146 THE PRACTICAL ANGLER 



thundery weather even with that bugbear " white 

 clouds " in the sky, as also in blowy wet weather ; 

 but good sport is rarely to be met with on a dark 

 windy day without rain, and the worst of all is a 

 bright sky with a few clouds and strong west wind. 

 In such a day, early morning is the best time. A 

 clear cloudless sky generally indicates a degree of 

 frost in the atmosphere ; and when this is the case, 

 the trout do not take readily in the morning, until 

 the heat of the sun begins to be felt. During the 

 months of June and July we have frequently found 

 that we could depend more upon sport when the wind 

 was east than when it was west. 



As July draws to a close, trout do not take the 

 worm so well they begin to be capricious, and will 

 sometimes take only for an hour or two in the fore- 

 noon ; so that worm-fishing in our earlier streams 

 may be said to be at an end ; and if the angler 

 continues it through August, he must have recourse 

 to the more backward districts, and sometimes even 

 to hill-burns. We have known excellent worm- 

 fishers unable to capture a dozen trout in the end of 

 August, where a month earlier they could with ease 

 have filled a basket. And worm fishing may be 

 limited to six weeks or two months in summer the 

 time varying according to the season, for which the 

 best guide we can give the angler is, that it 

 generally commences about a week after the May- 

 flies are done, and in streams where these flies do not 

 exist about the beginning of June. 



All we have yet said on this head has applied 



