 
 
 VIII. MAINLY TACTICAL - - - - - 81 
 
 OF THE DELIBERATE DRAG - - - 81 
 
 IN THE GLASS EDGE - - - - 84 
 
 OF THE CROSS-COUNTRY CAST - - "87 
 
 WHAT TUSSOCKS ARE FOR - - - 89 
 
 OF THE ALLEGED MARCH BROWN - "91 
 
 OF GENERAL FLIES - - - " 9^ 
 
 IX. CONSIDERATIONS MORAL, TACTICAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL, 
 
 AND INCIDENTAL - - - "95 
 
 OF FAITH - - - - - 95 
 
 OF THE BANK OF VANTAGE - - - 98 
 OF COURAGE AND THE JEOPARDIZING OF 
 
 TUPPENCE ha'penny - _ _ 103 
 
 OF IMPOSSIBLE PLACES _ _ - 105 
 
 OF THE USE OF THE LANDING-NET - - I09 
 
 OF THE WEEDING TROUT - - - II5 
 INCIDENTALLY OF THE LIGHT ROD ON CHALK 
 
 STREAMS - - - - - 117 
 
 AND OF WET-FLY CASTING - - - 12O 
 
 X. FRANKLY IRRELEVANT - - - - 122 
 
 A DRY FLY MEMORY - _ _ - 122 
 
 XI. ETHICS OF THE WET FLY - - - . 126 
 
 XII. APOLOGIA - - - - - "I3I 
 
MINOR TACTICS OF THE 
 
 CHALK STREAM, 
 
 AND KINDRED STUDIES 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 OF THE BEGINNING OF THINGS 
 
 OF THE INQUIRING MIND. 
 
 I READ recently in that fine novel, " A Superfluous 
 Woman/' a sentence enunciating a principle of 
 wide application, to which anglers might with 
 advantage give heed : " We ought not so much to 
 name mistakes disaster as the common practice of 
 servile imitation and faint-hearted acquiescence." 
 In no art are its practitioners more slavishly con- 
 tent ''jurare in verba magistri " than in angling. 
 Tradition and authority are so much, and indi- 
 vidual observation and experiment so little. 
 
 There is, indeed, this excuse for the novice, that, 
 going back to the authorities of the past after 
 much experiment, he will find that they know 
 in substance all, or practically all, that, apart 
 from the advance of mechanical conveniences and 
 entomological science, is known in the present 
 
 I 
 
2 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 day. The difficulty is to dissociate the dead 
 knowledge, which is reading or imitation, from 
 the live knowledge, which is experience. And 
 if these pages have any purpose more than 
 another, it is not to lay down the law or to dogma- 
 tize, but to urge brother anglers to keep an open 
 and observant mind, to experiment, and to bring 
 to their angling, not book knowledge, but the 
 result of their own observation, trials, and experi- 
 ments — failures as well as successes. 
 
 In all humility is this written, for I look back 
 upon many years when it was my sole ambition to 
 follow in the steps of the masters of chalk-stream 
 angling, and to do what was laid down for me — 
 that, and no other ; and I look back with some 
 shame at the slowness to take a hint from ex- 
 perience which has marked my angling career. It 
 was in the year 1892, after some patient years of 
 dry-fly practice, that I had my first experience of 
 the efhcacy of the wet fly on the Itchen. It was a 
 September day, at once blazing and muggy. Black 
 gnats were thick upon the water, and from 
 9.30 a.m. or so the trout were smutting freely. 
 
 In those days, with " Dry -Fly Fishing in Theory 
 and Practice " at my fingers' ends, I began with 
 the prescription, " Pink Wickham on 00 hook," 
 followed it with ''Silver Sedge on 00 hook. Red 
 Quill on 00 hook, orange bumble, and furnace." I 
 also tried two or three varieties of smut, and I rang 
 the changes more than once. My gut was^gossa- 
 
OF THE BEGINNING OF THINGS 3 
 
 mer^ and^ honestly, I don't think I made more 
 mistakes than usual ; but three o'clock arrived, 
 and my creel was still '' clean," when I came to a 
 bend from which ran, through a hatch, a small 
 current of water which fed a carrier. Against the 
 grating which protected the hatch-hole was gener- 
 ally a large pile of weed, and to-day was no 
 exception. Against it collected a film of scum, 
 alive with black gnats, and among them I saw a 
 single dark olive dun lying spent. I had seen no 
 others of his kind, but I knotted on a Dark Olive 
 Quill on a single cipher hook, and laid siege to a 
 trout which was smutting steadily in the next 
 little bay. The fly was a shop-tied one, beautiful 
 to look at when new, but as a floater it was no 
 success. The hackle was a hen's, and the dye only 
 accentuated its natural inclination to sop up water. 
 The oil tip had not yet arrived, and so it came 
 about that, after the wetting it got in the first 
 recovery, it no sooner lit on the water on the 
 second cast than it went under. A moment later 
 I became aware of a sort of crinkling little swirl in 
 the water, ascending from the place where I con- 
 ceived my fly might be. I was somewhat too 
 quick in putting matters to the proof, and when 
 my line came back to me there was no fly. I 
 mounted another, and assailed the next fish, and 
 to my delight exactly the same thing occurred, 
 except that this time I did not strike too hard. 
 The trout's belly contained a solid ball of black 
 
 I — 2 
 
4 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 gnats, and not a dun of any sort. The same was 
 the case with all the four brace more which I 
 secured in the next hour or so by precisely the 
 same methods. Yet each took the Dark Olive at 
 once when offered under water, while all day the 
 trout had been steadily refusing the recognized 
 floating lures recommended by the highest au- 
 thority. It was a lesson which ought to have set 
 me thinking and experimenting, but it didn't. 
 I put by the experience for use on the next 
 September smutting day, and I have never had 
 quite such another, so close, so sweltering, with 
 such store of smuts, and the trout taking them so 
 steadily and so freely. 
 
 It was a September day two or three years later 
 when I had another hint as pointed and definite 
 as one could get from the hind-leg of a mule, but 
 I didn't take it. There was a cross-stream wind 
 from the west, with a favour of north in it, and 
 all the duns — and there were droves of them — 
 drifted in little fleets close hugging the east bank, 
 where the trout were lined up in force to deal with 
 them ; and they fed steadily. Fishing from the 
 west bank, I stuck to four fish which I satisfied 
 myself were good ones, and in over two hours' 
 fishing I never put them down. I tried over them 
 all my repertoire. I battered them with Dark 
 Olive Quill, Medium Ohve Quill, Gold-ribbed 
 Hare's Ear, Red Quill (two varieties). Grey Quill 
 and Blue Quill, Ogden's Fancy, and Wickham, and 
 
OF THE BEGINNING OF THINGS 5 
 
 I left them rising at the end with undiminished 
 energy, and went and sat down and had my 
 lunch. Then I sought another fish, and began 
 again, when suddenly it occurred to me that I had 
 not tried the old-fashioned mole's-fur-bodied, 
 snipe-winged Blue Dun. I had only a solitary 
 specimen, and that was tied with a hen's hackle ; 
 but such as it was, and greatly distrusting its 
 floating powers, I tied it on. I did not err in my 
 distrust, for after a cast or two it was hopelessly 
 water-logged. I dried it as well as I could in my 
 handkerchief, and despatched it once more on its 
 mission. It went under almost as it lit, just above 
 a capital trout, but for all that it was taken 
 immediately. The next trout, and the next, and 
 the next, took it with equal promptitude ; one was 
 small, and had to go back, but the others were 
 quite nice average fish. 
 
 Then, in my eagerness, I was too hard on my 
 gossamer gut when the next trout took my fly, and 
 he kept it. I had no more of these Blue Duns, 
 and I did not get another fish till the evening. 
 
 Still I did not realize that I was on the edge of 
 an adventure, nor yet did I realize whither I was 
 tending when Mr. F. M. Halford told me how a 
 well-known Yorkshire angler had been fishing 
 with him on the Test, and, by means of a wet fly 
 admirably fished without the slightest drag, had 
 contrived to basket some trout on a difficult 
 water. 
 
6 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 Indeed, it was several years later that, after 
 fluking upon a successful experience of the wet fly 
 on a German river which in general was a dis- 
 tinctively dry-fly stream, I began to speculate 
 seriously upon the possibility of a systematic use 
 of the wet fly in aid of the dry fly upon chalk 
 streams. In conversation with the late Mr. 
 Godwin (held in affectionate remembrance by 
 many members of the Fly-fishers' Club, and, 
 indeed, by all who knew him) , who had seen the 
 very beginnings of the dry fly on the Itchen, and 
 remembered well and had practised the methods 
 which preceded it, I learned how, fishing down- 
 stream with long and flexible rods (thirteen or 
 fourteen feet long), and keeping the light hair reel- 
 line off the water as much as possible, these early 
 fathers of the craft had drifted their wet flies over 
 the tails of weeds, where the trout lay in open 
 gravel patches, and caught baskets of which the 
 modern dry-fly man might well be proud. 
 
 I gathered, however, that a downstream ruffle 
 of wind was a practical necessity ; and as I could 
 not pick my days, and such as I could take were 
 few and far between, I realized that, even if they 
 appealed to me — which they did not — these 
 methods would not do for me, as I might, and often 
 did, find the river glassy smooth, but that, if I were 
 to succeed, it must be by a wet-fly modification of 
 the dry-fly method of upstream casting to indi- 
 vidual fish. 
 
OF THE BEGINNING OF THINGS 7 
 
 I could not believe that the habits of the trout 
 were so changed as to make this impossible, and I 
 began to look for opportunities to experiment. 
 The bulging trout presented the most obvious 
 case, yet it was rather by a chain of circumstance 
 than by the straightforward reasoning which now 
 seems so simple and obvious that I was led into 
 experiments along this line. 
 
 How I effected some sort of solution of the 
 problem with a variant of Greenwell's Glory, and 
 later on with Tup's Indispensable, is detailed 
 elsewhere, as also are my experiments with the 
 trout of glassy glides (who seldom break the 
 surface to take a winged insect, presumably be- 
 cause of the drag), together with other fumblingsin 
 the search of truth ; but from that time forth I 
 have seldom neglected an opportunity to test the 
 wet fly on chalk-stream trout. It may be that 
 on many occasions I have used the wet fly when 
 the dry would have been more lucrative. On the 
 other hand, I have found it furnish me with sport 
 on occasions and in places when and where the 
 dry fly offered no encouragement, nor any prospect 
 of aught but casual and fluky success, and I have 
 proA^ded myself with a method which forms an 
 admirable supplement to the dry fly, and has 
 frequently given me a good basket in apparently 
 hopeless conditions, and in the smoothest of 
 water and the brightest of weather. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 SUBAQUEOUS HAPPENINGS IN NATURE 
 
 OF THE DROWNING OF DUNS AND OTHER INSECTS. 
 
 It has been advanced as an argument against the 
 use of the wet fly, that duns and the other small 
 insects which drift down upon the surface of a 
 stream are never seen by the fish under water, 
 and that a wet fly is therefore an unnatural object, 
 especially if winged. '* Never " is a big word, 
 and I venture to think the case is overstated. I 
 have watched an eddy with little swirling whirl- 
 pools in it for an hour together, and again and 
 again I have seen little groups of flies caught in one 
 or other of the whirls, sucked under and thrown 
 scatterwise through the water, to drift some 
 distance before again reaching the surface. 
 
 Anyone who has kept water-insects in formalin 
 for observation or mounting is aware that they 
 readily become water-logged, and by no means 
 insist on floating. Again, we have it on the best 
 authority that certain of the spinners descend to 
 the river-bed to lay their eggs, and probably, that 
 
 function performed, they ascend again through 
 
 8 
 
SUBAQUEOUS HAPPENINGS IN NATURE 9 
 
 the water, giving the trout a chance while in 
 transit. Thus the trout may well be familiar 
 with winged insects under water. Even if he 
 were not, it may be doubted whether he is suffi- 
 ciently intelligent to reject a thing which he 
 fancies he has found good to eat on the surface 
 merely because it happens to be below. Indeed, 
 experience so conclusively proves that trout will 
 take the winged fly under water that those who 
 repudiate both these propositions are upon the 
 horns of a dilemma. Many hackled ffies are more 
 or less — and generally less — careful imitations of 
 nymphs or larvae. But of these more anon. 
 
 OF THE STAGES IN A RISE OF DUNS. 
 
 It has often been the subject of admiring com- 
 ment that, before ever the angler can see a single 
 fly in air or upon water, the trout will have lined 
 up under the banks, and settled at the tails of weed- 
 beds, and have begun to take toll of insect life ; 
 and many have commented on the startling una- 
 nimity with which trout begin to feed all at once 
 all over a river or length. Some seem to suppose 
 that, with a quick appreciation of values of tem- 
 perature, atmosphere, barometric pressure, and 
 what not, the trout discern when the ffies will rise, 
 and are there in readiness. Is it necessary to sup- 
 pose anything far-fetched ? It has often seemed 
 to me that the swallows and martins can and do 
 detect in advance the preparations for a rise in the 
 
 2 
 
10 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 swarming of nymphs released from weed or gravel, 
 or whatever their particular fastness may be, and 
 borne down the current. This precedes the actual 
 hatch for a period greater or less according to 
 temperature, pressure, and perhaps other little- 
 understood conditions ; and so it happens that no 
 trout that is not " by ordinar' " stupid could fail 
 to appreciate that game is afoot, and to put him- 
 self in position to enjoy the sport. 
 
 If one goes down to the bottom of the High 
 in Winchester, near by King Alfred's statue, 
 and peers between the railings, one may generally 
 see several brace of handsome trout ; and if one 
 takes some new bread and presses it together in 
 little balls hard enough to make it sink, but not 
 sink too fast, and throws it to the trout, one may 
 see some most beautiful catching, neater than that 
 of the most finished fielder in the slips. So when 
 the nigh-upon-hatching nymphs are being hurried 
 down, your trout shall enjoy some pretty fielding 
 before the bulk of the quarry come near enough to 
 the surface to attract attention to the trout's 
 movements by any swirl or break on the surface. 
 If the trout be lying out on the weeds from which 
 the nymphs are issuing, you shall see the trout 
 swashing about in the shallow water covering the 
 weed-beds, in pursuit of the nymphs, and present- 
 ing the phenomenon known as " bulging." This is 
 the first stage of the rise. 
 
 Presently, as the swarm of drifting nymphs 
 
SUBAQUEOUS HAPPENINGS IN NATURE ii 
 
 becomes more numerous, escaping units, first in 
 sparse, then in increasing numbers, reach the sur- 
 face, burst their swathing envelopes, and spread 
 their canvas to the gales as subimagines. Pres- 
 ently the trout find attention to the winged fly 
 more advantageous — as presenting more food, or 
 food obtained with less exertion than the nymphs 
 — and turn themselves to it in earnest. This is 
 the second stage. Often it is much deferred. Con- 
 ditions of which we know nothing keep back the 
 hatch, perhaps send many of the nymphs back to 
 cover to await a more favourable opportunity 
 another day ; so it occasionally happens that, 
 while the river seems mad with bulging fish, the 
 hatch of fly that follows or partly coincides with 
 this orgy is insignificant. But, good, bad, or in- 
 different, it measures the extent of the dry-fly 
 purist's opportunity. 
 
 Good, bad, or indifferent, it presently peters 
 out, and at times with startling suddenness all the 
 life and movement imparted to the surface by the 
 rings of rising fish are gone, and it would be easy 
 for one who knew not the river to say : " There 
 are no trout in it." For all that, there are pretty 
 sure to be left a sprinkling, often more than a 
 sprinkling, of unsatisfied fish which are willing to 
 feed, and can be caught if the angler knows how ; 
 and these will hang about for a while until they, 
 too, give up in despair and go home, or seek con- 
 solation in tailing. Often these will take a dry 
 
 2 — 2 
 
12 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 fly, but an imitation of a nymph or a broken or 
 submerged fly is a far stronger temptation. This 
 is the third stage. 
 
 Now, the dry-fly purist is quite entitled to his 
 own opinions, and to restrict himself to the second 
 stage ; but if there be other anglers who are wilhng 
 to vary their methods, who can and do catch 
 their trout, not only in the second stage, but also 
 in the first and the third, and if their methods 
 spoil no sport for others, who shall say that they 
 are wrong in availing themselves of all three stages 
 of a rise of duns ? 
 
 I remember well one day late in May when the 
 three stages were excellently well marked. There 
 was a bright sun, a hght breeze from the east with 
 a touch of south in it, and I was on the water 
 about 9.30, and took the left bank, with the wind 
 behind my hand. No fish were rising, but on 
 reaching the water-side I almost stumbled on top 
 of a trout which stood poised over a clear gravel 
 patch under my own bank. Fortunately, how- 
 ever, I withdrew without his seeing or suspecting 
 me. My pale dressed Greenwell's Glory trailed in 
 the water, and I dehvered it without flick well wet 
 a foot or so above the spot where I had marked 
 my fish. There was no break of the surface, but 
 a sort of smooth shallow hump of the water about 
 the size of a dinner-plate, with a dip in the middle, 
 as the fish turned and I pulled into him. Pres- 
 ently I saw a brace bulging vigorously over some 
 
SUBAQUEOUS HAPPENINGS IN NATURE 13 
 
 bright green weeds. It was not the first or the 
 tenth time that my sunken Greenwell covered the 
 fish that one of them came ; but when he did there 
 was no doubt about it, and he joined number one 
 in the basket. Two more followed in a short time, 
 unable to resist the same lure. Then it seemed 
 to fail of its effect, though the river was freely- 
 dotted with rings, and after wasting much time 
 I tumbled to the situation, and changed to a 
 floating No. i Whitchurch — most effective of 
 Yellow Duns — on a cipher hook. The effect was 
 immediate, but I had put it off too long, and when 
 I looked up from basketing my third trout to the 
 Whitchurch the rise had petered out. But I was 
 not done yet. I changed to a Tup's Indispensable 
 dressed to sink, and, fishing upstream wet in 
 likely runs and places, I made up my five brace 
 before I knocked off for lunch. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 SUBAQUEOUS HAPPENINGS IN ART 
 
 OF MEDICINE FOR BULGERS. 
 
 For many a year bulging trout were the despair 
 of my life, and in those days I would gladly have 
 said " Amen " to the opinion expressed in a letter 
 to the Fishing Gazette of March 13, 1909, by the 
 angler who writes over the pen-name of " Bally- 
 gunge/' that when trout were bulging you " might 
 as well chuck your hat at them" as a fly. Many 
 times had I vainly plied them with Gold-ribbed 
 Hare's Ear, as recommended by Mr. F. M. Hal- 
 ford, as well as most of the current imitations of 
 duns on the water, and Wickhams, Tags, and other 
 fancy flies to boot. Hoping against hope, I never 
 gave up trying for those aggravating fish, and one 
 day, towards the end of a bad exhibition of bulging 
 by the trout, I actually caught a brace, and lost a 
 third on a Pope's Green Nondescript — a dun tied 
 with starling wing, red hackle and whisk, and a 
 dark green body ribbed with broad flat gold. 
 
 On many occasions since I have found that fly 
 kill well at the beginning of a rise, and it may be 
 
 14 
 
SUBAQUEOUS HAPPENINGS IN ART 15 
 
 that on the occasion spoken of the trout which I 
 got were on the verge of giving up bulging in 
 favour of the winged dun. But I was not satisfied. 
 Then the recollection of a visit to the Tweed 
 struck me with the notion that on that water all 
 the trout practically bulged all the time, and that 
 with their wet-fly patterns Tweed anglers were 
 able to give a good account of themselves, and I 
 searched among Tweed patterns for the nearest 
 analogue to Pope's Green Nondescript. I thought 
 I found it in Greenwell's Glory, if varied by ex- 
 changing for the hen blackbird wing a starhng 
 wing. The likeness was not very exact, but it 
 was close enough to experiment on. The point 
 that I wanted to achieve was to combine with 
 the colours of Pope's Green Nondescript the type 
 of dressing special to the Tweed Greenwell's Glory. 
 Rough, slim upright wings, well split, and stand- 
 ing well apart when wet, made of several thick- 
 nesses of feather so as to absorb water, and not 
 to give it up readily when cast ; body spare, con- 
 sisting of the waxed primrose tying silk only, 
 closely ribbed with fine gold wire, and one or at 
 most two turns of a furnace hen's hackle with 
 ginger points, no whisk (whisks only help flotation), 
 and a rather rank hook to take the fly under. 
 The type of dressing is to be found applied to all 
 his patterns in Webster's " Angler and the Loop 
 Rod." 
 Whether it was because I had faith in my 
 
i6 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 medicine, or whether any other cause was at work, 
 I know not, but the experiment was, despite some 
 misses due to failure to judge the right moment to 
 pull home the hook, an immediate success. 
 
 Bulging trout are bold feeders, and seem to mind 
 being cast over less than do those which are taking 
 surface food ; but they are much more difficult to 
 cover accurately, because they rush from side to 
 side and up and down, and the odds are that, if 
 you cast to one spot, the trout is careering off in 
 pursuit of a nymph to right or left of it. But once 
 the trout sees the fly, the chances of his taking it 
 are far better than are the chances that a surface- 
 feeding trout will take the floating dun which 
 covers him. The fly is allowed to drag in the 
 stream, so as to be thoroughly wet, and is then 
 cast upstream to the feeding fish in all respects 
 like a floating fly, except that it is not dried or 
 allowed to float. The weight of the reel-line will 
 probably be enough to dry the gut, so that the 
 risk of lining your trout is minimized, only the 
 fly and the first link or so of gut going under 
 before it reaches him. I found it best to tie this 
 pattern on gut, and, dressed as described, it has 
 been worth many a good bulger to me, apart from 
 its value for general purposes. 
 
