CHAPTER XIII 



WEATHER AND WIND 



THE books of the rules at one time used to insist 

 forcibly on the desirability of a cloudy day for trout 

 fishing, and, indeed, some of them do so still. A 

 theory in fishing, once it has taken hold of people's 

 minds, takes a lot of uprooting, not, indeed, that it 

 is intended here to suggest that the praise of grey 

 skies is altogether mistaken. Doubtless there are 

 conditions of drought and calm when they deserve 

 all that can be said for them, especially if they 

 bring the much-needed refreshment for the parched 

 earth and shrunken streams. But without depre- 

 ciating unduly the value of dull weather, it is 

 certainly possible and right to maintain that a bright 

 sun is not the foe to sport which some authorities 

 would have had us to believe, and that there are 

 times when it is even necessary to successful trout 

 fishing. You have only to consider the conditions 

 of a normal spring to appreciate this. For days, 

 perhaps weeks, the wind has been set in the north 

 or east and skies have been hard and steely. If 



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