VIOLENT CHANGES BAD. 107 



<ian be said upon weather as a guide, is but of a very 

 general and imperfect nature. One or two points may 

 be accepted which are more often to be relied on than not, 

 which is all that can be said of them ; for example : Fish 

 will not rise, or if rising will not take well, when heavy 

 clouds are coming up or when heavy rain portends, or a 

 iiood threatens. They seem to have some instinctive no- 

 tion that much water is coming, and that there is a grand 

 feast preparing, and they reserve themselves for it. It is 

 not uncommon, where the water is shallow or weedy, to see 

 what to the inexperienced angler looks like a number of 

 fish constantly rising, but upon closer inspection it will 

 be seen that, instead of the heads, it is the tails which are 

 breaking the surface. "When this is so, the fish are feeding 

 on the caddis or other insects in the weeds, and it is rare 

 that they will even look at a fly. Dead low water is not, 

 as a rule, desirable. Sudden and violent changes of wea- 

 ther are not favourable to good takes, neither are extremes 

 of weather favourable, as excessive wind, rain, heat or 

 cold. Frost will not always deter them if there be warm 

 glimpses of weather at mid-day ; but with frost, evenings 

 and mornings are not to be relied on. The angler should 

 never go out on the day after a flood ; a flood always brings 

 down much food, and the fish are generally gorged and 

 lazy. If the water clears well, the day after may be a 

 good day ; if it clears slowly, the day after that will be 

 found even better. 



Fish do not always lie in the same spots when feeding ; 

 much depends upon the weather. The angler should re- 

 member that the fish always particularly in larger streams 

 follow the food ; l according, therefore, to the weather, 



1 In small brooks a good trout takes up its berth, which is generally a 

 likely one for tho run of the food, and does not wander far from it. The 

 stream is his purveyor. In large rivers they are more of wanderers and 

 "have to follow the food, while every flood will alter the currents and runs. 



