A Great Hatch of Fly 103 



was strongly recommended for consump- 

 tion by dry-fly anglers off the premises. 

 It was some slight consolation for the dis- 

 appointment of that day. By the time lunch 

 was well over, and a pipe lighted, the hatch 

 had commenced to moderate, and the glutted 

 fish began to drop out of sight as though 

 ashamed of their orgies. Trout rose that 

 afternoon in spots the most unlikely, and 

 where it is ordinarily regarded by old Wye 

 hands as idle to look for a feeding fish, whilst 

 plenty of big trout, too, took up positions 

 in the middle of the stream, and where the 

 water flowed quite tumultuously, and sucked 

 in duns, apparently as much at home as in 

 their favourite backwaters. The hatch was 

 over, so far as the fish were concerned, by 

 about four o'clock, though long after that 

 hour there was a good deal of fly floating 

 down, dislodged no doubt from the eddies 

 and backwaters of the stream. When the 

 fish went down, they did so thoroughly. 

 One might as well have looked for a good 

 feeding fish on the highroad as in the river 



