132 Dry -Fly Fishing. 



occasionally dipping on to it as they dropped their 

 eggs. A larger red quill on a No. 2 hook was 

 therefore tried, as it was similar in size to the 

 natural sedges, and, presented by the horizontal 

 back-handed casting method, it sailed lightly down 

 over the ring of a feeding fish, and when he rose 

 again and snatched at it he hooked himself, giving 

 three minutes of exciting sport ere the landing-net 

 secured him, a grayling of 14oz. making up two 

 brace weighing 4 Jib. 



On the 30th, after the total eclipse of the sun in 

 the afternoon, the evening was dull, and low clouds 

 threatened rain. I fished in the same place as last. 

 The river was clear but brimful ; indeed, here and 

 away overflowing its banks, and running so wildly 

 that a dry-fly cast up stream in the usual manner 

 immediately dragged, and if thrown across, the line 

 sagged or bellied, and consequently, whenever a fish 

 took my fly, it was most difficult, on the slack line, 

 to strike and hook him. To let the fly drift was easier 

 and the only alternative, and in this way two and a 

 half brace of grayling, from IGin. to 13in. in length, 

 were creeled by 8.10 p.m. At which time, having 

 lost my fly in an overhanging branch, it was too 

 dark to see to tie on another, and I reluctantly had 

 to leave off. It was particularly provoking, for the 

 fish were then rising in that reckless way they often 

 do for a brief time at dusk. 