 Later on the value of Tup's Indispensable fished 
 wet impressed me much, and its resemblance to a 
 nymph induced me to give it a trial upon bulging 
 trout. For wet-fly purposes this is as near the 
 
SUBAQUEOUS HAPPENINGS IN ART 17 
 
 dressing as I am at liberty to give : Primrose 
 tying silk lapped down the hook from head to tail, 
 a pale blue or creamy whisk of hen's feather as 
 soft as possible and not long, three or four turns of 
 coarser untwisted primrose sewing silk at the tail, 
 bod}^ rather fat, of a mixed dubbing of a creamy 
 pink (invented by Mr. R. S. Austin, the well- 
 known angler and fly-dresser of Tiverton), and a 
 soft blue dun hackle, very short in the fibre at the 
 head, the dressing being preferably finished at the 
 shoulder behind the hackle. When this fly is 
 thoroughly soaked it has a wonderfully soft and 
 translucent, insect-like effect. It proved even 
 more successful than Greenwell's Glory, and with 
 one or other I am almost always able to give a 
 good account of bulgers instead of coming empty 
 away. 
 
 OF UNDER-WATER TAKING, ITS INDICATIONS, AND 
 THE TIME TO STRIKE. 
 
 Friends with whom I have discussed the use of 
 the upstream wet fly on chalk streams have fre- 
 quently said to me : " But how are you to know 
 when the trout takes, and when to strike ?" It i? 
 a very pertinent question, and the answer is not 
 to be given in a word. Often the indications which 
 bid you pull home the hook are so subtle and in- 
 conspicuous that the angler is at a loss to account 
 for the miracle which is evidenced by his hooped 
 rod and protesting reel, but even in the roughest 
 
 3 
 
i8 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 water something helps the angler to divine the 
 moment for action. In a subsequent section, under 
 the heading " The Grey-Brown Shadow," will be 
 found an account of a day's sport with the wet fly 
 in an upstream wind so rough as to throw the 
 river into waves. The flash of the fish as it turns 
 to take the fly may often be seen, so dimly and so 
 momentarily as to be apt to escape notice if one 
 does not know what to look for ; but I have on 
 several occasions even divined it through water 
 which reflected a bright white glare, and seemed 
 opaque to the eye. If on these occasions a hooked 
 trout had not proved the truth of my observation, 
 I could not have sworn to having certainly seen 
 anything move ; but there through the surface, 
 which looked at the angle of view impenetrable to 
 the eye, I did seem to glimpse a faint pink flash 
 that corresponded to no movement on the surface, 
 and there was the fish soundly hooked, and no 
 fluke about it. 
 
 Often under an opposite bank, when the light 
 will not permit you to see your gut or fly, you will 
 see a trout suddenly ascending to near the top of 
 the water, and as suddenly sinking ; then, if you 
 tighten, ten to one your hook is firmly in his jaws, 
 and you see him shaking his head savagely at the 
 unexpected restraint upon his liberty ere he makes 
 his first rush. 
 
 When fish are bulging, the moment of taking 
 the fly is generally marked by a swirl, and the 
 
SUBAQUEOUS HAPPENINGS IN ART 19 
 
 angler should strike immediately. Fortunately, 
 a wet-fly strike, even if misconceived or mis- 
 timed, is far less likely, so long as the fish is clean 
 missed and not lined, to alarm him than is a 
 strike with the dry fly, because the wet fly comes 
 out through the water at a point far below the 
 fish instead of being drawn along the surface. 
 
 In glassy glides, which are always fast water, 
 one either sees the fish turn to the fly, or, if the 
 light prevents it, one sees a little crinkle, or break, 
 work up through the water to the surface, which 
 warns the angler to strike. Often the gut lying 
 on the surface goes under as the fish draws in the 
 fly, and alike in daylight and moonlight it acts 
 as a float ; and even if the fly be taken too deep 
 below water for any other indication to be in time, 
 it will warn the angler to attend to business. An 
 ingenious angler, as elsewhere explained, has con- 
 ceived and utilized successfully the idea of oiling his 
 gut cast for fishing wet directly upstream in rapid 
 water, and an excellent device it is for its occasion. 
 
 But perhaps the commonest indication of an 
 under-water taking in water of slow or moderate 
 pace is an almost imperceptible shallow humping 
 of the water over the trout. It is caused by the 
 turn of the fish as he takes the fly, and when the 
 angler sees it it is time to fasten. If he waits 
 until the swirl has reached and broken the surface 
 (and it may not be violent enough to do so), he 
 may be too late. If the fly drops directly over 
 
 3—2 
 
20 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 the fish, that shallow hump seems often almost 
 simultaneous with the lighting of the fly ; but if 
 the cast be wide, your trout will not infrequently 
 dart a yard or more to a wet fly — when for a dry 
 fly he would do no such thing — and then the angler 
 has a warning of the coming of the shallow hump 
 on the surface which tells him that the iron is hot. 
 It may be questioned, however, whether it is not 
 more difficult to time correctly the strike for which 
 one has had such warning than one which comes 
 without warning. 
 
 In my experience, the trout which takes under- 
 water is generally very soundly hooked. A trout 
 taking floaters on the surface frequently sips them 
 in through a narrowly-opened slit of mouth, but 
 an under-water feeder draws in the fly by an ex- 
 tension of the gills which carries it in with a full 
 gulp of water. 
 
 In the effort to divine the indications which call 
 for striking with the wet fly I confess I find a subtle 
 fascination and charm, and, when success attends 
 me, a satisfaction beside which the successful hook- 
 ing of a fish which rises to my floating fly seems 
 second-rate in its sameness and comparative ob- 
 viousness and monotony of achievement. 
 
 OF ROUGH WATER AND GREY-BROWN SHADOW. 
 
 It was blowing up freshly from the south-west as 
 the train ran into Winchester one April a year or 
 two back, and ere the water-meadows were reached 
 
SUBAQUEOUS HAPPENINGS IN ART 21 
 
 the distinct bite in the wind had given ample 
 warning that^ maugre the crisp yellow sunshine, 
 11.30 clanging from the cathedral spires left ample 
 time to get down to the water-side and put rod 
 and tackle together before the big dark olives or 
 the smaller and rather hghter olives, which warn 
 one to put up a Gold-ribbed Hare's Ear, put in an 
 appearance. April was three parts through, yet 
 the backwardness of the season made conditions 
 correspond more nearly to three weeks earlier in 
 the normal year. 
 
 Soon everything was in readiness, and a couple 
 of dark Rough Olives, tied on gut, with dark starling 
 wing, heron herl body dyed in onion dye and 
 ribbed with fine gold wire, and hackle and whisk 
 of ginger, lightly dyed olive, were put into the 
 damper to soak, on the chance that the wet fly 
 might pay better than the dry. 
 
 Noon and the quarter-past chimed from the bel- 
 fry, and then a big dark ohve drifted on to an eddy 
 near by, and, hfted out on the meshes of a landing- 
 net, was identified. The hint was enough. One 
 of the flies in soak — tied on No. i hooks — was 
 knotted on, and the surface was scanned for the 
 first dimple. Presently it was located — such a 
 tiny, infinitesimal, dacelike dimple, hinting rather 
 than proving the movement of a trout. It was 
 hardly noticeable in the turmoil made by the 
 strong ruffle of the upstream wind against the 
 somewhat full current of the stream. It was 
 
22 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 rather far across for accurate casting in such a 
 windj and presently a sudden gust slammed the 
 line down upon the spot with such a splash as no 
 self-respecting trout could be expected to endure. 
 
 A movement upstream was prescribed by the 
 conditions, and presently another dimple like the 
 last was spotted in a more favourable position. 
 It was repeated after an interval, but no fly was 
 to be seen on the surface ; so, without an attempt 
 at drying, the Rough Olive was despatched on his 
 mission, and lit a foot or so above the spot. 
 Again, and once more, it did so, and then there 
 was a hint of a grey-brown flicker in the hollow of 
 a wave. By instinct rather than reason the hand 
 went up, and the arch of the rod showed that the 
 steel had gone home. In due course the trout — a 
 fish of fourteen inches — was landed, and the angler 
 proceeded upward. 
 
 He soon found, however, that to reach and 
 cover the trout satisfactorily it behoved him to 
 cross, and tackle them from the other side, and he 
 made his way to the footbridge. On the way 
 down, on the main stream he saw another hint of 
 a rise in midstream, where the waves were highest. 
 The wind served him well, and the fly was over 
 the trout in no time. For four or five casts there 
 was no response ; then again that grey-brown 
 shadow for a moment in the trough of a wave, 
 mounting rod, a screaming reel, and a vigorous 
 trout was battling for his life. 
 
SUBAQUEOUS HAPPENINGS IN ART 23 
 
 Arrived presently at the desired spot^ the wet 
 Rough Ohve was taken off and a dry-fly pattern 
 mounted and duly oiled, and offered to three fish 
 in succession, with the result that they all went 
 down. Then back once more to the wet-fly, and 
 thrice more ere 1.30 struck there was the faint 
 flash of grey-brown under water, the same instinc- 
 tive response, a spirited battle for life (successful 
 in one instance), and then the rise petered out and 
 not a fish was stirring. And though at 2.30 a strong 
 rise of the smaller olive came on, and lasted till 
 4.30, keeping hundreds of swallows and martins 
 busy, yet not another fish put up a neb. Perhaps 
 it was because the sun had gone in. 
 
 There are those who wax indignant at the use 
 of the wet fly on dry-fly waters. Yet it has a 
 special fascination. The indications which tell 
 your dry-fly angler when to strike are clear and 
 unmistakable, but those which bid a wet-fly man 
 raise his rod-point and draw in the steel are fre- 
 quently so subtle, so evanescent and impalpable 
 to the senses, that, when the bending rod assures 
 him that he has divined aright, he feels an ecstasy 
 as though he had performed a miracle each time. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 SUPPLEMENTARY IN THE MATTER OF FLIES 
 
 OF WET-FLY DRESSINGS FOR CHALK STREAMS. 
 
 Assuming that we have made up our minds to 
 test the wet fly upon chalk streams, it must be 
 taken as an axiom that the ordinary patterns of 
 the dry fly will not do. They are built to dry 
 and to float. The patterns required must be built 
 to soak and to sink. Therefore bodies and hackles 
 which throw the water must be rejected in favour 
 of bodies and hackles which take up the water or 
 readily enter it. So dubbed bodies in place of 
 quills, hen hackles in place of cock's, and of these 
 a minimum of turns in place of a maximum ; and 
 if whisks are used, they^ too, must be soft and 
 soppy. For the same reason, wing material, if 
 employed, should be so arranged as to take up 
 the maximum of water, and to let it go as un- 
 willingly as possible. Furthermore, the bulk of 
 material in proportion to the hook metal must be 
 reduced as far as possible. 
 
 Given these requirements, let us look around, 
 as I did, among all the various systems of wet-fly 
 
 24 
 
SUPPLEMENTARY IN THE MATTER OF FLIES 25 
 
 dressing in use; from John o' Groat's to Land's End, 
 and see what features we ought to borrow from 
 them. If we make up our minds, as I think we 
 shall, that it is desirable to expose the body of our 
 fly freely, we shall not adopt any system which 
 lays the wings low over the back of the fly, that 
 type being designed to secure what is called " a 
 good entry " for a dragging fly, and we have 
 nothing to do with dragging flies or any form of 
 river raking or dredging, or with any flies which, 
 like the Devonshire types, carry superabundance 
 of bright cock's hackles. So we are limited to the 
 systems which dress their flies with upright wings, 
 like the Tweed and Clyde types, and to the soft 
 hackled Yorkshire style. 
 
 The conditions, however, of our waters confine 
 us to tiny patterns — Nos. and 00 hooks in the 
 vast majority of cases, and occasionally No. i — 
 and the supply of tiny soft absorbent hackles from 
 birds other than poultry, sufficiently small to leave 
 the body well exposed, is hardly to be had. So, 
 taking one consideration with another, it would 
 seem that the Tweed and Clyde patterns, being 
 used on a broad and in many places equably- 
 flowing river, wfll have advantages enough to 
 invite a trial. 
 
 Now, what are the features of the Tweed and 
 Clyde patterns ? First there is the spare body, 
 dressed with tying silk only, with or without wire 
 ribbing, or lightly dubbed with soft fur, making 
 
 4 
 
26 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 an absorbent dubbing ; then a small and lightly- 
 dressed soft hackle, two turns at the outside, close 
 up behind a pair of wings tied in a bunch, and 
 either left single or, preferably for our purposes, 
 split in equal portions, and divided with the 
 figure-of-eight application of the tying silk behind 
 the wings and in front of the head, the whole 
 tied on «a rank, and not too light, round-bend 
 hook. 
 
 It will be suggested that the trout does not see 
 the winged dun under water. That is approxi- 
 mately, though not quite absolutely, true ; but 
 for all that, being in some respects rather a stupid 
 person, if size and colour are right, he will not 
 make much bones of the position of the fly with 
 reference to the surface being incorrect. It might 
 be supposed, again, that a hackled pattern would 
 better suggest the nymph stage than a winged 
 pattern. This may be true, but the theory has 
 yet to be worked out in much detail before one 
 can dogmatize about it. Elsewhere my pre- 
 liminary efforts in this direction are described. 
 Here I could say that the wings built up of a 
 length of feather rolled into a bunch have the 
 advantage of taking up a lot of water, and not 
 releasing it readily ; and they also assist to let the 
 fly down more lightly on the water than so lightly 
 dressed a fly would fall but for the wings. To let 
 a hackled fly down as lightly, one would need a 
 lighter wire and a larger hackle. The wings also 
 
SUPPLEMENTARY IN THE MATTER OF FLIES 27 
 
 help the fly to swim correctly in the water, with 
 the weight of the straight, unsnecked, round-bend 
 hook as the counterpoise to the parachute action 
 of the wings. 
 
 My own belief is that wet flies tied on gut swim 
 better and hook better than those tied on eyed 
 hooks. As the drying action of casting is reduced 
 to a minimum, they are not so ready to go at the 
 neck as when used as dry flies ; but if the angler 
 prefers it, there is no reason why he should not use 
 eyed hooks, though snecked bends of any kind and 
 upturned eyes are deprecated. Down-eyed hooks, 
 round, unsnecked, square-bend, and Limerick, in 
 the order named, are recommended. 
 
 When immediate sinking in rather fast water is 
 required, additional weight can be got by tying 
 on a second hook, and making the fly what is 
 technically known as a " double." These are 
 more easily tied on gut than on eyed hooks, 
 though there is a maker who supplies eyed hooks 
 for doubles in sizes Nos. i, o, and 00, one packet 
 containing the eyed hook, and the other the 
 shorter-shanked companion hook to be lashed on. 
 In either case the hooks have to be separated with 
 the thumb-nail, so as to stand at an angle of 
 45 to 60 degrees before using. Lest it should be 
 suggested that these double hooks, fished wet, lend 
 themselves to a form of snatching, let me say that 
 I can only recall a single instance of a trout being 
 hooked on a wet double otherwise than fairly in 
 
 4—2 
 
28 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 the mouth, and in the course of my experiments 
 I have given them an extensive trial. 
 
 The range of wet-fly patterns required is not 
 extensive. I have found the following serve all 
 practical purposes : 
 
 1. Rough Olive. 
 
 Wings : Darkest starling. 
 
 Body : Heron herl from wing feather dyed brown olive, 
 
 and ribbed with fine gold wire. 
 Legs : Dirty brown-olive hen hackle, with dark centre 
 
 and yellowish-brown points. 
 Hook : No. I. 
 
 2. Greenwell's Glory. 
 
 Wings : Hen blackbird, dark starling, medium star- 
 ling, or light starling (lighter as season advances). 
 
 Body : Primrose or yellow tying silk, more or less 
 waxed (lighter as season advances), ribbed with fine 
 gold wire. 
 
 Legs : Dark furnace hackle ; black centre, with cin- 
 namon points, to medium honey dun (lighter as 
 season advances). 
 
 Hook : Nos. I, o, or oo. 
 
 3. Blue Dun. 
 
 Wings : Snipe. 
 
 Body : Water-rat on primrose or yellow tying silk. 
 Vary body by dressing with undyed heron's herl 
 from the wing, and ribbing with fine gold or silver 
 wire. 
 
 Legs : Medium blue hen. 
 
 Hook : No. I or o. 
 
 4. Iron Blue. 
 
 Wings : Tomtit's tail. 
 Body : Mole's fur on claret tying silk. 
 Legs : Honey dun hen with red points. 
 Hook : No. o or 00. 
 
SUPPLEMENTARY IN THE MATTER OF FLIES 29 
 
 5. Watery Dun. 
 
 Wings : Palest starling. 
 
 Body : Hare's poll or buff opossum on primrose tying 
 
 silk. 
 Legs : Ginger hen's hackle. 
 Hook : No. 00. 
 
 6. Hare's Ear. 
 
 Wings : Dark or medium starling. 
 
 Body : Hare's fur from lobe at root of ear ; rib nar- 
 rowest gold tinsel or fine gold wire. 
 
 Legs : A few fibres picked out or placed between the 
 strands of the silk and spun. 
 
 Hook : No. I or o. 
 
 7. Black Gnat. 
 
 Wings : Palest snipe rolled and reversed. 
 
 Body : Black tying silk with two turns of black 
 
 ostrich herl or knob of black silk at shoulder. 
 Legs : Black hen or cock starling's crest, two turns at 
 
 most. 
 Hook : No. GO. 
 
 It will be observed that hooks a size larger than 
 those employed for floaters can often be used. 
 
 The very short range of hackled patterns is dealt 
 with later. 
 
 OF THE IMPORTANCE OF THE COLOUR OF 
 TYING SILK IN DUBBED FLIES. 
 
 Years ago I spent a week upon the Teme, fishing 
 wet, and I remember looking down one sunny 
 morning upon my cast in shallow water, and being 
 struck by the appearance of my Yellow Dun. 
 The body was dubbed with primrose wool, but 
 though, while dry or in the air, every turn of the 
 tying silk was completely hidden, yet, looking 
 
30 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 down upon the fly in the water, I could see every 
 turn distinctly, and the dubbing was scarcely 
 noticeable, and I was glad that the tying silk 
 harmonized so perfectly with the hue of the 
 dubbing. 
 
 The importance of the base colour of the tying 
 silk was still more strongly brought home to me a 
 day or two later. I had tied some imitations of a 
 pale watery dun which was on the water with a 
 pale starling wing, light ginger hackle and whisk, 
 and a mixture of opossum and hare's poll for 
 dubbing; but some I had tied with pale orange 
 silk, and some with that rich maroon colour called 
 Red Ant in Mr. Al dam's series of silks. The 
 grayling took those tied with pale orange freely, 
 but would not look at those tied with Red Ant. 
 
 It may be less material in floating flies, but for 
 wet flies I have since always been careful to have 
 the tying silk either harmonious with the colour 
 of the natural subimago, or corresponding to the 
 colour of the spinner. For instance, for an Iron 
 Blue Dun I should use claret silk dubbed with 
 mole's fur or water-rat; for the old-fashioned 
 mole's fur Blue Dun, primrose to heighten the olive 
 effect in the dark blue ; primrose silk also for a 
 Hare's Ear ; in the Willow-Fly, orange silk under 
 the mole's fur or water-rat ; in the Grannom, green 
 very darkly waxed, or black ; and so on. The fact 
 is that the transparency of fur and feather is mar- 
 vellous. A starling's wing looks much denser than 
 
SUPPLEMENTARY IN THE MATTER OF FLIES 31 
 
 a dun's, but place it over print, and you can read 
 every word through ; and fur is practically as 
 transparent when wet. 
 
 OF THE IMITATION OF NYMPHS, CADDIS, 
 ALDER LARV^, AND SHRIMPS. 
 
 For some time after my introduction to Tup's 
 Indispensable I used it only as a dry fly, but one 
 July I put it over a fish without avail, and cast 
 it a second time without drying it. It was dressed 
 with a soft hackle, and at once went under, and 
 the trout turned at it and missed. Again I cast, 
 and again the trout missed, to fasten soundly at 
 the next offer. It was a discovery for me, and I 
 tried the pattern wet over a number of fish on 
 the same shallow, with most satisfactory results. 
 I thus satisfied myself that Tup's Indispensable 
 could be used as a wet fly ; and^ indeed, when 
 soaked its colours merge and blend so beautifully 
 that it is hardly singular ; and it was a remarkable 
 imitation of a nymph I got from a trout's mouth. 
 
 The next step was to try it on bulging fish, and 
 to my great delight I found it even more attractive 
 than Greenwell's Glory. It was the foundation of 
 a small range of nymph patterns, but for under- 
 water feeders, whether bulging or otherwise, I 
 seldom need anything but Tup's Indispensable, 
 dressed with a very short, soft henny hackle in 
 place of the bright honey or rusty dun used for the 
 floating pattern. The next I tried was a Blue- 
 
32 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 winged Olive. There was a hatch of this per- 
 nicious insect one afternoon. The floating pattern 
 is always a failure with me, and in anticipation I 
 had tied some nymphs of appropriate colour of 
 body, and hackled with a single turn of the tiniest 
 blue hackle of the merlin. It enabled me to get 
 two or three excellent trout which were taking 
 blue-winged olive nymphs greedily under the 
 opposite bank, and which, or rather the first of 
 which, like their predecessors, had refused to 
 respond to a floating imitation. The body was a 
 mixture of medium olive seal's fur and bear's 
 hair close to the skin, tied with primrose silk, the 
 whisk being short and soft, from the spade-shaped 
 feather found on the shoulder of a blue dun cock. 
 
 Another pattern, successful in the last two 
 months of the season, is dressed with a very short 
 palish-blue dun or honey dun hen's hackle, a body 
 of hare's poll tied on pale primrose silk, with or 
 without a small gold tag and palest ginger whisks. 
 But it is evident that on this subject I am only 
 at the beginning of inquiry. Of course there is 
 nothing very new in the idea of imitating nymphs. 
 The half stone is just a nymph generally ruined 
 by over-hackling. 
 
