54 ANGLING IN GREA T BRITAIN. 



and swim in the usual way down the stream were rewarded 

 with trout. 



It is ahvays useful, nevertheless, to have your supply 

 of dry flies at hand, and in case of non-success in the 

 other method, to put them up. But, I rei>eat, too much 

 is oftentimes made of the dry-fly theory. Perhaps this 

 is because of a consciousness on the part of the angler 

 that it requires the acme of skill to be successful with it. 

 Perhaps, also, it may be partly accounted for by the said 

 angler being used to waters where dry-fly fishing in the 

 later months of the summer is a sine qua non. 



There are no more skilful trout anglers tjjan those 

 accustomed to the streams which flow tranquilly through 

 the fat Hampshire meadows. The rivers contain beautiful 

 fish, but they are extremely difficult to take, and the 

 Hampshireman is quite justified in his boast that the 

 angler who can kill in Itchen or Test need not be ashamed 

 to exhibit his prowess anywhere. It requires a good deal 

 of experience to learn how, after whipping the fly four or 

 five times through the air, to secure the requis.ite dryness, 

 to dispatch it across underneath the further bank, and 

 make it alight so that it shall float some distance down 

 the stream without being checked by the line. 



The situation necessarily involves a certain slackness of 

 line, and with the fine tackle that must be used, the extra 

 skill, of which I have just spoken, must be extended to 

 the striking, else a long farewell to fly and^ fish. There is 

 no doubt that a large percentage of trout hooked in dry- 

 fly fishing by defect at this crisis get away. I know of 

 no more pleasant form of angling for trout on a fine 

 summer's evening, when a mere zephyr skims over the 

 water, when the swallows are hawking low upon it, 

 and the voice of the corncrake is heard in the uplands. 



