272 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SALMON FISHING 



It would be too long a matter to go into the ques- 

 tion of light angles, and the appearance of a fly at 

 various positions in the third of a circle which is 

 roughly what it covers in its passage across the 

 stream. But it will be quite obvious that it must 

 undergo great changes as it moves from one point 

 to another, and that from a dull, vague silhouette 

 it may suddenly turn into a gleaming object, or 

 vice versa. What this connotes is also obvious the 

 advisability of studying every individual pool with 

 the object of ascertaining how a fly will appear to a 

 salmon at different times of day and from different 

 directions. It should be possible by experiment and 

 deduction to work out a regular programme for any 

 pool, and almost to have a time-table, which would 

 indicate, say, a small sober-hued fly offered from the 

 right bank at n a.m., and a bright pattern twice as 

 big from the left bank at 5 p.m., and which would 

 suggest variations of procedure for dull or bright 

 weather, for morning or evening, for spring, summer 

 or autumn. As a general rule the system evolved 

 would no doubt agree with the conclusions which 

 have been reached on most rivers by practical 

 experience, but it would be based on something more 

 definite than the formula " It has always been so," 

 which is what we have mostly had to go on hitherto. 

 And in some cases I fancy it would enable us to catch 

 fish in places where we have been able to do little or 

 nothing before there are such places in nearly every 

 river. 



Anyhow Dr. Francis Ward has given us the oppor- 

 tunity for a fascinating new branch of study in the 



