THE FISHING DAY 65 



and to study what happened between then and 

 eight. My suspicion is that what I saw at the later 

 hour was but the end of important doings, well 

 worthy of the dry-fly man's consideration. 



But here even more is the nature of things a 

 hindrance to action. Besides, I suppose it might 

 be open to question whether a dry-fly man would 

 consider himself, and still less another fellow, a 

 dry-fly man at 5 a.m. Anyhow, the fact remains 

 that I do not remember ever fishing on a chalk 

 stream much before nine. Nor do I know more 

 than one stream on which an effort has been made 

 to solve the problem. Some of my friends have 

 returned thence to breakfast carrying rods, but 

 they have uniformly given short answers, which I 

 hesitate to accept as evidence one way or the other. 

 I think the weather has mostly been unpleasant 

 when I have seen them so returning, and, anyhow, 

 that stream is hardly typical, being subject to the 

 vagaries of a mill and apt to hold very little water 

 early in the morning. 



The wet-fly morning by common consent may 

 begin soon after daybreak, but here again I have 

 little or no experience. I know that in hot weather 

 and with low water there is a fertile period which 

 ends just as I begin. Often enough have I had a 

 brisk little bit of sport for half an hour or so, which 

 has ceased abruptly as the sun has got on to the 



