36 ANGLING IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



the winter floods. For it will only be a dweller in the 

 vicinity who takes earliest advantage of the February 

 fishing — the local enthusiast who is aware that the first 

 comer will find the trout ramping hungry in the strong 

 currents, and so stand a good chance of sport however 

 adverse the weather may be. 



In such a climate as ours it is of course altogether too 

 soon to talk about spring in the short, bleak, wintry Feb- 

 ruary days, but for the purposes of this book we must 

 assume that the spring begins with the ist of February, 

 because on many streams the close season for trout finishes 

 on that date. At that time there are no visible signs 

 that the winter is past, and the angler who makes up 

 his mind to go forth must be quite independent of those 

 sentimental thoughts which are supposed to have so large 

 a share in the fascinations of angling. The chances are 

 very much, however, that at the beginning of February the 

 rivers will be unfishable. Even if frost and snow are not 

 abroad, the streams are likely at this time of the year to 

 be charged with flood-water, and therefore out of the 

 question for angling. 



But it is a long-established custom in Devonshire, 

 where Nature begins to throb and move earlier than in 

 most other parts of the country, to take advantage of the 

 earliest fishable day after the termination of the fence 

 months. True, the trout are seldom in condition, and 

 ought not to be taken until March, but this is not always 

 the case, for I myself on a frosty day on the Ottery, during 

 a little midday sunshine, have taken at Shrovetide, which 

 then fell in the middle of February, a brace of half-pound 

 trout which were in as good order as any fish I have ever 

 seen. Of course I need not remind the reader that there 

 is no rule without an exception, and this perhaps might 



