78 Dry -Fly Fishing. 



bordering the mill or middle stream, which, compared 

 with the main river, is narrow. My rod was still 

 rigged up, and an unused fly, a red quill on a No. 1 

 hook, tied on to fine natural gut, when suddenly the 

 noise like chop sounds, and made by a trout recklessly 

 feeding, was heard presumably under the darkened 

 opposite bank. No movement was visible, but I 

 ran off from the winch sufficient line, at a guess, to 

 reach the locale from whence the sound seemed to 

 come. The first throw was without effect. Then 

 the peculiar sound was repeated, and again my fly shot 

 forth towards it ; a fish seized it, the line tightened, 

 he was played without much time being given, and 

 safely netted out. Lock had seen such a thing 

 often done before with a large wet fly called 

 Hammond's Adopted, and therefore he was not 

 nearly so much surprised as I ; but when, as we 

 moved along, another came to grief under similar 

 conditions, and a third followed, making a brace 

 and a half (weighing nearly six pounds the following 

 morning), he thought with me that it was a remark- 

 able capture, admitting that he had never seen such 

 " luck," he called it, with the dry-fly in the dark 

 before. The same fly lured the three ; it was too 

 dark to see to change it, but each time it was 

 dried by waving it backwards and forwards in 

 the usual way sans oil, and I have no doubt it 

 floated dry. 



