ON RAPID STREAMS. 161 



only style which would be applicable to the arti- 

 ficial fly under the same circumstances is that 

 which must be adopted for the maggot in low water 

 and bright weather : I mean strictly up-stream 

 fishing, with short line. Fishermen in North 

 Devon, who frequent the double waters or the 

 Taw, when the water is low and bright are accus- 

 tomed to put on a maggot to their stretcher fly, 

 and they place their confidence or chance of sport 

 in the maggot only, and think very highly indeed 

 of the bait. I am inclined to think that they 

 erroneously refer their success to the maggot, 

 whereas it is to their altered mode of fishing, of 

 which, however, they are unconscious and incon- 

 siderate. Accustomed to these rivers in spring 

 when there is plenty of water, and not too much 

 sun, they practise, and very properly, fine fishing 

 as would be commonly adopted in large trout 

 streams, viz. fishing down stream, floating their 

 flies along the surface of the water, and patiently 

 flogging the entire breadth of some rippling, 

 undulating pool, and showing off to the general 

 congregation of trout their deceptive imitations 

 of the natural fly. When however the rivers 

 become very low, such spring pools are converted 

 into standing water, still and shallow, in which 

 the artificial fly, however well made, will not kill 

 trout on a bright summer day ; neither will the 

 fly and maggot ; but the remaining spots avail- 

 able to the fisherman are rapids, which in spring- 

 formed the heads of the favourite trout pools. 

 The big stream has resolved itself into something 