 In July, 1908, I caught an Itchen fish one after- 
 noon, and on examining his mouth I found a dark 
 olive nymph. My fly -dressing materials were 
 with me, and I found I had a seal's fur which, 
 with a small admixture of bear's hair, dark 
 
SUPPLEMENTARY IN THE MATTER OF FLIES 33 
 
 brown and woolly, from close to the skin, 
 enabled me to reproduce exactly the colours of the 
 natural insect. I dressed the imitation with short, 
 soft, dark blue whisks, body of the mixed dubbing 
 tied with well-waxed bright yellow silk, and 
 bunched at the shoulder to suggest wing-cases, the 
 lower part of the body being ribbed with fine gold 
 wire. Two turns of a very short, dark rusty 
 dun hackle completed the imitation, much to my 
 satisfaction. 
 
 Apparently it was no less agreeable to the trout, 
 for, beginning to fish next morning at ten o'clock, 
 I found six fish rising in a shallow. I began with 
 a small Red Sedge, as no dun was yet on the water, 
 and missed several of them. Then, putting up 
 Pope's Green Nondescript, I again missed three 
 fish in succession. I then bethought myself of my 
 nymph, and, knotting it on, in a few minutes I had 
 five of the six fish, and had lost the other. I then 
 found a trout feeding in a run, evidently under 
 water, I made a miscast at him, and he came a 
 yard across to take the nymph, but did not take a 
 good hold, for I lost him, only to secure a better 
 fish a few moments later. It then came on to 
 blow and pelt with rain in such sort as to render 
 it no sort of pleasure to continue fishing, and I 
 knocked off at eleven o'clock, with three brace 
 as the result of an hour's fishing. 
 
 I have made me a shallow spoon-shaped net of 
 butterfly-net material to attach to the ring of my 
 
 5 
 
34 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 landing-net. It has the advantage of taking any- 
 thing which comes down the stream, whether on 
 or under the surface, and its practical use demon- 
 strates itself in more ways than one. For instance, 
 in September, 1909, I went down to the river about 
 9.30, and, having put my rod together, sank 
 my net in the water, and watched for what came 
 down. There were a number of tiny diptera, 
 but no trace of dun or nymph. I therefore con- 
 cluded that it would be some time before the trout 
 would be lined up under the banks, and that I 
 could safely go away for an hour, and try certain 
 carriers where the feeding of fish is not dependent 
 on the rise. I did this, and put in over an hour's 
 exciting, if not very remunerative, sport before 
 returning to the main river. The rise came on 
 about 11.30, But for my net I might have 
 wasted all the time on the bank, instead of con- 
 ducting a siege of three very handsome trout, and 
 bringing up two of them. 
 
 On occasion I have found a Dotterel dun tied 
 with yellow tying silk on a No. 00 hook, and 
 hackled with the tiniest dotterel hackle, after the 
 manner of Stewart (i.e., not hackled all at the 
 head, but palmer-wise for halfway down the short 
 body), quite remunerative fished wet. This, I 
 imagine, is taken for a dun emerging. 
 
 But it is not only duns whose nymphal stages 
 may be imitated. I borrowed of Mr. Martin E. 
 Mosely, of the Fly-fishers' Club, a tube con- 
 
SUPPLEMENTARY IN THE MATTER OF FLIES 35 
 
 taining some nearly full-grown larvae of the alder, 
 and although he assured me that they were always 
 in the mud, and never seen by the trout, I made a 
 sort of imitation of them which rather pleased me, 
 and I tried it in Germany in mid-May. Whether 
 the trout saw or did not see the natural insect in 
 that stage I don't pretend to know, but they took 
 the imitation with such avidity that I speedily 
 wore out my three specimens. They were only 
 made as an experiment, and I tried no more, as 
 I felt qualms in my mind as to whether it was 
 quite the game to imitate this insect in this stage, 
 any more than it would be to fish an imitation of 
 the caddis. I am therefore not giving my recipe. 
 Nor do I give that for making a caddis or gentle 
 which I once tried, with mad success for a few 
 minutes, and gave up, conscience-stricken. 
 
 I was at one time greatly interested in an 
 attempt to imitate the fresh-water shrimp, and I 
 tied a variety of patterns, including several with 
 backs of quill of some small bird dyed greenish- 
 olive, and ribbed firmly while wet and impres- 
 sionable with silk or gold wire ; but somehow I 
 never used or attempted to use any one of them. 
 I, however, gave one to an acquaintance, and he 
 tied it on, and, standing on a footbridge, cast it 
 downstream over some trout which were reputed 
 uncatchably shy. At the first cast a big fish 
 rushed at the shrimp, slashed it, and went off 
 leaving the one-time owner lamenting. 
 
 5—2 
 
CHAPTER V 
 SPECIAL CONDITIONS AND WET-FLY SOLUTIONS 
 
 NERVES. 
 
 Years ago, long ere the spirit of revolt was in me, 
 when I followed as closely as I knew how the 
 maxims of the apostles of the dry fly, and knew 
 no other method for chalk streams, I suffered 
 many blank days and much depression from a 
 state of weather and light which must be familiar 
 to all chalk-stream anglers — the more particularly 
 because the "d d good-natured" and sympa- 
 thetic friend who knows nothing of the subject 
 picks it out to say knowingly : " What a beautiful 
 day for fishing !" It is clouded, dull, leaden, over- 
 hung, and the reflected light on the water is a dead 
 milk-and- watery white ; while, looking down into 
 its depths, one sees everything with a deadly and 
 crystalline clearness. There is no hint of thunder 
 about, but on such days the trout are all nerves. 
 Never are they so difficult to approach, never are 
 they so ready to dart off with that torpedo wave. 
 And if one finds a rising fish, and puts a dry fly over 
 him, even if he bolts not, he rises no more. 
 
 36 
 
SPECIAL CONDITIONS— WET-FLY SOLUTIONS 37 
 
 But at length there came a day when my first 
 timid experiments in the fishing of chalk streams 
 with the wet fly had proved encouraging enough 
 to lead to my having a small stock of wet-fly 
 patterns for chalk-stream fishing. It was a bad 
 sample of those days when the nerves of trout 
 seemed all on the jump, and I had fished from 
 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. without so much as a rise. It 
 was not that the fish were not rising. On the 
 contrary, they rose very well — not very much, 
 perhaps, but the best days are often those when 
 the rise is moderate. But this day every fish I cast 
 to went down at once, and too often I saw that 
 detestable torpedo wave, sometimes at the ap- 
 proach, and more frequently at the first cast. 
 
 Soon after three I tied on a Tup's Indispensable 
 dressed on gut, and crawled carefully to within a 
 long cast of a trout which rose at infrequent 
 intervals in a narrow side-stream under the opposite 
 side. My line trailed on the water as I approached, 
 and I made the minimum of effort to dry the fly ere 
 I delivered it, so as to attract as httle attention as 
 possible to my movements. So it came about 
 that the fly, when it lit a yard or more to the left 
 of and above the trout — it was a bad cast as 
 regards direction — went immediately under. For 
 the nth time that day I saw that torpedo wave 
 as the fish darted through the shallow water. I 
 rose with a sigh, but as I did so my rod was a 
 hoop, and the reel screeched ; for the trout's dart 
 
38 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 had been at the fly, not from it, and it had gone a 
 full yard or more to fetch it. He was just short of 
 one and three-quarter pounds. Before four o'clock 
 I had another brace by the same method. They 
 were not easy, and I did not get every fish I tried, 
 or even many ; but I got some where with the 
 dry fly I should assuredly have gone on getting 
 none, and the trout stood to be cast to in a way 
 they would not that day to the dry fly. 
 
 It is true enough that there are days and 
 times when the dry fly will beat the wet fly hollow, 
 but there are days when the converse is the case, 
 and from subsequent experience I can recommend 
 the trial of the wet fly on those dull, nervy days of 
 milk-and-watery glare. 
 
 OF THE TROUT OF GLASSY GLIDES. 
 
 There are places on most rivers where the water 
 comes swiftly and in solid volume down a slope 
 too slight in the incline to create a fall, too short 
 to create a rapid or stickle, and too smooth to 
 cause a broken surface, yet with a rapid run below. 
 The result is a glassy glide, gin-clear, with an air 
 of unusual smoothness, and such a pace that there 
 is an immediate drag upon any floating fly which 
 is laid upon the current. Often some of the 
 handsomest and best fighting trout in the river 
 are to be found in such places, where their blood 
 is constantly refreshed by the highly oxygenated 
 water, their health and energy kept up to the 
 
SPECIAL CONDITIONS— WET-FLY SOLUTIONS 39 
 
 mark by the need of contending against its swift- 
 ness, and the inducement to so contend is present 
 in the plentiful supply of food brought down by 
 the current. 
 
 Such a glide do I know well, with some excellent 
 fish always showing there, but never breaking the 
 surface ; and for years I found them impregnable, 
 for the simple reason that, if one pitched a fly over 
 their noses, it was past them before they could 
 rise to it, and if one pitched it up enough to give 
 the fish a chance to take it they wouldn't, because 
 there was a prompt and streaky drag if the line 
 were, as it could hardly help being, the least Httle 
 bit across stream. Even the natural fly would 
 sail over them unmolested. 
 
 But one day some years back, on a calm after- 
 noon in July, with not a trout rising, I was on the 
 Itchen, and I had crawled up some half-mile of 
 sedgy bank in search of a feeding fish without 
 finding one. But on the far side, in front of a 
 certain post, the remnant of a one-time fence, I 
 knew from experience that there was usually a 
 fish — at any rate at feeding-time. There was 
 nothing to suggest any particular dry fly, and 
 on the previous afternoon — a Sunday — I had spent 
 a pleasant twenty minutes watching a fish in 
 front of the stump taking something under water 
 with a sort of porpoise roll. It therefore occurred 
 to me to put up one of those Httle Greenwell's 
 Glories, dressed by Forrest of Kelso on pairs 
 
40 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 of No. 00 hooks to gut, with which the name of 
 Mr. Ewen M. Tod is associated. I had bought 
 them in the previous spring to experiment upon 
 bulging trout. These flies are known as "doubles," 
 and are not ready floaters. One puts a thumb-nail 
 between the barb, and forces them apart till the 
 two hooks form an angle of 45 degrees with each 
 other. The fly dropped a yard above the post and 
 sank. When it should have been nearing the 
 post, a faint swirl rising to the surface seemed a 
 sufficient indication of a movement below to 
 justify a raising of the rod-point, and the fish was 
 fast. In this manner it came about that a small 
 Greenwell's Glory on double hooks terminated the 
 cast when the glassy glide above adverted to was 
 reached. A trout lay out in it in position to feed, 
 but though he moved a little from side to side, 
 and may have been intercepting food, he made no 
 rise. Keeping well out of sight, I dropped the 
 Glory on the far side of and in front of the fish, and 
 it at once went under. Again came the small 
 disturbance welling quickly to the surface ; up 
 went my hand, and again a good trout was 
 fast. 
 
 That afternoon I killed two and a half brace of 
 good fish with the wet fly fished into likely places 
 without seeing a single rise. The other three fish 
 — but that is another story. 
 
 Since that day I have killed many a good fish in 
 that hitherto impossible spot, and one morning 
 
SPECIAL CONDITIONS— WET-FLY SOLUTIONS 41 
 
 in July, igo8, I had two and a half brace in less 
 than an hour with a wet double Tup's Indis- 
 pensable out of it. 
 
 OF THE WET FLY IN POOLS, BAYS, AND EDDIES. 
 
 There is probably no problem which has filled 
 the souls of so many dry-fly anglers with the 
 despair attending defeat as that presented by a 
 day when a cross-stream wind, whether up and 
 across, down and across, or straight across, drives 
 every dun under the opposite bank, and into little 
 pools and eddies between the prominences on 
 that bank, and so out of the line of the current 
 which would otherwise carry them along. Then 
 every big trout in the river seems to shift out of 
 the current and into the sheltered bay or eddy, 
 and there he sets to work collecting with busy neb 
 the little argosies which have lost their tide, and 
 are drifting helpless on slack water. It seems so 
 easy to drop the fly in the right place. So it is, 
 but if, as is many times more than probable, your 
 cruiser is away a foot or two, or is deliberate in 
 his movements, and does not take the fly at once, 
 your drag has made itself painfully evident, and 
 your fish is down for half an hour. No, on those 
 occasions the only chance with the dry fly is to 
 hit your fish with it on the tip of the nose at a 
 moment when few naturals are about. Then he 
 may snap it — but what a number of chances 
 against its so falling ! 
 
 6 
 
42 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 No, here is a case in which the wet fly is clearly- 
 predicated, and it should be so dressed as to go 
 under without the least hesitation. The advan- 
 tage which the wet fly has is not that the trout is 
 taking the nymph in preference to the floating 
 dun, though he is probably doing that far more 
 than is apparent, but that, whereas a drag on the 
 surface is fatal and betrays the gut, an under- 
 water drag is not betraying, and the movement of 
 the fly caused by the drag may, in its beginning 
 at any rate, be even attractive to the trout, as 
 imparting motion suggesting life and volition to 
 an otherwise suspicious object. The drag also 
 serves to tighten instead of slackening the line, 
 so that a very small strike fixes the hook. 
 
 When the trout takes a wet fly in such a position, 
 the surface indications are by no means obvious ; 
 but if the angler be on the alert to strike when 
 such indications come, it is wonderful how soon he 
 can pick up the knack, and what excellent fish 
 this method brings him. A strike which does 
 not touch the fish, being in the nature of an under- 
 water drawing of the fly, will often have no 
 scaring effect upon a feeding fish, where a strike 
 with a floating fly would send him headlong to 
 cover. 
 
 It is difficult to pick among my recollections one 
 instance more illustrative than another of the 
 value of this method, but I will take an afternoon 
 in July, 1908. It was a cold day for the time of 
 
SPECIAL CONDITIONS— WET-FLY SOLUTIONS 43 
 
 year, with a keen north-westerly wind across and 
 a little down. A few little pale duns were going 
 down, being beaten by the wind into and among 
 the bays along the opposite bank, where they 
 dodged in and out among the flags. Three trout, 
 and three only, could I find moving, and they were 
 taking every dun which went over them. I tried 
 Little Marryat, Medium Olive, Flight's Fancy, 
 Ginger Quill, and Red Quill, in vain. In fact I 
 put all three down. But they meant feeding, and 
 were soon going again. It was the last day of a 
 seven-day visit. I had so far forty-six trout, and 
 I wanted to round off the fifty. I put up as 
 an experiment a tiny dotterel hackle, tied with 
 primrose tying silk in the true Stewart style, not 
 with the fibres radiating from the head, but palmer- 
 wise for halfway down the body. The trout had it 
 at the very first offer, and was duly landed. I went 
 on to the next, and got him almost immediately. 
 The third, for some reason, had no use for Dotterel 
 duns, but the moment I covered him with a Tup's 
 Indispensable he slashed it, and joined the other 
 two in my creel. I looked in vain for a fourth, and 
 there was no evening rise, so I had to leave off 
 with but forty-nine of my fifty. But for the 
 wet fly, I am convinced I should have had to 
 content myself with the single brace which the 
 morning rise had brought me, and that would 
 have been a disappointing ending to a good seven 
 days. 
 
 6—2 
 
44 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 OF THE JUDICIOUS USE OF THE MOON. 
 
 Though bHnder than the proverbial bat in any 
 slanting light, and therefore not as fortunate as I 
 should like to be in fishing the evening rise, and 
 though academically of opinion that fishing should 
 cease when the dusk no longer lets the angler 
 discern his fly, I confess to being at least as un- 
 willing as any better endowed with sight to leave 
 the water-side while the trout are still busy 
 sucking down the spinners ; but there are occasions 
 when, if the moon be up enough to cast black 
 shadows under the banks, and I can find the 
 suitable spot with rising fish, I envy no man his 
 superior eyesight — mine is good enough. Let me 
 illustrate my meaning by describing the occasion 
 on which I made my little discovery. 
 
 It was an evening in July. I had not begun 
 fishing before four o'clock, and the afternoon had 
 only earned me a single trout, and he no great 
 shakes, either. The evening rise came on, and 
 the trout began to feed briskly ; but my infirmity 
 was against me, and I missed or misjudged several 
 rises, and it began to look as if I were going to 
 make nothing of my opportunity, when I came 
 to a bend where the current swung in pitch-black 
 shadow under the opposite bank, while between 
 the near edge of the shadow and my bank the 
 stream ran molten moonlight. Round the bend 
 in the dark I could hear the trout feeding away 
 
SPECIAL CONDITIONS— WET-FLY SOLUTIONS 45 
 
 gaily, and the rings of their rises surged into the 
 silver of the lighted current. 
 
 It seemed a mad thing to do, but I despatched 
 my Tup's Indispensable to a spot in the dark as 
 near as I could judge above the ring of a good 
 fish. My cast lay Hke a hair on the surface, stretch- 
 ing into the dark, not too taut. Suddenly I saw 
 my gut draw straight upon the current, the farther 
 end disappearing under the sheen of the moonlight, 
 and, without waiting to think, I raised my rod- 
 point, to find myself in battle with a solid fish. 
 Thrice in the twenty minutes the rise lasted did I 
 repeat this experience. Each trout was soundly 
 hooked, and a nice level lot they were, running 
 from one and a quarter to one and a half pounds. 
 Thus was success at the last moment pulled by a 
 fluke out of almost certain defeat. It is not always 
 possible to find place and light serving in this 
 way, but if you do, make use of the moon. 
 
 THE WET-FLY OIL TIP. 
 
 In my observations upon the judicious use of the 
 moon, I indicated the advantage to be derived, in 
 cases where the light prevented the rise from being 
 otherwise detected in due time, from watching the 
 gut cast as a float signalHng the taking of the fly. 
 Indeed, it is not only by night that the cast may 
 be watched with advantage, but often by day when 
 casting a fly, wet or dry, but especially wet, into 
 a bad light, while the cast or part of it may be 
 
46 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 seen floating on a glassy piece of water. It is now 
 some years since, in the columns of the Fishing 
 Gazette, I called attention to what I described as 
 the "wet-fly oil tip" in this connection. I take 
 no credit for this invention. It belongs entirely 
 to Mr. C. A. M. Skues, the secretary of the Fly- 
 fishers' Club, and its discovery came about in 
 this way : 
 
 We were fishing opposite banks of a German 
 trout stream, the Erlaubnitz, and the rise of 
 fly had petered out. The trout, which had been 
 hovering over their pockets in the weeds and in 
 the runs between them, had dropped out of sight, 
 and it was obvious that it would need something 
 to attract them more noticeable than the pale 
 watery duns which were the staple of the season. 
 We agreed upon Soldier Palmers tied with bright 
 scarlet seal's fur. Presently the far bank began 
 catching them, though he was fishing upstream 
 wet in rather fast water. I hailed him, and he 
 said he had paraffined his gut cast to within the 
 last two links from the fly and watched his cast. 
 I was not above a hint, and in a minute or two I 
 was experiencing the benefit of the wet-fly oil tip, 
 and we were kept busy till six o'clock brought on 
 the usual rise of Little Pale Blue of Autumn, and 
 a change to floating patterns. It also involved a 
 change of cast, for a cross-stream cast with oiled 
 gut betrays you with a vile drag. It is a dis- 
 advantage of paraffining your gut that it limits 
 
SPECIAL CONDITIONS— WET-FLY SOLUTIONS 47 
 
 you to one cast — viz., that directly upstream. 
 But there are times when it is well to accept 
 the limitation. 
 
 OF GENERALSHIP AND THE WET FLY. 
 
 There is a bend on Itchen where the water runs 
 deep and black. Over the best of it hang three 
 large trees, under which, if trout be rising any- 
 where on the river, they will be found pegging 
 away, and often when they are moving nowhere 
 else. The place is near the spot where anglers 
 foregather for lunch and a pull at pipe or flask ; 
 so the fish under these trees are hammered more 
 than a little, and their knowledge is in direct pro- 
 portion to their experience. Here, too, anglers 
 usually take apart their split canes in the evening, 
 and, ere they do so, have one last chuck in the 
 dusk with Sedge, Coachman, or large Red Quill at 
 one or all of these rising trout, but it is the rarest 
 thing for one to be caught. I have caught six of 
 them in fifteen years. Perhaps it is because to 
 cover them one must fish straight across from the 
 opposite bank — no other attack is possible — and 
 they can hardly fail to see rod and angler. 
 
 But it fell about in the year of grace 1909 that 
 my lawful occasions took me along the right bank, 
 on which the trees grew, past the haunt of these 
 aggravating risers, and I took the occasion to 
 observe. None of them were moving at the time, 
 and the water was lower by some inches than the 
 
48 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 normal. I looked in the place where the best of 
 the risers was usually present when attending to 
 business, but he was not there. Four or five yards 
 farther upstream the bottom, from being shallow, 
 dipped suddenly to the deep, with a sharp brown 
 earthy edge, and there, lying in shelter from the 
 current under the earthy ledge at the head of the 
 hole, lay a trout which I put down at a comforting 
 two pounds. He saw me, and slithered into his 
 fastness, but I did not forget the hint. Many 
 times had I cast to that trout when rising, but 
 always under a tree some yards below. Now I 
 would cast to him when not rising, and I would 
 fish him in his hide. The lowest of a small cohort 
 of ribbon-weeds craning their tips gently over the 
 surface indicated the neighbourhood of the lip of 
 the hole, and, scanning the opposite side carefully, 
 I marked the exact bunch of yellow flower from 
 behind which I ought to deliver my cast, and 
 marked on the hither bank a bunch of purple 
 hemlock which indicated the centre of the hole. 
 
