The dry fly and up stream is of course the orthodox method of fishing in this as in other south-country chalk or limestone streams.  No flogging the water indiscriminately all the way up, but marking your fish down, and stalking him, is the real game.  For those who fish “wet” sport is not so good as it used to be, owing to the “schoolmaster being abroad” amongst trout as well as amongst men; but on certain windy days this method is the only one possible.  There is a good deal of prejudice against the “chuck-and-chance-it” style among the advocates of the dry-fly method of fishing.  That a man who fishes with a floating fly should be set down as a better sportsman than one who allows his fly to sink is, to my thinking, a narrow-minded argument, and one, moreover, that is not borne out by facts.  True, in some clear chalk streams the fish can only be killed with the dry fly; and in such cases it is unsportsmanlike to thrash the water—­in the first place, because there is no chance of catching fish, and in the second, in the interest of other anglers, because it is likely to make the fish shy.  And therefore it is a somewhat selfish method of fishing.

But let those accomplished exponents of the art of fishing who are too fond of applying the epithet “poacher” to all those who do not fish in their own particular style remember that there are but few streams in England sluggish enough for dry-fly fishing; consequently many first-rate fishermen have never acquired the art.  The dry-fly angler has no more right to consider himself superior as a sportsman to the advocate of the old-fashioned method than the county cricketer has to consider himself superior to the village player.  In both cases time and practice have done their work; but the best fishermen and the most practised exponents of the game of cricket are very often inferior to their less distinguished brethren as sportsmen.  At the same time, were I asked which of all our English sports requires the greatest amount of perseverance, the supremest delicacy of hand, the most assiduous practice, and the most perfect control of temper, in order that excellence may be attained, I would unhesitatingly answer, “Dry-fly fishing on a real chalk stream”; and I would sooner have one successful day under such conditions than catch fifty trout by flogging a Scotch burn.

In the Coln the fish run largest at Fairford, where the water has been deepened and broadened; and there three-pounders are not uncommon.  Then at Hatherop and Williamstrip there are some big fish.  Higher up the trout run up to two and a half pounds; and the average size of fish killed after May 1st is, roughly speaking, one pound.  The higher reaches are very much easier to fish, for the following reason:  at Bibury, and at intervals of about half a mile all the way down, the river is fed by copious springs of transparent water; the lower down you go, and the more springs that fall into the river, the more glassy does it become.  The upper reaches of this river may be described as easy fishing.  The water, when in good trim, is of a whey colour, though after June it becomes low and very clear.  The flies I have mentioned are the only ones really necessary, and if the fish will not take them they will probably take nothing.  They are, to sum up: