N 



FIRST EMPTYING. n 



feeding on the minute atoms trundled along by the current 

 or found by him in his foraging expeditions. As soon as the 

 fish get a little stronger they move away from the quiet 

 places in the dubs and come nearer to the rough streams, 

 knowing very well that the rapid current is more likely to- 

 bring down abundance of food from the ground above. The 

 variation of position thus indicated must be found out at the 

 beginning of each season by the angler ; in mild seasons, 

 when food has been fairly abundant, trout are frequently in 

 such fairly good condition that the fly fisher who goes out 

 in the latter half of March will probably find fish in more 

 rapid runs than he would otherwise anticipate. 



ABOUT STRIKING FOR TROUT. 



If I were to cover every page of this book it would not 

 suffice to exhaust all that might well be said on the subject, 

 and even then a novice would probably be but little nearer 

 the attainment of accurate knowledge as to different ways of 

 striking fish in their varying and various moods. Nothing 

 but practical experience, with keen power of observation, will 

 give that. I have myself been a tolerably practical fly fisher for 

 thirty-six years ; it is that length of time since, as a very small 

 boy, I caught my first fish with a fly, and yet only last year 

 I acquired a method of striking " short "-rising fish that filled 

 my basket day after day, while others usually more successful 

 had to be content with a round dozen. This is said not in 

 any boastful spirit, but in order to show how, in angling, to 

 the last moment of a man's angling life, there is always, 

 something to learn ; this, indeed, it is that makes so many 

 keen fishermen the knowledge that an ordinary lifetime is 

 too short in which to unfathom all the mysteries of the art. 



It is all but impossible to describe the different ways in 

 which at different times trout will rise at a fly on the surface 

 of the water, and it is still more difficult to enumerate on 



