SPRING FISHING. 177 



No. 3. hook, for the dropper. Much sport may 

 be had during the showers which are proverbial 

 during April, and also during showers at any 

 other part of the season. The same may be said 

 of light snow storms, which often fall in the early 

 part of spring. Fish, however, never rise well 

 during long-continued rain, nor in a heavy fog, 

 nor in storms of thunder and lightning. They 

 form, in their habits, a barometer for observant 

 anglers as unerring as the mercurial tube. Before 

 much rain, for example, they will not take the 

 fly well, though the river seem alive with their 

 leaping. They will hop over your flies and frisk 

 at them with their tails, as it were, in the most 

 tantalising way imaginable. Now and then you 

 may feel a tug you strike there is a moment's 

 flounder and the fish is off. This is called 

 " rising short," and a very unprofitable rising 

 it is. 



We now come to the Summer quarter, which 

 includes May, June, July, and August, a 

 period which, though too bright and warm for 

 much day fishing, affords some very pleasant pas- 

 time when, after the long day of " sultry hours," 

 the cool and welcome 



" Shades of eve come slowly down, 



And woods are wrapped in deeper brown." 

 N 



