222 FISHERMEN'S WEATHER 



" We found the river very low, and it 

 was impossible to approach the bank 

 without the fish seeing every movement. 

 Towards evening, a very severe thunder- 

 storm passed over our heads : you seemed 

 to feel the warm flash of the lightning all 

 over you, and next day's newspapers told 

 of people, as well as cattle and horses, 

 killed by the storm." 



After the storm has exhausted itself, or 

 moved on elsewhere, trout, as Sir Douglas 

 Brooke points out, often rise freely. 

 Sir George "On several occasions," writes Sir 



experience George Brown, " when I have been over- 

 taken by a sudden thunderstorm, and no 

 shelter has been available, I have observed 

 that the fish, which have previously taken 

 little or no notice of the fly, have risen 

 madly, but in this connection I have also 

 observed that while I have hooked a fish 

 at nearly every cast, I have, probably in 

 my anxiety to land as many as possible 

 while the storm lasted, lost a great many 

 before I could get them within reach of 

 the landing-net." 



