232 TROUT FISHING 



the water and ground, too slight to be perceptible, 

 yet cogent enough to spoil the neat finish of a dry-fly 

 cast ? If so, are they of no fixed direction, blowing 

 where they list, so that the same zephyr which 

 frustrates the first easy cast by opposing the fly 

 brings the downward cut to nothing by turning 

 wilfully round, and helping the fly along ? The 

 more one thinks over the problem, the more one 

 inclines to this explanation, though it brings small 

 comfort in its train. 



There are many other kinds of trouble to which 

 we anglers are heirs, and which we have to endure 

 as manfully as we may. One of the worst perhaps 

 is the loss of fish after fish for no apparent reason. 

 There must be a reason of course, and I have come 

 to be of opinion that the fault lies less with the 

 angler (though it is right and proper that he should 

 blame himself— that way lies humility) than with 

 something in the condition of light, weather or water, 

 which makes the trout take the fly gingerly. There 

 is no mistaking the days on which fish take whole- 

 heartedly. The merest trifle of a 000 hook will then 

 suffice to hook and hold a three-pounder. But on 

 the other days such a hook hardly seems able to 

 inflict a scratch, much less to get a hold. And even 

 the sort of hook you use for a Welshman's button 

 or a March brown, a good sensible No. 3 or No. 4, 

 is of very doubtful efficacy. Perhaps the trout 



