i2 4 ROD AND RIVER 



winds are frequently the order of the day, and 

 the artificial fails to do its duty. On the best 

 portions of the river the wind is often adverse, 

 and renders casting extremely difficult, and at 

 times well-nigh impossible. Fishing under such 

 circumstances is very trying to one's patience 

 and temper, more so than if the fish were not 

 rising at all. All the best fish in the river may 

 be out on the feed, despite the fact of the wind 

 being from the east, and yet to get the fly over 

 them is so difficult a matter. On such occasions, 

 too, the fish come short at the artificial fly, and 

 will not allow themselves to be fairly hooked, 

 but get off * pricked/ and in consequence are 

 rendered all the more shy for the future. At 

 such times the water appears over-transparent, 

 the finest and most carefully stained gut will 

 glitter, and no amount of wetting or use serves 

 to moisten it, for the instant it is off the 

 water it is dried by the grasping east wind. 

 Things go wrong altogether, an'd the results of 

 a hard day's work, trying to angler and rod 

 alike, are under these circumstances bitterly dis- 

 appointing. The worst of this kind of weather is 

 that it generally continues for several days, and 

 not unfrequently during the whole of the month. 

 Let the wind but shift to south or west, or a mild 

 drizzling day intervene, and many a goodly trout 

 will find its way into the basket of the fisherman. 



