182 Dry -Fly Fishing. 



now on the water, and a great many piled -up redds 

 covering deposited ova came into view, which in 

 most cases the trout had forsaken, showing that 

 their spawning operations had early been completed 

 before the severe weather set in. Indeed, on the 

 shallows very few large fish of any sort were seen, 

 probably because there was a flavour of " snow 

 broth" in the water, and that, in my experience, 

 always causes them to seek deep haunts. Some 

 few breaks of the surface under the overhanging 

 branches of a tree on the opposite high bank soon 

 caught my attention, and, standing at the end of 

 one of the platforms (for if kneeling I had not 

 power to make a sufficiently long cast), I forced my 

 fly, this time a red quill with a gold tag, to its 

 objective, and a heavy fish seized it and was 

 hooked it must have been slightly, for the bending 

 rod immediately straightened and the fly came back 

 to me. It was, of course, a disappointment, but I 

 tried to console myself that it was only a trout 

 that had escaped. Again from the same coign of 

 vantage the same fly, dried and oiled, was sent on 

 its. mission, and, after a dozen essays, a grayling 

 rose to it and was firmly hooked, giving at the end 

 of such a long line excellent and very exciting sport 

 for about two minutes before he or she was safely 

 in the net. Higher up I tried from another plat- 

 form, and under similar conditions fortune favoured 



