May Fishing. 1 19 



or on Tweed. Again, on the lower reaches of these 

 rivers, a dull cloudy day in May is most favourable . 

 for good sport; and towards the end of the month 

 cold days are frequently red-letter days in the ang- 

 ler's calendar, for these furnish the best conditions 

 for the appearance of the iron-blue dun. I remem- 

 ber one such day some years ago, when I secured a 

 basket of twenty-five pounds with this fly in the 

 course of a few hours' fishing at Thornilee towards 

 the end of May when the hills lay white with 

 snow; while the sport during several hot bright 

 days which succeeded was poor in the extreme. 

 Hot sultry days at this season are generally un- 

 lucky, for then the flies upon which the fish chiefly 

 feed do not put in an appearance at all. 



It is a curious fact that trout will not take well 

 when the wind blows from the south during hot 

 days in May, June, and July. In spring this does 

 not hold; but as the season advances, a hot day, 

 with a dry south wind, producing a sultry heat and 

 throwing a haze over the hills, is the most unpro- 

 pitious of any. Even an east wind, that great 

 bugbear of anglers which blows up Clyde from 

 Culter to its source, and up the greater part of 

 Tweed, is much to be preferred, and in all the 

 fishing months frequently proves a blessing in dis- 

 guise. There is no gainsaying the fact, that during 

 the fishing season there are many sultry, inaus- 



