INTRODUCTION 3 



day's bag is not necessarily to go to the Weather as 



-, -IT . i an excuse for 



other extreme, and invariably tax the f ai i ure . 

 weather with the responsibility for an 

 empty creel, which should rather have 

 been attributed to bad fishing. Failure 

 invariably seeks an impersonal excuse, 

 usually summed up in the somewhat 

 vague expression "bad luck," and the 

 weather is, in the course of such explana- 

 tion, apt to come in for more than its 

 share of the blame. Success, though 

 quite as likely to be due to similar 

 causes, is rarely accounted for on such 

 grounds. Yet there is no weather, indeed 

 no art, so bad as invariably to produce 

 a blank day. Success, as unexpected as 

 it is delightful, is always possible by 

 reason of the caprice of the fish. 



The significance of weather is not the Weather in 



11 .j T^ other sports, 



same in all outdoor sports, v rost means 

 more to the hunting man than to those 

 who fish or shoot. Rain may easily ruin 

 a day's shooting, making the birds fly 

 badly and spoiling them for table pur- 

 poses when picked up. A pastime like 