 Later in the day from the opposite bank I sent 
 over a wet Tup's Indispensable to the weed's edge 
 several times without avail. 
 
 The next time I came down the fish was rising 
 to surface food, and I left him severely alone. 
 My time was to be when he was not rising, for no 
 trout seems able to resist a nymph at any time, 
 even if not feeding, and a nymph of sorts he should 
 have. Coming back later, I found stillness reign- 
 
SPECIAL CONDITIONS— WET-FLY SOLUTIONS 49 
 
 ing ; so, mounting a Tup's Indispensable, I soaked 
 it well, and flicked it over to the edge of the weeds. 
 It lit, and went under, leaving the gut for the 
 most part along the surface. The gut drifted 
 down, the fly end slowly slipping under the upper 
 film. The fly was withdrawn and the cast re- 
 peated. Once more the gut lay along the surface ; 
 once more it slipped slowly through to a point ; 
 then it seemed to move under with a certain 
 decision. I raised my rod-point with a drawing 
 action, and the trout which had defied ten thou- 
 sand dry flies was on. He wasn't quite two pounds, 
 but it doesn't matter. It was generalship which 
 got him, which discerned that in his holt he was 
 possibly accessible to the seductions of the casual 
 nymph-suggesting wet fly in a way in which he 
 was not accessible to the temptations of the too 
 well known dry fly in the place of vantage where 
 he daily fed. 
 
 A POTTED TROUT, AND ONE OTHER. 
 
 When the drowners are out in the water- 
 meadows flushing the ditches till they flood the 
 tables and drench the grasses with water seeking 
 its way back through the herbage to the river by 
 way of ditch, drain, and carrier, the wise old trout 
 who know their business may be found in narrow 
 ditches and channels down to foot-wide runnels in 
 search of the earthworm and the miscellaneous 
 pickings of the grasslands. Again, when July 
 
 7 
 
50 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 comes round, and the season of minnowing is indi- 
 cated, the big trout once more make their way, in 
 search of minnows, into the narrower irrigation 
 channels of the water-meadows. So ardent are 
 they at times in pursuit of their quarry that on 
 occasion it is possible to net them out without their 
 becoming aware of their danger. 
 
 On one occasion I got three good trout thus from 
 behind at one scoop of the landing-net, and turned 
 them back into the main. 
 
 Often, if they get into a channel with a constant 
 flow and a steady food-supply, trout will not care 
 to drop back to the river, and will take up a 
 position of strength, where, inaccessible to the fly 
 of the angler, they daily increase in size and lusti- 
 hood. Such potted fish are almost entirely sub- 
 aqueous feeders, a floating dun rarely crossing 
 their field of vision. They grow dark and copper- 
 coloured, and very unlike the fish of the river from 
 which they hail. 
 
 One such fish do I remember, who took up his 
 holt in the eddy just above a hatch-hole, through 
 which ran the whole of a brisk stream some two to 
 two and a half feet wide, turning at right angles to 
 do so, after impinging on his eddy as on a sort of 
 water-buffer. It was not hard to approach the 
 place without being seen, but the moment one 
 looked over the edge his troutship would flash 
 down through the hatch-hole and into the racing 
 stream beneath. Several times I mounted a 
 
SPECIAL CONDITIONS— WET-FLY SOLUTIONS 51 
 
 Sedge, tied on a No. 2 hook attached to a strong 
 cast, and dibbed cautiously over the edge. Once 
 I caught a companion trout of one pound five 
 ounces, but on all other occasions the attempt 
 was fruitless. 
 
 Tired at length of these failures, and not pleased 
 that such a trout as our friend of the hatch-hole 
 eddy should give no sport to the fly, one afternoon 
 I approached the hatch-hole from below, shd down 
 my wide and large landing-net into the thrust of 
 the stream, and looked suddenly over into the 
 eddy. There was a brown flash to the hole, and 
 next moment the trout was kicking in the net — 
 black hogback with red copper sides and gleaming 
 white belly, two and a half pounds, and as fat as 
 a pig. Swiftly I conveyed him the needful fifty 
 yards or so to a side-stream some ten or twelve 
 yards wide, and turned him carefuUy loose. He 
 made no pretence of being scared, but moved 
 leisurely away across and up stream. I watched 
 him cross a patch of weeds and enter a gravelled 
 clearing, where a tidy trout lay, butt him out of 
 it, and estabhsh himself in his place. In a few 
 moments he moved up into the next place, 
 butted out the brace of trout which occupied it, 
 and took the position of vantage. He did not 
 remain long, but moved to the next pool, again 
 ejecting the occupants. 
 
 Still dissatisfied, he moved higher up to where 
 the stream was narrowed by camp-sheathing to 
 
 7—2 
 
52 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 support a low wooden bridge over which carts pass 
 to carry the meadow hay. Here he ejected the 
 three or four occupants, and estabhshed himself 
 finally, with his neb close up under the sill of the 
 bridge — too close for a fly to be got in ahead of 
 him — obviously with the key of the larder in his 
 pocket ; and here daily for the next five days of 
 my stay I saw him firmly planted, but, though I 
 plied him with Sedge, and Quill, and Tup's Indis- 
 pensable, wet fly and dry fly, I never got an offer 
 or an indication of a desire to offer from him, nor 
 did I ever see him break the surface, and I left 
 him in situ at the end of my visit. 
 
 During these five days, however, crossing from 
 the smaller stream to the main, I saw a trout in 
 a foot-wide runnel hovering with that quivering 
 of the fins that indicates a wilhngness to feed. 
 He was not a big fish — about one pound — but I 
 thought it would be sport to try and cast to him 
 and catch him in so narrow a channel, and I knelt 
 down to dehver the fly. He saw me, however, 
 and moved up. It was on my way 'cross meadow 
 to the main, so I followed him till I came to the 
 place where the runnel's water-supply issued from 
 a pipe which entered its head, at right angles to 
 its course, from the centre of one of the tables. 
 The flow from the pipe had worried out a comer 
 hole, which was wide and deep enough to admit 
 my whole landing-net and a bit over, and I dipped 
 it in. I saw the amber gleam of my trout as he 
 
SPECIAL CONDITIONS— WET-FLY SOLUTIONS 53 
 
 slashed by me and fled back down the runnel he 
 had ascended, but wriggling in the net which I 
 lifted was a bouncing fish, black, hogbacked, with 
 copper sides and white belly, in first-rate fettle, 
 and weighing better, at a guess, than one and a 
 half pounds, evidently an old inhabitant of that 
 corner. The main was but a few yards off, and 
 I carefully turned in my captive. 
 
 Two days later I was fishing up the bank of the 
 main in blazing sunshine, searching for a rising 
 fish, but finding none, when my attention was 
 attracted by a movement in the water close under 
 my bank some ten or fifteen yards above the spot 
 where I turned the trout in. I dropped my wet 
 Greenwell's Glory a foot or so from the spot, and, 
 answering the draw of the floating gut signalling 
 some under-water adhesion, I tightened on a nice 
 fish, and after the usual preliminary exhibition of 
 coyness, emphasized by sundry jumpings, I per- 
 suaded him to come ashore. The spring-balance 
 said one pound ten ounces. Colour, size, and shape, 
 were identical with the trout I had turned back 
 two days before, and though, of course, I cannot 
 prove it, I have no doubt he was the same. 
 
 Now, why did one of these potted trout take the 
 fly, and the other refuse ? This is my theory : 
 Both had got the exclusive habit of subaqueous 
 feeding, but the big one had his nose in a position 
 where it was impossible to get a wet fly to him 
 so as to pitch above him, or even alongside of his 
 
54 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 head, and the water was too fast for it to be worth 
 the while of a fish of his cahbre to turn and follow 
 a mere nymph. The smaller fish was in a position 
 to be covered, and the moment the nymph came 
 to him under water he had it as a matter of course. 
 Possibly, in the same position the larger trout 
 might have done the same. 
 
 OF TWO SATURDAY AFTERNOONS. 
 
 They were consecutive. Both were in August, 
 1909, and the reason why they are recorded is not 
 because of any remarkable success, but because 
 they illustrate varying conditions on the same 
 river, proving amenable to varying treatment. 
 
 The first found me by the water-side soon after 
 two o'clock. The morning rise was completely 
 over. Not even a grayling was rising. The water 
 was deadly still. A full stream was running, 
 because the hay-makers were in the meadows, and 
 no water that could be kept out was being let into 
 ditches and carriers ; so it was no good exploring 
 them for stray risers, as at other times I might 
 have done. For some time I explored likely 
 places under the sedges with floating flies — No. i 
 Red Sedge with hare's-ear body, Red Ant, and 
 Tup's Indispensable — but without eliciting the 
 faintest response. Then about five o'clock I put 
 up a wet Greenwell's Glory, and cast it upstream, 
 wet, into every little likely pool between the bank 
 and the weed-bed which grew intermittently a 
 
SPECIAL CONDITIONS— WET-FLY SOLUTIONS 55 
 
 yard or two out from the bank. The change was 
 immediate. By six o'clock I had three and a half 
 brace of average fish {biggest one pound ten 
 ounces), all on the same fly. Fish would surge a 
 yard or more to meet it, would even turn down- 
 stream and take it, though the floating fly had 
 not moved a single one to offer. There was no 
 evening rise. 
 
 The following Saturday I was down at the same 
 time. There was the same faint westerly breeze, 
 and much the same light. A few — very few — 
 grayling were taking black gnats for a short time 
 after my arrival, but they soon stopped entirely, 
 and I had only one in my basket. Not a rise 
 dimpled the surface. I continued, however, cast- 
 ing a Black Gnat under my own bank — the right — 
 for some forty or fifty yards, without an offer. I had 
 the mortification of seeing three handsome trout 
 move out from position, and I was just about to 
 change to a Hare's Ear Sedge when I saw a grass- 
 moth flutter out of the sedges and across the water. 
 As luck would have it, I had four floating Grannom 
 in my cap, and it didn't take long to knot one on. 
 In a few minutes I was into a trout, which took 
 as the fly lit. I landed him, and then another, 
 and yet a further brace, every one of which took 
 the Grannom without the least hesitation. Then 
 I found myself trenching on the beat of another 
 angler, and I bethought me that the three fish I 
 had disturbed might be back in position ; so I 
 
56 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 turned down, and, getting below them, cast care- 
 fully to where they ought to be. I whipped one 
 fly off ; then with the new fly I rose the first of 
 them — quite a nice fish — hooked him, and lost 
 him after a short tussle. Examining the hook, I 
 found it pulled out nearly straight owing to a soft 
 wire. Whether that rattled me or not I don't 
 know, but I left my two remaining Grannom in 
 the other two fish successively. Having no more, 
 I fell back on the Sedge in vain. Equally vain 
 were Red Ant (dry) and Greenwell's Glory and 
 Tup's Indispensable (wet), and, as there was no 
 evening rise, I finished up with a basket of two 
 and a half brace, which with better handling 
 should have been four brace. 
 
 On each of these afternoons there was no rise 
 of fish or fly ; and on one nothing but a floating 
 pattern did any good, on the other nothing but 
 a sunk pattern. 
 
 The inference that I might have gone back 
 blank on the first occasion but for the supple- 
 mental aid of the wet-fly method does not seem 
 far-fetched. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 UNCLASSIFIED 
 
 OF HOVERING AND SOARING, AND OF CRUISING 
 
 TROUT. 
 
 The trout that is glued to the bottom is generally 
 a pretty hopeless fish. He is either not wilhng to 
 feed, or, being willing, his suspicions have been 
 aroused and he has gone down. Pretty stories 
 are told of how such fish are occasionally startled 
 into taking by the fly being slammed down with 
 violence on or just behind their heads, but no such 
 instance has come within my experience. 
 
 But the trout which is hovering in mid-water 
 or near the surface is always a hopeful subject. 
 Anglers will tell you he is willing to feed. In my 
 belief, he is more than that ; he is generally actively 
 feeding — under water. 
 
 I remember a trout which lay in the same hole 
 with six grayling. He was hovering not far below 
 the surface, but would have nothing to say to a 
 series of dry flies of appropriate pattern offered 
 him ; but a wet Greenwell's Glory was too much 
 for him, and he turned and took it first cast. He 
 
 51 8 
 
58 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 was undoubtedly feeding on nymphs, but not over 
 weed, and so not bulging ; yet he presented only 
 the appearance of hovering, or, as Walton generally 
 calls it, " soaring." 
 
 Another likely fish is the cruiser on his way to 
 his feeding-station. If I see a wedge-shaped ripple 
 advancing irregularly upstream, and broken at 
 times by a dimple in the centre, I always feel 
 hopeful, and I know that such trout are nearly 
 always of unusual size for the water. It is, of 
 course, difficult to place the ily exactly ; but if 
 that difficulty is overcome, your trout will take 
 it most unsuspiciously. The best course is 
 to throw to one side and a little ahead of the 
 last rise. 
 
 A more difficult proposition is the cruiser who 
 has a small defined beat. You find him moving 
 up the bank in such wise that every cast is short 
 of his rise ; but suddenly, if you are not ware, you 
 will find that he has turned and sailed down- 
 stream to the bottom of his beat, and that your 
 rod and line are absolutely over him. Such a 
 trout seems always fastidious and picksome, but 
 it is all the more gratifying to circumvent him. 
 He is usually taking toll of insects collected in 
 eddies, and a spinner of sorts is more likely 
 to take him than a dun ; but he will often 
 rush for a fly that is being withdrawn under 
 water. 
 
UNCLASSIFIED 59 
 
 OF THE PORPOISE ROLL. 
 
 There is one peculiarly irritating kind of rise in 
 which trout indulge. Just like porpoises, they 
 come up, and, scarcely breaking the surface with 
 the head, expose first the back fin and then the 
 tail as they go down. Often of an afternoon or 
 evening it seems as if every trout in the river were 
 busy at this game. The difficulty is to know, on 
 such occasions, what they are taking. " Detached 
 Badger" (p. 119 of " Dry-Fly Fishing ") suggests 
 larvae, but though at times I have caught fish thus 
 rising with sunk flies, I am inclined to doubt their 
 taking nymphs or larvae, and to suspect spinners. 
 This (even if the trout be taking nymphs) is not 
 properly described as " bulging," that term being 
 confined to the swashing rises when a fish rushes to 
 and fro, making visible waves, ending in a boil as 
 it turns in the act of fielding the subaqueous insect. 
 Fortunately, this porpoise type of rise is rare, for 
 when trout indulge in it sport is consistently bad. 
 I have been promising myself for the last two or 
 three seasons that, when I drop on such a rise, I 
 will try Mr. F. M. Halford's spent spinner patterns, 
 but in an average number of days' fishing I have 
 failed to drop on an occasion when the trout have 
 been thus rising. 
 
 8—2 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 SUNDRY CONSIDERATIONS 
 
 OF THE RELATION OF PATTERN TO THE POSITION 
 OF TROUT, AND HEREIN OF THE TAKING OFF 
 OF WARY WILLY. 
 
 It is perhaps a small matter which is treated under 
 this head, but anything which helps the angler to 
 a correct selection of fly is so much to the good, 
 and the point I want to make here is that the 
 haunt of a fish is an item to be taken note of in 
 deciding what items to put upon the menu to be 
 offered for his selection. For instance, if your 
 trout be in position in the middle of a fairly wide 
 stream, and that be his habitual post, it is practi- 
 cally little good giving him an imitation of any 
 insect which haunts the bank only, such as alder 
 in its season, sedge, grass-moth, or willow-fly, 
 which, on the other hand, may be tried in their 
 season, with every prospect of success, upon fish 
 under the banks. 
 
 Well do I remember how marked this rule was 
 in its application on a day in September, 1903, on 
 a German limestone river. In the middle the 
 
 60 
 
SUNDRY CONSIDERATIONS 6i 
 
 willow-fly, which was out in quantity that day, 
 was no good. The trout wanted duns, and willow- 
 flies were no use to them, or probably there, away 
 from the banks, were practically unknown ; but 
 under the alder and willow-fringed banks on either 
 side the trout took the spent willow-fly freely, 
 and, of thirty-seven trout, no less than thirty-four 
 fell that day to the willow-fly under the banks, 
 but not one from mid-river. Many a time the 
 trout will take a sedge or an imitation of the grass- 
 moth under the banks when quite shy of them in 
 midstream. In connection with this I may 
 record an incident which is framed in my mind as 
 the strange disappearance of Wary Willy. 
 
 Wary Willy was almost a public character. He 
 inhabited a club water not far from Winchester, 
 and was always at his post when duty called. But 
 he was of an obliging turn of mind, and always 
 ready to show sport to the new-comer who might 
 be tempted to put a fly over him. Yet it was not 
 for nothing that he had earned his name, for, though 
 many had risen him, none was recorded as having 
 hooked him. His holt was under a grassy bank 
 (right of the river), about three yards above the spot 
 where a willow stump extended a solitary branch at 
 right angles to the current, a foot above and about 
 two yards out into the stream, so that any angler 
 who paid his respects to Wilham had to send his 
 invitation across the willow-bough, a state of 
 things which led to difficulties and language for the 
 
62 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 angler, and to an amused retreat on the part of 
 Willy. Yet a short time later he would be back 
 at J his post, adding to his collection of the 
 Ephemeridse with undiminished zest. 
 
 I was not a member of the club, but I paid a 
 visit to a friend who had a rod, and he very good- 
 naturedly insisted on my trying his nine-foot 
 Leonard over Wary Willy, and he brought me to the 
 place. I had no tackle with me, so I had to use my 
 friend's floating flies. The wind was light and in 
 the right direction, and I got my fly over the 
 branch nicely and covered him several times, and 
 as I let my reel-line drop on the water below the 
 branch the current carried my fly back successfully 
 several times ; but at length I was hung up, and 
 when I tried to release myself Willy had business 
 elsewhere. 
 
 On this water the club members and the 
 keepers said that sedges were no use. It was 
 a dun and spinner water only. So when in 
 the afternoon I met the head-keeper, and saw 
 a small Red Sedge in his cap, I made no bones 
 of asking for it, as it was of no use. Borrow- 
 ing the Leonard once more, I tied on the Red 
 Sedge, and stole up cautiously to Willy's abode. 
 But just ere I got to position a fish rose to the 
 right of his place, about three yards out from the 
 bank. I did not wish him to scare Willy, so, to 
 get him out of the way first, I dropped the sedge 
 upon his nose, and he had it immediately. He 
 
SUNDRY CONSIDERATIONS 63 
 
 was very indignant at the imposition that had 
 been put upon him, and turned several somersaults 
 in the air, and altogether put up quite a good fight 
 for a fish of his ounces, which numbered twenty- 
 five. I had, however, steered him carefully, so 
 that his antics should not disturb William, and I 
 approached that worthy's holt with a modest con- 
 fidence that William stood in the way of getting 
 a surprise. But William was not there, William 
 never came back. He couldn't. He was dead, 
 and in my friend's landing-net. But it was several 
 days before remorse began to work in me, for it 
 was not till a week or so later that my friend told 
 me of the disappearance of Wary Willy. But 
 Willy had always been fished with duns. He 
 knew all the patterns of Holland and Chalkley and 
 Ogden Smith, but never had he had cause to suspect 
 the genuineness of a sedge — and so good-bye Willy ! 
 
 OF THE USE OF SPINNERS DURING THE RISE OF 
 DUNS, AND HEREIN OF THE VAGARIES OF THE 
 BLUE-WINGED OLIVE. 
 
 " The Red Quill," says Mr. F. M. Halford, " is 
 one of the sheet-anchors of the dry-fly fisherman 
 on a strange river when in doubt." Never was a 
 truer word spoken. Mr. Englefield of Winchester, 
 I believe, conducted the experiment of confining 
 himself to the Red Quill (in a variety of sizes and 
 shades, and with and without the addition of gold 
 and silver tags) for a whole season, and did as 
 
64 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 well with the one fly as in other seasons with a 
 larger selection. And it is a remarkable fact that 
 the Red Quill, bearing more resemblance to a Red 
 Spinner than to a dun, will frequentty kill during a 
 rise of duns as well as, or better than, quite a good 
 imitation of the dun itself. It will also be found 
 that during the rise of any kind of dun its spinner 
 will often take as well as, if not better than, the 
 subimago pattern. For instance, a Red Spinner 
 during a rise of olives, a Claret Spinner when the 
 iron-blue dun is on, and a Sherry Spinner when 
 the blue-winged olive is on. 
 
 All the spinners do not die and fall spent on 
 the water over night. Some come on to the water 
 in the cool of the early morning, and if the angler 
 tries in the hot weather for an early morning trout, 
 the spinner may be commended to him as giving 
 him his best chance, so far as floating patterns 
 are concerned. And when, before the rise comes 
 on, an odd fish or so may be found in position 
 putting up occasionally at something, spinners 
 may legitimately be suspected. Therefore it may 
 be that, when the rise comes on, the memory of a 
 recent acquaintance with more delicious morsels 
 than the current duns leads to a readiness on his 
 part to absorb the floating imitation spinner. 
 
 The blue-winged olive is a large and handsome 
 fly, and its hatch is usually an evening matter, 
 though I have seen it at all hours of the day. But 
 when it is on, and there are other duns at the same 
 
SUNDRY CONSIDERATIONS 65 
 
 time, it is always possible to distinguish the trout 
 which are taking the blue-winged olive by the 
 curious shape of the boil they make in taking it ; 
 a kidney-shaped boil, with two distinct whorls 
 right and left. And if the angler is provided with 
 Orange Quills on No. i hooks, and will pick out 
 these fish, he may count on sport worth remember- 
 ing, though possibly not a spinner may be on the 
 water at the time. Curiously enough, such a thing 
 as a good imitation of the blue-winged olive in 
 the subimago form has yet to be invented. 
 Patterns are tied which will kill an occasional 
 trout, but the Orange Quill, if the rise be anything 
 like a good one, means three or four brace, and 
 probably all big fish. 
 
