96 CATCHING THE WILY SEA-TROUT 



end of your line, you need to believe that all is well 

 without wondering whether your net will behave itself 

 or whether you will be able to see to release a hidden 

 barb in the upper jaw of a fish. 



In ideal conditions the path of the night fisher is 

 rough, but concentration on the job in hand and con- 

 fidence in the tools employed will help to lighten his 

 labours. If the angler is blessed with these two assets, 

 and should he form one of a party, he will not be far 

 down in the prize list when the count is taken of the 

 sea-trout captured. 



CHAPTER X 



NIGHT-FISHING REALIZATION 



IN all forms of angling, climatic and water conditions 

 play the chief roles, and there is small prospect of 

 filling creels unless those conditions are favourable. 

 When the sea comes creeping gently along the sands, 

 with only wavelets rising, rolling and breaking, the bass 

 fisherman knows that there is little hope of hooking a 

 coveted fish, for bass come inshore only when the waves 

 thunder and crash, thereby disturbing hidden delicacies. 

 The man who throws a fly for brown trout, does not 

 need to be told that when a spate sends the river roaring 

 bank high, a journey to the water-side would be profitless, 

 for he is aware that then brownies are either sheltering 

 under big rocks or resting in coloured backwaters. No 

 fishing, however, seems so doomed to disappointment as 

 is that for sea-trout at night. 



On a moonless night, made more dark by a stratus, a 



