DRY-FLY MEDITATIONS 85 



hook. Judicious handling means loss of time, and 

 before I had him in the net the mist was upon us. As 

 at a signal, every trout in the stream stopped feeding, 

 and the second evening rise was over. 



The third evening rise was experienced a week later, 

 on another side-stream, after a thundery, flyless, fish- 

 less day. It consisted of a single dimple, caused by 

 a grayling, and I did not see it myself. But a friend 

 who did took full advantage of it, and the fish was a fine 

 specimen of two pound six ounces. I believe, however, 

 that the trout rose for half an hour after we had gone 

 an event for which they were, no doubt, waiting. The 

 keeper said next day that it was quite a pleasure to 

 watch them. The fourth day was again devoted to 

 the main river. The sky was heavy with rain all the 

 morning and afternoon, but about five o'clock it began 

 to clear up, and by 7 p.m. a lovely evening was assured. 

 At last I was to see a real evening rise. It was begun 

 by a good fish under the opposite bank, which came 

 up continuously and voraciously until a small silver 

 sedge floated over him. He then came up no more. 

 I attributed this to my having dropped the fly too 

 close to him, and resolved to be more careful with the 

 next trout, which was rising equally steadily about 

 twenty yards higher up. I covered him with a really 

 excellent cast. The fly dropped as lightly as thistle- 

 down five feet above him, floated directly over his 

 nose without the least suspicion of a drag, and put 

 him down at once. 



This convinced me that the silver sedge was not the 

 fly, and I changed it for an olive quill, which put down 

 a third fish every bit as speedily. A Wickham put 