 One evening, June 24 in 1908, I ran down 
 to Winchester by the 6.50 train to see Eton 
 V. Winchester on the next day, and I got down 
 there about eight o'clock. I had not meant to 
 fish overnight, but I thought there was time for a 
 cast before the dusk drew in, and I picked up a nine- 
 foot Leonard and a landing-net, stuck a damper 
 with a cast in my pocket, and a small box of flies, 
 and got down to a broad shallow. I found several 
 fish rising, and at once diagnosed the blue-winged 
 olive. So I tied on a large Orange Quill and 
 cast to the nearest. Up he came, and was off 
 with a flounder. Without losing a moment, I 
 covered the next with the ensuing cast. The 
 same thing occurred, and I promptly dropped my 
 
 9 
 
66 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 next cast a yard to the right over the third fish. 
 He, too, came up and fastened. He went straight 
 to weed, but, holding him quite Hghtly, I soon 
 had the satisfaction of feehng him beat himself 
 free of the weeds, and presently I netted him out. 
 The fly was quite soaked, and I tried to change it, 
 but it was too dark, and so I knocked off, having 
 risen three trout to the Orange Quill in three 
 successive casts. 
 
 Some years ago I dressed for my friend, M. Louis 
 Bougie, of Paris and the Fly-fishers' Club, a winged 
 imitation of the blue-winged olive, which is at 
 certain seasons almost the only dun on the chalk 
 streams of Normandy, and he can kill an occa- 
 sional fish on it. Its dressing is immaterial, for I 
 never could do any good with it myself ; but one 
 evening I was fishing the Varennes with M. Bougie, 
 when there came on a good fall of blue-winged olive 
 spinner. My friend caught a trout with his 
 pattern, and by the aid of a spoon I got from its 
 stomach, and turned into a glass, three large 
 greenish-amber spinners, with the distinctive three 
 setae ; and next morning in a capital light I tied 
 an imitation of these insects, spent-gnat-wise, 
 with seal's fur body of palish yellow-green olive of 
 appropriate mixture of furs. Next evening we 
 each got fish with these imitations, M. Bougie 
 more than I, and I have always been promising 
 myself that I will put it up one blue-winged 
 olive evening on the Hampshire rivers ; but 
 
SUNDRY CONSIDERATIONS 67 
 
 when the occasion has come, and that distinc- 
 tive rise is seen, I have never been able to 
 resist taking the Orange Quill rather than the 
 spent olive pattern out of the box where they 
 repose together. It is hard to resist three or 
 four brace. 
 
 OF GENERAL FEEDERS, AND HEREIN OF THE 
 UNDOING OF AUNT SALLY. 
 
 There are places in most rivers — generally, I 
 think, about the spots most frequented by man — 
 where trout establish themselves, which seem, 
 though willing enough to take duns as they come, 
 to be independent of them as a staple food, and 
 to take gaily every day and all day long, and 
 often far into the night, whatever fly-food comes 
 along, always excepting, hie^i entendu, the angler's 
 flies, however dehcately offered. Such trout are 
 readily put off their feed, but not for long, and 
 the angler, returning to the spot after a short 
 absence, may make up his mind to find his friend 
 back in position, pegging away as freely as 
 ever. Everyone has a chuck at these fish — 
 no one can resist them ; but it is a rare thing 
 for one to be caught — and the Coachman 
 may account for a few. A strong ruffle in the 
 water may enable you to take one unaware, 
 but, generally speaking, the ordinary tactics, 
 whether dry-fly or wet, are thrown away on such 
 fish, and the only chance is to fall back on some- 
 
 9—2 
 
68 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 thing exceptional either in lure or in method of 
 attack, or both. 
 
 Followeth the example of 
 
 The Undoing of Aunt Sally. 
 
 She was called Aunt Sally because everyone 
 felt bound to have a shy at her. Her coign of 
 vantage was near the bottom of the water, where 
 the fishery begins, and her irritating " pip, pip," 
 as she took fly after fly in the culvert that was her 
 home was too much for the nerves of nine anglers 
 out of ten, so that the absurdest efforts to circum- 
 vent her were made daily — efforts to float a dry 
 upwinged dun down the culvert from the top : 
 result, immediate and irremediable drag ; efforts 
 to flick a fly upstream to her in the culvert from 
 below : result, broken rod-tops, barbless hooks, 
 flies flicked off against the brickwork, and other 
 disasters, leading to profanity. 
 
 The locus in quo was a stream in the South of 
 England, flowing some fifteen yards or so wide at 
 a good even pace, with a nice purl on it, down to 
 and past a deep hole used for bathing by the 
 farmers' lads. From this hole, a culvert in the 
 left bank, a yard wide and, say, four yards long, 
 diverts a considerable body of the stream into a 
 new channel, to drive a mill in the town below. 
 This was the fastness in which Aunt Sally had 
 taken up her abode, and throughout the spring 
 and summer had defied all efforts to dislodge her. 
 
SUNDRY CONSIDERATIONS 69 
 
 It was my first visit to the stream that year, and 
 from 9 a.m. till 3 p.m. on an August day I had 
 worked away for meagre results. There was no 
 rise of fly after ten o'clock, and a strong rise of 
 water-rats. Three trout had I turned over, and one 
 of one pound two ounces reposed in my bag. I had 
 not seen a rising fish for hours, when, weary and 
 disappointed, I drifted down the right bank to the 
 bottom of the fishery, and sat down to rest on the 
 steps which are set in the hole to assist bathers in 
 clambering out. 
 
 " Pip !" I heard coming from somewhere. I 
 looked upstream, I looked under my own bank, 
 but not a sign of a ring was to be seen. " Pip, 
 pip !" again. At last, leaning low and looking 
 through the culvert, I saw, some two yards down, 
 what I took to be a dimple of a rising fish. Watch- 
 ing a few moments, I saw it repeated, and my 
 spirits revived. My point was fine, so I took it off 
 and knotted on a yard of sound Refina gut, and 
 ended it with a brown beetle with peacock's herl 
 body and red legs. I soaked him well, so that 
 there should be no drag on the surface, and then, 
 getting my length for the other side, let the fly 
 and gut drag in the stream till the moment I made 
 my cast. Fly and gut together struck the brick 
 face of the culvert, and fell in a heap at the mouth. 
 Instantly the current caught the fly and gut, and 
 extended it down the culvert. Almost at the 
 same moment the current of the main stream, 
 
70 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 across which my reel-Une lay, began to drag upon 
 it, and completed the extension of the gut by the 
 time the beetle had run a short two yards down the 
 culvert. At once it began to drag back. This 
 was too much for Aunt Sally — to have that 
 beetle scuttling from her when it was almost in 
 her mouth. She came at it, and in a flash secured 
 it ere it could escape from the culvert ; and before 
 she could turn she was skull-dragged out of her 
 fastness and turned down into the stream below. 
 She made a determined fight for it, but she was 
 very soundly hooked, and I gave no needless law, 
 so that her fifteen inches were soon laid out upon 
 the grass. Not knowing of her fame, I was quite 
 content with her one pound eleven ounces ; but an 
 angler who told me of her reputation said she had 
 always been put down as a much bigger fish. An 
 hour later I looked down the culvert again, but 
 the water had dropped some inches, and there was 
 not enough current through the culvert to make 
 it fishable. I had hit the happy moment for the 
 undoing of Aunt Sally. 
 
 OF ATTENTION TO CASUAL FEEDERS. 
 
 The happening fish is a godsend to the angler 
 whom time or trains, failure to find the taking 
 fly, or other act of God or the King's enemies, 
 have prevented from making his basket during the 
 main hatch of duns. By the " happening fish " is 
 to be understood, not the chance riser to a chance 
 
SUNDRY CONSIDERATIONS 71 
 
 cast, but the trout which, by reason of a larger 
 stomach capacity, misfortune of position, shortage 
 of fly, disincUnation for the society of tailers, or 
 the pursuit of the succulent shrimp, or neglect 
 of his opportunities during the main rise, is left 
 hungry, or at least hungry enough not to have 
 left off feeding after — often long after — the main 
 rise has petered out ; and also the trout whose 
 hearty appetite ranges him under the bank in 
 advance of the rise, in a state of impatience for his 
 meal, which leads him to sample such hors d'oeuvres 
 as the stream may bring his way. For reasons 
 which shall be made apparent, both of these classes 
 of trout offer themselves an easier prey to the 
 angler than the trout who is busy with a steady 
 diet of hatching duns. It is doubtful whether 
 the advice often tendered to the over-eager, to 
 allow the rising trout to get well set at the wicket, 
 is really sound, as, by the time he is well set, his 
 appreciation of what is offered him has become 
 greatly sharpened by a prolonged experience of 
 it as it should be, and he is as likely as not to 
 refuse anything that does not appeal to him as 
 being identical with the natural insect he has 
 been absorbing so m.uch of ; and I know no 
 more likely fish to take, if you get your fly 
 to him right, than a trout which is cruising up 
 to his feeding-ground, picking a fly or two on 
 the way. Freely I confess that whole rises have 
 passed me too many a time without my having 
 
72 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 succeeded in ascertaining what the trout would 
 take, and on such days — and again on days 
 when trains have borne me to the water too late 
 for the morning rise — I might frequently, but for 
 my friend the casual feeder, have brought home 
 a toom creel. 
 
 The places where the casual feeder is to be found 
 at home are various ; but, speaking generally, 
 the casual feeder's position depends on the nature 
 of the fare which the time of day affords him, and 
 the odds are long that from the end of May, when 
 the first of the sedges (the so - called Welsh- 
 man's Button — the " Dun Cut " of the fathers of 
 angling) comes upon the water, that position will 
 be found under the banks where sedge-flies and 
 other bank insects most do congregate, and from 
 which they venture upon the water ; at bridges 
 where a constriction of the current concentrates 
 the food ; at bridges where spinners are apt to 
 dance until their dancing minutes be done, and 
 sedges often shelter in brickwork ; at hatches 
 where woodlice and other insects harbour in the 
 wood, and are prone to drop into the current ; in 
 pockets in the weeds ; and in ditches and carriers 
 where the hatch of duns is sparse and unsatis- 
 factory, and a trout must rely upon other re- 
 sources for his daily sustenance. This may be 
 floating or subaqueous, but is more likely in 
 carriers and swift waters to be subaqueous, inas- 
 much as it is only for a brief period that a hatch 
 
SUNDRY CONSIDERATIONS 73 
 
 takes place ; but subaqueous forms of fly-life are 
 always about (though, no doubt, sparsely at other 
 times than that of the rise), and experience proves 
 that when no definite rise is in progress, no trout 
 that is on the alert finds it easy to resist a nymph 
 who has left his shelter. Hence, given the 
 willingness of the trout to feed, and the absence of 
 a steady diet of dominant attractiveness, there 
 is every inducement for him to be of an open 
 mind as to the provender that will seduce 
 him. 
 
 Then there is our friend the " tailer," of whom 
 more elsewhere. 
 
 Thus, instead of spiking his rod when the morning 
 rise is over, and taking his Walton or his Marcus 
 Aurelius or his Omar Khayyam from his pocket, let 
 the wise angler concentrate on the casual feeder ; 
 and if his reward be not great, there is every 
 chance of its being quite respectable, and he may 
 be saved the humiliation of an empty creel. 
 
 OF THE FREQUENTATION OF DITCHES, DRAINS, AND 
 
 CARRIERS, 
 
 I know of no sight more gloomy than that of a 
 golfer painfully tramping from shot to shot. But 
 perhaps the next gloomiest sight is the angler who, 
 with perhaps but a single day at his disposal, 
 lounges hour by hour by the side of the main river, 
 waiting with such patience as he can muster for 
 the rise which comes not. Let us suppose that 
 
 10 
 
74 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 he is either unable or too magnanimous to fish the 
 wet fly, that there are no fish lying, either visibly 
 or inferentially, in convenient places under his 
 own bank, so that they could be fished to with a 
 dry sedge or a Red Quill. Let him come with me, 
 and we will pull some sport out of adverse con- 
 ditions. Let us begin here, where this hatch is 
 letting a goodly supply of water into this carrier 
 for the watering of the meadows. Be it known 
 unto you, O angler, that the trout of ditches and 
 carriers are far less affected by the rise of duns, 
 and far readier to feed at all times or any time, 
 than those fish of the main river. Here our choice 
 is to fish either a sunk fly, suggesting a nymph 
 (for here an upwinged dun can hardly get through 
 undrowned), a floating fly resembling one of the 
 sedges which dodge about the camp-sheathing or 
 a good-sized Wickham's Fancy. Search all the 
 tail of the run carefully with one or the other of 
 these patterns, and it shall go hard with you if you 
 do not get a chance, at any rate, from a passable 
 fish — possibly more than one. 
 
 A little lower down the carrier runs through a 
 culvert, and, if the hay-makers have not got him 
 out, one is likely to find quite a respectable trout 
 just below the arch, and he is to be had if you 
 fish him right. Farther down there is a low wood 
 bridge, through which the stream flows briskly, 
 and below this there are usually two or three 
 feeding fish. For some reason these are specially 
 
SUNDRY CONSIDERATIONS 75 
 
 sensitive to shadow. I have had many fish from 
 this spot from both sides, but never one from the 
 right, or west, side after two o'clock, or from the 
 other side before two. Having fished these fish, 
 and caught or lost or put them down, let us move 
 over to the next piece of water. It is slow, and 
 has little weed. If it had been a day with a ruffle 
 of wind, or had the drowners turned a good current 
 through, we would have fished it up yard by yard ; 
 but to-day it is no good. But here, a bit farther on, 
 a brisk stream runs through a little hatch, and for a 
 hundred and fifty yards or so makes a most merry 
 little length. Keep low in the long grass, fish it 
 foot by foot, and, so far as you can, turn down all 
 the fish you scare. If you send one up, sit down 
 and wait. It will not be long ere the others recover 
 their equanimity. On a good day you should get 
 your two brace from this length, either with 
 No. I Red Sedge, No. i Red Quill, No. o Pink 
 Wickham or No. o Tup's Indispensable wet, or 
 No. o Wickham's Fancy. Now let us wind up 
 along another brisk little piece of water, perhaps 
 fifteen feet wide, which races in a series of runs, 
 and stretches right across the meadows. It is known 
 as the Highland Burn, and it is full of sporting 
 fish, and you must take the chance of hooking 
 a half-pounder along with your chance of a fish 
 nearer two pounds. And do not neglect the 
 ditch which runs in at right angles halfway 
 up. I have seen a past-master take no less 
 
 10 — 2 
 
76 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 than three capital trout from those few yards 
 in one day, turning each as hooked down into 
 the Highland Burn, and kilHng him there. 
 
 OF THE NEGOTIATION OF TAILERS. 
 
 Authority hath it that " the best policy is, per- 
 haps, to leave tailing fish alone "; but the busy 
 man, who only gets an occasional day's fishing, to 
 whom that advice is too trying and disappointing 
 (meaning me), was recommended to try an 
 Orange Bumble or a Furnace. With an excep- 
 tion I shall presently refer to, it is some years since 
 I have had any experience of tailing trout, for an 
 alteration in a weir has made such a difference in 
 the pace and level of a length on the chalk stream I 
 most do fish, that whereas in the old days the tailer 
 used to be a common sight there, nowadays it is 
 the greatest rarity. But in those old days the 
 tailer was my stand-by. If — as was frequently 
 the case — I made naught of the morning rise, I 
 would betake me to this length and sit down 
 gaily to the siege of each tailer in succession, with 
 the confidence that, unless I made some mistake 
 and scared the fish — and tailers are not too easily 
 scared — sooner or later he was my fish. It was 
 often later, for I had to go on casting, casting, 
 casting, in the hope that the moment might come 
 when my fly would be passing over the trout at 
 the moment when his head was raised, and he 
 was taking breath before another big go at the 
 
SUNDRY CONSIDERATIONS 77 
 
 shrimps and other food in the weed-beds. The 
 frequent casting gave much opportunity for mis- 
 takes, and not infrequently I scared my fish, after 
 wasting half an hour or more over him ; but, on 
 the other hand, I seldom failed to secure at least 
 one fish, and oftener a leash. The method was 
 simplicity itself. I sat down below my fish, and 
 dropped a Pink Wickham a yard or so above 
 where his tail dimpled the surface, and floated it 
 down over him quite dry. This was repeated so 
 long as the fish was there, but if he lifted his 
 head in time to see the fly come over him, there 
 seemed to be some mysterious attraction in that 
 pattern which forbade him to refuse it. Whether 
 this is so in other waters I know not, but I often 
 regret the obliteration of the old race of tailers. 
 They were a great stand-by, and always put up 
 a big battle when hooked. The size of fly was 
 00 for smooth water, but in a ruflie the single 
 cipher size proved better medicine. 
 
 The single occasion above referred to was in 
 May, 1909, in a different part of the river. The 
 water was running thinly over a broad shallow, 
 very full up with weed-beds, and, instead of 
 standing nearly perpendicularly on their heads in 
 order to tail, large numbers of trout and grayling 
 were grubbing at an acute angle with the bottom 
 among the weed-beds, and with violent wriggles 
 of head and body dislodging small insects, which 
 they pursued with rushes plainly marked upon the 
 
78 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 surface, ending, at the moment of capture of the 
 prey, with swirls. I did not put up a Pink 
 Wickham, because I had another experiment to 
 make. In the previous July I had caught three 
 brace before eleven o'clock on a nymph imitated 
 in olive seal's fur from one found in the mouth 
 of a trout on the previous day, and I wanted to 
 give it a trial here, on the chance that it might 
 be found that it was nymphs, and not shrimps, 
 that the tailing fish were shaking out. So, keep- 
 ing the artificial nymph soaking at the end of 
 my line in the run at my feet, I despatched it every 
 now and then across the course of the trout, when, 
 desisting from their grubbing, they pursued the 
 flying quarry. It was generally the case that, 
 by the time the fly lit, the fish was careering 
 off in some different direction ; but several fish 
 pursued my fly and swirled at it, and one takable 
 trout and one short of the regulation twelve inches 
 succeeded in taking it. It was a short and most 
 inconclusive experiment, but, if occasion serves, 
 it will be renewed. 
 
 OF THE FASCINATION OF BRIDGES. 
 
 Years ago, before ever I knew the Upper Itchen, 
 there was a wooden farm bridge which crossed 
 the main river to carry produce. Whether the 
 bridge fell into decay through disuse and neglect 
 consequent upon the fields on the east side being 
 separately let to another farmer, or whether the 
 
SUNDRY CONSIDERATIONS 79 
 
 separate letting occurred because the bridge became 
 dangerous, and would have cost too much to repair, 
 anyhow, when I came first to know this particular 
 part of the river in the early eighties, there was 
 nothing left of the bridge except a stump or two, 
 green with slime, brown with rot, showing just 
 above water, or intercepting weed — just that and 
 a band of bottom a little higher than the river- 
 bed above and below, as if the made bottom 
 which had carried the bridge still persisted. Even 
 the stumps are long gone the way of all stumps, 
 and the made bed is only just traceable if you 
 know where to find it. But for all that, after all 
 these years, this is the place in the river where 
 trout are to be found feeding, if they are found 
 feeding anywhere ; and they feed in much the 
 same way, seeming secure, yet really shy, as the 
 trout feed under or just below all the bridges on 
 the river. All bridge trout seem to be shy. Some 
 bridges make shyer trout than others. I knew 
 one — a railway-bridge on that length — under which 
 in four-and-twenty years I never got a trout, or 
 even a rise, for all I tried persistently, wet and 
 dry, until 1908, and then only because on that 
 particular day a strong ruffle of wind blew up the 
 arch and made good big waves. Then I got a 
 brace to a floating Tup's Indispensable, and lost 
 another fish. Whether it is the holt into which 
 to run at hint of danger, or the insects which 
 haunt the woodwork, or the clear space of un- 
 
8o MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 weeded water in which to swim, or what not, 
 bridges seem to have a special fascination for 
 trout ; and if the fly (preferably a small sedge) 
 can be delicately dropped over the fish as if it 
 fell from the woodwork, the chances of getting 
 him are much increased. 
 
 Trout seem specially watchful at bridges, and, 
 if the water be not too fast, will turn to take a fly 
 which is aimed to hit them on the tail. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 MAINLY TACTICAL 
 
 OF THE DELIBERATE DRAG. 
 
 Of all trials of the chalk-stream angler, perhaps 
 drag is the worst. Yet even drag may be made 
 use of on occasion, to add to the weight of the 
 creel. Years back, on the Erlaubnitz in South 
 Germany, I sat by a mill-head on a blazing 
 and wellnigh hopeless September afternoon. The 
 water was low, much of the head having been 
 run off by the sawmill, and such little current 
 as there was confined itself almost entirely to 
 the centre. Brown and dirty-looking weeds topped 
 the surface along my side of the head. Suddenly 
 I detected a tiny dimple in a little spot where, 
 among the weeds, an eighteen-inch square of clean 
 surface showed itself. I despatched my fly — a 
 Landrail and Hare's Ear Sedge on a No. 3 hook — 
 and by good luck or good management it dropped 
 neatly on the spot. I waited. Three minutes 
 passed. Nothing happened. Then I thought to 
 recover my fly and drop it again in the hole, but 
 with rather less delicacy, so as to attract attention 
 
 81 II 
 
82 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 to its fall. But first I had to recover it. I 
 moved it gently towards the side of the hole, but 
 I could not prevent the effect of a drag on the 
 surface. Yet ere the fly had moved three inches 
 a good pound-and-a-half trout had it, and, after 
 a game of pully-hauly in the weeds, was duly 
 brought to net. This was a limestone stream, 
 and not a chalk stream. 
 
