Fly Fishing for Trout . 121 



fishers. Last spring I lost a fine fish in the Chess. 

 He had taken the Red Spinner, got into the 

 weeds, and broke me. In the afternoon I saw a 

 fish rising at the same spot ; threw the Red 

 Spinner over him, and had him at once. He 

 weighed over two pounds, and had my morning fly 

 in his upper jaw. 



When we go "a-fishing," we anxiously look at 

 the barometer and at the sky, hoping for a soft 

 south-wester or a showery day ; but we Londoners 

 cannot choose our days, and must take them as 

 they come, fine or wet ; and many a bright holiday 

 have I spent by the river-side with little prospect 

 of much sport, and yet I seldom came home with 

 an empty basket. There may be plenty of fly on 

 the water, or there may be none, but on bright days 

 other things must be considered, and the fish must 

 be " 'ticed," not by the prevalent dun, or spinner, but 

 by something else. A bright or a sombre coloured 

 fly will often lure a fish when nothing else will 

 move him. Some well known fly-fishers, past and 

 present, say a bright fly for a dark day, a dark fly 

 for a bright day. All my experience goes to 

 reverse this axiom, and many a good fish have I 

 got out of a river by the use of the brightest fly in 

 my book on a sunny day. I will give one instance 

 out of many in my note-book. For sixteen years I 

 fished the Kennet, at Littlecote and Ramsbury, for 



