STEWART AND THE UPSTREAM SCHOOL. Ill 



Very likely not. So minute and various are the 

 indications, that it is often hard for him to say 

 why he struck. Very seldom did he see any 

 sign on the surface. Sometimes a movement 

 under water made a slight, hardly visible boil. 

 Or he may have seen a flash as the fish turned 

 at the fly, or a dim shadow, scarce perceptible 

 in the ripple. Or the line may have stopped for 

 a fraction of a second, or behaved in some 

 peculiar way. Our fisherman, wading out at 

 the head of the stream, could not tell you if you 

 asked why he struck in each case. All he could 

 say was that he knew that a fish had risen. 



All this is difficult, and if you cannot attain 

 the art, fish downstream. It is also hard work, 

 and if I feel tired and lazy I fish downstream. 

 It also demands great concentration, which I 

 for one cannot give unless trout are rising 

 freely. So if they are not, fish downstream 

 until they start again. 



Now, all this is a concession to fallible human 

 nature. It does not affect the superiority of 

 upstream. But there are occasions when, even 

 in clear low water, downstream beats upstream 

 on its merits. 



It has been pointed out, I think by Lord 

 Grey, that when you are fishing up a stream 

 you will not uncommonly come across fish who, 

 lying in midstream and apparently rising well, 

 refuse your fly when cast over them from below 

 and yet take it when cast from above, when it is 

 swinging round and across the current. It 