 But in August, 1908, I was on my way through 
 the meadows to the main Itchen, when in a much- 
 weed-encumbered carrier I became aware of a 
 good trout lying in and near the head of a little 
 pool of open water three or four yards long at 
 most, and perhaps a third as wide. My rod and 
 cast were ready, but no fly. So I knotted on a 
 good big sedge — I think a No. 3 Silver Sedge. 
 The water was glassy smooth, and the current 
 would not have carried my fly the length of the 
 open water in much under five minutes. I was 
 afraid to cast above the fish, or to right or left 
 of his head, for I knew it would send him scutthng 
 to weed. I wanted to drop the fly just behind 
 his eyes, but I misjudged, and it fell several inches 
 short, almost upon his tail. I waited a moment ; 
 the trout lay still, but evidently excited. Then 
 I remembered my German experience, and began 
 to draw the fly along the surface. Immediately 
 the trout turned and slashed it, and was soundly 
 hooked. Candour compels me to admit that the 
 gut was also smashed by a strike of unregulated 
 
MAINLY TACTICAL 83 
 
 violence ; but this is entirely beside the point, 
 for it in no sense detracts from the value of my 
 illustration of the occasional serviceableness of the 
 calculated drag in still waters, even with the 
 dry fly. 
 
 My friend M. Bougie acutely distinguishes drag 
 of the kind here described as the drag of deplace- 
 ment, as compared with the drag of retention, 
 which occurs on moving water. 
 
 On the Pang at Bradfield resides a blacksmith 
 named Holloway, who is a first-rate angler, and 
 I have seen him practise the deliberate drag on 
 fast water with the May-fly in a manner which in 
 other hands would send every trout scuttling to 
 cover, but he did not put them down a bit. He 
 ties a May-fly — not a very pretty confection, but 
 admirably constructed for this purpose. The 
 hackle, which is white, instead of standing out 
 more or less at right angles to the hook-shank, is 
 so tied as to lie almost flat upon it, and as a result 
 the fly leaves practically no wake when it is drawn 
 over the fish, and the movement, which he prac- 
 tises assiduously, far from scaring the fish, appears 
 to be actually attractive. Yet the Pang fish are 
 quite wary, and liberties may not be taken with 
 them with impunity. In this case once more we 
 have the drag of deplacement, but it is hard to see 
 why it should not be just as fatal to the angler's 
 chances as the drag of retention. 
 
 II — 2 
 
84 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 IN THE GLASS EDGE. 
 
 A more unpromising May day than that I now 
 tell of it would be hard to conceive. The wind — 
 from the west, with a bite of north in it — blew for 
 the most part dead across stream with strong, 
 shuddering gusts, so violent at times as to force 
 the angler, taken unawares, two or three steps 
 nearer to the water's edge, and more than once 
 nearly to precipitate him into the water between 
 the sedgy tussocks which fringed one side of this 
 length of Upper Itchen. On the previous day 
 there had been a sparse skirmishing line of dark 
 olives on the water at 10.15, covering the main 
 advance at 11.30 ; but to-day 10.30, 11, 11.30, 
 noon, and the intervening quarters, chimed from 
 the belfry, without a fly showing on the water or 
 in the air. At noon the sun shone out for a few 
 moments, and made fitful reappearances at in- 
 tervals till 1.30. Strolling slowly and watchfully 
 up the bank, with an eye on the far side, the 
 angler came upon Keeper Humphrey in atten- 
 dance on another angler, and, on his advice, put 
 up a Red Quill on a No. hook, for lack of one a 
 size larger, and, leaving the other a couple of 
 hundred yards below, sat down to wait for the rise. 
 At length a little upwinged dun was seen in sail 
 in the glass edge, hugging the far bank as close as 
 possible. For a few yards it staggered down, 
 battered by the gale, and then slid sideways 
 
MAINLY TACTICAL 85 
 
 among the flags under pressure of a stronger gust 
 than usual, and was lost to sight. Pitiably sparse 
 the fly were, and in half an hour not more than 
 half a dozen came in sight. All vanished dis- 
 appointingly among the flags. But at last the 
 watcher was rewarded by seeing one disappear in 
 the centre of a tiny widening ring, which scarcely 
 rippled out beyond the narrow glass edge. In a 
 moment distance was got by a trial cast a yard or 
 two downstream, and then the Red Quill dropped 
 perkily a foot above the spot where the dun had 
 disappeared, and went swiftly down on the 
 full current — so swiftly that the angler did not 
 realize until a second too late that the same neb 
 which had lain in wait for the dun had sucked in 
 the Red Quill. The strike was just too late, and 
 a pricked and badly scared trout dashed violently 
 out into the stream. 
 
 In the next little bay another rising trout was 
 located, but the violence of the wind made it 
 necessary to cast too tight a line in order to drop 
 the fly in the glass edge, with the result that a 
 drag began to develop immediately, putting the 
 trout down. A few yards higher a clump of trees 
 made a sort of buffer of air, and the conditions 
 were a bit easier. Yet, though the sun came out 
 and showed the Red Quill gliding down the glass 
 edge, the rise of the next trout was such a delicately 
 neat movement that the angler was once again 
 almost taken unawares. Yet this time he fastened. 
 
86 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 and his first fish of the day, after a dumbfounded 
 second's pause, forged upstream with a rush, 
 tearing hne from the protesting reel. He was not, 
 however, allowed to reach his holt among the 
 weeds, but was turned, and netted out thirty yards 
 or so downstream, after a strenuous resistance. 
 The hook was on the extreme edge of his upper lip, 
 but, fortunately, had taken a beautifully firm hold. 
 The spring-balance recorded one pound fifteen 
 ounces — rather a disappointment, for his hogback 
 and splendour of general condition suggested that 
 he might, though a short sixteen inches, have 
 topped two pounds. 
 
 A moment sufficed to knot on a fresh fly, and 
 the very first cast into the glass edge, to a glide 
 where a dimple betrayed a trout, produced another 
 rise ; and again the offer was accepted, and an 
 excellent fight put up. When eventually netted 
 out, the fish proved to be one pound nine ounces, 
 and even handsomer and finer in condition 
 than number one. He was hooked exactly in 
 the same way. There was one more rise 
 spotted, the fish risen, touched, and seen in the 
 clearness of the glass edge to flash some yards 
 upstream under the far bank. Then the sun 
 went in for a spell, and all was over for the 
 day. The other angler had a brace — two pounds 
 ten ounces and one pound odd — caught in the 
 same way by floating the Red Quill in the glass 
 edge. 
 
MAINLY TACTICAL ^7 
 
 This was one of those rare days when the dry fly 
 can be fished into the bays under the opposite 
 bank. 
 
 OF THE CROSS-COUNTRY CAST. 
 
 If questioned on their favourite mode of ap- 
 proaching a trout, it is probable that nineteen out 
 of every twenty chalk - stream anglers, if not a 
 larger proportion, would plump for the right bank 
 with the rod held over the water. It is doubtless 
 the easiest method. It has various advantages 
 not difficult to enumerate, but it may be gravely 
 doubted whether it is the most effective from the 
 point of view of catching trout. Later under the 
 caption (" The Bank of Vantage ") it is shown 
 — with what success the reader must judge — -that 
 in most states of the wind the left bank has, con- 
 trary to general opinion (other things, of course, 
 being equal), decided advantages over the right. 
 
 Apart from states of the wind, it must be ap- 
 parent that, where the horizontal cast is used, and 
 often where the cast is not strictly horizontal, the 
 left bank has the advantage over the right that 
 the rod and line are less displayed, and far less 
 likely to alarm a wary fish under the angler's own 
 bank than a rod held more or less over the stream ; 
 and, naturally, it is only to a fish under the 
 angler's own bank that the cross-country cast is 
 made. 
 
 Secondly, there is the advantage that little of the 
 line — possibly not all of the gut, even — strikes the 
 
88 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 water. It is enough if the drag and the recovery 
 occur far enough below the fish not to disturb 
 him ; but if the fly be the right pattern the drag is 
 a matter of no consequence, as the cross-country 
 cast comes so lightly, so naturally, and with such 
 concealment of its perils from the trout, that as 
 frequently as not he takes the fly at the first offer. 
 
 Of course, the vegetation on the bank may be 
 such as to render it almost impossible to deliver 
 this cast without being hung up, but the angler 
 should not be too ready to assume that this is so. 
 It is wonderful how, with care, a light hand, and a 
 little patience, the line may be recovered, and what 
 risks may be taken with comparative impunity. 
 It is often astonishing to see how anglers who pay 
 largely for their fishing rights, own costly rods, 
 reels, and lines, and make long train journeys for 
 their fishing, will decline to tackle trout in difficult 
 positions, because it involves the possible loss of 
 a cast or a fly — perhaps is. 2jd. all told — with 
 the odds long in favour of the loss being no more 
 than a fly, and perhaps a point. I am ever for the 
 adventure. The certain smash does not alwavs 
 come off. 
 
 But after the meadows are cut, and when the 
 sedges are low, it is often excellent sport to beat 
 slowly up on either bank, left or right, keeping in 
 either case well inland — especially so on the right 
 bank — and flicking a grass moth or a small sedge 
 dry into every little eddy and bay, and on to 
 
MAINLY TACTICAL 89 
 
 every likely spot under the bank, with never more 
 than three feet — or four feet at the outside — of gut 
 on the water (often not more than eighteen inches or 
 a foot). Of course, a rod which will cast a short 
 line accurately is indispensable. The fly lights like 
 thistledown. On such days, if you work ortho- 
 doxly up your right bank, casting a longish hne 
 upstream, and covering the water with it, you 
 shall not hook one fish for three which you shall 
 take with the cross-country cast. Then, to re- 
 cover it, you must either draw it slowly over the 
 edge where the danger lies, or you must flick the 
 line up so as to belly vertically away from you, 
 and pick the gut and fly cleanly off the water or 
 the herbage. And if occasionally one is hung up, 
 what does it matter ? If it be of service, the 
 angler is not denied such rehef as the golfer freely 
 avails himself of when the deadly bunker has him 
 for its own. 
 
 WHAT TUSSOCKS ARE FOR. 
 
 This is not a riddle. It is a speculation which 
 many anglers have probably indulged in. Some 
 have considered them a providential arrangement 
 for the protection of the business of the dealer 
 in flies and tackle, and verily they have their 
 reasons. At one time I was of that fold, but of 
 late years I have had glimpses of the other side 
 of the shield, and I am beginning to realize that 
 while tussocks may be put along river-sides as a 
 
 12 
 
90 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 trial of the patience of some, yet for others they 
 are a means of providing an occasional trout, and 
 generally a good one, on days when disappoint- 
 ment is king. They are placed, in other words, 
 for the trout to stand on the upstream side and 
 the angler on the downstream side, the latter 
 substantially concealed from the former. It is 
 equally true that the former is also concealed 
 from the latter ; but this is of little consequence 
 if, as is commonly the case, the screen is not dense 
 enough to hide the ring from the angler when the 
 trout takes his fly. 
 
 But it may be said, " What is the use of the con- 
 cealment if the inevitable result of casting over the 
 tussock is to get hung up in it ?" Well, it is not 
 the inevitable result. There are two wa3^s of 
 tackling a tussock. One implies the use of a short 
 rod, or at least a rod capable of an accurate short 
 cast. It will not do to dib. At the first glimpse 
 of the rod-top over the tussock off goes your trout. 
 No ; the fly must be cast, and cast so near the 
 tussock that it drifts down to the fish just above 
 the tussock before it is necessary to pick it up for 
 the next cast with a forward flick. The other 
 method is to cast over the river side of the droop- 
 ing sedges of the tussock from such a distance that 
 only the gut and a foot or two of the casting line 
 go^over the tussock, and to let the belly of the line 
 dip in the water between you and the tussock. 
 Then, if the fly be not taken, the angler shall see 
 
MAINLY TACTICAL 91 
 
 his line coming back smoothly and at the pace of 
 the stream over the tussock, and finally the fly 
 shall be lifted off the surface with no disturbance, 
 and be drawn by the current softly over the 
 tussock, and drop on the surface on his own side, 
 free for the next attempt. 
 
 Obviously, this latter cast is not well suited to 
 the left bank unless the angler be left-handed, and, 
 then, it is not suited to the right bank, unless he 
 be ambidextrous. Ergo, the rod which casts a 
 short Hne with delicacy and accuracy is a desider- 
 atum for this business, as for many others. A 
 heavy rod will seldom be found to do it. When 
 you have hooked your fish, he may be depended 
 on to carry your line at once free of the tussock. 
 I have never had an instance to the contrary, and 
 I have rather an affection for the tussock cast. 
 
 OF THE ALLEGED MARCH BROWN. 
 
 Everyone who reads much angling literature 
 must have come across ingenuous arguments on 
 the wonderful usefulness of the March Brown 
 even on waters, such as the chalk streams, where 
 the natural is not found. It is so. I have found 
 it so myself. One 6th of April some years back I 
 reached the Wey, to find that the Grannom was 
 well on a good week in advance of time, and that 
 I had one imitation, and one only, in my box. 
 To improve upon the humour of the situation, I 
 allowed — nay, I forced — the first trout to whom 
 
 12 — 2 
 
92 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 I presented it to keep it. But was I down- 
 hearted ? No ! I had some small floating March 
 Browns, which, with the whisks pinched off, 
 made quite satisfactory Grannoms and saved 
 the situation. On other occasions I have used 
 Grannom and March Brown indifferently to 
 represent the grass-moths with which the meadows 
 and banks were teeming, and they each did the 
 job excellently and were most attractive. I have 
 also used the March Brown as a Brown Silver 
 Horns, and to simulate other sedges, and there 
 is no doubt that it is an excellent fly, and, as 
 generally tied, quite a poor imitation of the 
 natural March Brown, and quite a passable 
 imitation of almost anything else. 
 
 GENERAL FLIES AND FANCY FLIES. 
 
 The alleged March Brown may be called a 
 " general fly " — i.e., it is a more or less satisfac- 
 tory imitation, not merely of one, but of many 
 flies. In the same way the Red Quill is a general 
 fly, covering not only a series of red spinners, 
 but also probably the whirling blue dun. Tup's 
 Indispensable used as a floater is an excellent 
 rendering of many red spinners. The sunk 
 variety is an efficient rendering of many nymphs. 
 No. I Whitchurch is, I see, included by Mr. F. M. 
 Halford among fancy flies ; but I should venture 
 to class it as " general," being an effective pre- 
 sentment of the yellow dun series of flies. Green- 
 
MAINLY TACTICAL 93 
 
 well's Glory, again, is a general fly, and with 
 its starling-winged variants it represents a series 
 of olives, from the blue-winged olive to the iron 
 blue (male). 
 
 It is hard to say what precisely are fancy flies, 
 unless one defines them as flies which are not 
 known to represent definitely any insect or class 
 of insects. Whether Wickham's Fancy to the 
 eye of a trout looks the gorgeous golden thing 
 which it does to mankind it is hard to say. I 
 have floated one on water over a mirror, and the 
 reflected image did not look golden at all, but a 
 pale, dim green, much like the colour seen through 
 gold beaten so thin that it is almost trans- 
 parent. The Pink Wickham may seem to the 
 trout to be a sedge with a greenish body. The Red 
 Tag may have its living prototype. The Soldier 
 Palmer is supposed to represent the soldier beetle. 
 But in most of these cases it is impossible to say 
 what the artificial represents, or may represent, in 
 life, and its attraction is apt to be that of some- 
 thing bright and garish which appeals to curiosity 
 or tyranny in the trout, rather than to appetite. 
 Indeed, why a trout should take any artificial 
 fly is a puzzle to me. The very best are not really 
 very like the real thing. One thing is clear : 
 It is not form which appeals to the trout, but 
 colour and size. 
 
 I know a skilful angler who, when he ties on a 
 new split-winged floater, rumples and breaks up 
 
94 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 the fibre of its wings with his fingers before using 
 it. This he does for the excellent reason that it 
 pays. His theory is that it lets the hght through ; 
 but form is entirely sacrificed. 
 
 It is a curious fact that, though the Test and 
 Itchenare " by or dinar' " clear, yet double-dressed 
 floaters can be successfully used on them, which 
 would do little or nothing on other streams, of 
 which the Wandle occurs to me as an example. 
 If I had a day on the Wandle, I should take care 
 to provide myself with single-winged patterns. 
 Can it be that the clearness of the Test and 
 Itchen is such that the fly looks distinct enough 
 by reflected light, while transmitted light is 
 necessary to render the fly noticeable on such 
 streams as the Wandle ? In any case, when 
 visiting a strange river, the angler should see if the 
 fish will or will not stand double-dressed floaters, 
 if he has a fancy for that build of fly. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 CONSIDERATIONS MORAL, TACTICAL, PSYCHO- 
 LOGICAL, AND INCIDENTAL 
 
 OF FAITH. 
 
 Among the many uncertainties which attend the 
 sport of fly-fishing, there is one thing that may be 
 laid down as certain, and that is that no consistent 
 measure of success attends a lure, whether wet, 
 dry, or semi-submerged, in which the angler has 
 not faith ; and it may be shrewdly suspected that 
 much of the ill-success which has attended the 
 use of the wet fly upon chalk streams in the past 
 is due to lack of confidence on the part of the 
 angler. It has been laid down so positively by 
 the high-priests of the dry fly that the wet fly has 
 no chance compared with it — at any rate, on 
 smooth water — and it has been so freely stated 
 that crack wet-fly anglers come down to the 
 chalk streams confident in their powers to make 
 an exhibition of chalk-stream fish, only to retire 
 defeated and converted, that it is little wonder 
 that the chalk-stream angler who tries the wet fly 
 does it half-heartedly ; and it is probable that the 
 
 95 
 
96 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 North-Country man coming to practise his art 
 upon South-Country streams^ and accustomed to 
 catch his trout in considerable numbers, soon be- 
 comes disheartened by failure to do the like on 
 rivers where two or three brace is a good bag. 
 Probably he casts a much shorter line than is 
 advisable on chalk streams, and so scares off or 
 puts down his fish, and discouragement and the 
 sceptical attitude of his South-Country hosts and 
 keepers knock him off his game before he has had 
 time to adjust himself to the (to him) novel con- 
 ditions. 
 
 Fishing a chalk stream with a wet fly is not quite 
 like fishing a mountain stream or North-Country 
 river, and it is not a game to be learnt in an hour 
 or a day. But if the angler will fix his mind 
 firmly on the fact that the wet fly was for centuries 
 the only method in use on chalk streams, and 
 that it brought excellent baskets to good anglers 
 in the past, he may set to work with confidence 
 that in the right conditions the wet fly will kill, 
 and kill well, at this day, and he may set himself 
 with equal confidence to find out for himself how 
 it is done. And let him not be disturbed by the 
 fact that there are days or hours when it has not 
 a chance against the dry fly ; for there are days 
 and hours when the dry fly has not a chance 
 against it, and there are other occasions when the 
 trout will take either with more or less equal 
 freedom. 
 
FAITH 97 
 
 Simultaneously with my own experiments re- 
 corded in this volume, Mr. F. M. Halford was 
 engaged in establishing and proving his latest 
 series of patterns, in which he endeavours to 
 approximate more closely than ever before to the 
 coloration and attitude of the natural insects, 
 especially in his series of spinners. In an article 
 over the signature " Detached Badger," which 
 appeared in the Field of October 22, 1904, Mr. 
 Halford was at some pains to prove that these 
 spinners must be taken floating ; but the feature 
 of these patterns is that they do not, like the old 
 patterns, sit cocked upon the surface, lifted half- 
 hackle-high above it, but, being sparsely dressed, 
 lie low on the water, practically flush with the 
 surface, and thus achieve a closer approximation 
 to the spent natural insect than did the old 
 patterns. This, as much as the more exact color- 
 ation, may account for the success of these 
 patterns. And, after all, a fly that is flush with 
 the water is perilously close to the edge of wet. 
 Tup's Indispensable fished as a spinner in the 
 evening rise will often kill better semi - sub- 
 merged and flush with the surface than thoroughly 
 dried and oiled. It usually serves me well, and 
 I have accordingly scarcely tried Mr. F. M. Hal- 
 ford's new patterns, but when I have done so it 
 has been wet that they have been taken, and 
 not dry. 
 
 I mentioned a few pages back that another 
 
 13 
 
98 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 Itchen angler once fished the whole of a season — it 
 may have been two — with the Red Quill in various 
 shades and sizes, and with differences introduced 
 by the presence or omission of tinsel tags, and 
 he achieved a success with that one pattern or 
 type quite as great as he enjoyed when he allowed 
 himself the full range of the hundred best and 
 some others. 
 
 Clearly, he and " Detached Badger " have had 
 faith — the faith which, if it does not move moun- 
 tains, will at least move trout. And the angler 
 who takes his courage in both hands and experi- 
 ments boldly with the wet fly fished upstream 
 to his trout, or into the place where his trout 
 should be, will find his faith, as mine has been, 
 not without its reward. 
 
 OF THE BANK OF VANTAGE. 
 
 In looking back on a day's fly-fishing, one can 
 realize how much has depended upon the correct 
 selection of the bank to fish from, and an examina- 
 tion of some of the more important of the general 
 considerations governing choice may not be amiss. 
 Special conditions, such as height of banks, the 
 trees and bushes thereon, and the accessibility of 
 the water therefrom, may force upon us deviations 
 from what our judgment would otherwise dictate, 
 and it is impossible to dogmatize about these. 
 There are also cases where the winding character 
 of the stream presents such a constant variety of 
 
THE BANK OF VANTAGE 99 
 
 conditions that it is impossible to say that at the 
 moment of selection one bank is more worthy of 
 choice than the other. But, subject to such special 
 conditions, there are a few general principles which 
 it is well to bear in mind in considering from which 
 side we shall direct our attack. 
 
