JUNE 81 



find themselves again confronted with the mayfly 

 problem ; eat they must, for the mayfly, with the 

 Grannom, in many rivers takes the place of the quails 

 and manna of the Israelites in the wilderness ; but last 

 year's feast had painful memories connected with the 

 floating fly, so this year the trout try the larvae as it 

 ascends. Great fish can be seen dashing hither and 

 thither, snapping up the changing insect before it can 

 even reach, much less break, the surface on its way to 

 light and sunshine from its two years' captivity below 

 the waters. 



Some authorities say that the bulging and under- 

 water larva feeding is only seen at the beginning of the 

 rise. On this water it was most marked at least eight 

 days after the first appearance of the fly, and was 

 accompanied by two other vices a great fastidiousness 

 as to the pattern of the artificial and a marked tendency 

 to come short. The true explanation appears to the 

 writer to be that the fish are hook-shy ; the stream is 

 overcrowded with trout, which therefore rarely grow to 

 any great size ; the number of rods fishing the water 

 are too many; and the limit at all times is 12in. 

 Frequently ten undersized fish will be caught and 

 returned for one which is takeable as regards size, 

 especially during the summer months. Therefore, nearly 

 every fish in the river has been hooked, some frequently; 

 and many are landed and returned at least once in their 

 lives, so that it is not to be wondered at that they fight 

 shy of floating flies, and prefer to make a diet of some- 

 thing under water. This evil tends to grow worse, 

 as short-rising fish are frequently pricked, and just 

 sufficiently alarmed to put them off a fly dietary. Again, 

 having been hooked before, when they feel the steel 

 they know what to do, and at once bolt into the weeds, 

 take a turn, and the hook comes away. This is a bad 

 state of affairs as the trout are being gradually educated 

 not to rise to the fly at all, and seem to be learning 

 their lesson well. 



The trout quickly find that they can gorge to their 

 heart's content upon the larva?, secure from the prick 



G 



