He tugs downwards and backwards, but
too late; the drop-fly is fast wrapt in Ceratophyllum and Glyceria,
Callitriche and Potamogeton, and half-a-dozen more horrid things with
long names and longer stems; and what remains but the fate of
Campbell's Lord Ullin? -
'The waters wild went o'er his child,
And he was left lamenting.'
Unless, in fact, large fish can be got rapidly down-stream, the
chance of killing them is very small; and therefore the man who
fishes a willow-fringed brook downward, is worthy of no crown but
Ophelia's, besides being likely enough, if he attempt to get down to
his fish, to share her fate. The best fisherman, however, will come
to shame in streams bordered by pollard willows, and among queer
nooks, which can be only fished down-stream. I saw, but the other
day, a fish hooked cleverly enough, by throwing to an inch where he
ought to have been, and indeed was, and from the only point whence
the throw could be made. Out of the water he came, head and tail,
the moment he felt the hook, and showed a fair side over two pounds
weight .
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