Deceiving a Fish
Years ago, when I first read Izaak Walton, I was fascinated by his account of fishing with a fly. The desire to learn the art never left me, and, although I have fished many rivers and lakes, I had not done anything that quite came up to Walton's description of the magic of deceiving a fish until I found myself staring down into a rocky- sided, pool beneath a waterfall. The sun shone on half the pool. The other half was in shade. In the slack water and in the sun a trout cruised about, taking flies, rising and sinking and looking twice his size, magnified as he was by the water and the freak light. It was impossible to fish in the orthodox way, and, thinking of Walton swinging his insect across a pool, I tied a little fly called a Blue Quill to my cast and swung it so that it fell in the slack water. The trout took two other flies before he took my imitation, but I saw him come up from the deep and snap my flyN..In a few minutes I had " walked " him out of his pool and had him at a place where I could get him. When I reached home I picked The Compleat Angler from its shelf and read old Walton's " Fourth Day " again.
Previous page
