WEATHER AND WIND 261 



I am convinced that a big drop in the barometer 

 with the approach of heavy rain or wind, or both, 

 is very bad for pike fishing but I have no settled 

 convictions in regard to trout. They seem to me 

 less affected by weather, and even by violent changes 

 than any other fresh-water fish, and I never saw a 

 day yet which I should honestly describe as hopeless, 

 except by reason of the water being too thick or 

 flooded for fishing. There are very bad days, of 

 course, on which you cannot expect to catch much, 

 but there are no days on which you may not hope 

 to catch something. 



Extremes of heat or cold, days of thundery 

 depression or of bad light owing to the east-wind 

 " glare " these seem to be the worst in themselves, 

 and the day of bad light is at the bottom of the list. 

 Rain, whether steady or intermittent, is unpleasant 

 for the angler, but it is not necessarily hostile to his 

 sport. Some of the best hatches of fly I have ever 

 seen have occurred on very wet days. I remember 

 one Mayfly day whose morning soaked me to the 

 skin through mackintosh and everything. I changed 

 at lunch time, borrowed more mackintoshes, and 

 fared forth again to find the rain as hard as ever. 

 But early in the afternoon the fly came on and the 

 trout began to rise with a heartiness that I have 

 never seen surpassed. Every fish which I covered 

 took my fly properly. Circumstances over which 



