DRY FLY FISHING 97 



have been no certainty of its being the same fish 

 that rose a second time in the same place on 

 the first day. It is astonishing how soon the 

 exact position of one rising trout will be taken 

 by another as soon as there is a vacancy : 

 sometimes if the angler gets a trout quickly 

 down stream after hooking it, he may on return- 

 ing to the place after the first trout has been 

 landed, find a second already occupying the 

 vacant place and feeding there, as if it had 

 known the advantages of this particular spot and 

 been waiting for an opportunity of occupying it. 



In writing of dry fly fishing, the expression 

 "good water" has frequently been used, and it 

 may be well to give some idea of what the 

 expression means in the mind of the writer. 

 Good water must be neither over-stocked nor 

 over-fished, and must be water which is naturally 

 capable of holding and fattening trout up to at 

 least three pounds in weight. In the smaller parts 

 of chalk streams, near the source, there is gene- 

 rally water which holds quantities of trout, and 

 where a very large total weight may be killed with 

 a dry fly in a day, but the fish in these places are 

 as a rule satisfactory neither in size nor condition. 



