246 THE BRITISH ANGLER'S LEXICON. 



hurry ; give him plenty of time, and enjoy to the utmost the 

 pleasantest part of a trout fisher's sport, namely, the playing 

 of the fish. This is the crisis, full of doubt, hope, fear, and 

 exultation, and after the feelings have passed through all 

 these, there comes the satisfaction of content that you have 

 won the day, when, lying at your feet, on the grassy slope, 

 is the bright, handsome, active fish, whose capture with 

 the minute tackle you have employed is calculated to give 

 you the greatest meed of enjoyment and pleasure. If the 

 water is suitable, the man who wades has certainly an 

 advantage over the man w r ho does not. In the first place, 

 be'ng so close to the water, in fact half in it, there is much 

 less chance of the fish seeing him. Their eyes, from the 

 peculiarity of their formation and the refraction of the 

 water, are better adapted for looking up than either down 

 or straight before them, hence they see most distinctly a 

 figure on the banks of the stream above them, but do not 

 well see the same figure either wading or kneeling down on 

 the low shelving sands of a river. Again the wader is able 

 to take advantage of any likely spot on either side of the 

 water from which a cast can be made. Winding streams 

 generally have one of their banks low and shelving. 

 At each quick bend, and from these low banks, the angi- 

 nas the best chance, as opposite is sure to be deep- 

 running water, in which the trout lie. Therefore, to get 

 at these "coigns of vantage/' the stream may have to 

 be crossed a dozen times in a quarter of a mile. Some- 

 times trout " midge," that is, feed upon the very minute 

 midges or insects which flit to and fro across the water 

 in the evening sun. When this is the case, it is almost 

 useless throwing to them an artificial fly ; if you do, it 

 must be one as infinitesimal as the living ones which they 



