156 FLY FISHING 



and when the water is still high, but falling, 

 the angler has his great opportunity. 



Let us suppose that he has been for some 

 days on a good sea trout river towards the end 

 of July, that there has been no rain for some 

 weeks, and that he has wandered about for a 

 few days catching hardly anything, but knowing 

 that fish are showing freely at the mouth of 

 the river and waiting to come up. At last there 

 comes rain. First the dust is laid ; then the 

 water begins to show upon the road ; and presently 

 little white streams appear on the sides of the 

 hills. Still the rain becomes heavier and continues, 

 and the angler goes out in it late in the evening 

 to watch the river beginning to rise. He listens 

 to the sound of rain upon the roof at night, and 

 with the increasing certainty of a really good 

 spate a sort of corresponding current of excite- 

 ment rises in him. If the morning is fine, small 

 rivers will be high but will soon be falling, and he 

 goes to a favourite part almost with the certainty 

 of good sport. % Wonderful indeed is the delight 

 of standing by a pool which for weeks has been 

 too low, the stream at its head a weak trickle, 

 its deep part smooth and almost stagnant, the 



