A Dry -Fly Purist's Advice to a Beginner. 11 



another environment, or to the surface of the stream 

 a little more in shade. Always fish the evening 

 rise if possible, and the wind be in your favour, from 

 the eastern bank, so that you face the glory of the 

 setting sun, and have the great advantage of the long 

 after-glow to light up the river scene, and to enable 

 you not only to mark where the rings of some 

 feeding fish appear, but distinctly where the crowd 

 of pseudo-imagines, diptera, &c., float down on the 

 middle of the smooth surface, or under the opposite 

 bank ; and afterwards, when the sedge flies and white 

 moths give warning that your day is fast closing 

 in. Many a half -despairing man who has toiled all 

 the day and caught nothing has rejoiced over his 

 after- success at the evening rise, not only saving him 

 from the humiliation of a blank day, but burdening 

 him with a welcome, though heavy load of fish to 

 carry home. It is of all the long day the time 

 when the trout are most easily killed by dry-fly 

 experts who know their business and have good long 

 sight. Also to be quick of hearing is a help, especially 

 if it be too dark to see clearly. As an example of 

 this, I remember that in the days of old John Lock, 

 the keeper of the Abbot's Barton fishery, above Win- 

 chester, I once caught a leash of trout, by ear 

 chiefly. Lock was walking by my side carrying my 

 already half-filled creel as I returned towards home 

 through the darkling gloom of the water-meadows 



