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auglers, and yet there never ^^■as a better stock of trout. But 

 they have been difficult to catcli througli the long drought, 

 and the absence of Ay ; and it is ttoubtf ul whether the bulk 

 of them will si)awn until the turn of the New Year. "What- 

 ever may have been the habits of the trout in this river — 

 ■when the opening day for fishing was fixed for Good 

 Friday, and the closing for August 31st — those conditions 

 have now entirely changed. May 1st ought to be the day 

 for commencing, and September 30th for closing ; because 

 the trout caught in the first few weeks have not got a wag 

 in their tails — poor things ; whereas a September trout, 

 in the Darenth, is full of fight, and the odds are all in his 

 favour — given gossamer gut and a handy weed bed. But 

 there are no weeds, and there have been none this season ; 

 and for one fish that broke the surface of the water with his 

 head, a hundred did so with their tails, shrimping and root- 

 ing at the bottom for o-round food. The same condition of 

 things has prevailed upon all the South of England chalk 

 streams, and the dry-fly men have, as a consequence, wasted 

 their science and their artistic skill upon the desert air. 

 Many of the weed beds, which should have furnished clouds 

 of '■ ephemera," have been high and dry throughout the 

 whole season, and there has been a great scarcity of surface 

 food. Even the rise of May-fly was of the lightest as to 

 quantity, and the briefest as to duration, that any of us can 

 remember, it was up and gone in ten days, instead of lasting 

 three weeks. Ely fisherman, like farmers, are credited with 

 a disposition to grumble, but they have shared in common 

 the dire effects of the drought of the past season. It has 

 been a good season for the poachers, the men who habitu- 

 ally resort to the Alexandra, the dusty miller and the silver 

 doctor. These pot hunters have scored amongst the tailing 

 trout, when legitimate fishermen have gone home with 

 empty creels and clear consciences, and I am much afraid 

 that the force of these bad examples have tempted not a few 

 from the paths of virtue. It is no part of my present pur- 

 pose to discuss the ethics of fly-fishing, but we must not 

 judge too harshly the man who, with an empty creel after a 

 longday'sfishing, kills a brace of fish on a small salmon flv. 



