The farmer had told us there were no fish in this stream, and nobody
ever fished there. However, I thought I might as well use my rod,
having brought it all the way there, so, pretending to myself that
there was a fish in a swirling little pool behind a great rock, I
crept and crawled to a spot from which I could, unseen by the fish,
throw my fly so that it could float quietly in the current and be
carried round the corner.
The first attempt from my crouching position was not a good one; the
line did not go out far enough, and merely got into a backwater and
drifted in close to me so I shortened it up by pulling in a handful or
two, and then shot it out again over the water.
This time it fell well out, the thin gut cast falling lightly as a
cobweb on the surface, and then sliding off with the current close
round the edge of the rock; and just as it went out of sight there was
a sudden tug and a steady hold on it! A rock 1 No. The next moment
there was a rush and a strain, the rod bending over and showing that a
really nice fish was on.
[Illustration: OUR DAILY EXCURSION.]
I won't tell you all the joy that followed in playing the fish till he
was exhausted, and then leading him to a smooth shallow, where, having
no landing-net, I could draw him steadily and quickly from the water
and up the shelving rock without breaking the delicate line. But I got
him! And after him we got many more, enough for all our meals. It was
a delightful trout stream, and I could only wish that every Scout in
the world were there to enjoy it, too.
One particular run of water pleased me particularly. The stream rushed
through an opening between some rocks, and then gradually opened over
a gravelly bed in a long, rippling current. The "tail of the run," as
they call it, is the place to expect fish, so I fished quickly over
the rapid part of the run, and went more gingerly when I got nearer to
the "tail," making my fly visit every inch of the water, and I was
quickly rewarded.
A sudden ting like an electric shock on my rod, and a heavy rushing
and jerking hither and thither, till gradually the fish exhausted
himself, and I was able to hold him and gradually tow him up on the
shelving beach. Out of that one pool we got no fewer than fourteen
trout that day! Of course, we only kept those we wanted for food, and
slid the others back into the water, alarmed, but not hurt.
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