304 DRY-FLY FISHING 



likely to succeed in bringing up a trout. Even a 

 wet-fly will in such a case often score a victory ; but 

 a floating-fly of almost any pattern is decidedly 

 more deadly. 



On the river, also, a foam-covered backwater is 

 almost certain to conceal trout. One would think 

 that flies floating on foam would be invisible to the 

 fish below ; but that they are not is quite easily 

 proved. In our earliest days we discovered how 

 easy it was to get a trout on the fly, when there was 

 such an aid to concealment, and even yet we do 

 not allow such an opportunity to slip. It always 

 gives us delight to see the black circle appear in 

 the surrounding whiteness, when a fish takes down 

 the fly. 



Our marvellous run of luck in the far-off moorland 

 loch seems to be due not so much to any superior 

 virtue in a floating fly, but to the fact that the lure 

 was placed where the trout expected to see it. 



Further trial shows that the merry period has 

 come to an abrupt end, repeated casting over the 

 generous stretch producing no result, and reluct- 

 antly we wander up the bank, encumbered with 

 two rods and net, but leaving the remainder of the 

 apparatus behind. Our theory seems to have 

 broken down, or the other trout have become 

 alarmed by the struggles of the victims ; but the 

 change probably has some connection with the fact 

 that the weather conditions are undergoing modi- 

 fication. 



The wind, under the influence of the strong sun- 

 shine or other cause, is perceptibly fading away, 

 and in time it becomes only a gentle breeze, a state 

 of affairs very much to our liking, even though it 



