22 4 THE TROUT ARE RISING 



glycerine in the water helps. With good gut, 

 thoroughly well soaked, you will fish with con- 

 fidence. The South African trout play lustily. 

 One of the London staff of a leading firm of 

 tackle manufacturers told me that the late Lord 

 Hardwicke, for his salmon fishing, took the 

 soaking of gut much more seriously than merely 

 putting a cast in lukewarm water. He kept his 

 salmon casts in his damper box, with the flannel 

 pads continually wet, right through the season. 

 By this means the knots were softened. 



The beginner will no doubt be worried if he 

 has an adverse wind to contend against, especially 

 when he is using fine gut. With a sound rod, 

 though, he can do a good deal, and anyhow he 

 must do the best he can. It will help him against 

 the wind if he halve the length of his cast and 

 fish with just a tail fly. 



Coming to flies, most of the standard wet flies 

 are likely at some time or other to be useful, but 

 if for some reason or other you were limited to 

 six varieties (wet) for South Africa, you could 

 safely choose these : Blue dun, March brown, red 

 spinner, butcher, woodcock-wing-and-hare's-ear, 

 and coachman (for evening). This selection will 

 carry you a long way. 



Supposing that one had to select half-a-dozen 

 specially for Natal, perhaps the blue dun should 

 be omitted in favour of the blue jay, an attractive 

 pattern which was very effective on the Mooi 

 (Natal) in the season of 1919-1920. One would 

 hardly have thought that it much resembled any 