 The first of these is to avoid such a position as 
 will throw the shadow of angler or rod over the 
 fish. This is an obvious consideration, and one 
 that is easy of application. But it does not neces- 
 sarily follow that, because the sun will throw one's 
 shadow — even a long or formidable shadow — on to 
 the stream from, say, the right bank, one must 
 necessarily adopt the other. It may be that the 
 shadow will be straight across or even behind the 
 angler, or, at any rate, in such a position as, for 
 instance, not to interfere with his casting up- 
 stream, or upstream and across, and the river 
 bottom may not be so bare that the fall of his 
 shadow will send the trout scurrying upstream to 
 disturb and put down the feeding fish above. In 
 narrow streams, however, the effect of shadow in 
 bolting fish upstream is necessarily far more pro- 
 nounced than in streams of moderate width — say 
 twelve to twenty yards. In like manner, the narrow 
 stream should not, if possible, even with a favour- 
 ing upstream breeze, be fished from the right bank, 
 which necessitates holding the rod and waving 
 line and fly over the water, or one may see one's 
 hopes laid low for half an hour or more, and a good 
 
 13—2 
 
100 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 stretch spoiled by the bolting of fish which, ap- 
 proached from the other bank by a more or less 
 " cross-country cast," with the rod held low to 
 the right, might have been brought to basket or 
 turned downstream. 
 
 Probably, however, the most generally govern- 
 ing consideration is the direction of the wind in re- 
 lation to the general trend of the stream. Perhaps 
 the majority of fly-fishermen, if asked to choose 
 a bank with an upstream or downstream wind, 
 would choose the right without hesitation. But 
 there may be a good deal to be said for the other 
 side, apart even from the sun and the narrowness 
 of the stream. For instance, with an upstream 
 wind and a fairly wide river, especially if it be 
 swift, the angler on the right bank is practically 
 confined to his own bank and midstream fishing. 
 If he casts for the opposite bank, he finds it ex- 
 tremely difficult to be accurate, and a drag which 
 inevitably puts the fish down is almost certain to 
 be set up. On the left bank, however, not only 
 can he approach the left bankers more closely than 
 he dare approach the right bankers when fishing 
 on the right bank, not only can he tackle the mid- 
 stream fish equally well, but he can cut under and 
 against the wind and get across to the opposite 
 bank far more accurately from the left bank 
 than from the right, where the wind follows his 
 hand. 
 
 Take next the case of a downstream wind. Here 
 
THE BANK OF VANTAGE loi 
 
 the angler will want to consider what he has to do. 
 Does he wish to fish his own bank or the opposite 
 bank, or both ? Casting from the right bank, he 
 can cut under the wind and get his fly over to the 
 opposite bank far better than he could from the 
 left ; but is it worth doing ? If he can float his 
 fly for a reasonable distance without drag, it may 
 well be ; but if the current be so strong as to set 
 up an almost immediate drag, he may be practi- 
 cally confined to his own bank. So he would be 
 on the left side ; but whereas casting from the right 
 bank he would be apt to find the point of his gut 
 cast forced outwards and downwards by the wind, 
 and be constantly landing his line on the sedges or 
 bank, when casting from the other side his line 
 would fall upon the water, and the gut-point and 
 fly be driven inwards so as to search the water 
 quite close under the bank, just like a natural fly. 
 Moreover, it would not be driven so far inward as 
 it would be driven outward when cast from the 
 opposite side, for in dropping over the bank-edge 
 the fly and gut-point would enter, before the force 
 of the cast is spent, into that little cushion of 
 calm to be found just under the bank, and would 
 generally straighten out in a manner to command 
 admiration both from men and trout. 
 
 Take next the case of an upstream wind slightly 
 across from the right bank to the left. Here it is 
 even more difficult for an angler on the right bank 
 to fish his own bank than for an angler on the left 
 
102 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 bank, while he has more command in cutting 
 across to the far side from the left bank than 
 from the right. If, on the other hand, the wind 
 be upstream and off the left bank, by standing 
 back a bit and using a short cross-country cast 
 tlie angler may get his fly very neatly over most 
 of the fish under his own bank, and can cut 
 across more easily than he could from the right 
 bank. 
 
 Take, again, the case of a wind downstream and 
 across from the right bank to the left. Here again 
 the angler on the left bank is in the superior 
 position for negotiating his own bank, casting 
 almost straight into the wind, and letting fly and 
 point be deflected under his own bank. On the 
 right bank the angler would be apt to have his fly 
 flung out towards midstream, and the short cross- 
 country cast would be apt to miscarry. On the 
 other hand, if the wind be downstream and across 
 from the left bank, the advantage lies slightly with 
 the right bank, but it is nothing like so marked 
 (assuming, as we have been doing from the first, 
 that the angler is right-handed) as in the converse 
 case. 
 
 On the whole, therefore, it will be seen that, 
 contrary to the generally received opinion, unless 
 the wind be fairly direct upstream or (for the 
 opposite bank) down, the left bank is almost 
 invariably the bank of vantage. 
 
COURAGE 103 
 
 OF COURAGE AND THE JEOPARDIZING OF 
 TUPPENCE ha'penny. 
 
 That, my friends, is almost the extreme price of 
 a trout-fly. Some are less. Yet how often shall 
 you see an angler whose equipment for the taking 
 of trout has run into pounds, and whose railway 
 fare and reckoning at his inn are substantial 
 items of expenditure upon the same object, throw 
 away most sporting occasions for the attainment 
 of his end because, forsooth, he is sure to be hung 
 up or weeded or smashed or something equally 
 delightful — and bang would go tuppence ha'penny ! 
 I have no patience with this sort of thing. The 
 more hopeless the prospect of getting out a trout 
 from an impossible place, the more determined 
 I am to try for him, De Vaudace, encore de I'audace 
 — toujours de Vaudace! In May, 1909, just before 
 the May-fly began, I was by the river-side, when I 
 heard a loud smacking sound, and, peering through 
 a willow -bush, I saw a fine trout cruising on an 
 eddy and sucking down flies with hearty enjoyment. 
 If I cast over him from behind the bush, I should 
 have to play him on a six-ounce rod with xxx 
 gut between a thorn-bush which I could touch with 
 my right hand and a willow I could touch with 
 my left. There were snags above and snags 
 below. Did I hesitate ? Only long enough to 
 tie on a new Crosbie Alder, then long enough for 
 him to reach the top of his beat, and then I 
 
104 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 dropped the fly behind him just before he turned. 
 He was the satisfactory side of four pounds, and I 
 got his successor next day out of the same place 
 — three pounds six ounces. A beautiful brace ! 
 Luck ! Of course it was luck, but I shouldn't 
 have had it if I hadn't taken risks. 
 
 There was a Kennet trout under a willow in 
 May-fly time. A piled snag in the steam just 
 below the droop of the willow made it impossible 
 to get a fly over him by casting above the willow 
 and floating down. There was just one possible 
 way — to make a slanting downward cut which 
 might bring the fly down between branches 
 in a sort of dip in the tree, and drop it on the 
 fish's nose. I left two flies in the tree, but I 
 did the trick and got the fish. He was only two 
 pounds six ounces, but I thought he was bigger. 
 Still 
 
 Then there was a fish which lay just above a 
 hatch-hole through which water ran into the 
 meadows. The inevitable thing for him to do 
 when hooked was to bolt down the hatch-hole. 
 But somehow he didn't, and I got him. There 
 was a pound-and-a-half trout taking tiny pale 
 duns on the edge of a small pile of weeds collected 
 against a broken bough of a tree, into which he 
 was sure to bolt when hooked. But somehow 
 he didn't, and he was steered to the landing-net 
 with a No. ooo dun on gossamer gut attached to 
 his nose. Then there was that trout which I got 
 
IMPOSSIBLE PLACES 105 
 
 over a barbed wire crossing the stream eight or 
 ten yards away. 
 
 There are countless such instances — I tell of 
 some more under the head of " Impossible Places " 
 — but there is one thing that may safely be deposed 
 to, and that is, that there is no place so desperate 
 that, with luck and management, you may not get 
 a well-hooked trout out of it. 
 
 OF IMPOSSIBLE PLACES. 
 
 The habit of a lightly hooked trout, of floundering 
 on the surface, is too well known to need enlarging 
 on. Sometimes his antics will be varied by leaps 
 into the air. But is the tendency of a hard-held 
 fish to go to weed or snag equally well realized ? 
 Yet from a consideration of these two established 
 tendencies may not a highly unorthodox method 
 of extricating a good fish from the impossible 
 position be evolved ? What is the theory ? 
 This : Let him think he is lightly hooked. 
 
 It was on the banks of the Itchen that the 
 first glimmerings of the idea suggested themselves. 
 A novice with the dry fly was walking disconso- 
 late up the stream, bemoaning himself that he 
 could not find a rising fish. Coming up with a 
 brother angler just about to settle down to a 
 rising trout in some quick water, he was invited 
 to cast over it. The fly covered the right spot, 
 and brought up his troutship, who fastened, and, 
 turning at once, bolted at express speed down- 
 
 14 
 
io6 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 stream. The novice, unaccustomed to anything 
 more formidable than Devonshire brook trout, 
 disregarded his companion's advice, " Run, man, 
 run downstream for all you're worth !" and backed, 
 open-mouthed, slowly upstream, letting out line 
 as freely as the reel (a checkless one) would let it 
 go. So long as the line put no check upon him 
 the trout ploughed downstream close to the 
 surface, but the moment the reel was empty and 
 he felt the check he was deep in a weed-bed. He 
 stayed there till the angler had reeled up and put 
 on another fly. The checked fish goes to weed. 
 That was the first lesson. 
 
 The second was in this wise : On a September 
 morning a good many years back, a brace of 
 trout were rising, a yard or so apart, above 
 a tree which overhung the same water on the 
 side where the angler stood knee- deep in a 
 swampy reed - bed. It was possible to reach 
 them if, holding by his left hand to a bough, 
 and resting one foot on a root while dangling the 
 other in the water, he hung over the river at an 
 angle of forty-five degrees, and threw his line under- 
 hand up the stream. But how if he hooked his 
 fish ? There was a bank of weeds, dense and 
 long, a yard or two above. Well, he must chance 
 it. The likelihood of losing the fish seemed over- 
 whelming, the chance of killing him slight ; for 
 the position was so awkward that, in order to get 
 back to terra firma, there was nothing for it but 
 
IMPOSSIBLE PLACES 107 
 
 to tuck the rod under the arm and trust to chance 
 while recovering equihbrium and a footing. Yet 
 the angler got both these fish. Situated as he 
 was he could put no pressure on them ; he could 
 not even keep the line taut. But each of the 
 fish when hooked came floundering and splattering 
 unresistingly downstream, trying to throw out 
 the stinging insect that adhered to his jaw. By 
 the time the angler was prepared to deal with him 
 the fish was in open water and was easily played. 
 Result, a brace of one and a quarter pounders and 
 the second lesson. The unchecked fish flounders 
 on the surface. 
 
 What these two lessons have been worth to the 
 angler it would be tedious to relate, but one or two 
 instances may illustrate. There was that fish — one 
 and three-quarter pounds he proved — rising on the 
 far side of a dense bank of weeds in a channel 
 two feet wide. He had to be approached with 
 reverence on one's face, and from twenty feet out in 
 the meadow. He took the Pink Wickham at the 
 first time of asking, and the angler, having fastened, 
 dropped his rod-point instantly. The fish with a 
 startled plunge rushed up the channel and out 
 into the open water, and began to flounder. 
 Before he knew where he was the angler turned 
 him, brought him down the right side of the 
 dangerous weed-bank, and duly netted him out. 
 
 Then, again, there was that black ^fish between 
 two pollard willows on the Darenth . He was rising 
 
 14 — 2 
 
io8 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 eighteen inches out from the bank. The willows 
 were two yards apart, and their roots formed a 
 mass of snags below him, while just downstream of 
 them was a plank bridge a foot above the river. 
 Here again it was a case of kneeling far out in 
 the meadow and dropping the Yellow Dun exactly 
 over the nose of the fish. He came with the most 
 confiding simplicity. Had he been checked he 
 would have been in the snags before one could say 
 " Knife," but the angler, mindful of his lesson, held 
 him not. So it befell that he rushed out into mid- 
 stream and leapt four several times, much as does 
 a pricked fish that is not hooked at all. But ere 
 he could do more the angler was on terms with him, 
 and held him out from the bank, up from the 
 bottom, and away from the plank bridge, till the 
 landing-net received his one pound six ounces. 
 
 Finally, let the tale be told of a trout of the 
 Kennet that had his holt in a corner of a little 
 bay, whence a willow-bush had fallen into the 
 river, leaving on the bank side a tangle of broken 
 roots, in the river to the right, some three yards 
 off, the half-submerged willow, while above and 
 below were heavy patches of long swaying weed. 
 It was an ideal place for a trout to feed in — and 
 to break away. The water came into the bay in 
 a little defined channel between weeds, and in this 
 a foot below the entry a sizable neb was show- 
 ing at intervals. A small Green Champion May 
 dropped exactly in the channel, and trotted down 
 
/ 
 
 THE LANDING-NET 109 
 
 the prescribed distance and disappeared. Again 
 the tactics of the loosened Hne, again the hooked 
 fish rushed out from his almost impregnable holt 
 into the open, and was presently netted out by 
 the triumphant angler — a handsome and, he 
 thinks, a not ill-deserved three pounds ten ounces. 
 A week later the same tactics produced another fish 
 of two pounds eleven ounces from the same hole. 
 
 OF THE USE OF THE LANDING-NET. 
 
 There is a common superstition among anglers 
 that the primary use of a landing-net is to land 
 fish. Let us rather say that the use of a landing- 
 net, rightly understood, is to assist in the capture 
 of fish. Not to catch fish, for the catching of fish 
 in the landing-net is mere poacher's work, but to 
 aid in the catching. Some anglers tell you you 
 must never show your net to a fish until ready 
 for netting. But why not, if it will help you to 
 kill him ? There are many more or less desperate 
 cases where the net may be of the profoundest 
 service long before it is called to operate at the 
 final ceremony of dipping out. I will give one or 
 two examples in an ascending scale of complexity. 
 
 Firstfy, a new use for the handle. Under the 
 left bank of a South-Country chalk stream a trout 
 is taking every dun that goes down alongside the 
 cluster of cut weed under which he shelters. 
 The angler's Gold-ribbed Hare's Ear fighting deli- 
 cately a foot above, with the gut resting on the 
 
no MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 weed, is accepted and carried straight down into 
 the weed-bed below. The angler reels up tight 
 over the fish, but fails to move him. Ah, there 
 is the long-handled landing-net ! A few judiciously- 
 placed prods with the butt bring him plunging 
 stupidly out, and he is bustled down into open 
 water and promptly dipped out with the other 
 end. 
 
 Secondly, the use of the mesh. Scene : A hooked 
 fish racing downstream towards a dense weed-bed 
 on the angler's side. The angler offers the net, 
 and the fish sheers off into midstream, and is 
 towed past the dangerous obstruction. Very 
 simple examples these. 
 
 The third and next is more complex. Scene : A 
 hatch-hole which lets water from the same stream 
 into a carrier in the water-meadows. Camp- 
 sheathing on both sides of the hatch, supported 
 by three successive crossbars from four feet to 
 eight feet long as the sides diverge. Under the 
 middle bar lies a good trout, very evidently feeding. 
 Problem, how to get him. It is impossible to cast 
 underneath the crossbars. One can only cast over 
 them, and trust to luck and judgment to get the 
 fish out if one hooks him. If he runs downstream 
 the line is doubled over the crossbar and a break 
 is assured. But how is he to be prevented ? The 
 angler knows that under the apron of the hatch 
 there is a big hole, and he sets to work with 
 confidence. The fly is dropped from below, just 
 
THE LANDING-NET iii 
 
 over the third or shortest bar. The drag of the 
 oiled silk line brings it back till it passes over the 
 third bar, and drops softly on the water with a 
 foot or two to float before it can drag. Presently 
 it is taken, and the hooked fish has turned to bolt 
 down the carrier. But there the angler is ready. 
 Landing-net in hand, he gesticulates wildly at the 
 advancing fish, which bolts upstream again and 
 buries itself in the hole under the apron. Softly 
 the rod is passed under the second and lowest 
 crossbars, then the point is brought down to the 
 water's edge, and with a steady strain and a 
 jarring tap on the butt of the rod the trout is 
 brought down out of his fastness and killed in 
 due course. 
 
 Lastly, another example of a similar method. 
 Imagine a strong stream some three yards wide and 
 one hundred yards or so long, running down from a 
 similar hatch to a big cross-dyke reaching out on 
 both sides. The angler is on the right bank, and 
 the current turns to the left on reaching the dyke. 
 The water for the latter half of the carrier is too 
 deep for wading. In the broad gravel shallow 
 at the tail of the patch a big two-pounder is lying. 
 The angler has already been run by a much 
 smaller fish down to the verge of the carrier, where 
 the stream turns off, and only netted his trout just 
 in time. For various reasons the other bank is 
 unsuitable to fish from. To begin with, the big 
 trout is not accessible from that side. Even from 
 
112 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 the left bank it is difficult to cast over him, but 
 presently our artist with the landing-net gives 
 the appropriate response to the dimpling rise 
 with which he takes the Ginger Quill, and a good 
 sound working connection is established. For a 
 moment the angler does not put a pull on him, 
 and he moves out into the strong water, shaking 
 his head to get rid of that objectionable insect 
 that has fastened in his palate. The angler 
 rapidly winds in line, and begins to hold him 
 firmly. His aim is to keep him tiring himself 
 in the strong water — not to drive him up under 
 the apron (it is unnecessary to run that risk now), 
 but to keep him from running down. The stream 
 is narrow enough to enable the angler, by dipping 
 his rod-point to right or left, to turn the fish from 
 every upward rush to such a holt, but in a few 
 moments comes the downward rush. Now for the 
 landing-net. In an instant the fish has turned 
 and is back facing the strong water, and engaged 
 in fighting to get up into the shelter of the hatch. 
 But again and again he is turned and brought 
 down to the edge of the gravel shelf where the 
 stream is strongest, when a hint from the landing- 
 net sends him up again straining with all his force 
 against both stream and line. Presently, tiring 
 of the game, and failing in his efforts to rub out 
 the hook against the camp-sheathing, he turns 
 and bolts downstream with such suddenness as to 
 evade the threatening net, and is gone forty yards 
 
THE LANDING-NET 113 
 
 before the angler is level with him. Then again 
 a threat of the net turns him, and he makes a 
 dash for a weed-bed some ten yards or so above. 
 From this he has to be turned down, and his 
 downward rush stopped with the net as before. 
 From this point the fight resolves itself into a series 
 of downstream rushes, alternating with much 
 briefer trips upstream, terminated by the necessity 
 in each case for pulling the trout down out of the 
 weed-bed he is bolting for. At last, at the very 
 bottom of the straight, on the edge of the dyke, 
 the fish, not yet half beaten, has to be dragged 
 willy-nilly into the landing-net, or else he must 
 escape down the dyke which streams away on the 
 far side. 
 
 Finally, and in conclusion, one more example. 
 The locus in quo is a piece of fast water some eight 
 or ten yards long, a sort of tumbling-bay, from 
 which the water escapes at racing pace through a 
 culvert twelve or fourteen feet long, which passes 
 under a farm road, thence along some two hundred 
 yards of narrow weedy carrier to an irrigation hatch. 
 In the tumbling-bay are three or four fine fish, one 
 of them something over two pounds. All are feeding 
 on something under water, probably nymphs. A 
 dry fly would drag at once. A double-hooked 
 Green well's Glory, as used on North-Country rivers, 
 might do the trick. But the hooked fish will to a 
 certainty bolt down the culvert, and then it will be 
 a case of smash at once, or weeding with a long 
 
 15 
 
114 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 line, and the impossible task of bringing the fish up 
 the racing stream into the tumbling-bay again, or 
 of passing the ten-foot rod through a twelve-foot 
 culvert. Happy thought ! there on the bank is a 
 plank that has been floated down the stream above, 
 there is some string, and there is the watcher to lend 
 a hand. He receives the landing-net, and goes 
 below some fifteen yards or so. Presently the fly 
 drops well soaked on the water, and swings over 
 the best of the trout, which the next minute has 
 raced down and through the culvert, tearing out 
 line until — yes, until the menacing net in the 
 hands of the watcher sends him securely to weed. 
 Now for the plank. A minute serves to tie on 
 the rod and to send the plank floating down 
 through the culvert. The watcher is ready on the 
 other side with the landing-net, and draws the 
 plank to the side. The rod is released, and soon 
 the angler stands over the fish with a short line. 
 Now for the net again. A few well-directed prods 
 with the butt brings up the fish, who bolts for the 
 culvert. But the net is before him on the far side, 
 and he gets back into the tumbling-bay. Guiding 
 the line with the butt, a pull is got on him which 
 soon brings him down again below the culvert. 
 The only remaining dangers are the weeds and 
 the hatch-hole at the far end. From this last the 
 net is again ready to keep him, and the great battle 
 ends as every such battle should. 
 
THE WEEDING TROUT 115 
 
 OF THE WEEDING TROUT. 
 
 It has been shown how it was frequently 
 possible to extract a big trout from an apparently 
 impossible fastness by a tactical trick. Every 
 angler knows that a trout who is, or conceives 
 himself to be, lightly hooked will thrash about 
 upon the surface in his effort to dislodge the fly, 
 very often with success, though not always; for 
 occasionally the hook will have a small but suffi- 
 cient hold in some inaccessible place, such as the 
 corner of the jaw, and all is well with the angler. It 
 is by playing upon this idiosyncrasy and slacken- 
 ing on a fish immediately after it is hooked that the 
 trout may frequently be induced to run from an 
 impenetrable holt into the open in order to kick 
 himself free from the surface. The same idiosyn- 
 crasy may be worked upon with a weeding fish, 
 with gratifying results. If the angler hooks a fish 
 which turns and bolts downstream below him, he 
 will note that the fish will not go to weed until 
 he is held. The moment he is held he will whip 
 into the first available weed-bed. That is the 
 first step in our argument. The next is this : The 
 harder he is held the more frightened he becomes, 
 and the deeper and the more desperately he will 
 burrow in the weeds. 
 
