FLY FISHING FOR TROUT AND GRAYLING. 331 



one fish weighing twenty-eight pounds. This could not have 

 been done within the time had I not, in anticipation of the wild 

 weather, been armed with stronger gut and a larger fly than 

 usual. Four-fifths of the fish were taken with the blue-bottle, 

 an excellent fly towards the close of summer, when the natural 

 insect goes daft (to use the Yorkshire phrase) and cannot keep 

 itself from ' the drink.' 



Many similar experiences have led me to the conclusion 

 that in bright, shy waters a thunderstorm sets the big fish 

 feeding * owdaciously.' And it seems probable that the sudden 

 changes in the mood of the fish which every angler must have 

 noticed are due to the electrical condition of the atmosphere. 

 It often happens that trout all at once cease rising, the river 

 which just before was alive with rises becoming absolutely 

 dead. In such a case an old hand will sit down and wait. 

 Days may be better or worse, but there is hardly ever a day, 

 except on a thick, rising water, when the fish do not come on 

 the feed at some time or times which the wary angler will not 

 let slip. * Tout vient a qui sait attendre.' 



Even odder than the sudden sulking of trout is the fit they 

 occasionally take of * short rising,' when after every promising 

 break you feel only a slight twitch, and never succeed in 

 hooking your fish. Whether this is due to some ocular decep- 

 tion which makes them miscalculate their rise, or whether for 

 the time they are merely amusing themselves with the fly, 

 like * MacFarlane's geese, that liked their play better than 

 their meat,' I cannot pretend to decide. The fit seldom lasts 

 long, and while it does it tries the angler's temper sorely. I 

 remember once in a Devonshire brook raising from twenty to 

 thirty fish in succession without a single capture. The sky 

 changed, and I took seventeen without a miss. 



This may show that after several failures a fly fisher should 

 not conclude too hastily that he has ' tailored ' his fish. They 

 may never have had the hook in their mouths. When trout 

 rise short, it is a good rule to give up striking altogether, and 

 be content with keeping a taut line till some determined fish 



