STRIKING AND PLAYING 105 



As far as I could ascertain, most of the splashing 

 came from under a fringe of low, spreading alders. 



From this unscientific study I inferred that an agree- 

 able night to moths was an admirable one for sea-trout 

 fishing. Whether my surmise was right or wrong I have 

 been unable to determine, but I regard the finding as 

 a safe barometer for my guidance in night fishing, and 

 the results have justified my faith. 



If you should be influenced to follow my example, 

 I trust that you will not be misled. 



CHAPTER XI 



STRIKING AND PLAYING 



I HAVE heard a great deal of theoretical talk on how 

 to strike a sea-trout when a fly is the lure in day- 

 time, but as I am a practical fisher the arguments set 

 forth have left me cold and unimpressed. Whether the 

 speakers have had more experience of the fat lethargic 

 brown trout of the chalk streams than of the sea-trout 

 has not been disclosed. 



To recommend a count of one, two, three before driving 

 the barb into the jaw of a sea-trout is, to my mind, an 

 extremely fallacious proposition. I may be an exception, 

 but I have never known a sea-trout to take a fly in a 

 half-hearted manner. Either the fish rises, sees that the 

 fly is an utter, fraud and turns over on its way back to 

 the sheltered depth, or it snaps at the fly in a vicious 

 fashion. True, the fish sometimes, in its unseemly haste, 

 merely manages to make contact with the tip of the 

 feather and then disappears as quickly as it came. It 



