72 MONTENEGRO 



name of Giovanni Battista John the Baptist whetted 

 our appetite by his account of the sport to be had in a 

 certain stream in Albania. ' There are trouts so beeg,' 

 said he, holding his hands full eighteen inches apart ; 

 'you shall see them sweem many, many.' So we 

 dropped anchor after dark on a lovely April evening in 

 the fine roadstead of Avlona, and arranged for an early 

 start on the morrow. 



Fishing with the dry-fly is one of the most modern 

 of crafts, having its origin in the necessity for circum- 

 venting the abnormal vigilance instilled by generations 

 of anglers into the trout of the pellucid chalk-streams 

 of Hampshire. But it is an art which may be practised 

 to good purpose also in waters where the old ' chuck- 

 and-chance-it ' system still holds sway. It has pene- 

 trated the Scottish Highlands and the Irish Midlands, 

 enabling the adept to set bright sun and low water at 

 defiance, and greatly enhancing by its delicacy and 

 superior excitement the spasm of success. We thought 

 it possible that, by introducing this novel method to 

 Albanian streams, we might win some applause from 

 unsophisticated natives. 



As every Hampshire angler knows, the hours for 

 business with dry-fly are those between ten and two ; 

 for it is only at that period of the day that a rise of 

 fly may be expected, saving always the brief festival 

 of the may-fly. At ordinary times, from two o'clock 

 onward until the appearance of the sedge-fly may 

 create an evening rise (most uncertain, feverish, and 

 transient of feasts), not a fin stirs on the surface, which, 

 in the absence of flies, is void of attraction for trout. 



