100 In Pursuit of the Trout 



were at least twenty trout, all rising wildly 

 at the duns without perceptibly thinning 

 their numbers. 



Almost as hopeless-looking as the bays and 

 backwaters was the open stream, which was 

 covered thickly with the insects. After 

 rather wildly competing against these myriads 

 of live flies in the backwaters and open stream 

 near the willows, I hurried down, trying to 

 find some spot not infested with the duns. 

 To run away from the fly and from rising 

 trout seems a strange thing for any dry-fly 

 man to do, but it appeared on that day to 

 be the one way of getting a few trout. I 

 recollected a certain spot on the other side of 

 the stream, which was, as a rule, a bad place 

 for duns and rising trout. A willow laid one 

 of its great dense boughs right across a 

 considerable portion of the stream just above 

 this spot, which would naturally prevent the 

 fly coming down in numbers, save by a small 

 channel on the opposite side of the water. 

 Fly coming down would only filtrate slowly 

 and with diflSculty through the water-loving 



