CHALK-STREAM FISHING WITH DRY FLY. 331 



and besides the numberless flics bred in our southern streams, 

 there is always an abundant store of larvae, shrimps, water 

 snails and other trout food which find their habitat among the 

 weeds, to say nothing of minnows and small fry on the gravelly 

 shallows. So that, with a large choice in their feeding, the fish 

 soon wax fat and dainty, and while a trout in a rapid mountain 

 or moorland stream has to be on the look-out all day long for 

 anything edible which comes within his ken, and even then 

 has hard work at times to keep himself in respectable condition, 

 a chalk-stream fish is always picksome and hard to please, and 

 will only take the fly when the natural insects are sailing down in 

 goodly numbers. At other times he is eithei sheltering among 

 the weeds, or else busy with bottom or mid-water food. 



In many streams a judicious cast of three flies thrown into 

 likely spots with a light and skilful hand will bring fish to the 

 creel fast enough, but this kind of fly fishing for chance fish is 

 seldom productive of any sport on a chalk stream. When, 

 however, there is a heavy rise, and every trout is busily engaged 

 in taking fly, it will be noticed that the fish take up a favour- 

 able position just beneath the surface of the stream, and 

 feed steadily and persistently in the most quiet and deliberate 

 manner possible. A movement of a few inches, a careful 

 scrutiny, and a gentle unobtrusive 'suck' describes exactly the 

 usual manner in which a chalk-stream trout takes his surface 

 food. It is quite unlike the rush and the splash with which a 

 Scotch or a Devonshire trout leaves the shelter of a submerged 

 rock to secure the passing fly, and everything combines to 

 make it difficult for the angler to keep out of sight, as well as 

 to put the fly over the fish in an effective and natural manner. 

 When a chalk-stream fish is feeding at the surface, the angler's 

 fly is always brought into comparison with the natural insects 

 floating down, and little sport is to be expected unless the 

 artificial fly is most skilfully made and skilfully handled. It 

 must be sufficiently neat and natural in appearance to deceive 

 any fish, and it must be thrown so as to float 'cockily' like the 

 real fly it is intended to imitate. 



