36 FLIES AKD FLY FISHING. 



owl, blue-bottle and coachman, should always be used as 

 stretchers. 



Having risen a trout short, throw over him again tic ice 

 more; if he does not rise either of these last times, leave 

 him, you will only do harm by continuing to throw and 

 you may perhaps get him another time; but should he 

 come twice short at your fly, give him the third chance, if 

 he seems worth it, with a fresh fly. If he then comes again, 

 continue throwing over him as long as he does rise, but 

 leave off after your fly has passed over him twice without 

 his taking any notice of it, for, although a trout may 

 sometimes be teased into taking a fly, it happens so seldom, 

 that it is losing time to attempt it. A curious thing about 

 trout is that on rare occasions one of them seems as if 

 determined, at all hazards, to take your fly. I have 

 several times killed a fish in quite clear, shallow water, 

 and where, had he not been so intently on feed, he must 

 have seen me. I have also on one or two occasions killed 

 a trout immediately after slightly hooking and losing him ; 

 but the following anecdote of the occasional rapacity of a 

 trout seems to me so curious, that I should not venture on 

 telling it had there not been three men living who saw 

 the thing happen. I was crossing a bridge over a river, 

 four years ago, in the May fly season, and looking over 



