66 TROUT FISHING 



water. But somehow I have never, at any rate for 

 many years, risen much earUer on account of this 

 knowledge. And most of my wet-fly fishing has 

 been done in the early part of the season when trout 

 are more reasonable in their feeding hours. Nine 

 o'clock seems to me a good Christian hour at which 

 to begin, with the wet fly or the dry. And when, 

 as sometimes happens, having begun at nine, you 

 are still waiting for encouragement to continue at 

 one, you begin to doubt whether on the morrow 

 you need be quite so early. The morrow comes and 

 you are there by ten, to find that, as in the instance 

 I have recorded, the fun to-day really did begin at 

 nine and is now just over. Fishing is an uncertain 

 business. 



Time was when I held firmly to the belief that the 

 important part of the trout fishing day (setting 

 aside those possible hours in the company of the 

 lark, as to which I have confessed that I know little 

 or nothing) was the morning. The period from ten 

 till one was, I long considered, worth all the rest of 

 the day put together, with the exception of perhaps 

 an hour at the end of it. And if it came to be lunch 

 time with my creel still empty I had all the feelings 

 of depression which may be summed in the words, 

 " Well, here's another good day wasted." And, for 

 that matter, I still cannot rid myself quite of the 

 old notion, and I still feel pretty desperate if there 



