66 FLY FISHING. 



At the conclusion of the May fly season, many anglers consider 

 fly fishing at an end for that year, but this is not so ; as excellent 

 sport may be still looked forward to, not only in the earlier part of 

 the autumn, but even in the very dog days, if some gloomy and 

 blustering weather should chance to set in about that time. Gene- 

 rally speaking, however, little can be done with an artificial fly 

 during the burning heat of a bright summer's day, even if an an- 

 gler could bear of fatigue of stewing beneath the mid- day sun, 

 though early in the morning or late in the evening a few good fish 

 may be occasionally picked up, as indeed they may all through a 

 cloudy day when there is sufficient breeze to crisp the waters, and 

 these still contain a sufficient body, for at this time many of our 

 streams are so reduced in their supplies, that the fish, aware of 

 the diminished protection their native element then affords them, 

 dart off and conceal themselves in any covert they can find upon 

 the slightest alarm, which even the glimpse of an angling rod is 

 sufficient to excite. 



One of the greatest drawbacks to the chance of success in hot 

 weather is the rapid change which so frequently occurs in the de- 

 gree of atmospheric pressure upon the water, which M. Agassiz 

 has observed affects the air within the swimming bladders of fishes, 

 sometimes causing them to be distended to a painful degree, even 

 to bursting; so that those fishes whom the angler sometimes sup- 

 poses to be too much engrossed with their sportive gambols on the 

 surface of the water, to pay any attention to the lures he casts 

 most temptingly before their eyes, are in reality tumbling about 

 in all the agonies of a desperate colic, which it must be apparent 

 to all my readers every one of whom I presume have at one 

 period or other of their lives in a greater or a lesser degree 

 experienced this painful malady is quite sufficient to account for 

 a loss of appetite amongst the sufferers. I myself have noticed this 

 effect upon most fresh water fishes, particularly those of the carp 

 tribe, whose air bladders are remarkably large ; and the manner in 

 which minnows either take or reject a bait, during the warmer 

 months, when that means of catching them is resorted to, may 

 not unfrequently afford the angler a fair criterion of the sport he 

 is likely to meet with in trolling with them afterwards. The 

 same effect is also produced by the atmosphere upon salt water 

 fishes, even those that inhabit the deepest waters, and it not un- 

 frequently happens that the air bladders of the common cod fish 



