SEDGE AND MAYFLY. 143 



considerable part of the fly food consumed by the 

 larger trout. Indeed, I am convinced that in some 

 waters they are the only flies ever taken by the 

 really big fish. I had four or five trout under 

 observation recently in a certain stretch of the 

 Kennet which I was fishing, all very big fish, and I 

 had reluctantly come to the conclusion that they 

 took no surface food at all, until I happened to be 

 on the spot at about 9 o'clock on a warm July 

 evening. Then I was aware of the power of the 

 sedges, for the monsters were taking them greedily, 

 roaming up and down in search of them. One fish 

 in particular I saw plainly as he swam past where I 

 was kneeling, quite close to the bank. He plunged 

 .at my fly, but missed it. He must have weighed 

 j\b. or 81b., and I made desperate efforts to cover 

 him once more, but as he was wandering from spot 

 to spot, I could not locate him again before it was 

 too dark to see. 



This brings me to an important feature of sedge- 

 iishing its brevity. It lasts but some half-hour, or 

 at most three-quarters. Then the light is all gone, 

 and the angler had better be gone, too, for though 

 doubtless the trout go on taking sedges and moths 

 till midnight, or perhaps later (heavy "plops" in 

 the darkness argue forcibly that they do), night 

 fishing is uncanny work. To my mind the pleasure 



