SEA TROUT FISHING 171 



there always seems to me to be something in the 

 weather, on any given day, when the fish will not 

 rise, which is the cause of my having no sport; 

 and being of an excessively sanguine tempera- 

 ment of which I hope never to be cured I 

 discover that evening some change, actual or 

 impending, in the wind or the sky or the tem- 

 perature, which I am satisfied will make the 

 next day entirely different. I look forward full 

 of happy expectation. Yet with all this study 

 of weather, I have not been able to arrive at any 

 theory which is satisfactory. 



The best day I ever had with sea trout in a 

 river was when the water was not very high, 

 and there was a gloomy gale from the east in 

 August. The best day I ever had on a loch 

 was bright and hot, and with only a very slight 

 breeze not nearly enough in appearance for fish- 

 ing. Till mid-day I had not had one rise, and 

 had only seen two fish. Then the breeze im- 

 proved just enough to make a small ripple, and 

 quantities of daddy-long-legs came upon the 

 water ; the little black loch trout all under four 

 ounces were very pleased with these straggling 

 insects, and pursued and took them. I did not 



