WET FLY TROUT FISHING 143 



doubt about either his skill or his success as an 

 angler. He says, " There are not many days from 

 May to October in which an angler, thoroughly 

 versed in all the mysteries of the craft, should 

 not kill at least twelve pounds' weight of trout in 

 any country in the south of Scotland, not except- 

 ing Edinburghshire itself." In the same volume, 

 in another passage, which refers to worm fishing 

 in July, it is asserted that "he is not worthy of 

 the name of angler who cannot in any day of the 

 month, when the water is clear, kill from fifteen 

 to twenty pounds' weight of trout in any county 

 in the south of Scotland." It must, however, 

 be added that a note, at the end of the first 

 chapter of the seventh edition of "The Practical 

 Angler," tells us that before his death Mr 

 Stewart confessed to a necessity for lowering 

 this estimate, and we are warned to take into 

 account his "ideas and habits as to a day; 

 which a jealous gamekeeper whom he had always 

 utterly beaten described as ' twenty-four hours 

 of creeping and crawling.' ' 



Much has been written about the proper 

 method of fishing with wet flies, whether it 

 is best to fish up stream or down stream. It 



