CHAPTER XII. 

 THE BIG FLY. 



Cannibal trout Their food The size which they reach 

 The " big fly" A shortlist Sizes and cost The Turle 

 knot How to fish the fly To make a line sink Time 

 to'fish "Short-rising" trout Loch-fishing and loch 

 flies Boat and shore fishing. 



THOUGH an amiable dispensation of Providence has 

 brought it about that trout should on occasion take 

 flies on the surface of the water, it must not be 

 supposed that they obtain the whole or even the 

 greater part of their sustenance in this way. In all 

 rivers they depend very largely on bottom food 

 larvae, snails, shrimps, crayfish, minnows, loach, and 

 other small fish and in some without doubt they 

 feed on these things almost entirely. The result is 

 a race of what are called cannibal trout, which scorn 

 the ordinary allurements of both the dry and wet-fly 

 man, and which must be attacked in a somewhat 

 different manner. Such trout are to be found in 

 the Thames, in the lower reaches of most of its 