 But one day it occurred to me to try upon the 
 trout that has got to weed the tactics of inducing 
 him to believe himself lightly hooked. To let him 
 
 15—2 
 
ii6 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 go altogether for a time till he recovered his nerve 
 and came out was an old and often unsuccessful 
 device. To hand-line him was to put a much 
 harder pull upon him than could be put on with 
 a rod, and though it sometimes worked, it was by 
 no means always successful. For the new method, 
 therefore, it was necessary to maintain a light 
 pull upon the fish, but so light that the rod-top 
 gave to every movement, leaving the fish almost 
 as free as if he were loose, but with just the 
 difference that there was enough strain to keep 
 him beating, and enough to provide a fulcrum for 
 him to beat from. The experiment was brilliantly 
 successful. On the first occasion on which it 
 was tried, three trout (all over two pounds) were 
 hooked in a weedy portion of the Itchen upon the 
 lightest tackle and a delicate rod. Each went to 
 weed. The angler held his hand high (for the 
 rod was but nine feet), and kept the very lightest 
 strain, with the result that the fish began to beat 
 among the weeds as he would on the surface, and 
 in a few moments had lashed the weeds aside and 
 kicked himself free of them, and was on top. 
 Once there he was resolutely hauled downstream 
 and bustled into the net. This method has been 
 worth many a good fish since that day ; indeed, 
 given a fairly soundly hooked fish, there have 
 been no failures. Of course, nothing will save 
 a fish so Hghtly hooked that the first touch of weed 
 or obstruction releases him. In applying this 
 
THE LIGHT ROD 117 
 
 method, the Hght rod, which has come to be so 
 common, has an advantage over the big, heavy, 
 and clumsy weapon so frequently in the hands of 
 dry-fly men in the recent past. This is indeed a 
 notable instance of the superiority of the suavifer 
 in modo over the fortiter in re. 
 
 OF THE LIGHT ROD ON CHALK STREAMS. 
 
 In the catalog (I spell the word in the American 
 manner) of the house of William Mills and Son 
 of New York there is a portrait of Mr. Humphrey 
 Priddis (whose signature " Dabchick " at the foot 
 of Itchen reports is familiar to all readers of the 
 Field) holding up a two and one-eighth pound 
 trout which he had just killed on a two and 
 one-eighth ounce Leonard rod, the property of 
 young Mr. Mills, a son of that house. I was 
 down on the Itchen the afternoon on which that 
 feat was done. I saw the rod, the fish, and the 
 captor, and the place was pointed out to me. 
 The water was full of dense masses of waving 
 weeds, and in accomplishing the capture of such 
 a fish — a large one for the water — on such a rod 
 there is no doubt that the angler executed a feat 
 of which he had every right to be proud. He 
 declared himself amazed at the power of the rod, 
 and that he could throw three-and-twenty yards 
 with it. 
 
 Young Mr. Mills was fishing with a nine-foot rod 
 weighing five ounces, a delightful tool capable of 
 
ii8 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 casting a heavy tapered Halford line with wonder- 
 ful command. I had the privilege of trying it, 
 and I promptly acquired its duplicate, in addition 
 to the ten-footer of the same make which I 
 already possessed and had used the previous 
 season. 
 
 I am not going to reargue here the long contro- 
 versy of light rod versus the old-style ounce-to- 
 the-foot weapon. The light rod has won its place, 
 and has come to stay. Those who have tried it 
 fairly are convinced that it will answer all neces- 
 sary calls for casting, that it is fully equal to 
 butting and killing large trout, and that it adds 
 a daintiness to the art of fly-fishing which the old- 
 time anglers of the heavy rod were hardly con- 
 scious it lacked. But I do want to press three 
 points in its favour beyond those enumerated : 
 (i) It casts a dehghtful short line, and I confess 
 to fishing consistently with the shortest line I 
 dare use, often with most of that in the country ; 
 (2) it can be fished steadily all day, wet or dry, 
 without tiring the hand — what a change from 
 those terrible wrist-breaking, hand-paralyzing, 
 blister-producing flails of the eighties and nineties ! 
 and (3) it enables one to play light with unequalled 
 sensitiveness. When I was a boy at Winchester, 
 old John Hammond had the length commonly 
 known nowadays as Chalkley's, and I well remem- 
 ber the rods which old John used to turn out for 
 fishing the Itchen. They were soft and floppy 
 
CONSIDERATIONS INCIDENTAL 119 
 
 to an extent which would nowadays lead to their 
 immediate rejection; but I have seen the maker 
 with one of them steer a good fish, hooked under 
 the opposite bank, by sheer handhng over dense 
 weed, into the waiting landing-net. And remem- 
 bering this, and remembering how a fish which 
 goes to weed can, if Hghtly handled from the first, 
 be forced, by play on his idiosyncrasy, to beat 
 himself free and up to the surface, I am inclined 
 to think that the modern angler is far too much 
 inclined to use force in handling a hooked fish, 
 and that a rod which achieves — as the light split 
 canes of the highest class do — a combination of 
 steely quickness and casting power with some- 
 thing of the sensitive delicacy of the wood rods of 
 old John Hammond is the equipment to have in a 
 tussle with a big fish on fine tackle. 
 
 To kill a brace of trout four pounds and three 
 pounds six ounces on xxx gut in deep weedy and 
 snag-infested water between two bushes which I 
 could touch with either hand, and which pre- 
 vented movement up or down stream, is a feat 
 which I am sure my old-time heavy rods could 
 have done no better than did my six-ounce ten- 
 footer in 1909. Force was no good in such a 
 place, and force was never used until each trout 
 had been sufficiently bewildered and fatigued by 
 beating in vain against the nothing which re- 
 strained him to be kept more or less under the 
 rod's point till ready for the net. 
 
120 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 OF WET-FLY CASTING. 
 
 The use of rods which carry a heavy reel Hne 
 is so general on chalk streams that probably the 
 easy drying of the fly and cast is taken as a 
 matter of course, and it is little recognized how 
 much is due to the weight of the line driving the 
 fly rapidly through the air. If the angler were 
 devoting himself to wet-fly fishing on a rough 
 river, he would avoid such a casting line, and if 
 he means to fish a chalk stream wet-fly only, he 
 would do the same. But he would need to be 
 able to propel his fly and line upstream against 
 the wind, and to cast a fairly long line not infre- 
 quently, so that a line with more weight in it 
 than would be required for a rough river would be 
 essential on a chalk stream. But if, as is the 
 wiser course, the angler proposes to fish either wet 
 or dry, as occasion demands, his equipment must 
 be still more of a compromise. He must use a 
 rod which will carry a line that will dry the fly 
 with sufficient speed, but preferably not a line 
 of the heaviest class ; and he must trust to the 
 make of his flies, and to the soaking they get 
 through trailing in the water before the cast, to get 
 them to go under on lighting. The knack can 
 be acquired without difficulty, but if the dry-fly 
 habit has become inveterate he will need to be 
 continually watching himself when he desires to 
 fish wet. 
 
WET-FLY CASTING 121 
 
 The line should be flicked as little as possible, 
 and the angler should try (generally speaking, but 
 not always — see chapter on Nerves) to float the 
 gut while letting the fly go under. Then he 
 secures the double advantage of not lining his 
 trout and of getting an indication from the move- 
 ment of the gut should the fly be taken without 
 his otherwise detecting it. The fly, being once 
 delivered, may be allowed to come down with the 
 stream precisely like a dry fly except for its being 
 under water ; but it can be recovered sooner and 
 with less disturbance of the surface, because the 
 fly is drawn under and not along the top of the 
 water. The withdrawal should, however, be as 
 gentle as possible, in order to retain as much 
 moisture as can be in the fly to sink it at the next 
 cast. If there be enough wind to raise waves, or 
 even a strong ruffle, this is of less consequence, as 
 the make of the fly should be such that it can 
 only float, if at all, while quite dry on perfectly 
 smooth water. It is in general no use to put up 
 the ordinary dry flies to fish wet. 
 
 16 
 
CHAPTER X 
 FRANKLY IRRELEVANT 
 
 A DRY-FLY MEMORY. 
 
 In the Test Valley a good many years ago the coarse 
 herbage lay drying in the water-meadows in the 
 heavy swathes in which it had fallen to the scythe, 
 but all along the boggy edges of the streams and 
 carriers a tall screen had been left standing shoulder- 
 high, concealing the angler from the rising fish, but 
 compelling him, unfortunately, to stand and to fish 
 overhand instead of keeping low and switching a 
 horizontal line to his quarry. During the after- 
 noon a chilly wind from the north-west had 
 supervened upon the blazing heat that for a 
 week past had conjured such alluring visions of 
 the evening rise to end each July day. The sky 
 was overcast, and a troubled sun watched sulkily 
 from the far side of the valley, through dun rifts in 
 the clouds, the approach of two rods to the river- 
 side. It was almost too early to begin. Scarce 
 a fly was in the air, and only one sign of any pro- 
 mise gave any hint of possible success — the horses 
 in the meadow opposite, driven to madness by the 
 
 122 
 
FRANKLY IRRELEVANT 123 
 
 Hampshire flies, were charging and careering wildly 
 about their pasture, heels half the time in air. 
 
 Just a cast above the bottom boundary was a 
 run which promised a moving fish when the trout 
 began to move, and half an hour's wait in these 
 exquisite meadows was time well spent, if only 
 in observing the splendid profusion of life in this 
 wonderful valley. The tender bloom of the 
 meadowsweet was at its most perfect, great 
 wild purple orchids put up among the boggy 
 tussocks, while the lush richness of the water-side 
 herbage baffled description. From some meadow 
 near came the " crek, crek " of the landrail — less 
 common, alas ! than of old — the note of the 
 snipe, the wailing cry of the pewit, the " coo " of 
 the turtle-dove, were punctuated with the queru- 
 lous gutturals of the moorhen, shyly under cover 
 in the sedges. Presently a small pale olive rose 
 from the surface and came drifting down the 
 wind, then another and another, escaping their 
 water-enemies below only, too often, to be snapped 
 up by the screeching swifts that found them out too 
 soon. Then, in the very neck of the run, a fish put 
 up, and the serious business of the evening began. 
 
 The fly on the cast was a Tup's Indispensable, 
 then the latest invention of an ingenious West- 
 Country angler, and, when the red spinner is up, a 
 very killing fly, but the fish, continuing to feed, 
 would none of him. Nor was the Red Quill to his 
 liking, but the first cast of a Ginger Quill on No. 00, 
 
 16 — 2 
 
124 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 covering him correctly, brought him up, and he 
 fastened. For a second he hesitated, then ripped 
 the hne from the shrieking reel in an upward 
 rush, leapt into the air, and was off. 
 
 By this time the sun's lower limb was resting 
 on the opposite hill, and the wind should have 
 dropped dead. But still it came with a certain 
 bite of chill down the valley from the northward. 
 Yet, in spite of cold, the long, fleshy forest fly vied 
 with the mosquito in assaults upon the unpro- 
 tected portions of the angler, and moths and sedges 
 began to creep out and flit from flower to flower. 
 Two other fish putting up in the next hundred 
 yards were missed, and a small one was landed 
 and returned. Then, as dusk drew on, the fly was 
 changed for a large Orange Quill on a No. 2 hook. 
 
 A good fish was rising steadily, though not 
 rapidly, in the next bend, but the Orange Quill, 
 offered from perhaps too short a range, set him 
 down with great suddenness. A shy fish ! So 
 was the next found rising, for he did not wait 
 even the preliminary wave of the rod to cease 
 from his impetuous and greedy feeding. Perhaps 
 the necessary wading through the boggy margin 
 to get near enough to the water for an effective 
 cast sent over him a wave that put him down. 
 
 The next hundred yards provided no oppor- 
 tunity for the angler, but at the end of them the 
 sedgy screen ceased suddenly, and it was possible 
 to approach the shy quarry with a horizontal 
 
FRANKLY IRRELEVANT 125 
 
 cast. Over a bank of weed trailing near the sur- 
 face an under-water movement seemed to indicate 
 a fish of some sort. The fly, an Orange Sedge on 
 a No. 2 hook, dropped lightly on the right spot, 
 with a line behind it slack enough to let it pass 
 well over the fish before the inevitable drag set 
 in. Up came a big black neb. Instinctively the 
 line tightened, but the fish was already hard in 
 the weed, and nothing could coax or force him 
 out. Ten precious minutes wasted, at a time 
 when minutes were priceless, in vain attempts to 
 persuade him, before the inevitable break was 
 affected and a new fly tied on. 
 
 A few yards farther on a snag divided the 
 current, and a foot above it a good fish was taking 
 merrily every fly that covered him. He was not 
 proof against the Orange Sedge, and in a moment 
 he was being led flapping down on the farther 
 side of the snag. Nothing seemed to intervene 
 between him and the landing-net, when suddenly 
 the rod straightened and he was gone. A feel 
 at the hook in the growing dark proved it to have 
 broken at the bend. With difficulty another was 
 mounted, but by this the rise had ceased, and 
 naught was left for the angler but to feel his 
 boggy way back through the eerie meadows to 
 his starting-point, and thence to the village — 
 disappointed to a certain extent, but with the 
 disappointment more than tempered by the 
 amazing charm of this valley of valleys. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 ETHICS OF THE WET FLY 
 
 In dealing with this subject, I am conscious that 
 I start with a weight of opinion against me 
 among the fishermen of chalk streams. I have 
 known some of them say in a shocked tone, " But 
 that is wet- fly !" as if it were some high crime and 
 misdemeanour to use a wet fly upon a chalk 
 stream. To make my peace with such I want to 
 argue this question out, and test and see what it is 
 about the wet fly which has brought such discredit 
 upon it among the best sportsmen in the world. 
 
 It is axiomatic with many that it is unsuccessful 
 upon chalk streams. That is not my opinion, 
 but in itself it is not an objection. If it were 
 unfairly successful it would be another story. 
 The object of fly-fishing, whether wet or dry, is 
 the catching of trout, not anyhow, but by means 
 refined, clean, delicate, artistic, and sportsmanlike 
 in the sense that they are fair to the quarry and 
 fair to the brother angler. There can be no doubt 
 that the dry fly honestly fulfils all these condi- 
 tions. Let us see where the wet fly fails. 
 
 126 
 
ETHICS OF THE WET FLY 127 
 
 It is said the wet-fly man's game is a duffer's 
 game, which needs neither knowledge nor any 
 skill beyond enough to cast a long line down- 
 stream or across and down; that it leads to a 
 raking of the water, often with two or three flies ; 
 that it leads to the pricking and scaring of many 
 fish, to the catching of many undersized trout, 
 and to the undue disturbance of long stretches of 
 water, to the detriment of the nerves of the fish 
 and the sport of other anglers. All this I am 
 quite willing to accept and to eliminate from the 
 legitimate all wet-fly fishing which could come 
 under this description. 
 
 What is left to the wet-fly angler ? I venture 
 to say a mighty pretty, delicate, and delightful 
 art which resembles dry-fly fishing in that the 
 fly is cast upstream or across, to individual fish, 
 or to places where it is reasonable to expect that 
 a fish of suitable proportions may be found, and 
 differs from dry-fly fishing only in the amount of 
 material used in the dressing of the fly, in the 
 force with which that fly is cast, and in the extreme 
 subtlety of the indications frequently attending 
 the taking of the fly by the fish, compared to which 
 there is a painful obviousness in the taking of the 
 dry fly. Add to this that it provides means for 
 the circumventing of bulgers and feeders on larvae, 
 that it furnishes sport on those numerous occasions 
 when trout are in position and probably feeding 
 under water without ever breaking the surface, 
 
128 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 andTgenerally widens the opportunities of sport 
 for the man who cannot be always on the spot to 
 seize the best opportunities afforded by a rise of 
 trout to the floating fly. 
 
 Is this method open to any of the objections 
 attending the downstream raking we concur in 
 condemning ? Is it a duffer's game ? Is it 
 easier than dry-fly fishing ? Try and see. Does 
 it lead to the pricking and scaring of many fish 
 which follow a dragging fly ? No. Does it un- 
 duly disturb long stretches of water to the detri- 
 ment of the brother angler ? Why, it is as easy 
 to spend an afternoon on a hundred yards as it 
 is in the purest cult of the dry fly. 
 
 If the trout are feeding, I for one fail to see why 
 they may legitimately be fished for if they are 
 taking a small proportion of their food on the 
 surface, but not if they are taking all, or practically 
 all, of it underneath. There is a sentence from 
 Francis Francis quoted with approval by Mr. 
 F. M. Halford, which runs as follows : 
 
 " The judicious and perfect application of dry, 
 wet, and midwater fly-fishing stamps the finished 
 fly-fisher with the hall-mark of efficiency." 
 
 Nothing could be more just if one reads it with 
 reference to all streams, whether chalk streams or 
 otherwise ; but to read it distributively so that only 
 the dry fly may be used on chalk streams, and only 
 the wet fly on other streams, seems an unnecessary 
 renunciation of opportunity ; while to read it as 
 
ETHICS OF THE WET FLY 129 
 
 meaning that only the dry fly may be used on 
 chalk streams, while wet or dry fly may be legiti- 
 mately used on others, carries its own condemna- 
 tion in logic. 
 
 Mr. F. M. Halford, with every desire to be abso- 
 lutely fair, has, I think, in Chapter II. of " Dry-Fly 
 Fishing in Theory and Practice," done more than 
 any other man to discredit the wet fly on chalk 
 streams, by the implications, first, that the principle 
 of the dry-fly method — viz., the casting of the fly to 
 a feeding fish in position — is not applicable to the 
 wet-fly method, and, secondly, that on the stillest 
 days, with the hottest sun and the clearest water, 
 the wet fly is utterly hopeless. On both these 
 points I respectfully join issue with him. 
 
 On all that his book contains on the positive side 
 about the dry fly I am in practical agreement. 
 But if the reader considers the rods, the lines, 
 and the flies, that Mr. Halford recommends, he will 
 see that they are utterly unsuited to wet-fly fish- 
 ing, and it would not be surprising that no success 
 attends them when used for wet-fly work. But if 
 I am right — and I am — in asserting that, given 
 reasonably suitable gear, the wet fly may be cast 
 upstream in chalk streams to a feeding fish in 
 position (whether surface feeding or not is, I sub- 
 mit, irrelevant), and that on its day — and there are 
 many such in the season — it will kill fish alike in 
 the hottest, brightest, and stillest weather, and on 
 days and in places and conditions where the dry 
 
 17 
 
130 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 fly is hopeless, and also in the roughest of weather, 
 then I may claim that it is an art worthy to stand 
 beside the art of the dry fly as a supplementary 
 resource of the angler that is at once fair, sports- 
 manlike, and capable of adding immensely to his 
 enjoyment, his sport, and his opportunities for 
 using the highest skill, not inferior in any sense 
 (except in the matter of the avoidance of drag) 
 to that exercised by the dry-fly expert. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 APOLOGIA 
 
 Having read through the foregoing pages, I am 
 (indeed, I could hardly fail to be) conscious 
 that I have written dogmatically, that I have 
 used the first person singular with some freedom — 
 more freedom than I had supposed. But I am 
 not going to change it. What I had to say, 
 stretched over a period of years, has been too strong 
 for me. I wanted to elaborate a system, and all 
 I have done is to tell my personal experiences 
 in search of a system. If I have written positively, 
 I would not have it supposed that I claim to be 
 a master of angling, or that I do not incur by the 
 water-side my full share — perhaps more than my 
 full share — of mistakes, tangles, bungles, disasters. 
 But, for all that, I claim to be entitled to speak 
 positively of the things which I have tried and 
 tested for myself and know of my own knowledge. 
 No man can really know either these same things 
 or any other things by reading them in a book 
 or by accepting them upon any authority, whether 
 it be that of Mr. F. M. Halford or another. 
 
 131 17 — 2 
 
132 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 
 
 Nothing presents itself to any two minds in 
 an identical light. We all see the multicoloured 
 facets of truth from a different angle. No ex- 
 perience is the same to two diverse idiosyncrasies, 
 and the only help which the writing of a book of 
 this kind can be to others is, not in the laying 
 down of rules, not in the preaching or advocating 
 of systems, not in teaching that which the writer 
 has beaten out by his own experience, but in hints 
 which start or help trains of observation or 
 inquiry in the reader's mind, so as to stimulate 
 him by personal thought and experiment to work 
 out, and prove, and make his own, the conclusions 
 which his own personality is capable of drawing 
 from the test. 
 
 In this way only is progress possible. In this, 
 and in doing something to assure that, in the new 
 learning and in the new systems which come along, 
 that which is of value in the systems of the past 
 shall not be forgotten, but shall be transmuted 
 to the uses of the present and the future, is all 
 the justification I can plead for the foregoing 
 pages. 
 
 In giving records of my own experience by the 
 water-side rather than in laying down a system, 
 I am not asking others to do as I do because I say 
 it, or to accept anything from me. I would have 
 no weight allowed by any man to tradition or 
 authority until it is proved by himself ; no man's 
 words accepted as final because they are his; 
 
APOLOGIA 133 
 
 everything questioned, tested, and brought to the 
 dock of practical experience. If I have ventured, 
 indirectly, to preach at all, the sum of my preaching 
 is not a system, a method, but an attitude of 
 mind — the importance of being earnest, the power 
 of faith, the observant eye, the unfettered 
 judgment, independence of tradition, and, above 
 all, the inquiring mind. 
 
 With these words I commit my pages to the 
 judgment or kindness of my brother anglers with 
 a cordial 
 
 "Tight Lines." 
 
 Explicit. 
 
 BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD. 
 
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